NEAREST (Integrated observation from NEAR shore sourcES of Tsunamis: towards an early warning system) is a EU funded project (GOCE, contract n. 037110), which aims at the identification and characterization of potential near-shore sources of tsunamis in the Gulf of Cadiz. This area is well known from the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami occurred November 1st, 1755.Within the project a quasi-real-time observation of several crucial parameters is realized by the GEOSTAR multi-parameter deep-sea observatory. Further activities include the installation of a temporary network of 24 broadband ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS), active seismic studies, detailed bathymetric, and geological investigations. Numerical modelling is done to study the effect of inundation during a potential tsunami for several localities along the eastern Atlantic coast. All the results will be finally incorporated into a feasibility study for a regional early warning system.One of the projects work packages deals with monitoring of seismic activity in the Gulf of Cadiz area. For this purpose 24 broadband OBS from the German DEPAS instrument pool were deployed in August 2007 by RV Urania. Local and teleseismic events will be recorded for a period of about 11 to 12 months. Together with the dense onshore seismic networks the temporary OBS will allow to locate and characterize small seismic events more precisely than it can be done only with onshore stations. Additionally, the data will be used to investigate the lithospheric structure using passive seismic methods.


Results of tests conducted in the 6-foot-diameter rolling-flow test section of the Langley stability tunnel to determine the effects of varying taper ratio on the rolling and static stability characteristics of a swept wing are presented; results are also given for the effects of varying taper ratio on an unswept wing and for the effects of sweep on a tapered wing. All the models were of aspect ratio 2.61 and had NACA 0012 sections normal to the quarter-chord line. Taper ratios of 1.00, 0.50, and 0.25 and sweep angles of 0 degrees and 45 degrees were investigated.


Excerpt] Four major principles currently underlie U.S. policy on legal permanent immigration: the reunification of families, the admission of immigrants with needed skills, the protection of refugees, and the diversity of admissions by country of origin. These principles are embodied in federal law, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) first codified in 1952. The Immigration Amendments of 1965 replaced the national origins quota system (enacted after World War I) with per-country ceilings, and the statutory provisions regulating permanent immigration to the United States were last revised significantly by the Immigration Act of 1990. The critiques of the permanent legal immigration system today are extensive, but there is no consensus on the specific direction the reforms of the law should take. If the 113th Congress takes up comprehensive immigration reform (CIR), many maintain that revision of the legal immigration system should be one of the major components of a CIR proposal. This primer on legal permanent immigration law, policies, and trends provides a backdrop for the policy options and debates that may emerge if the 113th Congress considers a revision of the legal immigration system.


In 2005 the National Research Council (NRC) analyzed right-to-carry (RTC) laws, which relax the requirements necessary to acquire a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The NRC essentially concluded that the data were not sufficient to determine whether RTC laws increased or decreased crime. However, a recent working paper from Abhay Aneja, John J. Donohue, and Alexandria Zhang re-evaluates the NRC analysis and purports to find evidence that RTC laws increase murder, rape, robbery, and assault. They make a number of choices that generate those results, but we find those choices are often unjustifiable. Most importantly, we note that they use only part of the available data, claiming that a regime change renders decades of data unusable—yet they did not test for the existence of a regime change, and our examination here finds little evidence that such a regime change occurred. Additionally, we note that they compare states that newly adopted laws with states that already had laws, that their standard errors are biased downward, that they exclude highly significant individual state trends, that they run multiple tests without adjusting significance levels, and that they fail to report significance tests on pre- and post-law dummy coefficients.


Bacterial resistance is a natural phenomenon, however, accelerated by human kind due to the accentuated and indiscriminate use of antibiotic in human and animal health. The development of decontamination techniques and risk assessment of indiscriminate use are auxiliary tools for the control and prevention of "super bacteria", originated from antimicrobial resistance. This research aimed to verify which the most used antibiotics are in animal health, the described and known decontamination methods in the literature, besides the impact of antimicrobial resistance in humans. The results demonstrated the need to carry out activities that involve actions of national and international institutions along with NGOs in order to supervise and control effectively the use of antibiotics. In general, it was possibly to verify a necessity for guidance to the use of antibiotics by means of the diagnosis of diseases, being necessary that the prescription should be prescribed exclusively by a veterinarian and respecting the grace period of the medicine in order to avoid damages to human health.


Introduction: Minority communities have had limited access to advances in genomic medicine. Mayo Clinic and Mountain Park Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Phoenix, Arizona, partnered to assess the feasibility of offering genomic screening to Latino patients receiving care at a community-based health center. We examined primary care provider (PCP) experiences reporting genomic screening results and integrating those results into patient care. Methods: We conducted open-ended, semi-structured interviews with PCPs and other members of the health care team charged with supporting patients who received positive genomic screening results. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed thematically. Results: Of the 500 patients who pursued genomic screening, 10 received results indicating a genetic variant that warranted clinical management. PCPs felt genomic screening was valuable to patients and their families, and that genomic research should strive to include underrepresented minorities. Providers identified multiple challenges integrating genomic sequencing into patient care, including difficulties maintaining patient contact over time; arranging follow-up medical care; and managing results in an environment with limited genetics expertise. Providers also reflected on the ethics of offering genomic sequencing to patients who may not be able to pursue diagnostic testing or follow-up care due to financial constraints. Conclusions: Our results highlight the potential benefits and challenges of bringing advances in precision medicine to community-based health centers serving under-resourced populations. By proactively considering patient support needs, and identifying financial assistance programs and patient-referral mechanisms to support patients who may need specialized medical care, PCPs and other health care providers can help to ensure that precision medicine lives up to its full potential as a tool for improving patient care.


The current epidemic of antibiotic-resistant infections urges to develop alternatives to less-effective antibiotics. To assess anti-bacterial potential, a novel coordinate compound (RU-S4) was synthesized using ruthenium-Schiff base-benzimidazole ligand, where ruthenium chloride was used as the central atom. RU-S4 was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and Raman spectroscopy. Antibacterial effect of RU-S4 was studied against Staphylococcus aureus (NCTC 8511), vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) (CCM 1767), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (ST239: SCCmecIIIA), and hospital isolate Staphylococcus epidermidis. The antibacterial activity of RU-S4 was checked by growth curve analysis and the outcome was supported by optical microscopy imaging and fluorescence LIVE/DEAD cell imaging. In vivo (balb/c mice) infection model prepared with VRSA (CCM 1767) and treated with RU-S4. In our experimental conditions, all infected mice were cured. The interaction of coordination compound with bacterial cells were further confirmed by cryo-scanning electron microscope (Cryo-SEM). RU-S4 was completely non-toxic against mammalian cells and in mice and subsequently treated with synthesized RU-S4.


Publicity about the possible carcinogenicity of chloral hydrate along with the suggestion that alternative sedatives should be used in children has generated concern among physicians, dentists, and their patients.1,2 Replacement of chloral hydrate with other sedatives would represent a major change in practice because it is one of the drugs most widely employed to sedate young children undergoing dental and medical procedures and imaging studies. This statement will assist the practitioner in making an informed decision regarding the use of chloral hydrate by summarizing (1) information pertaining to the potential for carcinogenesis associated with use of chloral hydrate, (2) the risk/benefit considerations of available sedatives, and (3) risks associated with prolonged sedation with chloral hydrate.
 EVIDENCE FOR CARCINOGENESIS OF CHLORAL HYDRATE
 Some of the concern regarding potential carcinogenicity of chloral hydrate is based on the assumption that chloral hydrate is a reactive metabolite of trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent, and is responsible for the carcinogenicity of trichloroethylene.1,2 However, the validity of this assumption is open to question. Although chloral hydrate is a metabolite of trichloroethylene, there is evidence that the carcinogenicity of trichloroethylene is due to a reactive intermediate epoxide metabolite rather than chloral hydrate.3 As is the case for most chemical carcinogens, trichloroethylene is carcinogenic in some laboratory animal species but not in others.4 Multiple epidemiologic studies in humans have failed to document an increase in cancer incidence associated with trichloroethylene exposure,5-10 although the ability of these studies to detect small increases in risk of cancer is limited.
 There are no studies pertaining to chloral hydrate-associated carcinogenicity in humans.


This study analyses a range of advanced nuclear fuel cycle options from the perspective of their effect on radioactive waste management policies. It presents various fuel cycle options which illustrate differences between alternative technologies, but does not purport to cover all foreseeable future fuel cycles. The analysis extends the work carried out in previous studies, assesses the fuel cycles, and covers highlevel waste repository performance for the different fuel cycles considered. The estimates of quantities and types of waste arising from advanced fuel cycles are based on best available data and experts' judgement. The effects of various advanced fuel cycles on the management of radioactive waste are assessed relative to current technologies and options, using tools such as repository performance analysis and cost studies.


Interferon regulatory factors (IRFs) play functionally diverse roles in the transcriptional regulation of the immune system. We have previously shown that several IRFs are regulators of adipogenesis and that IRF4 is a critical transcriptional regulator of adipocyte lipid handling. However, the functional role of IRF4 in adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) remains unclear, despite high expression there. Here we show that IRF4 expression is regulated in primary macrophages and in ATMs of high-fat diet–induced obese mice. Irf4−/− macrophages produce higher levels of proinflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α, in response to fatty acids. In coculture experiments, IRF4 deletion in macrophages leads to reduced insulin signaling and glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. To determine the macrophage-specific function of IRF4 in the context of obesity, we generated myeloid cell–specific IRF4 knockout mice, which develop significant insulin resistance on a high-fat diet, despite no difference in adiposity. This phenotype is associated with increased expression of inflammatory genes and decreased insulin signaling in adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and liver. Furthermore, Irf4−/− ATMs express markers suggestive of enhanced M1 polarization. These findings indicate that IRF4 is a negative regulator of inflammation in diet-induced obesity, in part through regulation of macrophage polarization.


The rank of a semigroup is the cardinality of a smallest generating set. In this paper we compute the rank of the endomorphism monoid of a non-trivial uniform partition of a finite set, that is, the semigroup of those transformations of a finite set that leave a non-trivial uniform partition invariant. That involves proving that the rank of a wreath product of two symmetric groups is two and then use the fact that the endomorphism monoid of a partition is isomorphic to a wreath product of two full transformation semigroups. The calculation of the rank of these semigroups solves an open question.


Resistive switching in metal oxides, especially in TiO2, has been intensively investigated for potential application in non-volatile memory microdevices. As one of the working mechanisms, a conducting filament consisting of a substoichiometric oxide phase is created within the oxide layer. With the aim of investigating the filament formation in spatially confined elements, we fabricate arrays of self-ordered TiO2 nanocolumns by porous-anodic-alumina (PAA)-assisted anodizing, incorporate them into solid-state microdevices, study their electron transport properties, and reveal that this anodizing approach is suitable for growing TiO2 nanostructures exhibiting resistive switching. The electrical properties and resistive switching behavior are both dependent on the electrolytic formation conditions, influencing the concentration and distribution of oxygen vacancies in the nanocolumn material during the film growth. Therefore, the PAA-assisted TiO2 nanocolumn arrays can be considered as a platform for investigating various phenomena related to resistive switching in valve metal oxides at the nanoscale.


Elevated oxidative stress is observed more frequently in cancer cells than in normal cells. It is therefore expected that additional exposure to a low level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) will push cancer cells toward death, whereas normal cells might maintain redox homeostasis through adaptive antioxidant responses. We previously showed that parthenolide enhances ROS production in prostate cancer cells through activation of NADPH oxidase. The present study identifies KEAP1 as the downstream redox target that contributes to parthenolide's radiosensitization effect in prostate cancer cells. In vivo, parthenolide increases radiosensitivity of mouse xenograft tumors but protects normal prostate and bladder tissues against radiation-induced injury. Mechanistically, parthenolide increases the level of cellular ROS and causes oxidation of thioredoxin (TrX) in prostate cancer cells, leading to a TrX-dependent increase in a reduced state of KEAP1, which in turn leads to KEAP1-mediated PGAM5 and Bcl-xL (BCL2L1) degradation. In contrast, parthenolide increases oxidation of KEAP1 in normal prostate epithelial cells, leading to increased Nrf2 (NFE2L2) levels and subsequent Nrf2-dependent expression of antioxidant enzymes. These results reveal a novel redox-mediated modification of KEAP1 in controlling the differential effect of parthenolide on tumor and normal cell radiosensitivity. Furthermore, they show it is possible to develop a tumor-specific radiosensitizing agent with radioprotective properties in normal cells.


This article is concerned with the spatial analysis of lecture theaters in higher education institutions and it draws upon two concepts developed by Michel Foucault during the 1970s—heterotopia and the will to know. By examining the heterotopic potentials of lecture theaters where knowledge is rendered visible and articulable, the article argues that the notion of heterotopia is more relevant than panopticon for spatial analysis of these spaces. Heterotopias are defined as counter-sites inhabited by the abnormal, and as such include two dimensions. First there is an exclusion of the abnormal that is aimed at the fabrication of specific subjectivities, students and a more productive workforce. Second, as counter-spaces, heterotopias maintain a hopeful aspect that is providing an opportunity for unsettling the social norms. To support this exploration, the article uses higher education as a transitional environment for the production of an employable workforce and specifically focuses on auditoriums in universities. Contemporary lecture halls originating from the early modern anatomy halls are introduced as a strong spatial context for exploring the spatialization of knowledge and the construction of selves as subjects who desire to know.


Efficient microwelding of glass substrates by irradiation by a double-pulse train of ultrafast laser pulses is demonstrated. Temporal beam shaping techniques such as double-pulse irradiation enabled increased flexibility for high-quality, high-efficiency material processing. The bonding strength of two photostructurable glass substrates welded by double-pulse irradiation was evaluated to be 22.9 MPa, which is approximately 22% greater than that of a sample prepared by conventional irradiation by a single-pulse train.


Recent models of South Atlantic opening history focus on early plate divergence by incorporating intracontinental deformation, which is poorly constrained. Aiming to avoid the uncertainties in this approach, we model the entire divergence history with a joint inversion for seafloor spreading data. For this history, the pre‐Campanian motion parameters are the first to feature formal uncertainty estimates. We date the onset of spreading at 138 Ma, with movement along intracontinental accommodation zones leading to the assembly of South America by 123 Ma and Africa by 106 Ma. Part of the ridge in the Agulhas Basin jumped westward soon afterward toward the Bouvet plume, initiating the motion of a short‐lived Malvinas Plate. The NE Georgia and Maud rises and Agulhas Plateau formed as a large igneous province over the plume. Farther north, part of the ridge jumped eastward toward the Tristan plume around 94–93 Ma but seems not to have resulted in independent plate motion. Our results show that the South Atlantic grew by diachronous breakup of continents on just two plates. Cretaceous intracontinental deformation in South America and Africa can be interpreted in terms of the accommodation of stress associated with northward propagation of this process. The pattern of accommodation is usually envisaged as focusing all of the strain in narrow belts. With our rotations, a commonly used set of such belts accounts instead for just 42–67% of the implied total strain. We suggest that the remainder was accommodated at all scales within the continental interiors and the extended continental margins.


Introduction: Real estate experts are sometimes faced with decisions of high complexity, so decision quality may vary in a considerable degree. This variation of decision quality is dependent on available information as well as psychological factors. However, decision support systems mainly provide information and only barely decision aids for psychologi-cal factors. Ignoring this human factor may considerably reduce the effectiveness of such systems. Not very surprisingly research on cognitive psychology increasingly finds its way into the DSS domain. However, for real estate portfolio management both DSS research and cognitive research is mainly going unnoticed. In consequence, problems, methods and results on both areas have to be transferred to real estate portfolio management.Objective: This study seeks to fill this gap by developing a framework that integrates deci-sion support into real estate portfolio management software.Method: A development framework is used for organizing existing research divided into 4 interconnected layers: a user perspective, a methods perspective, a systems perspective, and an interface perspective.Results: Decisions made by experts can be differentiated into a part contributing to learn-ing by experience and a part which defies itself from learning effects. Consequently, the methods perspective allows for feedback learning as well as debiasing techniques for an effective DSS. The effectiveness of the DSS can be checked in a cognitive architecture of "state, act and result", whereas mean deviation and variance between "state" and "result" can be used as measures of effectiveness. Besides, it has to be kept in mind that any regulation is influencing the usage of a DSS, another and important dimension to the concept of effectiveness. Here, the relevance of the "visual experience" of a system, particularly input and output screens as well as navigation, cannot be underestimated. It may adversely affect the usage and increase cognitive biases or learning effects.Conclusion: This article contributes to the literature on decision-making and information technology in real estate and in particular to the application of DSS to real estate manage-ment. The framework offers a way to introduce decision aid capabilities to portfolio man-agement software and provides information on the interactions between the different ele-ments of a DSS. Questions for future research are discussed as well.


Abstract Adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa encounter high risks associated with sexuality and reproduction, yet face numerous barriers in obtaining appropriate health services and information. Mobile phones provide a unique opportunity to provide youth with this critical sexual and reproductive health information need. Designed from the United Nations Comprehensive Sexuality Education framework, the mobile-optimized app TuneMe aims to provide adolescents living in eight sub-Saharan African countries—Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia—with sexual and reproductive health information, and to promote uptake and use of sexual and reproductive health services. To assess the scope and appropriateness of TuneMe's sexuality education content, we conducted a directed content analysis of the 299 articles published on the Zambia-specific TuneMe site between October 2015 and June 2017. Results from this analysis indicate that the greatest information provided by TuneMe was on sexual and reproductive health and HIV, followed by relationships, sexual rights, and citizenship. There was substantially less information that focused specifically on matters of pleasure, violence, diversity, and gender. Content was situated within relatable and culturally-relevant contexts, but gave mixed, and often problematic, depictions of gender norms. This assessment is central to understanding current and future mobile-based sexuality education programming.


Fitting model parameters to a set of noisy data points is a common problem in computer vision. In this work, we fit the 6D camera pose to a set of noisy correspondences between the 2D input image and a known 3D environment. We estimate these correspondences from the image using a neural network. Since the correspondences often contain outliers, we utilize a robust estimator such as Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) or Differentiable RANSAC (DSAC) to fit the pose parameters. When the problem domain, e.g. the space of all 2D-3D correspondences, is large or ambiguous, a single network does not cover the domain well. Mixture of Experts (MoE) is a popular strategy to divide a problem domain among an ensemble of specialized networks, so called experts, where a gating network decides which expert is responsible for a given input. In this work, we introduce Expert Sample Consensus (ESAC), which integrates DSAC in a MoE. Our main technical contribution is an efficient method to train ESAC jointly and end-to-end. We demonstrate experimentally that ESAC handles two real-world problems better than competing methods, i.e. scalability and ambiguity. We apply ESAC to fitting simple geometric models to synthetic images, and to camera re-localization for difficult, real datasets.


Graph theory abounds with applications inside mathematics itself, and in computer science, and engineering. One direction of research within graph theory is the topic of infinite graphs, which is the focus of this thesis. We review results on existentially closed (or e.c.) graphs and directed graphs. Properties of e.c. graphs, including isomorphism results, universality, and connections with probability are discussed. We develop new results in infinite random directed graphs. We first give the definition of two types of directed graphs used in our thesis. We define directed e.c of two types I and II. We explore the properties of such graphs. We review the LARG model for random geometric graphs, and the definition of δ-g.e.c. We recall the infinite random one-dimensional random geometric graph and summarize its properties. We then extend our study to directed g.e.c. graphs. We first define δ-d.g.e.c. graphs of types I and II. We define directed random graphs with probabilities for an edge of either directions between two vertices. We find that with probability 1, directed random graphs are of directed e.c. of type I or type II. Then we define the directed LARG graphs, the DLARG model. We show that DLARG graphs are linked to directed random graphs of the same threshold. The final topic focuses on directed geometric e.c. graphs with asymmetric thresholds of influence. We characterize when such graphs are isomorphic, and study the ratio of the radii of intervals and connect this with limits of the graph distance.


The amalgamation operation is frequently used to reduce the number of parts of compositional data but it is a non-linear operation in the simplex with the usual geometry,
the Aitchison geometry. The concept of balances between groups, a particular coordinate system designed over binary partitions of the parts, could be an alternative to the
amalgamation in some cases. In this work we discuss the proper application of both
concepts using a real data set corresponding to behavioral measures of pregnant sows


At the present time Port Davey supplies Hobart Town
with the great bulk of the timber known as "Huon Pine"
[Dacrydium franklinii], and has done so for several years
back. That port may indeed be said to be the chief seat of
the pine-getting industry in Tasmania, Macquarie Harbour
being deserted, and the Pieman, Picton, and Craycroft, worked
to a very limited extent, if at all. The pines obtained on the
Forth and Dove Rivers are, I believe, of a different species
[Athrotaxis selaginoides] called "pencil pine," or "King
William Pine."


Content-based retrieval from image databases attracts increasing interest the last few years. On the other hand several recent works on face detection based on the chrominance components of the color space have been presented in the literature showing promising results. In this work we combine color segmentation techniques and color based face detection in an efficient way for the purpose of facial image retrieving. In particular, images stored in a multimedia database are analyzed using the M-RSST segmentation algorithm and segment features including average color components, size, location, shape and texture are extracted for several image resolutions. An adaptive two-dimensional Gaussian density function is then employed for modeling skin-tone chrominance color component distribution and detecting image segments that probably correspond to human faces. This information is combined with object shape characteristics so that robust face detection is achieved. Based on the above, a query by example framework is proposed, supporting a highly interactive, configurable and flexible content-based retrieval system for human faces. Experimental results have shown that the proposed implementation combines efficiency, robustness and speed, and could be extended to generic visual information retrieval or video databases.


The exponential increase in the number of students from non-European Union countries coming to study in the United Kingdom, relative to those from the European Union, is attributable to a number of factors, one of which may be potential insecurities surrounding any final impact of Brexit. Nigerian students are now occupying a large percentage of those places previously occupied by students from the European Union. This research methods case study will provide an insight into a research project undertaken as part of a doctoral project. It was designed to investigate the concept of internationalisation of the curriculum in relation to the capacity that international (Nigerian) students have to adapt and transition into UK Higher Education systems. Qualitative research data were collected using the LEGO® Serious Play® method to facilitate meaning-making, via personal storytelling and metaphor construction. This was undertaken by building three-dimensional models and systematic analysis of the stories culminating as a result. This enabled the early identification and organisation of themes to inform findings and their subsequent discussion. The participant group was composed of international nursing students of Nigerian origin. Quirkos, a commercial software package was used to analyse the collected data and to identify not just the most common but also the most salient themes from the findings of the study. It is important to consider the contextual backdrop to this study. The known factors impeding on the capacity of students to learn in the United Kingdom are the pragmatic issues of moving from Nigeria to new and unfamiliar higher education institutions in the United Kingdom, lack of university support services, difference in culture, and for women particularly, issues of self-esteem, the use of digital learning technology, and their extant family responsibilities and commitments. This case study provides an insight into how these issues were further explored, alongside pragmatic curricula issues.


The effectiveness of electrolyzed (EO) water at killing Enterobacter aerogenes and Staphylococcus aureus in pure culture was evaluated. One milliliter (approximately 10(9) CFU/ml) of each bacterium was subjected to 9 ml of EO water or control water (EO water containing 10% neutralizing buffer) at room temperature for 30 s. Inactivation (reduction of > 9 log10 CFU/ ml) of both pathogens occurred within 30 s after exposure to EO water containing approximately 25 or 50 mg of residual chlorine per liter. The effectiveness of EO water in reducing E. aerogenes and S. aureus on different surfaces (glass, stainless steel, glazed ceramic tile, unglazed ceramic tile, and vitreous china) was also evaluated. After immersion of the tested surfaces in EO water for 5 min without agitation, populations of E. aerogenes and S. aureus were reduced by 2.2 to 2.4 log10 CFU/ cm2 and by 1.7 to 1.9 log10 CFU/cm2, respectively, whereas washing with control water resulted in a reduction of only 0.1 to 0.3 log10 CFU/cm2. The washing of tested surfaces in EO water with agitation (50 rpm) reduced populations of viable cells on the tested surfaces to < 1 CFU/cm2. For the control water treatment with agitation, the surviving numbers of both strains on the tested surfaces were approximately 3 log10 CFU/cm2. No viable cells of either strain were observed in the EO water after treatment, regardless of agitation. However, large populations of both pathogens were recovered from control wash solution after treatment.


The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photons offers a suitable support to carry the quantum data of multiple users. We present two optical setups that send the information of $n$ quantum communication parties through the same free-space optical link. Those qubits can be sent simultaneously and share path, wavelength, and polarization without interference, increasing the communication capacity of the system. The first solution, a qubit combiner, merges $n$ channels into the same link, which transmits $n$ independent photons. The second solution, the OAM multiplexer, uses controlled-not ($\mathrm{CNOT}$) gates to transfer the information of $n$ optical channels to a single photon. Additional applications of the multiplexer circuits, such as quantum arithmetic, as well as connections to OAM sorting are discussed.


I review research relevant to predicting how the behavior of various participants in the financial-reporting process is affected by principles-based and rules-based standards. I discuss standards in terms of being more or less rules-based, acknowledging that less rules-based standards must rely more on principles to guide behavior. I argue that adding rules affects the precision and complexity of an accounting standard. I review the incremental effects of rule precision and complexity on performance with respect to two important functions of financial-accounting standards: communication and constraint, with communication referring to the role standards play in conveying GAAP to practitioners, and constraint referring to the role of standards in discouraging biased communication. I review research from financial accounting, auditing, and tax, and I focus on evidence provided by experimental and survey studies. Regarding communication, the literature suggests that bright-line thresholds can be used in some circumstances to communicate accurately. However, the more general way to increase the precision with which a standard communicates is to increase the amount of specified decision process, detailed implementation guidance, examples, precedents and other rules that are in the standard, which also increases the complexity of the standard. Thus, standard setters face a tradeoff between including too few rules and creating a standard that communicates too vaguely and is interpreted inconsistently, versus including too many rules and creating a standard that becomes so complex that parts of it are applied incorrectly or missed entirely. Regarding constraint, the literature indicates that, regardless of the precision of standards, practitioners consciously or unconsciously make financial reports that are consistent with their incentives. Precise standards appear to help auditors discourage aggressive reporting when opportunities for transaction structuring are not available and/or clients are unaware of precise rules. However, incentive-consistent reporting choices often can be justified with respect to precise standards via transaction structuring or by aggressive interpretation of the evidence that is evaluated and compared to standards' requirements. And, if standards are imprecise, incentive-consistent reporting choices can be justified via aggressive interpretation of standards. Thus, incentive effects should be viewed as pervasive. If standard-setters and/or regulators desire accurate or conservative reporting, they are most likely to achieve it by combining (1) standards that are imprecise enough to avoid precise safe harbors, thereby allowing incentive-consistent interpretation to take place, and (2) vigorous enforcement activity that tilts the balance of incentives away from aggressive reporting and towards accurate or conservative reporting. Communication and constraint may operate at cross purposes under some circumstances, since the detail necessary to communicate accurately can also create opportunities for transaction structuring. In these cases, transaction structuring could be discouraged by basing guidance more on examples than bright lines, and by including "substance over form" provisions that are enforced when transactions are structured in a manner that is inconsistent with economic substance. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of changes in standards that are currently occurring or contemplated and that are consistent with the implications of existing research.


The solubility and mobility of actinides, such as plutonium, are highly-dependent on their oxidation state, with the penta- and hexavalent species forming soluble actinyl ions (for example, PuO2+/2+). While significant data exist on the equilibrium thermodynamics of these species, the kinetic datasets for actinide reactions are less robust. To understand these reactions in greater detail, this study assesses the degree to which different sub-steps affect the overall rate of an aqueous reaction. In this approach, reactions are broken into three steps: (1) the diffusion of reactants toward each other in solution to form an outer-sphere complex, (2) the transition from outer- to inner-sphere complex, and (3) the transfer of an electron. We address encounter frequency using collision theory and the last two steps using quantum-mechanical modeling to analyze the energy, as well as atomic charges and spins, as a function of distance between the two reactants. This approach is applied to the reactions of PuO22+ and PuO2+ hydrolysis species with Fe2+, Fe3+, and hydroxyl radical (•OH) at high pH. Regardless of the hydration treatment scheme or spin configuration (explicit vs. explicit with an implicit continuum model; ferromagnetic vs. antiferromagnetic), once species are within distances of 7.3 to 11.0 Å, the formation of an outer-sphere complex is found to be energetically favorable. This process proceeds rapidly even at low, environmentally-relevant plutonyl concentrations. The half-life of plutonyl in the bulk solution (that is, that which has not yet formed an outer-sphere complex) is found to be <2 min even with initial concentrations as low as the pM range, increasing rapidly if concentrations are more elevated. A program was developed in this study to determine the concentrations of different species over time based on the activation energies and rate constants derived from quantum-mechanical energy curves. Results from this program indicate that the outer-sphere configuration(s) are consumed over similar time scales as those of outer-sphere complex formation due to collision and then convert quickly to thermodynamically-favorable inner-sphere complexes. From the quantum-mechanical calculations, changes in system energy versus reactant distance reveal the transition from outer- to inner-sphere complex, along with specific changes to the physical and electronic structure. The energy gain associated with hydrogen bonding between the first hydration spheres drives the reaction to form progressively interconnected complexes. In the models with Fe2+, charge and spin analysis confirms the formation of the inner-sphere complex is coincident with the reduction of Pu5+ and Pu6+. Since there is no change in angular (spin) momentum of the overall system when the spins of Fe and plutonyl assume opposite directions (antiferromagnetic case) during this redox process, such a spin configuration is more likely to further electron transfer. Overall, the derived kinetics of the conversion between different complex configurations indicate that collision and outer-to-inner sphere conversion of these reactions proceed quickly and are likely not rate-limiting for these systems. This methodology can provide insight into rate-limiting sub-processes and allow us to explore the redox behavior of Pu and other metals in greater detail. The computational scheme can now be reasonably extended to determine the kinetics of complex formation at mineral-solution interfaces and also combined with Marcus theory calculations to determine explicit electron transfer rates for complex-dependent redox processes.


There are currently five generations: veterans (born 1922–1945), baby boomers (born 1946–1963), generation X (born 1964–1979), generation Y (born 1980–1995) and generation Z (born after 1995). Each person adopts a specific attitude to experiencing the passing of time, i.e., a time perspective. In addition, each person adopts a specific attitude to experiencing the passing time, i.e., a temporal orientation. This study investigates whether members of different generations differ in of terms of their preferred time perspective. The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory was used in the study. A total of 435 people were surveyed, out of which 215 (49.4%) were women and 220 (50.6%) men. The subjects were aged 16–81, and the average age for the whole group was M = 45.04, SD = 19.20. The conducted analyses revealed the occurrence of statistically significant differences between generations X, Y, Z and between veterans and baby boomers. In the groups of veterans and baby boomers, the highest intensity was demonstrated for the past positive perspective. Among members of generations X and Y, future perspective was the most preferred one. In generation Z, the hedonistic present and the positive past are the most strongly preferred time perspective. The obtained results can be used in the work with individual generations in order to develop more adaptive profiles of time perspective. This applies in particular to generation Z, which seems to represent the least functional time perspective.


Abstract The term "unpaid market labor" refers to the direct contributions of unpaid family members to market work that officially belongs to another member of the household. Thus one individual may be construed legally as an owner or entrepreneur, but relatives may help out informally with business operations. Likewise, in corporate or public-service settings, certain employees rely on the unpaid help of an executive spouse or political wife. This paper argues that unpaid market labor is conceptually distinct from both paid work and unpaid domestic labor. Legal cases from Canada are used to illustrate the policy implications of this insight and how dichotomous thinking about the market and the family obscures this kind of work. The article discusses insights and challenges for feminist political economy in theorizing unpaid market labor.


Cataract formation represents a serious problem in the elderly and has a large impact on healthcare budget. Aging and cataract formation are relatively complex phenomena, both in vivo and in vitro. Telomeres are special structures at the end of chromosomes. They shorten during each round of replication, and this has been characterized as a mitotic counting mechanism. Our review analysis in this work shows that the rate of telomere shortening in human lens epithelial cells during aging and cataract formation is modulated by oxidative stress as well as by differences in antioxidative defense capacity of the normal and cataractous crystalline lenses. Presented in this review studies suggest that telomere shortening in human lens cells and increased oxidative stress are the result of the peroxidative damage to the lens cell membranes and biomolecules induced in the lack of reductive detoxification of phospholipid hydroperoxides as the triggering mechanism of cataractogenesis. Lipid peroxidation (LPO) is a causative factor of cataract. The increased concentrations of primary molecular LPO products (diene conjugates, lipid hydroperoxides) and end fluorescent LPO products were detected in the lipid moieties of the aqueous humor samples obtained from patients with senile and complicated cataracts when compared to normal donors. The progressive accumulation of oxidative damage may act as an important mechanism for organism aging and cataractogenesis. The oxidative stress form and intensity might determine the lens senescence rate and cataract type, making efforts in the cataract prevention challenge more complex. The analyzed challenge in this work is that the reduction in telomere shortening rate and damages in telomeric DNA make an important contribution to the anticataract and life‐extension effect of carnosine administered systemically in the formulations stabilizing a dipeptide from the enzymatic hydrolysis with carnosinase, or topically administered to the eye with carnosine ophthalmic prodrug N‐acetylcarnosine and lubricant formulations thereof including corneal absorption promoters. Telomere length in the human crystalline lens cells is a reflection of aging, cataractogenesis, and lifespan in biogerontological studies.


The Agricultural Trade Policy Simulation Model (ATPSM) is designed of detailed analysis of agricultural trade policy issues. It can be used as a tool by researchers and negotiators alike for quantifying the economic effects at the global and regional level of recent changes in national trade policies. ATPSM is a deterministic, partial equilibrium, comparative static model covering 161 countries and 35 agricultural commodities. Features of the model include the extensive database, the distinction between bound and applied tariffs, and quota rents. Rents associated with two-tier tariff rate quotas are explicitly modelled within ATPSM. The model solution gives estimates of the changes in trade volumes, prices, government revenues and welfare indicators associated with changes in the trade policy environment. The model is distributed for free from UNCTAD's website. Instructions in the use of ATPSM are contained in this report. No prior knowledge of modelling or programming is required to install and run the model. The instructions cover use of the interface to set up scenarios and report the results, the model structure and the data.


This review summarizes linear spatiotemporal signal analysis methods that derive their power from careful consideration of spatial and temporal features of skull surface potentials. BCIs offer tremendous potential for improving the quality of life for those with severe neurological disabilities. At the same time, it is now possible to use noninvasive systems to improve performance for time-demanding tasks. Signal processing and machine learning are playing a fundamental role in enabling applications of BCI and in many respects, advances in signal processing and computation have helped to lead the way to real utility of noninvasive BCI.


Self-tracking is an increasingly ubiquitous everyday activity and therefore is becoming implicated in the ways that everyday environments are experienced and configured. In this article, we examine theoretically and ethnographically how the digital materiality of these technologies mediates and participates in the constitution of people's tacit ways of being in the world. We argue that accounting for the presence of such technologies as part of everyday environments in this way offers new insights for non-representational accounts of everyday life as developed in geography and anthropology and advances existing understandings of these technologies as it has emerged in sociology and media studies.


This paper presents a genre-based, generalized threat taxonomy for cloud computing. Cloud computing provides numerous possibilities and challenges but the nature of cloud computing exposes the resources of a cloud architecture to a wide range of threats. Presently, many potential threats, represented as security concerns, are known in a general sense but they are not classified specifically in relation to cloud services delivery. Therefore security concerns need identification and assessment and presented in a consistent and hierarchical form. We posit that to approach the issue in this way allows for more effective enforcement and therefore better resilience in a cloud architecture. We further posit that failure to effectively identify threats will lead to lower levels of trust, effectiveness and performance. The generalized threat taxonomy provides researchers with a framework through which risk factors and threats may be identified; and related against an overall picture of threat patterns.


The influence of physiological state on the behavior of released laboratory-cultured Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) flies was evaluated after their arrival on four commonly-used odor-baited traps hung in a potted host tree in a field cage. Three-day-old and 12-day-old protein-deprived females and males were significantly more inclined than 3-day-old and 12-day-old protein-fed females and males to enter protein-odor-baited McPhail and Heath-Epsky traps. There was little or no influence of physiological state on propensity of flies to enter trimedlure-baited Jackson or Nadel-Harris traps. Across all physiological states combined, 74, 64, 0 and 0% of arriving females entered McPhail, Heath-Epsky, Jackson and Nadel-Harris traps, respectively. Corresponding values for arriving males were 60, 59, 86 and 82%. We suggest that future research on protein-odor-baited traps should be aimed at enticing a greater proportion of alighting C. capitata flies to enter the trap.


Information Technology (IT) created a revolution in data collection and analysis at first in business and industry and later in schools throughout the world and in Israel. This work analyzes the implications of using IT in II Israeli schools and the external authorities that supervise them. The data was collected using: 1. A questionnaire distributed to a population of principals, subject coordinators, teachers and external authority staff (N=252)5 2. A case study on semi-structured interviews in four schools and local councils (18 interviews). Supervision, the electronic dialogue, independence and autonomy, the involvement and intrusion of outside factors and teachers' class management were the areas examined. The findings show that teachers are not full partners in Information Technology in educational Management (ITEM) but only participate in collecting data. ITEM creates transparency for the work done in schools, especially its products, and leads to two seemingly contradictory tendencies. the increase of both supervision and independencewhich grow together and even complement each other. The division according to roles influences the respondents' attitudes with principals and external authorities tending to agree more than teachers about ITEM's influence over increased teacher supervision, the creation of a new communication an increase in school independence and more teacher cooperation in analyzing examinations and tracking achievement. In parallel, authorities have penetrated deeper into class management using statistical analysis of exam results and achievements. Males and females relate differently to ITEM with males tending more to agree with the attitudes of principals and external authorities and females being more hesitant and agreeing less. Most participants agree that ITEM (MANBAS) contributes to an improvement in the collection and analysis of data on pupil achievement, improves pedagogical decision making and significantly helps to improve the coordination of different school departments while acting as a readily available up-to-date tool. Some of the expectations the literature had about ITEM have not yet been realized in Israeli schools.


The concept of using peptidic bifunctional molecules to allow recruitment of ubiquitin E3 ligases to induce the degradation of specific intracellular proteins was first demonstrated in 2001 but, following the extension of this approach to non-peptidic agents, its utility has been greatly expanded. As the number of E3 ligases amenable to recruitment also continues to grow, induced protein degradation now represents a new pharmacological strategy for highly efficient chemical protein knockdown with utility both as a chemical biology tool and also potentially as a clinically-useful therapeutic modality. We survey some of the recent advances in the design of small molecule chemical inducers of protein degradation and the potential challenges that will need to be overcome in order to allow clinical evaluation.


Disposal of high-level nuclear waste in geologic formations requires characterizing the hydrogeologic conditions at the potential site. This involves extensive data interpretation from laboratory and field experiments which are being performed on different scales. Two-phase flow processes are relevant if the potential site is located in the unsaturated zone, but they are also studied for repositories beneath the water table if the waste packages generate significant amounts of free gas. Numerical models are used for predicting the system behavior under different hydrologic and thermal loads. Parameters appearing in the governing equations are usually difficult to measure and subject to systematic errors. The strategy chosen to obtain modelrelated formation parameters is to calibrate the numerical model using observations of the system response. The practical relevance of parameter estimation for site characterization and design of field and laboratory experiments motivated the development. The purpose of this paper is to present the concept of parameter estimation, and to demonstrate the use of the proposed method for the interpretation of hydraulic tests conducted under two-phase flow conditions.


The increasing depth, distance from surface connections and falling quality of coal mined are factors that increase the risk of spontaneous combustion in working areas. The trend towards high capital investment, high output faces significantly raises the economic consequences of spontaneous combustion. Much work has been directed towards methods of identifying the liability of a coal to spontaneously combust under given conditions. The cost of prevention and combat of spontaneous combustion underground is high, however this work is carried out with little knowledge of the likely location of a heating in a coalface waste. This thesis investigates the airflow patterns in a coalface waste, with a view towards improving the use of prevention and combat methods.

The factors that affect the liability of a coal to spontaneously combust, and the methods of prevention and combat are discussed to provide a background to the subject area.

 An investigation into the flow of nitrogen that was injected from one hole into a coalface waste as a combat measure was conducted. The results of this showed how the amount of nitrogen entering the waste depended on the rise and fall of the atmospheric pressure.

An attempt was made to develop a method of sampling gas from deep within the coalface waste. It proved impossible to sample further than 15m behind the face line. The results from this exercise are presented.

The finite element method was used to model the pressure distribution in the waste under differing boundary pressure and waste permeability conditions. A suggested area at risk from spontaneous combustion is presented.


Abstract. The pan-European capacity for the Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting (MyOcean) Marine Core Service, implementing the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) objectives, targets the provision of ocean state observations from various platforms and analysis and forecasting products to assist, among other downscaling activities, the needs of the operational response to marine safety, particularly concerning oil spills. The MEDSLIK oil spill and trajectory prediction system makes use of the MyOcean regional and Cyprus Coastal Ocean Forecasting and Observing System (CYCOFOS) downscaled forecasting products for operational application in the Mediterranean and pre-operational use in the Black Sea. Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) satellite remote sensing images from the European Space Agency (ESA) and European Maritime Safety Agency CleanSeaNet (EMSA-CSN) provide the means for routine monitoring of the southern European seas for the detection of illegal oil discharges. MEDSLIK offers various ways, to be described in this paper, of coupling the MyOcean forecasting data with ASAR images to provide both forecasts and hindcasts for such remotely observed oil slicks. The main concern will be the drift of the oil slick and also, in the case of the forecast mode, its diffusive spreading, although some attempt is also made to estimate the changes in the state of the oil. The successful link of the satellite-detected oil slicks with their operational predictions using the MyOcean products contributes to the operational response chain and the strengthening of maritime safety for accidental or illegal spills, in implementation of the Mediterranean Decision Support System for Marine Safety (MEDESS-4MS) regarding oil spills.


Background: The neurocutaneous syndromes are a group of diseases where characteristic skin lesions are seen in association with abnormalities of the central nervous system, and by consequence are at risk of developing epilepsy and other comorbidities. Objectives: The objective of this study is to study clinical presentations and diagnoses among Sudanese children with neurocutaneous syndrome, attending outpatient clinic of Soba University Hospital, 2015. Patients and Methods: This is a cross-sectional hospital-based study. Fifty children with neurocutaneous syndrome were included in the study aged between 6 months to 15 years attending the hospital from April 2014 to April 2015. The data was collected by designed data collection sheet and detailed skin examination was done and reviewed by dermatologist. Results: The mean age of the whole study group was 4.45 ± 1.96 years. Most of study group were in the age group between 1-5 years constituting 36% of total population of the study. Thirty-seven patients (74%) were males and 13 (26%) patients were females. About 24% of patients presented complained of skin lesions from total patients, the most common skin lesion is ash leaves. Conclusion: Neurocutaneous syndromes had multiple clinical presentations. Most of the patients with neurocutaneous disorders had convulsions, which was commonest presentation for those children; generalized convulsion was the commonest among the studied group. Tuberous sclerosis was the most frequent type of the neurocutaneous disorders in our patient clinic. Dermatological examination is important, for early detection of neurocutaneous disorders.


Businesses are under increasing pressure to improve the resource efficiency of their products and services. There is a need for practical tools that enable businesses to implement resource efficiency in their value chains. In this paper, a mixed-method approach for assessing the lifecycle-wide use of natural resources in products and services is applied in a case study on a coffee value chain of the company Mars Incorporated. Material inputs along the entire chain were assessed quantitatively using the Material Input Per unit of Service method, while a semi-quantitative Hot Spot Analysis was performed to identify environmental hot spots. This mixed-method approach has been implemented for the first time in practice to assess the value-chain-wide resource consumption and environmental impacts within a specific value chain of Mars Incorporated. The paper concludes that combining the methods provides better insights into the value chain than using just one of either of the methods alone. For the company, the approach has proven to be practicable because it identifies improvement options and their value-chain-wide resource efficiency potential.


Economic theory traditionally explains choice under risk through the preferences of the individual, yet many important economic decisions are made by groups. To increase our understanding of the implications of group decisions and enrich our theories accordingly, we need empirical and experimental evidence on groups. Although economists have conducted controlled laboratory experiments on individual choice for many decades, only recently have researchers begun to use the experimental method to study group decisions under risk. This thesis contributes to the study of group decision making under risk by providing a cross-disciplinary review of the growing literature on this topic, followed by three experiments on risk-taking by groups. The first experiment investigates the role of communication and peer effects, the second experiment investigates group composition, and the final experiment focuses on information sharing in groups.


A learning procedure takes as input a dataset and performs inference for the parameters $\theta$ of a model that is assumed to have given rise to the dataset. Here we consider learning procedures whose output is a probability distribution, representing uncertainty about $\theta$ after seeing the dataset. Bayesian inference is a prime example of such a procedure, but one can also construct other learning procedures that return distributional output. This paper studies conditions for a learning procedure to be considered calibrated, in the sense that the true data-generating parameters are plausible as samples from its distributional output. A learning procedure whose inferences and predictions are systematically over- or under-confident will fail to be calibrated. On the other hand, a learning procedure that is calibrated need not be statistically efficient. A hypothesis-testing framework is developed in order to assess, using simulation, whether a learning procedure is calibrated. Several vignettes are presented to illustrate different aspects of the framework.


Abstract This paper aims to better understand the role of emotions in academia, and their part in producing, and challenging, an increasingly normalised neoliberal academy. It unfolds from two narratives that foreground emotions in and across academic spaces and practices, to critically explore how knowledges and positions are constructed and circulated. It then moves to consider these issues through the lens of care as a political stance towards being and becoming academics in neoliberal times. Our aim is to contribute to the burgeoning literature on emotional geographies, explicitly bringing this work into conversation with resurgent debates surrounding an ethic of care, as part of a politic of critiquing individualism and managerialism in (and beyond) the academy. We consider the ways in which neoliberal university structures circulate particular affects, prompting emotions such as desire and anxiety, and the internalisation of competition and audit as embodied scholars. Our narratives exemplify how attendant emotions and affect can reverberate and be further reproduced through university cultures, and diffuse across personal and professional lives. We argue that emotions in academia matter, mutually co-producing everyday social relations and practices at and across all levels. We are interested in their political implications, and how neoliberal norms can be shifted through practices of caring-with.


Theoretical calculations were made to determine the influence of side specific 'melting' and 'stabilizing' proteins on the thermal stability of nearby base pairs (bp). A DNA sequence 999bp. long containing the 123 bp. lactose operon control region in the center was examined. Melting curves of base pairs near the binding sites of the catabolite activator protein, CAP, the lactose repressor, and RNA polymerase were calculated in the absence and presence of each protein. The empirical loop entropy model of the helix-coil transition of DNA was employed. Calculations show that melting and stabilizing proteins alter the tm of base pairs 20 to 100 bp-away. The magnitude and range of the effect is strongly influenced by the base pair composition and sequence of the protein site and the immediately adjacent DNA regions.


Business strategy and compensation strategy are commonly recognized as important strategic issues in an organization over the past decades. Collectively, they play a crucial role in determining organization's performance and economic success, hence the correlation and interaction between the two is gaining more attention among companies and researchers. Literature states that an optimal alignment between business strategy and compensation strategy facilitates organization to secure its competitive advantages in specific market place. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the alignment of business strategy and compensation strategy. For this reason, a qualitative case study was conducted in a company within the service industry, operating in the Nordic market. This was supported by existing literature that was studied to gain comprehensive knowledge of the researched topics and their current stage. The empirical data was collected by interviewing three managers, as well as three employees, in order to obtain triangulated and deep insight. The results showed that the organisation has adapted a cost leadership business strategy and the pay structure is largely dictated by the union. Due to this, the competitiveness of monetary compensation is limited, hence in order to retain talent and motivate employees, the company has established an extensive intangible compensation strategy. The professionality and quality of service is assured and in line with the strategy when it is facilitated by management transparency, team spirit, and positive or constructive feedback. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrated that the link between business strategy and compensation strategy in the case is stewardship theory, and the empowerment of employees is enabled in order to foster commitment and engagement.


Transparency scores in Uruguay have improved in the last fifteen years in both absolute and comparative terms. This paper argues that this change is the result of a long-run process of transformation in Uruguayan politics from competitive particularism to an open access regime. First, this paper briefly reviews the political and institutional changes that led governance in Uruguay to be based on universalistic norms. Next, it uses public opinion and elite survey data to provide descriptive evidence about citizen perceptions of levels of corruption. Third, the paper uses media data to explore the place that corruption held in the public agenda during the last fifteen years. Finally, using court records, it evaluates the efficacy of existing structures to punish abuses. These analyses help clarify the main features that lie behind the categorization of Uruguay as a contemporary achiever in terms of government transparency.


Objective: To determine the effect of age, sex and season on some selected hematological parameters of quarter horses (QH) from the North East of Mexico. Materials and Methods: Blood samples of 205 healthy QH were collected from January 2007 to January 2009 from the North East of Mexico and hematological parameters were determined. The values obtained were subjected to a one-way ANOVA (p<0.05) to determine the significant differences in the hematological parameters compared to variables as age, sex, and seasons of the year.Results: Statistically significant differences (mean values ± SD) were detected in different hematological parameters such as regards age, sex and season. Conclusion: The hematological parameters varied among breeds and are influenced by age, physical activity and environment, it is necessary to consider those parameters in future studies to obtain clinical diagnosis when working with this type of race. Similarly, it suggested a high number of studies on blood evaluation of QH for your specific application in health and development in these organisms.


In this project I argue for new readings of Randall Kenan's A Visitation of Spirits and "The Foundations of the Earth," Lee Smith's Saving Grace and On Agate Hill, and of Ron Rash's poetry, short fiction, and his novel Saints at the River as texts that confront religious institutions that have become distanced from this intimate sense of spirituality. They critique religious communities that use their ideology to control sexuality, women, and nature. Of these three authors, Randall Kenan is the most harshly critical of the religious community in his texts. Using sexuality as his primary way into this issue, he highlights the oppressive and silencing force of religion, and offers no spiritual solution to this quandary. His solution centers on a more humanist, secular form of acceptance for those on the margins, specifically those on the margins of sexuality. Lee Smith takes a more positive stance, even while critiquing the role religion plays in repressing female identity and independence. Ron Rash critiques man's manipulation of and separation from the natural world. He argues for a reconnection to the divinity of nature in which humanity has the potential to find a spiritual connection to something outside and bigger than itself.


This reference work for the corporate trust industry has been updated to reflect recent practices and processes in financial service institutions, including the emerging trends in both trustee and related agency activities and responsibilities. The book analyzes the responsibilities of the indenture trustee in connection with debt-financing instruments issued by both corporate and municipal entities, the administration of the indenture contract or other agreements under which the securities are issued, and the procedures and processes incidental to the servicing of the debt securities. This edition significantly expands the coverage of municipal bonds and trusts, collateral mortgage- and asset-backed financings, litigation and discovery, regulation, secondary market disclosure and risk management. It also includes: new topics, such as project finance, global financing, Rule 144A private placements, and regulation and legislation; a new chapter on the acquisition or divestiture of a corporate trust business; discussion of management, including planning, training and development, performance and evaluation; the complete text of the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, as amended; useful forms and sample documents; and an extensive glossary of securities industry terms. The book is required reading for the Institute of Certified Bankers Corporate Trust Certification examination and should be useful to bankers, attorneys, underwriters, finance officers, staff members of government regulatory agencies and securities industry participants.


An alarming number of injuries and drowning events occur at lifeguarded swimming pools. One strategy used in the aquatics industry to improve swimming safety is simulated drowning lifeguard audits. During audits, supervisors arrive unannounced and ask on-duty lifeguard(s) to rescue a dummy. This study tested whether audits effectively improve lifeguard surveillance and reduce swimmer risktaking behaviors. A pre-post design examined lifeguard surveillance and swimmer risk-taking prior to, three days after, and a month after conducting unannounced lifeguard audits at 14 public swimming pools. Lifeguard surveillance and swimmer risk-taking were assessed via behavioral observation. Following the audits, lifeguards were less distracted and swimmers took fewer risks. Simulated drowning lifeguard audits appear to offer a useful strategy to improve lifeguard surveillance and decrease swimmer risk-taking at public swimming pools.


Ballistic push-up (BPU) assessments are commonly used to evaluate athletic ability in young adults. It has been hypothesized that the peak ground reaction force (GRF) produced during a BPU may be an important predictor of upper-body strength and explosive performance capacities. However, limited data exist regarding the reliability of BPU GRF and how it relates to peak force values during a countermovement vertical jump (CMJ) test. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of BPU GRF and its relationship with vertical jump GRF values. METHODS: Seventeen young, healthy females (age = 22 ± 3 years; mass = 61 ± 8 kg; height = 163 ± 7 cm) volunteered for this study. Participants visited the laboratory 2 times, separated by 2-7 days at approximately the same time of day (±2 hours). During each visit, participants performed 3 CMJs followed by 3 BPU assessments using a portable force plate. For the CMJs, participants were instructed to jump up as high as possible and explode off the force plate with maximal effort. For each BPU, participants adopted a prone position with hands positioned shoulder-width apart on the force plate. A wooden box of equal height to the force plate supported the participants' knees. Participants descended from the "up" position by flexing their elbows until they were at an angle of 90°. After reaching this position, participants performed an explosive pushup action to full arm extension with their hands leaving the force plate. Peak GRF was determined during the CMJ and BPU assessments as the highest value from the force-time curve. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and standard error of measurement expressed as a percentage of the mean (SEM%) were calculated across visits to assess the reliability for BPU and CMJ peak GRF. The relationship between BPU and CMJ peak GRF values was determined by a Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r). RESULTS: Means ± SDs (averaged across both visits) were 266.89 ± 49.36 and 1325.78 ± 215.20 N, ICCs were 0.91 and 0.93, and SEM% values were 5.78 and 4.20% for the BPU and CMJ peak GRF data, respectively. A significant positive relationship was observed between BPU and CMJ peak GRF values (r = 0.832, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrated that BPU and CMJ peak GRFs may be reliable measures for assessing dynamic upperand lower-body force production in young, healthy adults. The significant relationship observed between the two tests indicated that those who produced greater forces in the BPU also produced greater forces in the CMJ. Therefore, in addition to upper-body performance, BPU GRF measurements may also be used to predict lower-body explosive performance capacities as assessed during a vertical jump test.


Ovarian cancer is a really nasty disease. Although, like most cancers, it is curable if caught early enough, in practice it is not usually diagnosed until it is too late for curative treatment. It initially responds well to treatment and patients can go into remission for months or even years, but it usually returns and ultimately proves fatal. In this article, I describe a project I have been working on designing clinical trials with a high-tech immunological product, Cvac™, which uses modified autologous dendritic cells to prime the patient's immune system to attack ovarian cancer cells. We hope that Cvac™ will prolong the period of time in which women can remain in remission from ovarian cancer, but we will have to wait for the results of the clinical trials to know whether it does.


This study investigates the dynamics of quarterly real GDP per capita growth rates across four countries, the US, UK, Canada and France. I obtain estimates for ARIMA(p,q) processes for first differences of log quarterly real GDP per capita using Reversible Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo, allowing me to account for model uncertainty when comparing the implied impulse responses across countries. The results are checked for robustness with respect to the detrending device. The estimated impulse response functions are different in shape. The persistence estimates for the US, France, Canada and Italy are clustered together, while the UK and Japan are clear outliers. Significant posterior uncertainty remains regarding the persistence estimates and the appropriate ARMA models. The results for the UK is sensitive to the time period. An analysis of the components of GDP for the US suggests that the dynamics are mainly driven by consumption.


The main purpose of this study is to provide some empirical evidence to support the consistency measure as an essential component in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which is known to be a research method useful to both decision making and empirical research in construction information and management. The measure helps to affirm that individual decision makers capture logical and reasonable preferences when making decisions. It also supports empirical research conducted by either practitioners or academic researchers to ensure that the questionnaires are not poorly answered. Measure of the consistency level is expected to be able to detect inconsistent responses. In this study, strategies have been adopted to compare the AHP with the simple rating method to justify the criticality of consistency using data from a study of construction supply chain information. Three groups of responses (overall, consistent and inconsistent) based on the consistency measure were compared. Results indicate that responses to the AHP method having acceptable consistency (the consistent group) were shown to be consistent with the responses from the simple rating method. This supports that the consistent responses are reliable. Suggestions are given to improve the undertaking of AHP research.


OBJECTIVE
To study the visual acuity and astigmatism of persons undergoing cataract extraction by local surgeons in rural China.

METHODS
Visual acuity, keratometry, and refraction were measured 10 to 14 months postoperatively for all cataract cases during 4 months in Sanrao, China.

RESULTS
Among 313 eligible subjects, 242 (77%) could be contacted, of whom 176 (73%) were examined. Of those who were examined, mean +/- SD age was 69.3 +/- 10.5 years, 66.5% were female, 35 had been operated on bilaterally at Sanrao, and 85.2% had a preoperative presenting visual acuity of 6/60 or worse. Presenting and best-corrected postoperative acuity in the eye that was operated on were 6/18 or better in 83.4% and 95.7%, respectively. Among 27 fellow eyes operated on elsewhere, 40.7% had a presenting acuity of 6/18 or better and 40.7% were blind (P < .001). Mean +/- SD postoperative astigmatism did not differ between 211 eyes that were operated on (-1.13 +/- 0.84 diopters) and 109 eyes that were not (-1.13 +/- 1.17 diopters; P = .27). Presence of operative complications (8.5%) and older age were associated with worse vision; bilateral surgery was associated with better vision.

CONCLUSIONS
These results confirm the effectiveness of skill transfer in this setting, with superior outcomes to most studies in rural Asia and to eyes in this cohort operated on at other facilities.


The three essays of this dissertation look at the effect of offshoring on individual perceived fear of job loss and the role of job loss fears during wage negotiations. The first essay compares different estimation strategies for ordinally scaled response data like, e.g., survey data on individual happiness or job loss fears, in the presence of non-random unobserved heterogeneity. This is done by running Monte Carlo simulations on randomly generated artificial data with predetermined parameters. The main contribution of this essay is an evaluation of finite sample properties of the recently developed conditional logit estimators for ordered response data and their comparison with regard to consistency and efficiency. One main finding is that very simple binary recoding schemes deliver parameter estimates with very low bias and high efficiency. Furthermore, the simple linear fixed effects model provides correct coefficient ratios and leads to the same results as from the non-linear estimators. The second essay assesses the impact of offshoring and other globalisation measures on individual perceptions of job loss fears. The empirical analysis combines industry-level offshoring measures with micro-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) from 1995 to 2006. This essay is the first that estimates the impact of offshoring on individually perceived job security. Estimation results show that offshoring towards low-wage countries raises job loss fears whilst offshoring towards high-wage countries lowers them. The negative effect of offshoring is most pronounced for high-skilled workers. The third essay analyses the impact of job loss fears and offshoring on wages, both theoretically and empirically. In the theoretical model firms and workers collectively negotiate over wages in a right-to-manage setting. During wage negotiations firms can use the possibility to offshore as a threat to increase workers' job loss fears. The main contribution of this essay is the explicit description of individual job loss fears in the union members' utility function within a wage bargaining setting. The Nash solution of the wage bargaining model shows that increasing job loss fears, induced by the threat of potential offshoring, lowers the wage of domestic workers. The results of the empirical analysis match with the theoretical findings.


To uniformly determine the properties of supernova remnants (SNRs) at high energies, we have developed the first systematic survey at energies from 1 to 100 GeV using data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Based on the spatial overlap of sources detected at GeV energies with SNRs known from radio surveys, we classify 30 sources as likely GeV SNRs. We also report 14 marginal associations and 245 flux upper limits. A mock catalog in which the positions of known remnants are scrambled in Galactic longitude allows us to determine an upper limit of 22% on the number of GeV candidates falsely identified as SNRs. We have also developed a method to estimate spectral and spatial systematic errors arising from the diffuse interstellar emission model, a key component of all Galactic Fermi LAT analyses. By studying remnants uniformly in aggregate, we measure the GeV properties common to these objects and provide a crucial context for the detailed modeling of individual SNRs. Combining our GeV results with multiwavelength (MW) data, including radio, X-ray, and TeV, we demonstrate the need for improvements to previously sufficient, simple models describing the GeV and radio emission from these objects. We model the GeV and MW emission from SNRs in aggregate to constrain their maximal contribution to observed Galactic cosmic rays.


Atopic dermatitis is the most common skin disease seen during childhood. Other allergic diseases may accompany atopic dermatitis and increased IgE and peripheral blood eosinophilia are common findings. Patients with atopic dermatitis who do not respond to standard treatment measures should be reassessed for differential diagnosis. Early-onset, treatment resistant severe atopic dermatitis with recurrent infection history apart from the infections occurring due to defective skin integrity are the warning signs for an underlying primary immunodeficiency. Clinicians should always remember that atopic dermatitis may be the first finding of an underlying primer immunodeficiency in patients. The sooner the diagnosis is made, the more likely it will be to avoid complications and morbidity.


For many academics in the UK the current Research Excellence Framework (REF) has pulled the notion of impact and impactful research into focus. This paper explores the notion of high impact research and how this relates to traditional notions of research activity and quality. With a focus on the UK and how it fits into Europe it also takes a practical approach describing through case studies how academics can adopt a mixed economy of both 'pure' or Mode 1 research and knowledge transfer, knowledge exchange or engagement activities often described as Mode 2 research. The argument here is that the combination of these types of research can result in a virtuous circle of activity leading to high impact, excellent research. The paper ends with an analysis of the practical challenges and opportunities of this approach for both individual academics and also institutional units, departments or research centres.


The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, completed a hydrologic and hydraulic study to assess the potential hazard to human life and property associated with the hypothetical failure of the Lago de Matrullas Dam, located within the headwaters of the Río Grande de Manatí. The hydrologic study yielded outflow hydrographs and peak discharges for Lago de Matrullas and other subbasins in the Río Grande de Manatí hydrographic basin for three extreme rainfall events: (1) a 6-hour probable maximum precipitation (PMP) event, (2) a 24-hour PMP event, and (3) a 100-year-recurrence, 24-hour rainfall event. The hydraulic study simulated the hypothetical dam failure of Lago de Matrullas using hypothetical flood hydrographs generated from the hydrologic study and selected dam breach parameters. The flood wave resulting from the failure was downstreamrouted through the lower reaches of the Río Matrullas, the Río Toro Negro, and the Río Grande de Manatí for determination of water-surface profiles developed from the event-based hydrologic scenarios and "sunny day" (no precipitation) conditions. The Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC–HMS) and the River Analysis System (HEC–RAS) computer programs, developed by the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, were used for the hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, respectively. The flow routing in the hydraulic analyses was performed using the unsteady-state flow module available in the HEC–RAS model. At the Lago de Matrullas Dam, inflow peak discharges of about 1,104 and 1,032 cubic meters per second (m3/s) were estimated with HEC–HMS for the 6and 24-hour PMP events, respectively. The 100-year recurrence, 24-hour rainfall event simulation resulted in a peak discharge of about 418 m3/s. For the hydrologic analysis, no dam failure conditions were considered with the model. The results of the hydrologic simulations indicated, however, that the dam would be overtopped by the simulated 6and 24-hour PMP events. Unlike the 6and 24-hour PMP events, no overtopping was observed during the simulated 100-year recurrence, 24-hour rainfall event. For the dam-breach hydraulic analysis, the hypothetical failures of the Lago de Matrullas Dam included two possible failure modes: overtopping and piping. Overtopping failure was evaluated in this study for the 6and 24hour probablemaximum-precipitation breach scenarios. Piping dam failure was simulated for sunny day conditions and for the 100-yearrecurrence, 24-hour rainfall scenario. Results from the simulated dam failure of the Lago de Matrullas Dam using the HEC–RAS model for the 6and 24-hour PMP events showed peak discharges at the dam of 3,149.33 and 3,604.70 m3/s, respectively. Dam failure during the 100-year-recurrence, 24-hour rainfall event resulted in a peak discharge of 2,103.12 m3/s directly downstream from the dam. Dam failure under sunny day conditions produced a peak discharge of 1,695.91 m3/s at the dam assuming the antecedent lake level was at the morning-glory spillway invert elevation. Flood-inundation maps prepared as part of the study depict the flood extent and provide valuable information for preparing an Emergency Action Plan. Results of the failure analysis indicate that a failure of the Lago de Matrullas Dam could cause flooding to many of the inhabited areas along stream banks from the Lago de Matrullas Dam to the mouth of the Río Grande de Manatí. Among the areas most affected are the low-lying regions in the vicinity of the towns of Ciales, Manatí, and Barceloneta. The delineation of the flood boundaries near the town of Barceloneta considered the effects of a levee constructed during 2000 at Barceloneta in the flood plain of the Río Grande de Manatí to provide protection against flooding to the near-by low-lying populated areas. The results showed overtopping can be expected in the aforementioned levee during 6and 24-hour probable-maximum-precipitation dam failure scenarios. No overtopping of the levee was simulated, however, during dam failure scenarios under the 100-year recurrence, 24-hour rainfall event or sunny day conditions.


Using exogenous variation in exposure to hurricanes, this article explores how differently diversified US banks lend during the protracted recovery from a major downturn. Compared to diversified banks, local banks (i) originate a higher share of new mortgage and small business loans in affected areas, but (ii) sell a higher share of the new mortgages into the secondary market. These results suggest a pattern of specialization, whereby loans in affected areas are increasingly originated by banks with special abilities or incentives to seize opportunities in a distressed market, but increasingly transferred to agents which can better support the associated risk.


Copper oxide (CuO) was synthesized on glass substrates using hydrothermal method. Heating time and precursor concentration were found to largely affect the morphology and size of CuO microstructures formed. Material characterization was performed using X-ray Diffraction and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. FEGSEM was employed to determine the morphology of CuO structures grown on the substrates. 3D flower-like microstructures were formed from nanorods and nameplates. The asprepared CuO microstructures all showed good catalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) in presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).


When new motorized means of transport, such as buses, vans, and lorries, captured part of the transport market in Belgium in the interwar period, the rail companies engaged in a political fight to restrict the new modes of road transport. Attempts were made to introduce fiscal and administrative measures aimed at limiting road transport. This coincided with an intense debate on transport policy, both in the press and in parliament. The article focuses on the discourse driving this debate. It is argued that the positions taken were motivated by economic issues, but that there were underlying cultural motivations, different perceptions of what transport should represent in the lives of the users and the whole of society. The focus on the so-called coordination debate is widened beyond the conflict between trains and vans in the 1930s, to include the conflict between automobiles, buses, and trams in the 1920s.


T (extent of the primary tumor), N (absence or presence and extent of regional lymph node metastasis) and M (absence or presence of distant metastasis) are three components to describe the anatomical tumor extent. TNM stage is important in treatment decision-making and outcome predicting. The existing oropharyngeal Cancer (OPC) TNM stages have not made distinction of the two sub sites of Human papillomavirus positive (HPV+) and Human papillomavirus negative (HPV-) diseases. We developed novel criteria to assess performance of the TNM stage grouping schemes based on parametric modeling adjusting on important clinical factors. These criteria evaluate the TNM stage grouping scheme in five different measures: hazard consistency, hazard discrimination, explained variation, likelihood difference, and balance. The methods are described in Xu, W., et al. (2015) < https://www. austinpublishinggroup.com/biometrics/fulltext/biometrics-v2-id1014.php >. Depends R (>= 3.5.0)


Mass spectrometric observations in a very low pressure pyrolysis study (Golden et al., Int. J. Chem. Kinet., 1972, 4, 433–448) of the decomposition of the prototypical rocket fuel monomethylhydrazine (MMH) indicated a dominant role for the molecular channels producing NH3 and H2 and their coproducts. In contrast, a recent ab initio transition state theory based master equation theoretical study (Zhang et al., Proc. Combust. Inst., 2011, 33, 425–432) indicated that simple N–N and C–N bond fissions dominate the kinetics. The possible role of molecular decomposition channels in MMH is explored further through additional investigations of the potential energy surface. These investigations consider the role of triplet channels, of roaming radical channels, and of some previously unexplored pathways for molecular decomposition. New ab initio transition state theory based master equation calculations provide revised predictions for the temperature and pressure dependence of the MMH decomposition kinetics that are in excellent agreement with recent shock tube measurements (Li et al., Comb. Flame, 2014, 161, 16–22). These calculations continue to suggest only a very limited contribution from the molecular elimination channels. A roaming pathway is suggested to provide the dominant route for direct formation of ammonia. The possible role of secondary abstraction reactions in the very-low-pressure pyrolysis experiments is briefly discussed.


Unilateral coronal synostosis (UCS) produces overt craniofacial dysmorphology. UCS surgery in infancy aims to release the osseous restriction and normalize the fronto-orbital deformity. The quantitative effect of this surgery on the orbit and its contents is unknown. This study was conducted to quantify the preoperative orbital dysmorphology and its surgical outcome in patients with unilateral coronal synostosis. Twenty-eight UCS patients had preoperative three-dimensional computerized tomographic (CT) scans (at mean age 4.0 months), cranio-orbital reconstructive surgery (at 4.7 months), and postoperative scans (at 18.1 months). The CT data were analyzed using a computer workstation and AnalyzeTM biomedical imaging software. Four measurements were performed on both ipsilateral (same side as synostosis) and contralateral (opposite to synostosis) orbits of each scan: orbital index (OI, 100 × height/width of orbit), orbital cavity volume (OV), ocular globe volume (GV), and ventral globe index (VGI, 100 × globe volume ventral to the anterior surface of orbital cavity/GV). The data were analyzed for statistical significance using Student's t test. Preoperatively, the OI was significantly greater on the ipsilateral than on the contralateral side (113.7 vs. 87.3). There was a significant improvement on both sides of the orbit postoperatively, with ipsilateral 99.1 and contralateral 92.1. However, the difference between both sides remained significant. The OV was smaller in the ipsilateral orbits both pre- and postoperatively, with ipse/contralateral ratios of 95.8 and 95.2, respectively. Importantly, the GV was consistently smaller in the ipsilateral orbits preoperatively, with an ipse/contralateral ratio of 93.3. The ratio increased to 97.1 postoperatively, a statistically significant change. In the ipsilateral orbits, the preoperative VGI was significantly greater. The VGI improved postoperatively. These data indicate that UCS affects the development of the osseous orbit as well as its soft-tissue contents. After cranio-orbital surgery, there is diminution of asymmetry of both the bony orbit and its soft-tissue contents. Partial normalization of orbital dysmorphology occurred during the first postoperative year. UCS surgery in infancy does not prevent growth of orbital hard or soft tissues, and it seems to permit normalization of previously impaired growth.


Abstract The eastern Tennessee seismic zone (ETSZ) is the second‐most active seismic zone in the eastern United States, but it has not generated an earthquake larger than M w  4.8 in historic time. Earthquakes are sourced deep in autochthonous basement, and there are no known faults originating at this depth that break the surface. As a result, until recently, there has been virtually no fieldwork to identify Quaternary paleoseismic features in the ETSZ. We present new results from paleoseismic investigations of coseismic features that indicate the ETSZ generated M w ≥6 earthquakes during the late Quaternary. Detailed geologic mapping and trenching near Dandridge, Tennessee, record a northeast‐trending zone of seismically generated features. Optically stimulated luminescence ages delimit timing for the formation of paleoseismic features crosscutting Quaternary alluvium and alluvium‐filled fissures, including a thrust fault with ∼1  m displacement. Collectively, this zone of faults and fissures provides significant evidence that the ETSZ has produced at least three large earthquakes during the late Pleistocene and at least one that exceeded M w  6.


Objectives Nr5a2 participates in biliary acid metabolism and is a major regulator of the pancreatic exocrine programme. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the vicinity of NR5A2 are associated with the risk of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Aims To determine the role of Nr5a2 in pancreatic homeostasis, damage-induced regeneration and mutant KRas-driven pancreatic tumourigenesis. Design Nr5a2+/− and KRasG12V;Ptf1a-Cre;Nr5a2+/− mice were used to investigate whether a full dose of Nr5a2 is required for normal pancreas development, recovery from caerulein-induced pancreatitis, and protection from tumour development. Results Adult Nr5a2+/− mice did not display histological abnormalities in the pancreas but showed a more severe acute pancreatitis, increased acino-ductal metaplasia and impaired recovery from damage. This was accompanied by increased myeloid cell infiltration and proinflammatory cytokine gene expression, and hyperactivation of nuclear factor κb and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 signalling pathways. Induction of multiple episodes of acute pancreatitis was associated with more severe damage and delayed regeneration. Inactivation of one Nr5a2 allele selectively in pancreatic epithelial cells was sufficient to cause impaired recovery from pancreatitis. In comparison with Nr5a2+/+ mice, KRasG12V;Ptf1aCre/+;Nr5a2+/− mice showed a non-statistically significant increase in the area affected by preneoplastic lesions. However, a single episode of acute pancreatitis cooperated with loss of one Nr5a2 allele to accelerate KRasG12V-driven development of preneoplastic lesions. Conclusions A full Nr5a2 dose is required to restore pancreatic homeostasis upon damage and to suppress the KRasG12V-driven mouse pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia progression, indicating that Nr5a2 is a novel pancreatic tumour suppressor. Nr5a2 could contribute to PDAC through a role in the recovery from pancreatitis-induced damage.