The Cortez Hills breccia zone, a Nevada Carlin-type gold deposit located in the Cortez district on the Battle Mountain-Eureka trend, formed within a high-grade polylithic breccia, and grades at the center of the breccia zone are locally in excess of 1 oz/ton Au. Sample transects from low grade or below detection (<5 ppb) to high grade were collected and analyzed using petrography, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses to correlate changes in ore pyrite geochemistry and alteration mineralogy with grade and to relate ore deposition to breccia formation.

Ore-related minerals, textures, and analyses are consistent with fluid-rock reaction and replacement at relatively low hydrothermal temperatures (<~260°C) during a single heating and cooling event and over a relatively short time frame, coincident in time and space with regional magmatism. Prior to Carlin mineralization, Roberts Mountains, Wenban, and Horse Canyon Formations were affected by burial diagenesis and low-grade contact metasomatism and metamorphism, producing host rocks composed of calcite, dolomite, and quartz with generally minor dickite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, clinochlore, tremolite, and organic material, and minor to trace K-feldspar, muscovite, and biotite. Acidic ore fluids sulfidized Fe in carbonate rock to form rims of Au- and trace element-rich pyrite on earlier formed pyrite or produced small, generally <10- μ m, spheres of fuzzy ore pyrite with no apparent core. Trace elements in ore-stage pyrite are dominated by As with strongly correlated Hg, Tl, and Cu, all greater than Au; lesser and variable Sb; and minor to undetected Ag, Bi, Ti, W, and Te. Ore fluids also variably dissolved calcite and dolomite and replaced carbonate minerals with jasperoid or produced minor pore space. Ore pyrite and jasperoid after calcite are enclosed in illite that replaced dickite, clinochlore, and tremolite and filled minor open space, primarily between ~227° and 277°C for most analyzed samples based on illite chemistry.

As hydrothermal collapse began, ore pyrite chemistry transitioned to an evolved ore-stage chemistry with abundant As, low to undetected Au, lesser Pb + Cu > Sb, and diminished Hg and Tl compared to the ore stage. Evolved ore-stage fluids coincidently precipitated sulfosalt minerals—initially, unusual Cu- and Hg-rich aktashite (Cu6Hg3As4S12) and Tl- and Hg-rich christite (TlHgAsS3) and, later, realgar as Cu and Zn in hydrothermal fluids—and chalcopyrite and sphalerite in the host rocks, respectively, were consumed. Calcite-only veins indicate termination of the hydrothermal system.

Small fragmented clasts of realgar with chemically distinct Au-bearing, evolved ore-stage pyrite rims found in brecciated rock along a faulted dike-Wenban contact provide the first evidence in a Carlin-type gold deposit of precipitation of an Au-bearing pyrite rim on a late ore-stage mineral. These rare rims likely formed in response to fault movement along the dike-Wenban contact or by dike injection that allowed deep, Au-bearing fluids to access a higher and cooler part of the system where late ore-stage minerals had begun to form. These rims further highlight the normal textures in Carlin-type gold deposits where ore-stage pyrite was overgrown by late ore-stage sulfosalt minerals, demonstrating a single hydrothermal event followed by a single cooling event. This paragenesis is consistent with previously modeled deposit formation time frames of ~45,000 to 15,000 years.

Two styles of breccia were identified within the deposit. Replacement, matrix-supported breccia, in which an illite-rich, punky matrix encloses Au-bearing pyrite, jasperoid, and variable relict calcite, formed during intense ore-stage alteration and mineralization. The fine-grained ore and alteration replacement minerals did not require significant open space to form. Later evolved and late ore-stage sulfosalt minerals and calcite that are visible at the hand-sample scale provide the earliest evidence for the development of significant open space. Hydrothermal collapse allowed the incursion of cooler meteoric water into the system, which—along with the retrograde solubility of calcite—provided coupled mechanisms driving significant calcite dissolution, collapse brecciation, and formation of the Cortez Hills breccia zone. Dissolution and collapse brecciation increasingly concentrated ore-stage pyrite as the hydrothermal system transitioned to the late ore stage, contributing to high Au grades.


With the expansion of the federal government in the twentieth century, presidents became increasingly involved in managing the administrative state and its myriad regulatory agencies. Acting as "manager in chief," presidents devised two methods for gaining control over the agencies: politicization and centralization (Moe 1985b). Politicization involves appointing politically loyal subordinates not only at the top of the agencies but deep within them as well (Lewis 2008). Centralization manifests itself in an expansive role for the White House, attempting to manage or even micromanage the agencies directly. Obvious examples include centralized budgeting (Tomkin 1998), the formulation of a unified legislative program (Rudalevige 2002), and direct command via executive orders (Howell 2003; Mayer 2002). One of the newest and most dramatic examples of centralization is the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), located in the Executive Office of the President. OIRA is empowered to review nearly all rules proposed by federal agencies, excepting the independent regulatory commissions (IRCs). OIRA gives presidents a powerful vantage point from which to scrutinize, delay, and effectively remand and revise proposed rules. Sometimes dubbed "the most powerful office no one has heard of," OIRA is the point of the president's spear in his battle to control the content of federal regulations (Anonymous 2011). In many respects, the agency is an exemplar of the centralizing tendencies of the American presidency. In considering the operation and impact of OIRA, three questions stand out: * Targeting: Which regulations does OIRA target for regulatory review? * Revisions: What happens to the regulations after OIRA selects them for review? * Incentives: What incentives does OIRA's auditing regime create in the agencies? In particular, does a hostile OIRA damp down the production of significant rules in the agencies--in other words, does OIRA's auditing create a chilling effect on the production of regulations? Does regulatory auditing induce agencies to engage in "OIRA avoidance," substituting several smaller regulations for a single big-ticket one in order to escape regulatory review? Does it slow down the production of regulations, an "ossifying" effect? In this article, we present an early empirical analysis of the "incentives" question. To do so, we examine biannual data on the production of regulations in 18 executive agencies and seven independent regulatory commissions, between 1995 and 2010, as well as newly collected data on OIRA auditing rates by agency. We examine economically significant regulations (ones with a price ticket over $100 million) as well as other regulations. Uncovering OIRA-induced effects on the production of important regulations is not easy. Part of the problem is that one needs a baseline for comparison: what would have happened, absent OIRA targeting of the agency? The baseline we consider comes from estimating "regulation production functions" for agencies, relating the volume of regulations produced to theoretically plausible covariates. The state-of-the-art in empirically estimating regulation production function remains rudimentary (we review relevant studies below). Nonetheless, we estimate empirical regulatory production functions for 25 executive and independent regulatory agencies, focusing on the volume of economically significant regulations. But another knotty problem is that presidential direction of OIRA and presidential control of agency appointments are completely collinear. In other words, "centralization" and "politicization" (in Moe's terminology) go hand in hand. Hence, even if one finds a change across Democratic and Republic administrations in the volume of regulations issued by an agency, it is difficult to know whether the effect was due to OIRA's auditing regime or to the president's appointments in the agency. …


As climate change continues to affect our lives, the communities at the northern extremes of our world have witnessed the changes most profoundly. In the Arctic, where climate change is melting permafrost and causing major shoreline erosion, remote communities in Alaska and northern Canada are particularly vulnerable. Furthermore, these communities have limited access to electrical grids and bear oppressive energy costs relying on diesel generators. While some communities have started to incorporate renewable energy into their hamlets and villages, progress has generally been limited with the notable exception of Canada's Northwest Territories and some coastal communities in western Alaska. During its latest stint as chair of the Arctic Council, the United States outlined community renewable energy in the Arctic as one of its primary goals. This Note focuses on regulatory and practical policy solutions to make that goal possible. It draws on examples from industrialized countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as examples from developing countries, such as India and Peru, to examine solutions for the technical, economic, regulatory, and community engagement problems that Arctic communities in Alaska face when setting up new energy projects. Additionally, this Note describes the current political structure of Alaskan villages under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and argues that Alaska Native Corporations should play a role in developing clean, cheap energy sources for their shareholders. Finally, this Note argues that public-private partnerships, like the non-profit Arctic Energy Alliance in the Northwest Territories, shows that clean, renewable energy projects for rural Arctic villages are possible throughout the Arctic. This Note draws lessons from other communities throughout the world and attempts to apply them to the unique situations that remote northern Alaska communities face regarding access to clean, renewable energy.


ABSTRACT Several countries have conducted Internet voting trials in binding public elections over the past decade, including Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, Estonia—a former Soviet republic and now a full member of the European Union—has advanced the farthest in deploying Internet voting. In this article, we focus on how the Estonians have systematically addressed the legal and technical considerations required to make Internet voting a functioning voting platform, as well as the political and cultural framework that promoted this innovation. Using data from our own qualitative and quantitative studies of the Estonian experience, we consider who voted over the Internet in these elections, and the political implications of the voting platform.


Description: Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most widespread violations of human rights and an obvious expression of unequal gender relations in a society. GBV is a serious hindrance to sustainable development and ending GBV is a specific target in the 2030 Agenda. Ending GBV is also a priority for the Swedish government, reflected in development cooperation. GBV occurs all over the world and takes many forms at different arenas. This brief gives attention to GBV online. During the last years, concerns about GBV online have gained wide recognition as a growing and alarming phenomenon. It is used to attack, oppress and silence women and girls and LGBTI persons in private and public spaces. GBV online particularly targets women human rights defenders, for whom the Internet is a key tool. The brief focuses on the nexus of GBV, information and communication technologies (ICT) and the rights to freedom of expression.


Currently, low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) is the guideline endorsed treatment of patients with cancer associated venous thromboembolism (VTE). While apixaban is approved for the treatment of acute VTE, there are limited data supporting its use in cancer patients. The rationale and design of this investigator initiated Phase IV, multicenter, randomized, open label, superiority trial assessing the safety of apixaban versus dalteparin for cancer associated VTE is provided (ADAM-VTE; NCT02585713). The main aim of the ADAM-VTE trial is to test the hypothesis that apixaban is associated with a significantly lower rate of major bleeding compared to dalteparin in the treatment of cancer patients with acute VTE. The primary safety outcome is rate of major bleeding. Secondary efficacy objective is to assess the rates of recurrent VTE or arterial thromboembolism. Cancer patients with acute VTE (n=300) are randomized to receive apixaban (10 mg twice daily for 7 days followed by 5 mg twice daily thereafter) or dalteparin (200 IU/Kg daily for 30 days followed by 150 IU/kg daily thereafter) for 6 months. Stratification factors used for randomization include cancer stage and cancer specific risk of venous thromboembolism using the Khorana score. Participating centers are chosen from the Academic and Community Cancer Research United (ACCRU) consortium comprised of 90 oncology practices in the United States and Canada. Based on the hypothesis to be tested, we anticipate that these trial results will provide evidence supporting apixaban as an effective treatment of cancer associated VTE at lower rates of major bleeding compared to LMWH.


We present an experimental study of complex decentralized one-to-one matching markets, such as labor or marriage markets. In our experiments, subjects are informed of everyone's preferences and can make arbitrary non-binding match offers that are realized only when a certain period of market inactivity has elapsed. We find three main results. First, stable matches are the prevalent outcome. Second, in markets with multiple stable matches, the median stable match is selected most frequently. Third, the cardinal representation of ordinal preferences substantially impacts which stable match gets selected. Furthermore, the endogenous dynamic paths that lead to stability exhibit several persistent features.


Written as a text for master's level business course at the Open University (UK), this work addresses some of the principles and practices entailed in the form of management associated with creative and innovative organizations.

Creativity and Perception in Management is a textbook revealing the importance of creativity and innovation in today's organizations. The book provides students with the principles and practices entailed in the new form of management associated with creative and innovative organizations. It introduces the creative approaches in management, revealing the role and impact of cognition, intuition and perception. Jane Henry differentiates between a variety of personal styles and shows their implications for creativity, problem solving, communication, decision making and role preference.

Students using this textbook will understand the impact of cultural values and certain historical habits of thought on management and organization, and identify the main ways in which management can enable organizations to be more sustainable and responsible.

The text includes student activities, illustrative cartoons, boxed examples and recommended readings. It can be used alongside the Readers Creative Management 2nd edition (Henry) and Managing Innovation and Change 2nd edition (Henry and Mayle). Creativity and Perception in Management is a key course text on the Open University Business School's Creativity, Innovation and Change master's course.


OBJECTIVE Remote cerebellar hemorrhage (RCH) is an infrequent and poorly understood complication of supratentorial neurosurgical procedures. We retrospectively compared 42 patients who experienced RCH with a case-matched control cohort, to delineate risk factors associated with the occurrence of this complication. METHODS Between 1988 and 2000, 42 patients experienced RCH after supratentorial neurosurgical procedures at our institution. Diagnoses were made on the basis of postoperative computed tomographic or magnetic resonance imaging findings in all cases. The medical records for these patients were reviewed and compared with those for a control cohort of 43 patients, matched for age, sex, surgical lesion, and type of craniotomy, who were treated during the same period. RESULTS RCH most commonly occurred after frontotemporal craniotomies for unruptured aneurysm repair or temporal lobectomy and was frequently an incidental finding on postoperative computed tomographic scans. However, some cases of RCH were associated with significant morbidity, and two patients died. Preoperative aspirin use and elevated intraoperative systolic blood pressure were significantly associated with RCH (P = 0.026 and P = 0.036, respectively). Pathological findings for two cases demonstrated hemorrhagic infarctions in both. CONCLUSION RCH most commonly follows supratentorial neurosurgical procedures, performed with the patient in the supine position, that involve opening of cerebrospinal fluid cisterns or the ventricular system (such as unruptured aneurysm repair or temporal lobectomy). Preoperative aspirin use and moderately elevated intraoperative systolic blood pressure are potentially modifiable risk factors associated with the development of RCH. Although RCH can cause death or major morbidity, most cases are asymptomatic or exhibit a benign course. Cerebellar "sag" as a result of cerebrospinal fluid hypovolemia, causing transient occlusion of superior bridging veins within the posterior fossa and consequent hemorrhagic venous infarction, is the most likely pathophysiological cause of RCH.


Trends in Canadian immigration and emigration in the last decade are examined, distinguishing 'temporary' and 'permanent' movements, economic migrants and refugees. Comparisons are made with those of other OECD countries. Global migration patterns have changed as a result of post-industrial technologies. Although money, goods and services may move relatively freely, people do not. Processes of inclusion and exclusion occur within and between countries and regions. A typology of migrant incorporation is presented. Questions of human security and border controls are considered. Recommendations are made concerning the protection of migrant human rights.


More on Stefano Cernotto. Following an earlier paper, this contribution presents a group of further paintings by Stefano Cernotto. With these new additions, the number of works attributed to him rises to about 50. They further support the idea that the painter was a pupil of Titian, and not a close follower of Bonifacio Veronese, as traditionally believed. In a couple of cases, a date or the period of time in which they were created, is suggested by their features: a canvas in Ottawa with St Sebastian and St Roch may refer to the plague of 1528, whereas another at Woburn Abbey seems to coincide with the 'Maniera moderna' coming to Venice from Rome and Florence in 1539–1540. Of further interest is the fact that we now have a group of copies after Stefano Cernotto, something that earlier seemed inconceivable. The reason for this is that their prototype was a lost painting either by Titian himself (known in 1815 in the famous Albarelli collection in Verona), or by Cernotto, but reputed to be by Titian. This raises the question of the fluctuations of Cernotto's fame over the centuries, and the degree to which he has been confused with other members of Titian's workshop.


Extracting insights from temporal event sequences is an important challenge. In particular, mining frequent patterns from event sequences is a desired capability for many domains. However, most techniques for mining frequent patterns are ineffective for real-world data that may be low-resolution, concurrent, or feature many types of events, or the algorithms may produce results too complex to interpret. To address these challenges, we propose Frequence, an intelligent user interface that integrates data mining and visualization in an interactive hierarchical information exploration system for finding frequent patterns from longitudinal event sequences. Frequence features a novel frequent sequence mining algorithm to handle multiple levels-of-detail, temporal context, concurrency, and outcome analysis. Frequence also features a visual interface designed to support insights, and support exploration of patterns of the level-of-detail relevant to users. Frequence's effectiveness is demonstrated with two use cases: medical research mining event sequences from clinical records to understand the progression of a disease, and social network research using frequent sequences from Foursquare to understand the mobility of people in an urban environment.


The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) has been issuing experimental seasonal tropical cyclone activity forecasts for several ocean basins since early 2003. In this paper the method used to obtain these forecasts is described and the forecast performance is evaluated. The forecasts are based on tropical cyclone‐like features detected and tracked in a low-resolution climate model, namely ECHAM4.5. The simulation skill of the model using historical observed sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over several decades, as well as with SST anomalies persisted from the previous month's observations, is discussed. These simulation skills are compared with skills of purely statistically based hindcasts using as predictors recently observed SSTs. For the recent 6-yr period during which real-time forecasts have been made, the skill of the raw model output is compared with that of the subjectively modified probabilistic forecasts actually issued. Despite variations from one basin to another, the levels of hindcast skill for the dynamical and statistical forecast approaches are found, overall, to be approximately equivalent at fairly modest but statistically significant levels. The dynamical forecasts require statistical postprossessing (calibration) to be competitive with, and in some circumstances superior to, the statistical models. Skill levels decrease only slowly with increasing lead time up to 2‐3 months. During the recent period of real-time forecasts, the issued forecasts have had higher probabilistic skill than the raw model output, due to the forecasters' subjective eliminationof the ''overconfidence'' bias in the model's forecasts. Prospects for the future improvement of dynamical tropical cyclone prediction are considered.


Despite publication of several management guidelines for COPD, relatively little is known about standards of care in clinical practice. Data were collected on the management of 1400 cases of acute admission with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 38 UK hospitals to compare clinical practice against the recommended British Thoracic Society standards. Variation in the process of care between the different centres was analysed and a comparison of the management by respiratory specialists and nonrespiratory specialists made. There were large variations between centres for many of the variables studied. A forced expiratory volume in one second measurement was found in only 53% of cases. Of the investigations recommended in the acute management arterial blood gases were performed in 79% (interhospital range 40–100%) of admissions and oxygen was formally prescribed in only 64% (range 9–94%). Of those cases with acidosis and hypercapnia 35% had no further blood gas analysis and only 13% received ventilatory support. Long term management was also deficient with 246 cases known to be severely hypoxic on admission yet two thirds had no confirmation that oxygen levels had returned to levels above the requirements for long term oxygen therapy. Only 30% of current smokers had cessation advice documented. To conclude, the median standards of care observed fell below those recommended by the guidelines. The lowest levels of performance were for patients not under the respiratory specialists, but specialists also have room for improvement. The substantial variation in the process of care between hospitals is strong evidence that it is possible for other centres with poorer performance to improve their levels of care. (Eur Respir J 2000;17:343–9)


The African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) needs efficient antioxidant defenses to mitigate oxidative damage and endure dehydration stress under arid conditions in its natural environment. Two enzymes that aid glutathione-based antioxidant defenses, glutathione reductase (GR) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), were purified from liver of control and dehydrated (~35% total body water lost) frogs. Kinetic analysis revealed that GR was positively regulated in response to dehydration to regenerate GSH, particularly when physiological urea concentrations were high. G6PDH from dehydrated frogs showed lower affinity for glucose-6-phosphate than control but was strongly activated in the presence of high ATP. Both enzymes showed regulatory modification by reversible protein phosphorylation that affected substrate affinities. Dehydration also induced other PTMs including protein sumoylation, cys-nitrosylation, and acetylation that could affect kinetic properties and protein stability. This thesis provides novel insights into the regulation of glutathione-based enzymatic defenses against dehydration-induced oxidative stress.


OBJECTIVES: To explore whether the inhalation of coal mine dust increases the risk of premature death in miners, a survival analysis was conducted in a cohort of 2738 patients with simple pneumoconiosis in the Huai-Bei coal mine, in China. METHODS: Age specific mortalities were calculated by disease severity in terms of pneumoconiotic category with the life table method. The progressions from simple pneumoconiosis to death or progressive massive fibrosis (PMF) were analysed with the Cox's regression model with time as the dependent variable to identify risk factors. RESULTS: During a follow up period (mean 8 y) 3.2% of patients with simple pneumoconiosis developed PMF. The patients with development of PMF presented higher age specific mortalities than those remaining in a state of simple pneumoconiosis (SMR: 3.42; P < 0.01). After adjustment for tuberculosis and duration of work, the relative risk of premature death due to development of PMF was 2.4. Tuberculosis was found to be a main risk factor which not only facilitated premature death (relative risk (RR): 2.0; P < 0.01), but was also a strong facilitator for development of PMF (RR: 7.0; P < 0.01). Also, a long term of work underground and drilling as a main job were identified as risk factors for development of PMF. CONCLUSION: The results imply that patients with simple pneumoconiosis will have altered survival, and premature death among them is related to an increased risk of the development of PMF and the complication of tuberculosis.


Coxiella burnetii is a Gram-negative obligate intracellular pathogen and the causative agent of Q fever in humans. Q fever causes acute flu-like symptoms and may develop into a chronic disease leading to endocarditis. Its potential as a bioweapon has led to its classification as a category B select agent. An effective inactivated whole-cell vaccine (WCV) currently exists but causes severe granulomatous/necrotizing reactions in individuals with prior exposure, and is not licensed for use in most countries. Current efforts to reduce or eliminate the deleterious reactions associated with WCVs have focused on identifying potential subunit vaccine candidates. Both humoral and T cell-mediated responses are required for protection in animal models. In this study, nine novel immunogenic C. burnetii proteins were identified in extracted whole-cell lysates using 2D electrophoresis, immunoblotting with immune guinea pig sera, and tandem MS. The immunogenic C. burnetii proteins elicited antigen-specific IgG in guinea pigs vaccinated with whole-cell killed Nine Mile phase I vaccine, suggesting a T cell-dependent response. Eleven additional proteins previously shown to react with immune human sera were also antigenic in guinea pigs, showing the relevance of the guinea pig immunization model for antigen discovery. The antigens described here warrant further investigation to validate their potential use as subunit vaccine candidates.


Many biomarkers have been epidemiologically linked with CKD; however, the possibility that such associations are due to reverse causation or confounding limits the utility of these biomarkers. To overcome this limitation, we used a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to identify causal mediators of CKD. We performed MR by first identifying genetic determinants of 227 serum protein biomarkers assayed in 4147 participants of the Outcome Reduction with Initial Glargine Intervention (ORIGIN) trial who had early or prediabetes, and assessing the effects of these biomarkers on CKD in the CKD genetics consortium (n=117,165; 12,385 cases) using the inverse-variance weighted (fixed-effects) method. We then estimated the relationship between the serum concentration of each biomarker identified and incident CKD in ORIGIN participants. MR identified uromodulin (UMOD) and human EGF receptor 2 (HER2) as novel, causal mediators of CKD (UMOD: odds ratio [OR], 1.30 per SD; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.25 to 1.35; P<5×10-20; HER2: OR, 1.30 per SD; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.48; P=8.0×10-5). Consistent with these findings, blood HER2 concentration associated with CKD events in ORIGIN participants (OR, 1.07 per SD; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.13; P=0.01). Additional exploratory MR analyses identified angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) as a regulator of HER2 levels (β=0.13 per SD; 95% CI, 0.08 to 0.16; P=2.5×10-7). This finding was corroborated by an inverse relationship between ACE inhibitor use and HER2 levels. Thus, UMOD and HER2 are independent causal mediators of CKD in humans, and serum HER2 levels are regulated in part by ACE. These biomarkers are potential therapeutic targets for CKD prevention.


Regional liberalization sweeps the globe like wildfire while multilateral trade talks proceed at a glacial pace. Why are countries eager to liberalize regionally but reluctant to do so multilaterally? The answer of the GATT-is-dead school is that multilateralism is too cumbersome for contemporary trade issues. This paper proposes a very different answer. Recent regionalism is caused by two idiosyncratic events multiplied by a domino effect. The triggering events – the U.S.-Mexico FTA and the EC's 1992 programme – had nothing to do with GATT's health. The domino effect is simple. Political equilibria, which balance anti- and pro-membership forces, determine governments' stances on regional liberalization. Domestic exporters to regional blocs are a powerful pro-membership constituency. An event that triggers closer integration within an existing bloc harms the profits of nonmember exporters, thus stimulating them to boost their pro-membership political activity. The extra activity alters the political equilibrium, leading some countries to join. This enlargement further harms nonmember exporters since they now face a disadvantage in a greater number of markets. This second round effect brings forth more pro-membership political activity and a further enlargement of the bloc. The new political equilibrium is marked by larger regional trading blocs. In the meantime regionalism appears to spread like wildfire.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
This review describes the outcomes of individualised nursing interventions on adult patients. Background. Although the delivery of individualised nursing interventions is important there is limited evidence about how these interventions enhance patient outcomes.

METHODS
A computerised search was undertaken using the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, CINAHL and PsycINFO. The selection criteria chosen were: reports of individualised nursing interventions focusing on adult patients in a variety of health care settings and using experimental designs. These involved randomised controlled trials, clinical controlled trials and pre- and posttest controlled studies. After a four-stage inclusion strategy 31 documents were accepted for the review.

RESULTS
The studies were mostly focused in preventative arenas such as health promotion and counselling. Others were care of older people in the community and in hospital and patients with chronic diseases. Over half of the nursing interventions (58%) involved educational or counselling activities which seem to be more effective than ordinary, standardised or routine education and counselling. Overall, 81% of the studies reported a positive impact of individualised interventions on patient outcomes showing that there is evidence, though limited, that individualised interventions can produce positive patient outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS
There is sufficient evidence, especially in specific areas such as patient education and counselling, to acknowledge that individualised interventions are superior to non-individualised interventions. Evidence for this effect within clinical nursing interventions on patient outcomes was limited by the scarcity of research in this area. There is a need for additional intervention studies to determine the effect of individualised interventions in a wide variety of contexts. Relevance to clinical practice. Experience of health is individual. Therefore, nursing interventions should also be individualised to each patient. These findings show some promise that individualised interventions may be useful in delivering positive patient outcomes.


Incretins are hormones produced in the intestine that are released in response to oral intake of nutrients, above all carbohydrates. They are powerful secretors that increase insulin release. The two most important incretin hormones are GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide; also known as gastric inhibitory peptide) and GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1). GLP-1 not only stimulates insulin secretion but also reduces glucagon release, slows gastric emptying, improves insulin sensitivity and increases satiety. Other nutrients may also stimulate insulin secretion: oleic acid and serum protein. Currently a new therapeutic armamentarium focused on the role of incretins is being developed to improve the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM 2).


Cloud services consumers deal with a major challenge in selecting services from several providers. Facilitating these choices has become critical, and an important factor is the service trustworthiness. To be trusted by users, cloud providers should explicitly communicate their capabilities to ensure important functional and non-functional requirements (such as security, privacy, dependability, fairness, among others). Thus, models and mechanisms are required to provide indicators that can be used to support clients on choosing high quality services. This paper presents a solution to support privacy measurement and analysis, which can help the computation of trustworthiness scores. The solution is composed of a reference model for trustworthiness, a privacy model instance, and a privacy monitoring and assessment component. Finally, we provide an implementation capable of monitoring privacy-related information and performing analysis based on privacy scores for eight different datasets.


ABSTRACT In the early 1970s, Israel was on the cusp of launching an ambitious nuclear power programme. It had technical nuclear experience and a pressing need to limit its dependency on imported oil and coal, and interest in nuclear powered water desalination. This nuclear vision enjoyed the support of the Nixon administration, which proposed in June 1974 to export reactors to both Israel and Egypt. But by the end of the decade, under the Carter administration, the plan was all but gone. What was the original US and Israeli rationale behind the reactor deal? How did this initiative relate to other developments such as the Indian nuclear explosion, the Arab oil embargo and the peace talks with Egypt? How important was the Carter administration's policy shift in determining the outcome of the initiative? This paper will address these questions by analysing newly declassified documents from several US and Israeli archives.1


The performance of a recharge basin at the Kwinana Groundwater Recharge Site has been monitored since 1983. A primary aim of the monitoring programme is to study the improvement in the removal of faecal coliform (FC) and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) by amending the sand of the recharge basin with gypsum neutralized red mud (RMG).

The present report details the results of the monitoring programme from August 1985 to September 1986, consisting of 3 operating stages: Stage 1. Flooding (9d) and drying,(12d) of the basin using primary effluent (August 85 to March 86); Stage 2. Flooding (9d) and drying (12d) of the basin with a mixture of 2/3 secondary and 1/3 primary effluent (April to July 86); and Stage 3. Continuous flooding with primary effluent (August to September 86).

Phosphorus removal was maintained at a high level (over 80%) in all the stages. FC removal was generally excellent (over a million fold reduction), except at the beginning of each stage when primary effluent was used and only a thousand fold reduction was achieved. Removal, however, improved with time and a million fold reduction was achieved.

Nitrogen removal of about 40% was obtained with primary effluent using a cycle of flooding and drying (Stage 1). Continuous flooding with primary effluent (Stage 3) did not improve denitrification. No nitrogen removal was observed with a mixture of 2/3 secondary effluent and 1/3 primary effluent.

It is recommended based on the above results that further monitoring be conducted using primary effluent to optimise nitrogen removal by adjusting the lengths of the floodin9 and drying periods.


This article is about Lifelong Learning Networks in England that are groups of higher education institutions and further education colleges covering a city, area or region. These networks have been established through funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and their policy objective is to improve the coherence, clarity and certainty of progression opportunities for vocational learners into and through higher education. In this article we consider the likelihood of LLNs delivering this policy objective. In doing so, we focus our discussion on the clarity of LLN policy and the wider policy landscape, and the compatibility and relevance of LLN policy with the values, interests and core activities of the institutions that make up the networks.


During the last three decades, the impact of chemical pollution has focused almost exclusively on the conventional "priority" pollutants, especially those acutely toxic/carcinogenic pesticides and industrial intermediates displaying persistence in the environment. This spectrum of chemicals, however, is only one piece of the larger puzzle in "holistic" risk assessment. Another diverse group of bioactive chemicals receiving comparatively little attention as potential environmental pollutants includes the pharmaceuticals and active ingredients in personal care products (in this review collectively termed PPCPs), both human and veterinary, including not just prescription drugs and biologics, but also diagnostic agents, "nutraceuticals," fragrances, sun-screen agents, and numerous others. These compounds and their bioactive metabolites can be continually introduced to the aquatic environment as complex mixtures via a number of routes but primarily by both untreated and treated sewage. Aquatic pollution is particularly troublesome because aquatic organisms are captive to continual life-cycle, multigenerational exposure. The possibility for continual but undetectable or unnoticed effects on aquatic organisms is particularly worrisome because effects could accumulate so slowly that major change goes undetected until the cumulative level of these effects finally cascades to irreversible change--change that would otherwise be attributed to natural adaptation or ecologic succession. As opposed to the conventional, persistent priority pollutants, PPCPs need not be persistent if they are continually introduced to surface waters, even at low parts-per-trillion/parts-per-billion concentrations (ng-microg/L). Even though some PPCPs are extremely persistent and introduced to the environment in very high quantities and perhaps have already gained ubiquity worldwide, others could act as if they were persistent, simply because their continual infusion into the aquatic environment serves to sustain perpetual life-cycle exposures for aquatic organisms. This review attempts to synthesize the literature on environmental origin, distribution/occurrence, and effects and to catalyze a more focused discussion in the environmental science community.


"Economics as a Social Science" is a highly readable critique of economic theory, based on a wide range of research, that endeavors to restore economics to its proper role as a social science. Contrary to conventional economic theory, which assumes that people have no free will, this book instead bases economics on the realistic assumption that human beings can choose; that we are complex beings affected by emotion, custom, habit, and reason; and that our behavior varies with circumstances and times. It embraces the findings of history, psychology, and other social sciences and the insights from great literature on human behavior as opposed to the rigidity set by mathematical axioms that define how economics is understood and practiced today.Andrew M. Kamarck demonstrates that only rough accuracy is attainable in economic measurement, and that understanding an economy requires knowledge from other disciplines. The canonical hypotheses of economics (perfect rationality, self-interest, equilibrium) are shown to be inadequate (and in the case of "equilibrium" to be counterproductive to understanding the forces that dominate the economy), and more satisfactory assumptions provided. The market is shown to work imperfectly and to require appropriate institutions to perform its function reasonably well. Further, Kamarck argues that self-interest does not always lead to helping the general interest."Economics as a Social Science" examines and revises the fundamental assumptions of economics. Because it avoids jargon and explains terms carefully, it will be of interest to economics majors as well as to graduate students of economics and other social sciences, and social scientists working in government and the private sector.Andrew M. Kamarck is former Director, Economic Development Institute, the World Bank.


Why do some countries and regions have higher capital intensity than others? This question is at the heart of economic development analyses since capital intensity, per capita incomes and welfare are closely linked. We develop a two-sector general equilibrium model relevant to small open economies that import capital goods and produce export goods priced in world markets. The model is used to derive a taxonomy of factors that lead to differing capital intensities across countries. Aggregate capital intensity is a function of multi-factor productivity (MFP) in the traded goods sector (but not the non-traded sector), the capital share parameter for each sector, the cost of capital and the terms of trade. Total output and consumer utility are affected by the same variables and by non-traded sector MFP. The results shed light on observed capital intensity and per capita GDP differences between Australia and New Zealand.


Through varying the auxiliary N-donor ligands under similar synthetic conditions nine new compounds: [Cu(C2O4)(pz)]n (1), [Cu(C2O4)(apz)2]n·(3H2O)n (2), [Cu2(μ-C2O4)2(H2O)2(ampz)4] (3), [Cu(C2O4)(mpz)2]n (4), [Cu(C2O4)(aind)2]n (5), [Cu2(C2O4)2(bpzm)2]n·(3.5H2O)n (6), [Cu(C2O4)(ampy)(H2O)]n (7) {[Cu2(μ-C2O4)(aepy)2][Cu(C2O4)2(H2O)2]}n·(2H2O)n (8) and [Cu4(μ-C2O4)3(aepy)4(H2O)2]Cl2 (9) (pz = pyrazole, apz = 3(5)-aminopyrazole, mpz = 3(5)-methylpyrazole, ampz = 3(5)-amino-5(3)-methylpyrazole, aind = 7-azaindole, bpzm = bis(pyrazol-1-yl)methane, ampy = 2-aminomethylpyridine and aepy = 2-(2-pyridyl)ethylamine) have been synthesized and characterised structurally (by single crystal X-ray analysis) and spectroscopically. On the basis of structural data, the influence of neutral N-donor ligands on the control of the final complex structures and the role of weak intermolecular interactions in the creation of molecular architectures have been discussed in detail. The two independent oxalate anions in 1, adopting μ3-oxalato-1κ2O1,O2:2κO1:3κO2a and a relatively rare μ4-oxalato-1κ2O1,O2:2κO1:3κO1a,O2a:4κO2a coordination mode, connect the Cu centers into a two-dimensional net extending along the crystallographic plane (100). Simultaneous existence of both amino and methyl groups in the ampz ligand results in the formation of a 0D dimeric structure of 3. Compounds 2 and 4–8 display one-dimensional coordination structures, and the most significant differences between these structures concern the geometry around the copper(II) center and the coordination mode of the oxalate bridge. The structures of 2–9 are stabilized by the extensive hydrogen-bonding interactions that give rise to the supramolecular architectures. Additionally, the magnetic properties of the complexes 1–9 have been investigated and discussed in the context of their structures.


In this study, we examine marine low cloud cover variability in the Southeast Pacific and its association with lower-tropospheric stability (LTS) across a spectrum of timescales. On both daily and interannual timescales, LTS and low cloud amount are very well correlated in austral summer (DJF). Meanwhile in winter (JJA), when ambient LTS increases, the LTS–low cloud relationship substantially weakens. The DJF LTS–low cloud relationship also weakens in years with unusually large ambient LTS values. These are generally strong El Niño years, in which DJF LTS values are comparable to those typically found in JJA. Thus the LTS– low cloud relationship is strongly modulated by the seasonal cycle and the ENSO phenomenon. We also investigate the origin of LTS anomalies closely associated with low cloud variability during austral summer. We find that the ocean and atmosphere are independently involved in generating anomalies in LTS and hence variability in the Southeast Pacific low cloud deck. This highlights the importance of the physical (as opposed to chemical) component of the climate system in generating internal variability in low cloud cover. It also illustrates the coupled nature of the climate system in this region, and raises the possibility of cloud feedbacks related to LTS. We conclude by addressing the implications of the LTS–low cloud relationship in the Southeast Pacific for low cloud feedbacks in anthropogenic climate change.


A fundamental challenge in calcium imaging has been to infer spike rates of neurons from the measured noisy calcium fluorescence traces. We systematically evaluate a range of spike inference algorithms on a large benchmark dataset (>100.000 spikes) recorded from varying neural tissue (V1 and retina) using different calcium indicators (OGB-1 and GCaMP6). We introduce a new algorithm based on supervised learning in flexible probabilistic models and show that it outperforms all previously published techniques. Importantly, it even performs better than other algorithms when applied to entirely new datasets for which no simultaneously recorded data is available. Future data acquired in new experimental conditions can easily be used to further improve its spike prediction accuracy and generalization performance. Finally, we show that comparing algorithms on artificial data is not informative about performance on real data, suggesting that benchmark datasets such as the one we provide may greatly facilitate future algorithmic developments.


The discovery of causal relationships between a set of observed variables is a fundamental problem in science. For continuous-valued data linear acyclic causal models with additive noise are often used because these models are well understood and there are well-known methods to fit them to data. In reality, of course, many causal relationships are more or less nonlinear, raising some doubts as to the applicability and usefulness of purely linear methods. In this contribution we show that the basic linear framework can be generalized to nonlinear models. In this extended framework, nonlinearities in the data-generating process are in fact a blessing rather than a curse, as they typically provide information on the underlying causal system and allow more aspects of the true data-generating mechanisms to be identified. In addition to theoretical results we show simulations and some simple real data experiments illustrating the identification power provided by nonlinearities.


During the last two decades Richard Bernstein has established a worldwide reputation as one of the few philosophers able to bridge different traditions of thought and to clarify, through sympathetic criticism, the key intellectual issues of our time. In these 10 essays he explores the ethical and political dimensions of the modernity/postmodernity debates.Bernstein argues that modernity/postmodernity should be understood as a pervasive mood - what Heidegger calls a Stimmung - one that is amorphous, shifting, and protean but that nevetheless exerts a powerful influence on our current ways of thinking and acting. Focusing on such thinkers as Heidegger, Derrida, Foucault, Rorty, and Habermas, Bernstein seeks to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of their work and to highlight the ways in which they have contributed to the formation of a new and distinctive constellation of ideas and themes.Richard J. Bernstein is Vera List Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research.The Essays: Philosophy, History, and Critique. The Rage Against Reason. Incommensurability and Otherness Revisited. Heidegger's Silence? Ethos and Technology. Foucault: Critique as a Philosophic Ethos. Serious Play: The Ethical-Political Horizon of Derrida. An Allegory of Modernity/Postmodernity: Habermas and Derrida. One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward: Rorty on Liberal Democracy. Rorty's Liberal Utopia, Reconciliation/Rupture.


Mass Customization (MC) stands for the ability to develop high value-added products within short time frames and at relatively low costs. Although this strategy has been successfully applied in several industries, in construction it has been mostly limited to a few companies that produce factory-built and manufactured homes. In Brazil, where traditional construction techniques are majorly adopted in low-income housing programs, there have been many critics regarding the excessive standardization and thus, non-consideration of the increasing diversity of households and their specific needs. Such standardization is mainly due to the use of mass production core ideas as a way to achieve low costs. The aim of this paper was then to explore the possibilities of adopting mass customization in this context. Two existing low-income housing programs in Brazil were investigated. The discussion on the opportunities and challenges to introduce mass customization ideas in these programs are based on the analysis of the product development process, as well as an analysis of household profiles and needs. The results indicated that the household profile is very diverse in low-income housing. Thus, demand for customization is high, as well as attributed to different products' characteristics. However, the product development process in this context was found to be very different from a process of mass customized products. Despite the need to modify such process, it was identified that mass customization can be achieved in a variety of ways, and does not necessarily imply on the modernization of construction techniques. However, a major challenge for achieving higher customization in this context seems to be related to the programs' rules and how it restraints innovation and diversity.

Keywords: product development process, low-income housing, mass customization, value management


Abstract : An all-of-the-above energy policy, driven by concerns about climate change and energy security, has led to the emergence of wind power as an energy resource of choice. Wind energy conversion systems emit no greenhouse gases and discharge no water. Because wind is a free fuel, wind farms are considered reliable low-cost hedges against fluctuating fossil fuel prices. Wind energy systems do have drawbacks, however. Among these, the mechanical and electromagnetic properties of wind turbines pose significant hazards and complications to U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) military installations and activities. These encroachment concerns, many of which are common to civil aviation, include interference with air traffic control and other radar systems. One ramification of these hazards and complications is the very real potential for conflict between the public's interest in national security and its interest in developing renewable energy sources to protect the environment. In 2013, North Carolina enacted a statute requiring early and frequent consultation with DoD officials as a prerequisite to applying for and issuing permits to construct wind farms. This statute potentially operates to effectively allow DoD, a federal agency with no independent federal authority to influence wind siting actions, to prevent the state from issuing a wind farm construction or expansion permit. This thesis will explore the recent North Carolina statute and explain how it could allow DoD to effectively prevent the state from issuing a wind farm construction permit. This thesis will also analyze whether it is advisable for a state to grant this type of soft veto to a federal government agency, and consider whether it is appropriate for DoD to exert this level of influence over the state permitting process. In the end this thesis argues that the North Carolina law can serve as a model for other states with installed or potential wind energy capacity and significant military presence.


A simple model is used to illustrate the effects of a reduction in (marginal) abatement cost in a two country setting. It can be shown that a the country experiencing a cost reduction can actually be worse off. This holds true for a variety of quantity and price based emission policies. The most important channel is that a country with lower abatement costs engages in additional abatement effort for which it is not compensated. Under a quantity based policy with a given allocation, a seller of permits can also be negatively affected from a lower carbon price. We also argue that abatement cost shocks to renewable energy and carbon capture and storage (CCS) are different in terms of their effects on international energy markets. A shock to renewable energy reduces fossil fuel rents benefiting energy importers, while the opposite holds for a shock to CCS. The channels obtained in the theoretical model can be confirmed in a more complex global computable general equilibrium model. Some regions are indeed worse off from shock that lowers their abatement costs.


A complete methodology for the thermo-mechanical analysis of optical devices for the automotive industry is presented. The objective is to predict the thermal field all over the lamp,highlighting the zones with risk of melting, and the deformations and stresses associated with it. The proposed approach is based on a Computational Fluid-Dynamic (CFD) simulation capable of capturing all the heat transfer phenomena occurring inside and outside the lamp:conduction between different components of the device, natural convection associated with density changes in air (buoyancy effects), and radiation heat transfer. The latter requires a fairly complex modeling strategy in order to provide a satisfactory (and conservative) treatment for the source of power, i.e. the filament, which can be obtained by means of a proper inclusion of transparency. The radiation model is verified according to a theoretical-numerical comparison on a schematic test case; the whole methodology is then validated on a simple prototype of lamp with the aid of experimental investigations. For a more accurate description of the boundary conditions for the lamp, it is possible to include the external environment, on which natural convection arises too. The treatment of unsteady simulations is discussed, with the description of a suitable adaptive timestep algorithm capable of reducing the computational costs and thus keeping the simulation feasible.The whole methodology is finally tested on a complex industrial lamp.


In this paper, we analyzed micro data on retirement and reemployment, provided by RIETI, and we evaluated the continued employment system after initial retirement from the standpoint of elderly employees. According to our results, those who chose the continued employment system have job change experiences when they were young. In addition, continuing employees are forced to accept lower levels of job satisfaction, a wide range of wage cuts, and deterioration of treatment in exchange for employment stability. The motivation of continuing employees to work after age 65 is also significantly lower than for other workers. Among continuing employees, wages per hour and job satisfaction levels were high in professionals, and job satisfaction of continuing employees who work as advisors was relatively high. On the other hand, continuing employees are reluctant to change their jobs, wage profiles, or mandatory retirement age. For the future elderly employment system, it is necessary for continuing employees to accumulate specialized skills and make use of them until they retire, by entering new professionals or acting as mentors to young workers. Also, considering the low job satisfaction and the low willingness to work after age 65 among continuing employees, it is unclear whether the policy of raising the legal age of continued employment over age 65 will improve the elderly employment rate. This paper suggests that it is important for companies to provide different working styles to allow for the employment of continuing workers, whose individual capabilities and other characteristics must be taken into account.


Growing awareness of the Western perspectives underpinning occupational science and occupational therapy's values, theories, and evaluation tools has given rise to questions about culturally relevant knowledge and practice with non-Western populations. To make sense of attempts to develop cross-cultural knowledge taking place within the profession and discipline, the authors review epistemological perspectives and methodological advances in anthropology and psychology. Thus informed, they both summarize and critique constructivist and positivist approaches to knowledge development and practice that cross or resist the crossing of cultures. The authors outline a multicultural collaborative research method that supports extending and refining the profession's knowledge in a way that both honors local perspectives and reveals concepts that cross cultures. Insights from a study that explored the meaning of food preparation to older Thai, American, and New Zealand women provide illustrative examples.


This is an analysis of the sources of international competitiveness with Greek export data for the period 1987–2007. The framework used in the study incorporates factors that do not only represent cost competitiveness but also shed light on the determinants of economic complexity. Economic complexity is the amount of knowledge capabilities embodied in exports that indicates – as a source of comparative advantage – the ability for product differentiation and product variety. The empirical analysis shows that industries benefit substantially from their own R&D activity but, owing to weak economic complexity in the country, there are no cross-industry knowledge spillovers (both at national and international level) that can benefit export activity. Greek exports were found to be sensitive to relative unit labour costs (RULC) but the most important export component of this index is relative labour productivity and not labour cost. Not all institutional arrangements have the same impact on exports, for example high trade union density might harm competitiveness but this factor is uncorrelated with R&D investment. In the view of these findings, Greece's route to international competitiveness should be primarily by improving its economic complexity, making sure that the country specialises in productive activities that enrich its knowledge capabilities as well as increase the potential of knowledge transfer.


A thymic epithelial neoplasm characterized by the presence of spindle and/or oval neoplastic epithelial cells. Lymphocytic infiltration is minimal or absent. It may be associated with myasthenia gravis or pure red cell aplasia. The majority of cases occur in the anterior mediastinum as Masaoka stage I tumors. Approximately 20% of the cases occur as stage II or stage III tumors. Type A thymoma generally behaves as a benign tumor and the overall survival is reported to be 100% at 5 and 10 years.


The purpose of this document is to define a new, straightforward
Dynamic Delegation Discovery Service (DDDS) application to allow
mapping of domain names to URIs for particular application services
and protocols. Although defined as a new DDDS application, dubbed
U-NAPTR, this is effectively an extension of the Straightforward NAPTR
(S-NAPTR) DDDS Application. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


The research explored the rates and characteristics of exposure to community violence (CV) and its relevance to several sociodemographic factors among a sample of 833 Arab youth aged 14–18 years residing in diverse residential areas in Israel. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire. The frequency of exposure to CV during the past 12 months correlated significantly with the children's gender. The frequency of witnessing CV during that period was higher than the frequency of personally experiencing CV, and exposure to mild CV incidents during that period was higher than the frequency of exposure to severe CV incidents during the same period, with no significant relationship to sociodemographic factors. Participants reported higher rates of exposure to most CV incidents outside of the neighborhood; however, exposure to beating was higher inside the participants' neighborhood. Moreover, the highest overall rate of exposure to CV was at school. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


INTRODUCTION: Studies about the profile of health professionals provide relevant information which allows health agencies, educational institutions and professional organizations to project educational and assistential actions. These actions and their evaluation have to take into account the profile of the available professionals, as well the macroeconomic context of the groups considered, according to the period and the region they are placed, in order to give success and quality on the planned activities. OBJECTIVE: To know the sociodemographic and professional profile of physical therapists who work in the city of Santa Maria, RS, and the origin of their conceptions of ethics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive and transversal study, with quantitative approach. Physical therapists working with professional and/or educational activities in the physical therapy field participated in the research. Data were collected through a semi-structured instrument construct for that purpose. The statistical package SAS (Statistical Analysis System), version 8.02, was used to process and analyze the data. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 167 physical therapists, most of them young adults, between 22 and 35 years old (60%) and 83% were women. They are predominantly self-employed, without working contract (52,4%), and also work in public (23,5%) and private (20,5%) services; they most often provide home care or work in private clinics and offices. They have competence in distinct levels and fields, being the musculoskeletal the one with higher request of their professional services. Consequently, this area is the most desired to do specialization. The predominant clientele are adults, women and the elderly. The origin of knowledge about ethics comes from the family and from the challenges imposed by the professional practice. CONCLUSION: Although there are many experienced and renowned physical therapists, the young ones predominate in the professional practice. Growing professional process is constant, not only in traditional fields but also in the emergent ones. Ethical issues must be more discussed not only during the formal academic course but also during the daily professional activities.


Possessing a good book, given the increasing costs of books, is becoming more and more challenging. And I am not only talking about the absurd high import taxes levied in South Africa. Hitting a button on Google will get you the relevant title more or less immediately and very virtual ("the age of the brutality of global plastic"). For some exorbitant fee, you may offload the work. Using one of the digitally available points of global offset, you may order the relevant work at four or five times (or somewhat more than that) its original price via the internet. In countries that for reasons of exploitation or domination of others adhere to the copyright mentality, you may find the work in the original edition at about 10 to 15 times its original price. Being aware and with eyes wide open underpinned with a lot of human energy and the advice of valued friends, you will find a copy of the same work, frequently in a splendid condition, in a second-hand bookshop, the latter usually outside the parameters of city centres.


With the development of wireless communication technology, second-,
third-, fourth-generation transmission systems based on electromagnetic (EM)
waves are widely used. At the same time, public concerns have been raised about
whether the use of such systems will have an impact on health and safety
standards. The heating effect is the most prominent and scientifically
verifiable biological effect. So, the influence of EM waves on human body is addressed
by studying the heating characteristics on head models.

The objective of this thesis is to study the effects of radio
frequency (RF) waves radiation from mobile phones on the human head under
different transmission generations. The six-layer head model is used to
evaluate the specific absorption rate (SAR) distribution and thermal effect.
This model allows to study the effects of SAR and temperature rise without the
need for high computational resources. In order to find the effect of
temperature rise and exposure time, the finite difference time domain (FDTD)
method was used to solve the biothermal equation with appropriate boundary
conditions.

Also, different age-dependent head models are used to study the
differences of SAR for children at different ages.

In general, the results show that with the increase in frequency,
the influence of the EM wave is more pronounced, as demonstrated by the SAR and
temperature rise distribution. In addition, SAR distribution of younger ages
show a significant increase, which indicates that children exposed to EM waves are
subject to more harmed.


"Getting women's voices heard" was the entire premise for my recently published collection of plays, and I would welcome the opportunity to speak to that topic, using my new book as an example. LA VOZ LATINA: CONTEMPORARY PLAYS AND PERFORMANCE PIECES, which I edited with Catherine Casiano, was recently published by University of Illinois Press (June 2011). Surveying the Latina theatre movement in the United States since the 1980s, La Voz Latina brings together contemporary plays and performance pieces by innovative Latina playwrights. This rich collection of varying styles, forms, themes, and genres includes work by Yareli Arizmendi, Josefina Baez, The Colorado Sisters, Migdalia Cruz, Evelina Fernandez, Cherrie Moraga, Carmen Pelaez, Carmen Rivera, Celia H. Rodriguez, Diane Rodriguez, and Milcha Sanchez-Scott, as well as commentary by Kathy Perkins and Caridad Svich on the present state of Latinas in theatre roles. La Voz Latina expands the field of Latina theatre while situating it in the larger spectrum of American stage and performance studies. In highlighting the ethnic and cultural roots of the performance artists, we provide historical context, as well as a short biography, production history, and artistic statement from each playwright. Two reviewers of this collection have said the following: "A fine representation of some of the most vital and important Latina playwrights writing and performing today. Publishing many plays for the first time, this significant collection will be of interest to students and scholars of theatre, Latina studies, and American studies." —Jorge Huerta, author of Chicano Drama: Performance, Society, and Myth "Apart from the performance pieces themselves, the artists' comments about the circumstances under which the works were created makes the collection a very valuable tool for documenting Latina cultural production since the 1980s." —Tamara L. Underiner, author of Contemporary Theatre in Mayan Mexico: Death-Defying Acts The entire collection resulted from my experience as a professional dramaturg, finding regional stages, university and college stages, and other performance venues with a blind vision in terms of plays by women of color. This collection aims at introducing and in some cases bringing to light new and notable works by Latinas who have been writing for the stage during the past 3 decades.


ABSTRACT A pilot field study was conducted to assess the impact of bioaugmentation with two plasmid pJP4-bearing microorganisms: the natural host, Ralstonia eutropha JMP134, and a laboratory-generated strain amenable to donor counterselection,Escherichia coli D11. The R. eutropha strain contained chromosomal genes necessary for mineralization of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), while the E. colistrain did not. The soil system was contaminated with 2,4-D alone or was cocontaminated with 2,4-D and Cd. Plasmid transfer to indigenous populations, plasmid persistence in soil, and degradation of 2,4-D were monitored over a 63-day period in the bioreactors. To assess the impact of contaminant reexposure, aliquots of bioreactor soil were reamended with additional 2,4-D. Both introduced donors remained culturable and transferred plasmid pJP4 to indigenous recipients, although to different extents. Isolated transconjugants were members of theBurkholderia and Ralstonia genera, suggesting multiple, if not successive, plasmid transfers. Upon a second exposure to 2,4-D, enhanced degradation was observed for all treatments, suggesting microbial adaptation to 2,4-D. Upon reexposure, degradation was most rapid for the E. coli D11-inoculated treatments. Cd did not significantly impact 2,4-D degradation or transconjugant formation. This study demonstrated that the choice of donor microorganism might be a key factor to consider for bioaugmentation efforts. In addition, the establishment of an array of stable indigenous plasmid hosts at sites with potential for reexposure or long-term contamination may be particularly useful.


A promising method to incorporate tissue structural information into the reconstruction of diffusion-based fluorescence imaging is introduced. The method regularizes the inversion problem with a Laplacian-type matrix, which inherently smoothes pre-defined tissue, but allows discontinuities between adjacent regions. The technique is most appropriately used when fluorescence tomography is combined with structural imaging systems. Phantom and simulation studies were used to illustrate significant improvements in quantitative imaging and linearity of response with the new algorithm. Images of an inclusion containing the fluorophore Lutetium Texaphyrin (Lutex) embedded in a cylindrical phantom are more accurate than in situations where no structural information is available, and edge artifacts which are normally prevalent were almost entirely suppressed. Most importantly, spatial priors provided a higher degree of sensitivity and accuracy to fluorophore concentration, though both techniques suffer from image bias caused by excitation signal leakage. The use of spatial priors becomes essential for accurate recovery of fluorophore distributions in complex tissue volumes. Simulation studies revealed an inability of the "no-priors" imaging algorithm to recover Lutex fluorescence yield in domains derived from T1 weighted images of a human breast. The same domains were reconstructed accurately to within 75% of the true values using prior knowledge of the internal tissue structure. This algorithmic approach will be implemented in an MR-coupled fluorescence spectroscopic tomography system, using the MR images for the structural template and the fluorescence data for region quantification.


This thesis explores a class of models for modelling the time between trades,
known as trade duration, in the after-hours electronic market for U.S. equity
futures. These electronic markets have grown signi�cantly over the last 10 years
but little empirical work has been done to describe them. This is particularly
so with duration modelling. High frequency trade duration data for the S&P
500 and NASDAQ-100 modelled in this thesis are collected from the GLOBEX
electronic trading platform from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for the period
of 2004 to 2008.
This thesis �rst �ts standard linear Autoregressive Conditional Duration (ACD)
models with Exponential, Weibull and Generalized Gamma error distributional
assumptions to the period 2004 to 2006. The Generalized Gamma distribution
outperforms the alternatives but still provides unsatisfactory results in the form
of serially correlated residuals (volume is used as an additional mark in the model
speci�cations). In order to improve the models, nonlinear forms of ACDmodel are
estimated. In particular, the threshold and logarithmic forms are implemented.
Although the results improve with these more �exible forms, there remains con-
tinued evidence of nonlinearity in the results.
As a consequence, and taking into consideration the fact that the sample pe-
riod of this thesis is much longer than the 3 month samples typically examined
in the existing ACD literature, the thesis then examines the S&P 500 data for
potential structural changes. Structural breaks are detected using a range of con-
ditional Lagrange Multiplier tests associated with Andrews (1993) and Andrews
and Ploberger (1994). FittingWeibull ACD models to the segmented sub-periods
identi�ed with the structural break tests signi�cantly improves the model esti-
mation results.
Finally, this thesis examines the evidence for structural breaks in ACD models
in the global �nancial crisis period using S&P 500 data from 2006 to 2008. The
most signi�cant structural change is found to occur in July, 2007, which is consis-
tent with the onset of the crisis. Many of the structural change points detected
in the data can be aligned with economic events during the crisis period, and
sub-period estimations reveal the impact of the crisis on the electronic futures
market


This paper uses event study methodology to investigate the impact of monetary and fiscal policy announcements on corporate CDS returns for both US and UK. We employ a range of parametric and non-parametric tests to access the significance of CDS abnormal returns across a range of narrow event windows. We find interest rate cut announcement has an opposite impact on CDS abnormal return across US and UK, QE announcements leads to higher abnormal returns across both samples and fiscal policy announcements is characterized by small positive gain which is short-lived. Daily CDS returns estimated for each firm and aggregated independently provides us the flexibility to test the differential effect on each subsample grouped on the basis of sector, credit quality, firm size and liquidity. We find the effect of policy announcement is different based on the firm idiosyncratic characteristics and without splitting the sample into sub-categories these effects would have been undetected. By splitting the sample we are able to disentangle this differential effect and note inconsistency across US and UK. We also compare abnormal return dynamics pre and post announcement days and note the median return is mostly higher in the post announcement days for US, while this effect is opposite for the UK sample. This may indicate policy announcements in US were more effective in lowering risk in corporate CDS market than those for UK. We also note the effects of firm idiosyncratic variables are mostly evident for abnormal returns following interest rate cuts and QE announcements, while the effect is least for fiscal policy announcements. Furthermore, we reverse the process and test if a particular policy announcement has a significant effect on firms with certain idiosyncratic characteristics. Overall we note the differences in firm idiosyncratic characteristics is mostly associated with liquidity and gearing for interest rate cut, difference in liquidity and firm size related to QE and firm capitalization related to fiscal policy announcements. We find our results to be robust and consistent for alternative specifications of event windows.


The MARSAUTOTIE program generates tie points for use with the Mars pointing correction software "In-Situ Pointing Correction and Rover Microlocalization," (NPO-46696) Soft ware Tech Briefs, Vol. 34, No. 9 (September 2010), page 18, in a completely automated manner, with no operator intervention. It takes the place of MARSTIE, although MARSTIE can be used to interactively edit the tie points afterwards. These tie points are used to create a mosaic whose seams (boundaries of input images) have been geometrically corrected to reduce or eliminate errors and mis-registrations. The methods used to find appropriate tie points for use in creating a mosaic are unique, having been designed to work in concert with the "MARSNAV" program to be most effective in reducing or eliminating geometric seams in a mosaic. The program takes the input images and finds overlaps according to the nominal pointing. It then finds the most interesting areas using a scene activity metric. Points with higher scene activity are more likely to correlate successfully in the next step. It then uses correlation techniques to find matching points in the overlapped image. Finally, it performs a series of steps to reduce the number of tie points to a manageable level. These steps incorporate a number of heuristics that have been devised using experience gathered by tie pointing mosaics manually during MER operations. The software makes use of the PIG library as described in "Planetary Image Geometry Library" (NPO-46658), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 34, No. 12 (December 2010), page 30, so it is multi-mission, applicable without change to any in-situ mission supported by PIG. The MARSAUTOTIE algorithm is automated, so it requires no user intervention. Although at the time of this reporting it has not been done, this program should be suitable for integration into a fully automated mosaic production pipeline.


Different chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) cultivars are at present grown in the region of Galicia, northwestern Spain, but no distinguishing traits among cultivars have been defined so far. The objectives of this research were to 1) describe the intra and intercultivar variability of chestnut cultivars; 2) define primary morphological traits to be useful for a simple morphological classification system of the cultivars; and 3) study the association between some environmental variables and the morphological traits. Seventeen morphological traits in a sample of 373 trees belonging to 82 local cultivars of chestnut were studied by methods of numerical taxonomy, principal component and cluster analysis. These traits were selected from 135 previously studied as having possible discriminating taxonomic value. Significant variability among cultivars and among trees within cultivars was found for most of the traits. The trees were grouped according to the degree of dissimilarity on the basis of the Mahalanobis generalized distance. Most of the clones collected under a specific cultivar name were included within the same cluster group enabling us to classify 53 of the cultivars studied. A hierarchical classification system that identifies eight cultivar groups is proposed based on four discriminating levels: nut size, fruit shape, male flower type and length of burr spines. Most of the correlations between the environmental variables and the morphological traits were no significant or had a low value. The lack of correlation between the environmental variables and nut size indicates that this important trait is under strong genetic control, it is not influenced by environmental conditions and it is consistent throughout the area sampled.


Abstract: This paper analyzes how the European Court of Human Rights has reacted to the progressive developments by the European Union of its own human rights standards through the Charter of Fundamental Rights and an increasing number of secondary law instruments. These evolutions have been welcomed by ambivalent reactions from Council of Europe institutions. Voices in Strasbourg have denounced a risk that autonomous EU fundamental rights standards might create dividing lines in Europe and lead to a "multi-speed" Europe of human rights. Yet, addressing this concern through an alignment of the EurCourtHR case law on EU law developments might result in imposing majority value choices on the minority of Council of Europe members. The paper assesses the well-founded character of these apprehensions in light of two ongoing case law tendencies. First, the mechanisms established to reflect the specificities of EU law in assessing Member States' liabilities under the ECHR are increasingly being challenged, both in the Strasbourg case law and as a consequence of the evolution of EU law itself. Second, the Strasbourg Court has relied on EU law in the application of the consensus and margin of appreciation doctrines, with some separate opinions advocating for a more influential role for EU law. The "interoperability" between the EU and the ECHR legal order may, however, be questioned in light of the different methodologies followed by the two European supranational courts and the limited "consensual" value of EU law in the sense of the EurCourtHR case law. In order to avoid curtailing the consensus and subsidiarity foundations of the Convention, it is submitted that the Strasbourg Court should pay due attention to the exact consensual value of each specific provision of EU law. In that respect, the Luxembourg Court could provide valuable support in maintaining, where relevant, a visible link between the human rights developments initiated at EU level and the specific objectives of the EU integration project.


This is the final part of a study carried out to investigate occupational asthma due to sensitivity to colophony fumes (a component of soldering flux) in an electronics factory. Fifty-eight workers with occupational asthma employed on the main shop floor were investigated. In them the interval between first exposure and sensitisation varied widely with a group becoming sensitive within one to two years of first exposure, and another group whose sensitisation was delayed for three to 23 years. Once sensitised the interval between arriving at work and the onset of daily symptoms seemed to be bimodally distributed, resembling the immediate and late asthmatic symptoms seen on provocation testing. Twenty-three out of 58 had no definite daily deterioration at work but improved at the weekends. Wheeze and breathlessness occurred in the evenings at home in most, and one-third were woken by breathlessness at least on some nights. These 58 cases were compared with 48 controls without occupational asthma who had worked on the same shop floor for at least four years. Mean levels of FEV1 were significantly worse in the cases before exposure on Monday morning. The cases also had more than twice as much sickness absence as controls. FEV1 fell by more than 10% over a working shift in 33% of cases and 5% of controls. Atopy (a positive skin prick test to one or more common allergens) and a past history of allergic disease were weakly but significantly associated with being a case. The effects of smoking and a family history of allergic disease were trivial. Prick testing with an antigen derived from the colophony in the solder flux was completely negative, but cases and controls had significantly raised levels of total IgM compared with blood bank controls, perhaps suggesting some previously unrecognised immunological process.


We investigate the influence of ac Stark shifts on the propagation of phase-controlled two-color lasers in a two-level medium. By solving the coupled partial differential equations for atoms and fields simultaneously, it is found that the propagation dynamics are significantly modified due to the time-dependent ac Stark shifts.


We propose a lower bound on the log marginal likelihood of Gaussian process regression models that can be computed without matrix factorisation of the full kernel matrix. We show that approximate maximum likelihood learning of model parameters by maximising our lower bound retains many of the sparse variational approach benefits while reducing the bias introduced into parameter learning. The basis of our bound is a more careful analysis of the log-determinant term appearing in the log marginal likelihood, as well as using the method of conjugate gradients to derive tight lower bounds on the term involving a quadratic form. Our approach is a step forward in unifying methods relying on lower bound maximisation (e.g. variational methods) and iterative approaches based on conjugate gradients for training Gaussian processes. In experiments, we show improved predictive performance with our model for a comparable amount of training time compared to other conjugate gradient based approaches.


This article focuses on the deployment of the camera during a moment of acute political crisis in nineteenth-century India, when both the significance and the scope of British power were highly unstable, arguing that photography's unique formal features enabled colonials to picture a precarious imperial sovereignty as a viable mode of political administration. The ability of photography to objectify and "other" colonized populations has been well documented, but the efficacy of imperialism as a mode of imperial governance was as much a function of imagining shared political horizons as it was about constructing divisive racial hierarchies. The levelling aesthetic of photography—its capacity to draw heterogeneous peoples into what Christopher Pinney has termed a "common epistemological space"—meant that it could serve as a visual register for the elusive connective tissue of imperial subjecthood, effectively reifying a useful political abstraction. Yet, as much as British sovereign authority could be embodied by this visual logic, British identity could simultaneously be dissolved by the homogenizing grammar of the medium. Looking in particular at the palliative, diplomatic role played by the photographic portraiture of Dr John Nicholas Tresidder in the immediate aftermath of the Indian Rebellion (1857–59), this article assesses how photography engaged with warfare's social upheavals in complex, richly textured and unpredictable ways.


Teaching civil engineers of the future the planning, design and construction of sustainable urban infrastructure systems is a multifaceted challenge. This paper presents case studies from two universities in the United Kingdom that design and deliver teaching modules in sustainable construction. The case studies presented here are integral to the curriculum design and delivery of a module entitled 'Sustainable Construction' offered to the first year undergraduate students registered at Teesside University and another, multidisciplinary design module called 'Design of Sustainable Engineering Systems2 (DSES2)' offered to the second year civil engineering students at Newcastle University. The academic institutions and the engineering professions as a whole have sincere intentions of imparting intellectual and technical capabilities consistent with Sustainable Design (SD) and so they must invest in the creation of learning environments that are appropriate for Sustainable Design education. The universities owning the modules presented in this paper have recognized the challenges associated with the delivery of SD skills among their students. This appreciation of the difficulties led them to innovate and as a result they were able to introduce novel changes to the curriculum delivery of civil engineering programmes. The authors for this paper have been using a range of different pedagogic strategies including problem-based, design-based and self-directed learning methods in their efforts to deliver SD concepts in urban environments. Particular attention is paid to the epistemic methods that are transferable in nature and can be implemented by other academic institutions delivering Sustainable Design education to their students from science and engineering degree programmes.


Light has an important visual and non-visual impact on humans. Most of our information exchange, especially within office working spaces, occurs through it, our circadian rhythms are directly influenced by its presence. On the other hand, artificial lighting is responsible for a large fraction of electricity consumption in non-residential buildings. The latter becomes even more dominant within net Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) where yearly net heating and/or cooling loads are reduced almost to nil by the way of energy savings measures and renewable energy technologies. Anidolic Daylighting Systems (ADS) are very effective facade-integrated daylighting systems which can collect and redirect diffuse daylight deep into office rooms under almost any climatic conditions: several studies have demonstrated their efficiency in the Northern and Central European regions, as well in sub-tropical climates. Recent studies have shown that their integration with high efficacy electric light sources and efficient luminaries can lead to very low lighting power densities (e.g. 3 - 4 W/m2 instead of 12 – 15 W/m2), as well as an improvement of visual comfort, visual performance and contribution to human health. As such, they offer excellent opportunities to reduce the electric lighting load in solar buildings and nZEB. An integrated day- and electric lighting system has been implemented in the south-facing office rooms of the LESO solar experimental building located on the EPFL campus in Lausanne (Switzerland). Objective visual performance and subjective visual comfort assessments were carried with 20 subjects, confirming the adequacy of this approach regarding human response factors, as well as from an energy savings perspective. A ceiling integrated anidolic daylighting system was also implemented last year in an nZEB, located in Singapore and erected through the refurbishment of an existing building. The system was based on a former study carried out on the EPFL campus by the way of a 1:1 scale mock-up office room equipped with a comparable device. Significant electricity savings, as well as visual comfort and performance improvement, were also observed in this case.


US hospitals are investing in pharmacy information systems to meet accompanying technological and workload demands as well as implement evidence-based medical care. The automation of pharmacy processes, including verification of patient identity and automated medication alerts, when linked to other advanced clinical information systems such as computerised physician order entry (CPOE) systems and the electronic medical record (EMR) has a synergistic effect on improving healthcare quality. Our research shows that US hospitals are actively involved in acquiring pharmacy information systems. One thousand six hundred seventy one US hospitals or 32% have operational pharmacy information systems and 732 of them currently have CPOE systems linked to the pharmacy information system. In addition, 3,995 US hospitals currently have automated dispensing machines (ADM) with 910 planned for future installation. As a result, the increasing investment in pharmacy information systems is providing state-of-the-art medication support which enhances patient safety and healthcare quality.


Abstract. Automatic and multi-objective calibration of hydrodynamic models is – compared to other disciplines like e.g. hydrology – still underdeveloped. This has mainly two reasons: the lack of appropriate data and the large computational demand in terms of CPU-time. Both aspects are aggravated in large-scale applications. However, there are recent developments that improve the situation on both the data and computing side. Remote sensing, especially radar-based techniques proved to provide highly valuable information on flood extents, and in case high precision DEMs are present, also on spatially distributed inundation depths. On the computing side the use of parallelization techniques brought significant performance gains. In the presented study we build on these developments by calibrating a large-scale 1-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the whole Mekong Delta downstream of Kratie in Cambodia: we combined in-situ data from a network of river gauging stations, i.e. data with high temporal but low spatial resolution, with a series of inundation maps derived from ENVISAT Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) satellite images, i.e. data with low temporal but high spatial resolution, in an multi-objective automatic calibration process. It is shown that an automatic, multi-objective calibration of hydrodynamic models, even of such complexity and on a large scale and complex as a model for the Mekong Delta, is possible. Furthermore, the calibration process revealed model deficiencies in the model structure, i.e. the representation of the dike system in Vietnam, which would have been difficult to detect by a standard manual calibration procedure.


In this article an attempt is made to cast light on the complicated relationship between Juhan Liiv (1864– 1913) – perhaps the greatest Estonian lyrical poet of all times – and the Young Estonia (Noor-Eesti) cultural movement, which played a fundamental role in laying the foundations of Estonian literary culture at the beginning of the 20th century. Since Liiv himself, mentally ill and living in great poverty, did not publish any books, the Young Estonians – first the poet Gustav Liiv and, then, more decisively, the short story writer and essayist Friedebert Tuglas, took up the task of establishing a canon of Liiv's poetry for Estonia. The dynamics of Liiv's poetic canon as established by Young Estonia – especially, by Tuglas' edition of Juhan Liivi luuletused (1926, Juhan Liiv's Poems) and his substantial monograph on Liiv's life and work, Juhan Liiv (1927) – are viewed in the context of the fate of Liiv's poetry in Estonian letters in a later period, after World War II. Aarne Vinkel, a literary historian, made important additions to the canon with his edition of Juhan Liiv's Teosed (1954, Works). Vinkel's selection Sinuga ja sinuta (1989, With You and Without You) is the largest edition of Liiv's poetry to date. In view of Tuglas' continued and considerable prestige in Soviet Estonia, it is probable that quite a few of Liiv's poems discovered and published by Vinkel on the basis of Liiv's manuscripts have still remained relatively unknown to the wider Estonian reading public. On the other hand, without Vinkel's post-war corroboration of the canon of Liiv's poetry established by the Young Estonians, Liiv's image as a poet would have appeared much more fragmentary.


Artificial Sweeteners (AS) having low/non-calorific value are among the most widely used food additives worldwide and also regularly consumed by lean and obese individuals alike. AS consumption is considered safe and beneficial owing to their low caloric content, yet supporting scientific data remains sparse and controversial. The objective of the present study was to review whether consumption of artificial sweetners is boon or bane to human health. It has outlined the health effects of AS with respect to their association with weight gain and other metabolic health effects. Consumption of AS in the form of carbonated beverages may cause excessive weight gain. A case control study reveals the fact that AS can induce glucose intolerance by altering gut microbiota associated with the development of metabolic syndrome such as type 2 diabetes. In conclusion, sugar based sweeteners have long been suspected as the cause of obesity and consequent cardiovascular risk.