Apart from the obvious and visible effects on the economy and the physical environment, tourism can contribute to social and cultural changes in host societies.
Many host communities put their hopes on tourism as an economic driver and development tool. However, it is still unclear whether tourism is more useful or harmful towards host destinations. It is obvious that international tourism would be a short pathway to make the transition from a traditional way of life to a modem form of society. Many studies show that destinations consider these changes
positively in terms of modernisation and affluence. However, the interaction between two different cultures creates change processes over time, especially in an
Eastern context where the modernisation process is Western in orientation. Prior studies on residents' attitudes and perceptions toward socio-cultural impacts of tourism identify various relationships. However, much less analysis has focused on the influence of cultural factors. Additionally, most previous studies focus on residents' attitudes and perceptions towards tourism development through quantitative surveys with cluster or factor analysis based on a limited range of predetermined attributes. Few studies explore the changes from an indigenous culture perspective. The aim of this research is to develop a better understanding of the residents of a Thai beach resort's attitudes towards tourism, in particular their perceptions of the socio-cultural impacts of tourism development and the associated behavioural changes in their society. Koh Samui was chosen for this investigation as it is a self-contained model of a beach resort development where there are sociocultural impacts.
A constructivist paradigm approach was adopted. Consideration is given in the literature review and the methodology chapters to issues related to conducting
research in the Thai context. Choosing qualitative research serves as a bridge, which can link theory, practice and deeper findings. This research employed participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The background of the local residents and local context in Koh Samui were explored as well as local residents' behaviour patterns and the interaction between them and tourists on a day to day
basis. Following a period of immersion in the community, residents' and local authorities' perceptions and attitudes toward the socio-cultural impacts of tourism development in Koh Samui were investigated through semi-structured interviews. Isan migrant workers emerged from the data analysis as a key issue due to the fact that local people believed these migrant workers were responsible for the majority of socio-cultural impacts in Koh Samui including demographic changes, rise in crime, drug abuse, prostitution and AIDS infection, demonstration effects, and
increased poverty and slums. Consequently, local people were offended by and fearful of Isan migrant workers. In addition, the analysis suggests that Isan migrant
workers had adapted to more readily to tourist culture. Acculturation and social identity theory are explored to explain this situation. Social identity suggests that
Isan migrant workers were out-group of Koh Samui as well as sense of belongingness as a self-esteem was a key answer to this adaptation in Isan migrant workers. Buddha's teaching and the Thai avoidance of confrontation are the main players in order to reflect on how Thai people cope with socio-cultural changes. The majority of local residents in Koh Samui are Buddhist and this has taught them to accept
problems and learn how to live with them. A fundamental factor is an Eastern world view. In Koh Samui, it was necessary for local people to accept tourism and cope
with socio-cultural changes in their community so as not to reject the apparent benefits of tourism. The findings illustrate many contexts in which local people are led by their cultural background to accept tourism. Following a crisis in local agriculture which was dependent on coconuts, tourism seemed to be the only way for local people to survive. It is, therefore, difficult for them to blame tourism as a cause of the main socio-cultural problems in their community. Therefore, they try to
apportion blame elsewhere, in this case on the Isan migrants. Buddhism is followed by ninety-five percent of Thai people. It is undoubted that Buddhism has a strong influence on everyday life of Thai people, their society and
culture. The implications of Thai cultural conditions and responses in the everyday life that were emerged from the analysis are discussed including Thai loose social
structure, cool heart behaviour, the concept of Choei, face-saving and avoidance of confrontation, Boonkhun relationships, Kreng-jai value, Num-jai value, and
brotherhood or helpful relationships. The importance of exploring an indigenous cultural perspective is discussed together with lessons that can be learned for tourism development and its socio-cultural impacts.


Ageing is characterized by functional changes that can create gait and balance disturbances, which are the main risk factors of falling. Elderly people at risk of falling can be considered to be suffering from an involuntary motor behaviour that restricts their participation in society. One method to overcome such a situation is to activate a new learning process to train for real life tasks, which represents innovation. The SMILING system is intended to challenge the elderly to solve new problems in real time by inducing variable environments that need active response and problem solving. Variable environments induced by perturbations will weaken stiff motor behaviour(s), induce flexibility and thus enable effective training and improve mobility in real life environments. The SMILING solution provides a changeable yet safe environment that needs active response and problem solving by the user. It consists of a wearable non-invasive computer-controlled system that applies chaotic perturbations to the lower extremities during walking through small alterations of the height and slope of weight-bearing surfaces. The complete system consists of 3 modules: i) a complete walking analysis system; ii) a pair of motorised training shoes; iii) a user friendly portable control unit.


Background Lithium treatment is associated with an increase in magnetic resonance imaging derived measures of white matter integrity, but the relationship between the spatial distribution of brain lithium and white matter integrity is unknown. Methods Euthymic patients with bipolar disorder receiving lithium treatment (n=12) and those on other medications but naïve to lithium (n=17) underwent diffusion imaging alongside matched healthy controls (n=16). Generalised fractional anisotropy (gFA) within white matter was compared between groups using a standard space white matter atlas. Lithium-treated patients also underwent novel multinuclear 3D lithium magnetic resonance imaging (7Li-MRI) to determine relative lithium concentration across the brain. The relationship between 7Li-MRI signal intensity and gFA was investigated at the resolution of the 7Li-MRI sequence in native space. Results The lithium-treated bipolar disorder and healthy control groups had higher mean gFA in white matter than the bipolar disorder group treated with other medications but naïve to lithium (t = 2.5, p < 0.05; t = 2.7, p < 0.03, respectively). No differences in gFA were found between patients taking lithium and healthy controls (t = 0.02, p = 1). These effects were seen consistently across most regions in the white matter atlas. In the lithium-treated group, a significant effect of the 7Li-MRI signal in predicting the gFA (p < 0.01) was identified in voxels containing over 50% white matter. Conclusions Lithium treatment of bipolar disorder is associated with higher gFA throughout brain white matter, and the spatial distribution of lithium is also positively associated with white matter gFA.


textabstractInvestment arbitration has come increasingly under fire because of its design flaws. There is an emerging consensus that investment treaty arbitration not only falls short of ensuring a sufficient degree of transparency of arbitral proceedings and impartiality of arbitrators, but also that its institutional architecture is unjustifiably asymmetric, entrusting foreign investors with significant rights while no protection is afforded to the host states' constituencies. In response to these criticisms, several states have attempted in recent years to reform the rules governing investor-state arbitration. A perusal of recently concluded international investment agreements, however, reveals that the reform efforts so far have focused on the first two shortcomings. Very little, instead, has been done with regard to the asymmetric character of the system. This Essay seeks to specifically address this flaw, by placing the rights of investment-affected people on par with those of investors. To do this, we seek to display the viable alternatives to the currently predominant—and flawed—model of investment dispute settlement. We start by outlining the features of the investor-state dispute settlement system that lie at the root of the system's legitimacy crisis. In particular, relying on a burgeoning body of scholarship, we expose the inadequacy of private order dispute settlement mechanisms in dealing with mainly public law disputes. Bearing this in mind, we contend that future reform efforts should reckon with the rights and interests of the individuals and groups of individuals who are likely to be affected by the investment operations. In other words, States can only remove the asymmetric character of the system by endowing this category of individuals with substantive and procedural rights. We also argue that international investment agreements should go beyond their traditional protective function by aiming to keep investors' conduct in check. We opine that such agreements should also clearly establish investors' obligations to safeguard the wide range of noninvestment interests implicated in investment operations. This Essay envisages three innovative models for the solution of investment disputes and presents a comparative analysis of alternative scenarios. The first suggests the abandonment of investment arbitration in favor of soft-law grievance mechanisms. The second envisages arbitration for both investors and investment-affected parties. The third proposal is a networked system where arbitration is coupled with grievance mechanisms for investment-affected individuals. In short, we submit that future treaties should either completely ditch the ISDS system or undertake a major overhaul of the system. Each proposal has its limits and promises. We conclude that, in spite of their limits, any of these proposals would offer a superior alternative to the dramatic deficiencies of the current system and future research should be directed to further articulate the contours of our proposals.


This paper measures the impact of increased exposure on whether learned construction grammars converge onto shared representations when trained on data from different registers. Register influences the frequency of constructions, with some structures common in formal but not informal usage. We expect that a grammar induction algorithm exposed to different registers will acquire different constructions. To what degree does increased exposure lead to the convergence of register-specific grammars? The experiments in this paper simulate language learning in 12 languages (half Germanic and half Romance) with corpora representing three registers (Twitter, Wikipedia, Web). These simulations are repeated with increasing amounts of exposure, from 100k to 2 million words, to measure the impact of exposure on the convergence of grammars. The results show that increased exposure does lead to converging grammars across all languages. In addition, a shared core of register-universal constructions remains constant across increasing amounts of exposure.


Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) facilitates the collection and sharing of geographic information developed by different organisations. As a result, SDI initiatives are occurring in different countries. Various government departments are implementing SDI in order to contribute to the achievements of its objectives. SDI assessments to evaluate the implementation thereof is also occurring from local levels to international levels. This paper establishes the availability of geographic information within the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) by describing DEA's contribution to the South African SDI objectives and by assessing DEA's SDI readiness. The qualitative method was used to collect data. The techniques used in this research were literature review, interviews, mainly in-depth interview, document and internet analysis. The results indicate that geographic information is available and the department continues to make more means to make it available. They also reveal that there are some challenges with respect to accessibility. Currently there is a process to make it even more easily accessible. The results show DEA's willingness and capacity to contribute to the South African SDI. The voluntary participation in SDI activities and the ability to obtain additional funding for geographic information is a clear indicator of DEA's willingness to contribute to SASDI's objectives. The results contribute to the body of knowledge that if an SDI is still in the early stages of development, it is challenging to make conclusions on some of the key SDI assessment indices. Future research is required once South African SDI has reached mature stages.


In the present paper, the biosorption capacity of an indigenous seaweed Enteromorpha sp. was assessed and compared for nickel(II) and cadmium(II) removal from aqueous solution. Response surface methodology based on Box–Behnken design was employed to achieve the optimum removal conditions as well as investigating the effects of some independent variables on the process performance. It was found that the maximum nickel(II) removal achieved was 87.16% under optimum conditions of pH 4.79, biomass concentration of 1,000 mg/L, contact time 70 min and temperature of 25 °C. For cadmium the optimum conditions were defined as pH 4.88, biomass concentration of 1,000 mg/L, contact time 50 min and temperature fixed at 65 °C which resulted in a maximum 75.16% removal. Equilibrium isotherm studies revealed that Freundlich and Langmuir models were more successful for describing nickel(II) and cadmium(II) biosorption data, respectively. The maximum sorption capacities of biomass, q max, for nickel(II) and cadmium(II) were predicted as 250 and 167 mg/g, respectively, by the Langmuir model. The results suggest Enteromorpha seaweed as an eco-friendly and suitable biosorbent for nickel(II) and cadmium(II) removal from aqueous solutions.


Haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) is an acute disease infecting cattle and buffaloes caused by Pasteurella multocida serotype B:2 which leads to great economic losses in countries with expanded animal industries such as Malaysia. This study was conducted to construct a mutant derived from the 921bp ABA392 virulence gene in order to make avirulent P. multocida serotype B:2, thus making this P. multocida B:2 mutant a potential candidate for a live-attenuated vaccine against HS.
The detection of a fragment which is related to P. multocida B:2 pathogenicity, the 921bp ABA392 virulence gene was carried out using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay. Two P. multocida isolates, namely PMTB and 3030, isolated from a HS outbreak were used for PCR amplification. The particular 921bp DNA fragment was found to be present in P. multocida B:2 genome as 803bp in size. Sequencing of the recombinant plasmids confirmed that the 803bp gene was 98% homologous to the reference sequence, the virulence 921bp ABA392 DNA fragment.Southern hybridization analysis revealed the 804bp of ABA392 gene was located at approximately 6kb position in the P. multocida B:2 genome. PCR performed towards the approximately 6kb DNA fragment produced an 803bp band which was confirmed to be the ABA392 virulence gene. The amplified PCR product was cloned and sequenced. Nucleotide sequences obtained were 98% identical to the reference strain, the 921bp ABA392 virulence gene. Pathogenicity test on the recombinant plasmids proved that the 804bp gene inserted within these plasmids still possessed the virulence properties of the 921bp ABA392 gene which may lead to HS disease in cattle and buffaloes.
In an attempt to produce P. multocida B:2 mutants through allelic exchange, the 804bp of ABA392 gene which was disrupted with kanamycin cassette was cloned inside suicide plasmid pAKA19 through shotgun ligation technique. The desired 7kb product was transformed into several different E. coli (TOP 10, JM109, AS11Yλ and DH5α) hosts for preservation. Verification of the 7kb ligation product with digestion by PstI, HindIII and XhoI restriction enzymes revealed the exact sizes of kanamycin cassette (1.2kb), pAKA19 (5.0kb) and the disrupted 804bp of ABA392 virulence gene (804bp). An antibiotic sensitivity test on P. multocida B:2 and the respective E. coli strains were performed in order to select the donor and recipient strains for conjugation process. This test revealed that E. coli DH5α was suitable for the donor strain since it showed low resistance to streptomycin and P. multocida B:2 as the recipient strain for its high resistance towards streptomycin. Conjugation between donor and recipient strains was then achieved by plate-mating method. About 20 single colonies of positive transconjugants were picked and subcultured on BHI blood agar containing kanamycin for 5 days to encourage loss of pAKA19 plasmid and to enhance the allelic exchange between the ABA392::KmR insert with the native ABA392 gene on the recipient chromosome. No plasmid was observed which indicated the loss of suicide plasmid. Direct colony PCR was performed to detect the changes in the ABA392 gene of the parent strain, where a 2kb band was observed signifying that allelic exchange has taken place and the organism is now a P. multocida B:2 mutants.
Parent strains of P. multocida B:2 were highly virulent and killed mice within 24 hours. Mice inoculated with P. multocida B:2 mutant survived. Direct smear from mice's heart blood inoculated with the mutant showed the existence of bipolar organism which indicated the presence of P. multocida B:2. This result firmly suggests that the mutant, named as PMTBK was greatly attenuated and is thus a potential candidate organism for a live attenuated vaccine against HS.


Endometrioid-type endometrial carcinoma (EEC) developing on the ground of endometrial hyperplasia (EH) is amongst the most commonly observed type of cancer in the world. Folate receptor α (FRα) is a vitamin molecule that has a role in cell proliferation. The fact that FRα, which is known to be needed extremely by the cells of malignancies that proliferate rapidly, is present in limited amounts in normal tissues while it is overexpressed in malignant cells of the same tissues makes folate a candidate for target molecular therapy. In our study, FRα expression in 214 cases, with 95 diagnosed within EEC and 119 with EH, was studied immunohistochemically. FRα expression in EEC was found significantly high compared to EH and normal endometrium (P<0.01). Similarly, FRα expression in EH cases with complex atypia were significantly high compared to other hyperplasia subgroups (P<0.01). The findings of our results make us think that FRα overexpression may play a role in the EEC carcinogenesis and carcinoma progression from EH. Furthermore, we suggest that it can be helpful in the treatment of EEC and/or transition from hyperplasia stage to EEC as a molecular therapy targeting receptors labeled with antibody-based props containing FRα. Finally, we suggest that FRα may be used, based on the expression intensity, as a supplemental option to determine the patients that shall be directed to radical therapy amongst patients with complex atypical EH.


This article aims at presenting a reflection on the place to be accorded to refugees in the Canadian society, while at the same time being mindful of security considerations. The fear of new terrorist attacks has prompted North American governments to look inwards and has exacerbated negative feelings towards foreigners. This feeling weighs heavily against refugees. The confusion surrounding what categories of people are trying to cross the Canadian border renders even more insecure the fate of refugees who are seeking asylum in Canada through legitimate ways. This article deals mainly with the way certain government initiatives cast a negative light on refugees. More specifically, the author questions the direction taken by the new government that came into power on 12 December 2003, including the setting up of an agency for border services similar to the US Home Security agency.


THE ROLE OF NITRIC OXIDE IN SKELETAL SIMULATED MICROGRAVITY RESPONSE by Luan H. Tran Prolonged exposure to the space environment leads to bone loss. Using a groundbased model for microgravity (hind-limb unloading), it has been shown in rodents that proliferation and differentiation activity of osteoprogenitors are decreased with exposure to simulated microgravity (Kostenuik et al., 1997). Osteoblast mineralization activity has been shown to increase with nitric oxide supplementation (Afzal et al., 2004; Koyama et al., 2000). I hypothesized that the degenerative effects of microgravity exposure result from chronic changes in nitric oxide regulation in osteoprogenitors, and that supplementation with exogenous nitric oxide following exposure would ameliorate these changes. In 20 C57Bl/6 mice, hind-limb unloading for up to 16 days resulted in degeneration of cancellous tissue in hind-limb bones and a decrease in inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene expression in both bone tissue and bone marrow cells. Ex vivo analyses of osteoprogenitor cells, however, showed no changes in differentiation potential or cell count, and supplementation with sodium nitroprusside (SNP) was not able to increase mineralization activity in hind-limb unloaded mice. It is concluded that exogenous nitric oxide supplementation is ineffective as a countermeasure to the effects of simulated microgravity exposure on bone cells.


The Hox genes are a class of putative developmental control genes that are thought to be involved in the specification of positional identity along the anteroposterior axis of the vertebrate embryo. It is apparent from their expression pattern that their regulation is dependent upon positional information. In a previous analysis of the Hox-1.1 promoter in transgenic mice, we identified sequences that were sufficient to establish transgene expression in a specific region of the embryo. The construct used, however, did not contain enough regulatory sequences to reproduce all aspects of Hox-1.1 expression. In particular, neither a posterior boundary nor a restriction of expression to prevertebrae was achieved. Here we show correct regulation by Hox-1.1 sequences in transgenic mice and identify the elements responsible for different levels of control. Concomitant with the subdivision of mesodermal cells into different lineages during gastrulation and organogenesis, Hox-1.1 expression is restricted to successively smaller sets of cells. Distinct elements are required at different stages of development to execute this developmental programme. One position-responsive element (130 bp nontranslated leader) was shown to be crucial for the restriction of expression not only along the anteroposterior axis of the embryo, setting the posterior border, but also along the dorsoventral axis of the neural tube and to the lineage giving rise to the prevertebrae. Thus, Hox-1.1 expression is established in a specific region of the embryo and in a specific lineage of the mesoderm by restricting the activity of the promoter by the combined effect of several regulatory elements.


Author(s): Rivest, Emily | Advisor(s): Hofmann, Gretchen E | Abstract: Ocean acidification (OA) and rising sea surface temperatures will likely shape the structure and function of coral reefs in the future (Fig. 1). Understanding the sensitivity of corals to ongoing shifts in pCO2 and temperature is imperative as coral are the engineers of the coral reef ecosystem. Specifically, coral larvae may be a life history stage of corals that is particularly vulnerable to environmental stress. Shifts in physiological processes in response to environmental conditions may affect the success of larval dispersal and recruitment.The aim of this dissertation was to examine the physiological plasticity of coral larvae in response to two potentially interacting anthropogenic stressors - OA and warming. Pocillopora damicornis (Linnaeus, 1758) was an excellent study organism for this research given its ubiquitous Indo-Pacific distribution, reef-building role, and long dispersal potential. To accomplish the objectives of this dissertation, I conducted laboratory experiments in which P. damicornis larvae were exposed to seawater of different pCO2 and temperature conditions. P. damicornis larvae were collected from populations in Moorea, French Polynesia and southern Taiwan. To understand the consequences of OA and warming on the physiology of P. damicornis larvae, I employed a holistic approach, examining the response of a suite of physiological processes from the levels of gene expression up to the level of the whole organism. I used metabolic rate and lipid utilization as whole-organism techniques for assessing the effects of OA and warming on larval energy consumption. Planulae released after the peak of spawning experienced metabolic suppression under high-temperature, high-pCO2 conditions. There was evidence of biochemical limits of increasing oxidative capacity to satisfy elevated energy demands under future ocean conditions. Measurements of lipid utilization suggested that the metabolic costs of tolerating OA and warming will be greatest when both environmental stressors occur simultaneously. Larvae released at the peak of spawning will experience greatest changes in lipid content in response to OA and warming, with associated changes in buoyancy that affect their dispersal potential.The organism-level studies revealed physiological plasticity within coral larval energy consumption. Biochemical and transcriptomic techniques were used to better understand the underlying mechanisms. P. damicornis larvae increased their total antioxidant potential in response to oxidative stress under exposures to high pCO2 but not elevated temperature. Furthermore, OA-induced hypercapnia caused increased acid-base regulation, observed through elevated pNPPase activity of Na+/K+-ATPase. As was observed at the whole-organism level, physiological traits varied between cohorts of larvae. Finally, comparisons of gene expression profiles revealed down-regulation of genes under single-stressor treatments but up-regulation of genes when high-pCO2 and high-temperature co-occurred.An important facet of my dissertation research was to provide environmental context for the results of my biological experiments. I deployed autonomous pH and temperature sensors on the fringing reefs where the experimental corals were collected. The time series of pH and temperature approximated the conditions of the water mass bathing the reef to which the study organisms were acclimatized and into which the larvae would have been released. These environmental data confirmed that control treatments in the laboratory experiments were within the range of conditions experienced on the reef. The elevated pCO2 treatment levels were not observed in the present-day time series. Additionally, pH and temperature regimes differed between reefs in Moorea and Taiwan. pH and temperature were on average lower in Taiwan and more variable in Moorea. Temperature was on average lower and more variable in Taiwan. These results highlight the importance of generating such an environmental context for study species. Environmental data informed metrics of biological performance of individuals at these sites as well as the potential heterogeneity of phenotypes across the biogeographic species range, products of local adaptation to regimes of pH and temperature.


Terrestrial searches for the conversion of dark matter axions or axion-like particles into photons inside magnetic fields are sensitive to the phase space structure of the local Milky Way halo. We simulate signals in a hypothetical future experiment based on the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) that could be performed once the axion has been detected and a frequency range contain- ing the axion mass has been identified. We develop a statistical analysis to extract astrophysical parameters, such as the halo velocity dispersion and laboratory velocity, from such data and find that with only a few days integration time a level of precision can be reached matching that of astro- nomical observations. For longer experiments lasting up to a year in duration we find that exploiting the modulation of the power spectrum in time allows accurate measurements of the Solar peculiar velocity with an accuracy that would improve upon astronomical observations. We also simulate signals based on results from N-body simulations and find that finer substructure in the form of tidal streams would show up prominently in future data, even if only a subdominant contribution to the local dark matter distribution. In these cases it would be possible to reconstruct all the properties of a dark matter stream using the time and frequency dependence of the signal. Finally we consider the detection prospects for a network of streams from tidally disrupted axion miniclusters. These features appear much more prominently in the resolved spectrum than suggested by calculations based on a scan over a range of resonant frequencies, making the detection of axion minicluster streams more viable than previously thought. These results confirm that haloscope experiments in a post-discovery era are able to perform "axion astronomy".


AIMS--To determine the concentrations of pentane (a marker of lipid peroxidation) and other volatile organic compounds in the breath of patients with schizophrenia. METHODS--Volatile organic compounds were assayed by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) in 88 subjects--25 with acute schizophrenic psychosis, 26 with psychiatric disorders other than schizophrenia, and 37 normal volunteers. RESULTS--The mean alveolar gradients of pentane and carbon disulfide (CS2) were significantly higher in the patients with schizophrenia than in the control groups. CONCLUSIONS--Schizophrenia may be accompanied by accelerated lipid peroxidation in cell membranes, as well as increased manufacture of CS2, a known neurotoxin.


The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of anger on driver behaviour and safety focusing on certain characteristics of the driver and driving performance parameters. In order to achieve this objective, a driving simulator experiment was carried out, in which 125 participants from all age groups were asked to drive in different road and traffic conditions. Then, each participant filled in a questionnaire about his/her driving habits and behaviour, including a specific section about anger expression during driving and history of accidents. Anger expression was measured by identifying different aspects of emotions and behaviours of the drivers based on the Driving Anger Expression Inventory. First, a preliminary descriptive analysis was carried out in order to acquire insight into the structure of the data. In the next step, in order to reduce the number of independent variables related to anger, a factor analysis was performed, and 4 anger factors were identified namely: External Anger, Forgiveness, Internal Anger, Noble-Mindedness, introducing thus a new way of defining anger levels in an individual. Finally, 5 regression models (linear and logistic) were developed correlating several driving behaviour and performance measures (average speed, average time headway, accident probability, probability of exceeding the speed limit and probability of traffic violation or traffic penalty) with anger factors, other driving parameters as well as driver characteristics. Results indicate that drivers with higher level of driving anger drive faster, at smaller headways from the vehicle in front and are engaged in more accidents and road traffic violations. Notably, male drivers demonstrated higher levels of driving anger than females, while anger was found to decrease as age increases. The conclusions of the present research may enhance understanding of the characteristics and the importance of anger while driving on road safety and be exploited for drafting regulations against driving anger. .


The dynamics of mechanical systems with dry friction elements, modelled by set-valued force laws, can be described by differential inclusions. The switching and set-valued nat ure of the friction force law is responsible for the hybrid charact er of such models. An equilibrium set of such a differential inclusion corresponds to a stationary mode for which the friction elements are sticking. The attractivity properties of the equilibri um set are of major importance for the overall dynamic behaviour of this type of systems. Conditions for the attractivity of the equilibrium set of linear MDOF mechanical systems with multiple friction elements are presented. These results are obtaine d by application of a generalisation of LaSalle's principle for differential inclusions of Filippov-type. Besides passive syste ms, also systems with negative viscous damping are considered. For such systems, only local attractivity of the equilibrium set can be assured under certain conditions. Moreover, an estimate for the region of attraction is given for these cases. The results ar e illustrated by means of a 2DOF example.


We propose that the project manager is implicitly expected to participate in and contribute to continuous improvement in project-based organizations (PBOs). This article explores how project management literature treats the project manager in relation to improving overall PBO performance. The results, supported by case study insights, indicate implicit expectations of the project manager to contribute to organization-level PBO improvement. We argue that if organization-level improvement should be part of project management practice in PBOs, as promoted in project management literature, the role of improvement agent needs to be formalized for the project manager.


In this work, we propose two ensemble methods leveraging a crowd workforce to improve video annotation, with a focus on video object segmentation. Their shared principle is that while individual candidate results may likely be insufficient, they often complement each other so that they can be combined into something better than any of the individual results---the very spirit of collaborative working. For one, we extend a standard polygon-drawing interface to allow workers to annotate negative space, and combine the work of multiple workers instead of relying on a single best one as commonly done in crowdsourced image segmentation. For the other, we present a method to combine multiple automatic propagation algorithms with the help of the crowd. Such combination requires an understanding of where the algorithms fail, which we gather using a novel coarse scribble video annotation task. We evaluate our ensemble methods, discuss our design choices for them, and make our web-based crowdsourcing tools and results publicly available.


OBJECT
Infection is a serious and costly complication of CSF shunt implantation. Antibiotic-impregnated shunts (AISs) were introduced almost 10 years ago, but reports on their ability to decrease the infection rate have been mixed. The authors conducted a meta-analysis assessing the extent to which AISs reduce the rate of shunt infection compared with standard shunts (SSs). They also examined cost savings to determine the degree to which AISs could decrease infection-related hospital expenses.

METHODS
After conducting a comprehensive search of multiple electronic databases to identify studies that evaluated shunt type and used shunt-related infection as the primary outcome, 2 reviewers independently evaluated study quality based on preestablished criteria and extracted data. A random effects meta-analysis of eligible studies was then performed. For studies that demonstrated a positive effect with the AIS, a cost-savings analysis was conducted by calculating the number of implanted shunts needed to prevent a shunt infection, assuming an additional cost of $400 per AIS system and $50,000 to treat a shunt infection.

RESULTS
Thirteen prospective or retrospective controlled cohort studies provided Level III evidence, and 1 prospective randomized study provided Level II evidence. "Shunt infection" was generally uniformly defined among the studies, but the availability and detail of baseline demographic data for the control (SS) and treatment (AIS) groups within each study were variable. There were 390 infections (7.0%) in 5582 procedures in the control group and 120 infections (3.5%) in 3467 operations in the treatment group, yielding a pooled absolute risk reduction (ARR) and relative risk reduction (RRR) of 3.5% and 50%, respectively. The meta-analysis revealed the AIS to be statistically protective in all studies (risk ratio = 0.46, 95% CI 0.33-0.63) and in single-institution studies (risk ratio = 0.38, 95% CI 0.25-0.58). There was some evidence of heterogeneity when studies were analyzed together (p = 0.093), but this heterogeneity was reduced when the studies were analyzed separately as single institution versus multiinstitutional (p > 0.10 for both groups). Seven studies showed the AIS to be statistically protective against infection with an ARR and RRR ranging from 1.7% to 14.2% and 34% to 84%, respectively. The number of shunt operations requiring an AIS to prevent 1 shunt infection ranged from 7 to 59. Assuming 200 shunt cases per year, the annual savings for converting from SSs to AISs ranged from $90,000 to over $1.3 million.

CONCLUSIONS
While the authors recognized the inherent limitations in the quality and quantity of data available in the literature, this meta-analysis revealed a significant protective benefit with AIS systems, which translated into substantial hospital savings despite the added cost of an AIS. Using previously developed guidelines on treatment, the authors strongly encourage the use of AISs in all patients with hydrocephalus who require a shunt, particularly those at greatest risk for infection.


There is believed that German and French economies set the tone for other EU economies. It is why we use data from German speaking countries of EU and France for illustration of our findings in context of other EU countries like Czech Republic or Poland. Effectiveness of liquid assets investments is only one from possible explanations of liquidity measures in firms. Too small liquid assets lead some firms to negative changes in their sale levels and as effect to weaker profits. Destruction of cash revenues creation possibilities is dangerous for them and is hard to rebuild possibilities to create cash revenues. Financial liquidity investment efficiency model (FLIEM) predicts that before the crisis, during the crisis and after the crisis phases are connected with higher levels of working capital in processing enterprises. Investments in liquidity are a hedging instrument against individual risk sensitivity that is higher in crisis affected times. The paper aim is to compare real economy data with FLIEM predictions. The FLIEM model expected that liquidity measures like current liquidity indicator should be treated as forecasting indicator about future risk sensitivity of the entities. It could be also suitable as forewarning impulse of future standing of whole processing part of economy.


In this study, the cytotoxic activities of structurally related cycloplatinated(II) complexes containing chelating and bridging 1,1′-bis(diphenylphosphino)ferrocene (dppf) ligand derived from a wide range of C^N cyclometalating ligands (vpy = deprotonated 2-vinylpyridine, bzq = deprotonated benzo[h]quinoline, bpy = deprotonated 2,2′-bipyridine, bpyO = deprotonated 2,2′-bipyridine N-oxide, and ppy = deprotonated 2-phenylpyridine), were evaluated against human lung (A549), ovarian (SKOV3) and breast (MCF-7) cancer cell lines. The most cytotoxic compounds, 2a, 2c and 2d, effectively produced cell death by inducing apoptosis in the A549, SKOV3 and MCF-7 cancer cell lines. In addition, the molecular docking simulation was performed to determine the specific binding mode and the orientation of binding to DNA. According to the results of biological evaluation, the dppf-containing cycloplatinated(II) complexes exhibited strong interactions with DNA as well as high cytotoxicity and apoptosis-inducing activities to human cancer cell line. The present study suggests that precise rational design of new platinum-based complexes would result in the preparation of potential anticancer drugs, which can induce facile apoptosis.


Iowa is the largest corn acreage state with 14.2 million acres which is an increase of 1.6 million acres from 2006. Two sources of data were used for this study. First, NASS calculates the number of acres planted each year for each county. This data is useful to determine general trends; however it will not show where the crops were planted within a county. Secondly, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has created a land cover classification image each year from either Landsat TM or Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) imagery from 2001 through 2007. These images show the location of where each crop is being planted and when combined with each other can be used to determine crop rotations. By analyzing the NASS state acreage reports from 2001-2007, it does not appear that new areas are being put into cultivation. The total area used in corn and soybean production has remained the same throughout this time period. Thus increases in corn acreages have come from decreases in soybean acreages. Based on the NASS land cover classification, the area for the state in a continuous corn rotation has increased from 15.2% in 2001-2002 to 20.9% in 2006-2007. Areas in continuous soybean rotation have diminished from 8.1% in 2001-2002 to 4.3% in 2006-2007. There are thirty three counties which have consistently high accuracies for the 2001-2007 time period. These counties also show that the increase in corn acreages have come from soybean acreages, not from increasing overall agricultural areas.


This thesis looks for a way to overcome the failure of consent as a means of addressing privacy problems associated with online services. It argues that consent to collection and use of personal data is an imperfect mechanism for individual authorisation because data privacy in relation to online services is a dynamic, continuous process. If people are to have autonomous choice in respect of their privacy processes, then they need to be able to manage these processes themselves.    After careful examination of online services which pinpoints both the privacy problems caused by online service providers and the particular features of the online environment, the thesis devises a set of measures to enable individuals to manage these processes. The tool for achieving this is a Privacy Management Model (PMM) which consists of three interlocking functions: controlling (which consent may be a part of), organising, and planning.    The thesis then proposes a way of implementing these functions in the context of online services. This requires a mix of regulatory tools: a particular business model in which individuals are supported by third parties (Personal Information Administrators), a set of technical/architectural tools to manage data within the ICT systems of the online service  providers, and laws capable of supporting all these elements.    The proposed legal measures aim to overcome the shortcomings of procedural principles by implementing a comprehensive model in which substantive legal principle underpins a bundle of statutory-level laws which enable privacy management functions. Those are explained against the background of the General Data Protection Regulation. All of this is designed to change the way decision-makers think about Internet privacy and form the theoretical backbone of the next generation of privacy laws.


One common definition of premiumness is as a higher quality and more expensive variant of a product than other members of the category or reference class. Premiumness can effectively be conveyed by means of different sensory cues (e.g., colours, sounds, weight). However, to date, research linking the sound of a product ' s pack- aging with premiumness is sparse. In the present study, we demonstrate for the first time that consumers associate different levels of beer premiumness with the sounds of opening and pouring of bottles and cans. We report the results of two online experiments. Experiment 1 explored the effect of two sound properties associated with beer can and bottle opening and pouring (sound pressure and frequency) on the perception of premiumness. Experiment 2 used semantic differential scales (e.g., bad-good, passive-active) to evaluate the meanings people tend to associate with different auditory cues. The analyses revealed that participants perceived: 1) bottle sounds to be more premium overall than can sounds, 2) pouring sounds as more premium than opening sounds, and 3) higher pressure sounds as more premium than lower pressure sounds. Additionally, premiumness was positively correlated with semantic differentials of dead-alive, and the evaluative terms of sad-happy, awful-nice, and bad-good, which highlights the perceived quality and premium character of a beer when conveyed auditorily.


2017 Pacific people have faced considerable difficulties in New Zealand economically and have been identified as having the highest risk of problem and pathological gambling behaviours. Pacific peoples have been over-represented among low-income earners, living in areas with the fewest economic resources, lower-skilled workers and unemployed as poor education reduces opportunities for peoples' employment. Yet, Pacific peoples have a high number of their communities participating in gambling. The aim of this dissertation is to identify and critique the methodologies and methods that have been used to investigate gambling and problem gambling among Pacific peoples. The dissertation will discuss the methodologies used to investigate gambling and problem gambling within Pacific families and communities in Auckland, New Zealand through the perceptions and understandings of past researchers' investigations. The 'Kakala' Research Framework, rooted on Tongan epistemologies, protocols and practice underpins this research. This framework informs the design of and provides the context for this research. The research describes the cultural factors associated with motivations to gamble for Pacific peoples and how Pacific people demonstrate concepts of fundraising from their perspective and worldview. The study also discusses a public health approach to minimise and prevent gambling related harm and contributes to the growing research carried out on gambling effects within individuals, families and communities of Pacific peoples in New Zealand.


A model describing the transient eddy current distribution in the shield of a passively compensated compulsator is derived. An analytical solution of the two-dimensional convective diffusion equation is obtained. In obtaining the solution, a response to a step excitation is solved. This is convolved with specific time functions corresponding to the nature of the excitation current. The responses to step excitation, with and without relative motion of the shield, are computed and the step response is used to calculate the response to a sinusoidal excitation. This solution is used to interpret various experimental observations obtained from test data on the compulsator and also for preparing design data for passive compulsators with iron cores. The disparity between the model and the experimental observations is due to the limitations in representing the boundary conditions at the shield-rotor iron interface. However, the model could be used to calculated the relative merits of different shield designs and materials. In a design where the shield-rotor interface is indeed either permeable or highly conductive, the model would serve very well. >


This paper proposes a reference-point dependent model of social behavior where individuals maximize a three-term utility function: a consumption utility term and two "social" terms. One social term captures a preference for desert (i.e., others getting what we think they deserve) and the other term a preference for the satisfaction of other's expectations, or to placate them (i.e., them getting what we think they think they deserve). After motivating the modeling assumptions with findings from empirical moral philosophy and evolutionary psychology, I introduce the model and generate some simple comparative statics results, which I then test with experiments. I discuss how the model explains several paradoxes of empirical moral philosophy that are less explicable by current economic models of social preference focusing on outcomes and intentions.


A picking tray has been developed with the wet-picking of benthic foraminifera specifically in mind. The purpose is to reduce the primary disadvantage of the wet-picking method which is time consumption.

The wet-picking and counting of samples is seen to be disadvantageous in comparison with the dry method as it is more time consuming and arduous (e.g. Boltovskoy, 1966; Scott et al . 2001; Murray, 2006). However, wet-picking offers advantages over dry-picking. One major benefit is that it allows fragile forms (e.g. chitinous or poorly cemented tests) to be recorded that would be deformed or destroyed during drying (e.g. Brodniewicz, 1965). Depending on the scientific questions in focus, samples from certain environments should be wet-picked to prevent damage to thin-shelled forms and allow for a more accurate recording of the assemblage and diversity present (Bernhard & Sen Gupta, 1999). Furthermore the reduction of the protoplasm that results from drying means that detection of whether the protoplasm is stained or not can be more problematic (e.g. Corliss & Emerson, 1990; Bouchet et al . 2012). The cell (either stained or not) is more easily seen through the shell while wet, and Schonfeld et al . (2013) suggest that tests containing other stained material could be more easily mistaken for cytoplasm in dry samples. Therefore wet-picking also increases …


Economic segregation has increased over the past half century. The trend of rich localities getting richer while poor localities get poorer is particularly concerning because it limits upward mobility and perpetuates intergenerational income inequality. This Article makes the novel argument that the state and local tax deduction subsidizes economic segregation. It arrives at that conclusion by showing that the "local tax deduction" provides a greater subsidy, per capita, for wealthy, economically segregated localities because only those localities have a critical mass of wealthy taxpayers who claim the deduction. This allows wealthy localities, but not poor localities, to provide services at a cost less than face value to their residents. This Article argues that the deduction's subsidy for wealthy localities rewards and likely contributes to economic segregation because it provides an incentive for the wealthy to segregate into wealthy, subsidized localities over less segregated and less subsidized localities. This Article's analysis and arguments are particularly relevant in light of recent controversy surrounding the state and local tax deduction, including the new $10,000 limit on the deduction, efforts to circumvent this limitation, and Congressional proposals to reform it.


Master the power of Photoshop CS3 with an internationally renowned photographer by your side.Adobe's Photoshop CS3 comes with powerful new features with huge payoffs. But it can be overwhelming to learn, even for professional photographers, graphic designers, keen amateurs, and others who already have an initial grasp of Photoshop. Acclaimed photographer Martin Evening, who wrote the best-selling previous books, 'Adobe Photoshop for Photographers', makes it easy with this new, thoroughly updated edition. * Illustrated throughout with before-and-after pictures - more than 750 professional, color illustrations!* Practical techniques and real-life assignments* Step-by-step tutorials* Keyboard shortcut reference guideIncludes FREE DVD with:* QuickTime movie tutorials for MAC and PC * Searchable tips on tools, palettes layer styles, and shortcuts * Includes images selected for you to experiment with to get you up to speed with everything in the book, including the new Photoshop CS3 features, fast! * Updated Camera Guide to help you decide which will best suit your needs, plus bonus Digital Capture chapter in printable PDF formatUncover quickly exactly what Adobe's CS3 now offers photographers. New tutorials focus on the key features introduced in CS3. You lose no time in finding out how to put your ideas to work with:* Adobe's Camera Raw 4 plug-in that can now also process TIFFs and JPEGs* New Align controls for combining HDR images; Photomerge; new Clone Stamp; Curves dialog that now incorporates Levels functionality; and improved controls for Brightness/Contrast to match raw image processing controls* The latest on Black and White adjustment, which provides all the black and white conversion tools you need for optimum monochrome conversions* A pro's scoop on choosing from among dozens of Photoshop's image adjustment methods to get the results you want* Tips on Bridge 2.0 and Lightroom - when you should use each* Top tactics for successful composite images, insider guidance on editing shadows and highlight adjustments, and lessons on how to preview and re-edit filter effects as many times as you want - without complex workaroundsGet the preeminent advice from one photographer to another as Martin completely updates you on the core aspects of working with Photoshop, digital workflow, and improving accessibility. Real-life examples, diagrams, illustrations, and step-by-step explanations ensure that you're up to speed with the next generation of digital photography in no time!Foreword by Adobe Systems' key Director of Engineering, Digital Imaging, Marc Pawliger * Over 750 professional, color images make this book stand above the rest * New DVD! Searchable info explains tools, palettes & layer styles, also includes invaluable QuickTime movie tutorials * Master the power of Photoshop CS3 under the instruction of an internationally recognised Photoshop expert & Adobe alpha tester


Between 6 and 12 mo of age, blood levels of the (n-3) long-chain PUFA, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), in breast-fed infants typically decrease due to diminished maternal DHA stores and the introduction of DHA-poor solid foods displacing human milk as the primary source of nutrition. Thus, we utilized a randomized, clinical trial format to evaluate the effect of supplemental DHA in solid foods on visual development of breast-fed infants with the primary outcome, sweep visual-evoked potential (VEP) acuity, as an index for maturation of the retina and visual cortex. At 6 mo of age, breast-fed infants were randomly assigned to receive 1 jar (113 g)/d of baby food containing egg yolk enriched with DHA (115 mg DHA/100 g food; n 25) or control baby food (0 mg DHA; n 26). Gravimetric measures were used to estimate the supplemental DHA intake which was 83 mg DHA/d in the supplemented group and 0 mg/d in controls. Although many infants in both groups continued to breast-feed for a mean of 9 mo, RBC DHA levels decreased significantly between 6 and 12 mo (from 3.8 to 3.0 g/100 g total fatty acids) in control infants, whereas RBC DHA levels increased by 34% from 4.1 to 5.5 g/100 g by 12 mo in supplemented infants. VEP acuity at 6 mo was 0.49 logMAR (minimum angle of resolution) and improved to 0.29 logMAR by 12 mo in controls. In DHA-supplemented infants, VEP acuity was 0.48 logMAR at 6 mo and matured to 0.14 logMAR at 12 mo (1.5 lines on the eye chart better than controls). At 12 mo, the difference corresponded to 1.5 lines on the eye chart. RBC DHA levels and VEP acuity at 12 mo were correlated (r 0.50; P 0.0002), supporting the need of an adequate dietary supply of DHA throughout 1 y of life for neural development. J. Nutr. 134: 2307–2313, 2004.


This thesis examines the role of dissolved inorganic nutrients in generating changes in phytoplankton community and pigment composition and if such changes can affect the production of the antioxidant astaxanthin in the ecosystem via pelagic copepods. The background of my studies is the possible relationship between eutrophication and a reproductive disturbance in Baltic populations of Atlantic salmon (M74), which is associated with astaxanthin and thiamine deficiencies and oxidative stress. In the southern Baltic Sea, changes in nutrient loads correlate with observed trends of flagellates replacing diatoms in the phytoplankton. Copepods are the main producers of astaxanthin and a major link between phytoplankton and higher trophic levels. In laboratory and field experiments in the Baltic Sea proper and the Norwegian Sea, I show that astaxanthin synthesis in copepods is fast and depends on pigment composition of the phytoplankton diet. Among single-species diets, a diatom and a green algal cyst yielded the highest astaxanthin levels in copepods, and another diatom species, a green alga and a cyanobacterium the lowest. In nutrient-generated phytoplankton blooms in mesocosms, copepods grazing on diverse communities dominated by weakly silicified diatoms produced more astaxanthin compared with copepods grazing on communities dominated by strongly silicified diatoms. This suggests that diatoms invested in defence mechanisms and escaped grazing at surplus Si. A nutrient-starved diatom culture subjected to intraspecific competition exhibited decreased pigment levels, increased thiamine levels and increased oxidative stress. My results suggest that diatoms are beneficial for astaxanthin and thiamine production compared to other phytoplankton groups, but not under all circumstances. Copepod growth and development also responded to inorganic nutrient availability and affected total astaxanthin production per volume seawater, with highest production when the copepods grazed on diatoms. From an ecosystem perspective, increased N and P loads seem to promote high astaxanthin production, but not when diatoms disappear completely.


Recent studies have shown that in a number of humic-rich surface waters in North America, NH 4 + is released when dissolved organic matter (DOM) is exposed to sunlight. However, photochemical NH 4 + production has not been observed in all surface waters, and factors that contribute to it are not well understood. We hypothesized that the presence or absence of NH 4 + photoproduction may be affected by the light exposure history of DOM. The present study was undertaken to determine whether DOM from surficial groundwaters, with minimal light exposure history, would produce labile nitrogen (N) photoproducts more consistently. In this study, estuarine surface waters and surficial groundwaters, collected just adjacent to estuaries in Georgia and South Carolina, USA, were exposed to sunlight to quantify the photochemical production of NH 4 + , dissolved primary amines (DPA), and NO 2 - . The photoproduction of NH 4 + was observed in 4 of 5 irradiated estuarine surface water samples but in only 2 of 13 groundwater samples. In contrast, NH 4 + concentrations decreased in 5 of 13 groundwater samples when exposed to sunlight. The results indicate that a small amount of NH 4 + may be lost from waters in which groundwater-derived DOM is first exposed to sunlight. No consistent trends were observed in the photoproduction or loss of DPA and NO 2 - .


Acoma, the sky city of New Mexico, is presented here by an enchanting text and beautiful color photographs in this revised edition of the Southwest classic book. Occupied by the Acoma Indians, Acoma mesa pueblo is located 65 miles west of Albuquerque. This gem of antiquity is said to be the oldest continuously-inhabited community on the North American continent. The fascinating introduction was written by Frank Waters, one of New Mexico's most famous sons, a literary giant, and an authority on the history of the Indians of New Mexico. In Acoma, the buildings, the people, their traditions and their unique style of pottery are so closely related to this singular terrain that they have become known far beyond its desert.


To be at the same time effective and liberal, governments must normally be able to count on voluntary compliance – which, in turn, depends on the support of socially shared legitimacy beliefs. In Western constitutional democracies, such beliefs are derived from the distinct, but coexistent traditions of 'republican' and 'liberal' political philosophy. Judged by these criteria, the European Union – when considered by itself – appears as a thoroughly liberal polity which, however, lacks all republican credentials. But this view (which seems to structure the debates about the 'European democratic deficit') ignores the multilevel nature of the European polity, where the compliance of citizens is requested, and needs to be legitimated, by member states, whereas the Union appears as a 'government of governments', which is entirely dependent on the voluntary compliance of its member states. What matters primarily, therefore, is the compliance–legitimacy relationship between the Union and its member states – which, however, is normatively constrained by the basic compliance–legitimacy relationship between member governments and their constituents. Given the high consensus requirements of European legislation, member governments could, and should, be able to assume political responsibility for European policies in which they had a voice, and to justify them in 'communicative discourses' in the national public space. That is not necessarily so for 'non-political' policy choices imposed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). By enforcing its 'liberal' programme of liberalization and deregulation, the ECJ may presently be undermining the 'republican' bases of member-state legitimacy. Where that is the case, open non-compliance is a present danger, and political controls of judicial legislation may be called for.


Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) develops after exposure to an extremely traumatic event such as death, injury, or physical threat to self, family member, or other significant person. Admission to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with acute disease carries a high level of stress for families, as the disease is of sudden onset and is life-threatening. The incidence of PTSD (21%) was significant among parents well after their child was discharged from the PICU. Symptoms of PTSD include reexperiencing the traumatic event through recurrent, intrusive recollections, repetitive play, or distressing dreams; avoidance of associations with the event through restricted affect and feelings of detachment; and hyperarousal symptoms such as sleep difficulties, poor concentration, irritability, aggression, and physiological reactivity to trauma-related events. In addition to general hyperarousal symptoms, children may complain of stomachaches and headaches. There have been many summaries and reviews of research published regarding the effects of hospitalization with these children. Findings indicate that the experience is, indeed, stressful and that children may experience fear phenomena, regression, sadness, separation anxiety, withdrawal, sleep disturbances, and aggressive behaviors. There was a positive correlation between PTSD symptoms in parents and PTSD symptoms in the child, length of admission and perceived threat of illness to the child's life. In PICU admissions cause greater disruption to a child's life, with longer admissions, greater time off school and more paediatric out-patient contacts and hospital re-admissions in the 6–12 months after discharge.


What happens when hundreds of social movement organizations give life to a diffused online campaign? Focusing on the referendums against water privatization in Italy, this book explores how the activists colonized social media thanks to a very wide set of communication practices that convinced 27 million citizens to vote.This book focuses on the referendums against water privatisation in Italy and explores how activists took to social media, ultimately convincing twenty-seven million citizens to vote. Investigating the relationship between social movements and internet-related activism during complex campaigns, this book examines how a technological evolution-the increased relevance of social media platforms-affected in very different ways organisations with divergent characteristics, promoting at the same time decentralised communication practices, and new ways of coordinating dispersed communities of people.Matteo Cernison combines and adapts a wide set of methods, from social network analysis to digital ethnography, in order to explore in detail how digital activism and face-to-face initiatives interact and overlap. He argues that the geographical scale of actions, the role played by external media professionals, and the activists' perceptions of digital technologies are key elements that contribute in a significant way to shape the very different communication practices often described as online activism.


Induction thermography is a non‐contacting, non‐destructive evaluation method with a wide range of applications. A deeper understanding of the detectability of cracks requires fundamental knowledge about the induced current density distribution in the component under test. A calculation of the current distribution provides information how much current is flowing at which location of the component, how a crack disturbs the current density, how much heat is produced at which location of the component, and how the heat diffuses to the surface. The heating process depends on the type of crack. On the one hand there are cracks which can be detected mainly by direct observation of the heating process due to an increased current density, and on the other hand there are cracks which can be detected mainly because of a modification of the heat diffusion. This paper presents an analytical model for the calculation of the current distribution, including the back‐flow current along with finite‐element calculations. F...


An approach that combines seasonality removal with a multivariate, state-space, time series forecasting model is developed to provide shortrun forecasts for the US salmon market. Time series included in the model are: US fresh Atlantic salmon wholesale price index; fresh salmon (Atlantic, coho and chinook) monthly US import quantities and prices; and US chum and sockeye salmon monthly export prices. Four versions of the state-space forecasting model are compared in terms of their statistical performance during out-of-s ample forecasts. Out-of-sample 3-, 6- and 12-month ahead directional predictions are generated to test the models' performance in terms of direction. Under identical modeling conditions, out-of-sample statistical and directional tests indicate that deseasonalization improves the overall performance of the state-space model. As a result, a linear, deseasonalized, state-space forecasting model is selected to provide twelve monthly out-of-sample forecasts for all series.


This work presents a survey of the extensive series of museums designed and built by Tadao Ando in Japan, Europe and the USA. Ever since Tadao Ando started to establish himself more than thirty years ago as one of the best designers on the international scene for the rigour and character of his works, his intense activity has moved tirelessly between private residences and public buildings. Each of these works has added a small piece to the construction of a cohesive path based on a strong and clear use of geometry, the employment of few materials in the right proportions, the harmony of the spaces and a strong sense of the relationship with the landscape. From this point of view, the series of museums designed by Tadao Ando tells of the Japanese master's design philosophy perfectly.


To fully understand the phenomenon of massive open online courses (MOOCs), it is important to identify and map trends and patterns in research on MOOCs. This study does so by reviewing 362 empirical articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 2008 to 2015. For the purpose of this study, content analysis and discourse analysis were employed to analyze the articles. Accordingly, the trend line showing the number of articles per year indicates that the extent of research on MOOCs is likely to increase in the coming years. In terms of research areas, the findings reveal an imbalance and three research areas out of fifteen constitute more than half of all research on MOOCs. With regard to types of MOOCs, related literature is dominated by research on xMOOCs. The discourse in MOOC articles takes a mostly neutral standpoint, articles with a positive outlook outweigh those that are negative, and there is an increase in a more critical discourse. Theoretical or conceptual studies are preferred by researchers, although MOOC research generally does not benefit from being viewed through theoretical or conceptual lenses.


This is the official guide to passing the two MySQL certification tests for MySQL 5, the long-awaited major revision of MySQL. It includes a voucher for 25 percent off either exam-a $50 value! The number of MySQL certification exams taken has doubled in the last six months.Certcities.com lists the MySQL certification as one of the top 10 certifications to grow in 2005. MySQL professionals need a way to distinguish themselves from the vast majority of database administrators and developers. With more than 4 million active installations, MySQL is the world's most popular open-source database. Known for its speed, reliability and case of use, MySQL has become a low-cost alternative to expensive database systems such as Oracle, IBM and Microsoft. MySQL AB has aggressively improved the feature set of MySQL with MySQL 5, making it more suitable for enterprise-level applications and uses. The MySQL certification tests, available at over 3,000 PearsonVUE testing centers, is a key component of this enterprise growth strategy, establishing a base level of skills for database users, administrators and programmers.The MySQL Core Certification is aimed at the database user who wants proof of his or her abilities in such fundamental areas as SQL, data entry and maintenance, and data extraction. The MySQL Professional Certification test is designed for the advanced user who wants to prove his or her knowledge in such areas as database management, installation, security, disaster prevention and optimization. Both tests are thoroughly covered in the MySQL 5.0 Certification Study Guide. Written by Paul DuBois, the leading author of books on MySQL topics, and reviewed for technical accuracy by MySQL AB, this book is the fastest, most reliable way for MySQL users, developers, and administrators to prepare for either of the MySQL tests.


»Konventionentheorie, Klassifikation und Quantifizierung«. The article presents the main contributions of the French approach of economics of convention (EC) to the analysis of classifications and quantifications. Here, Alain Desrosières has delivered many outstanding contributions. The article shortly presents the approach of EC. Conventions are socio-cognitive resources actors rely on to achieve shared interpretations, evaluations and valuations of situations and the value of objects, persons and actions. Also, the interpretation of institutions has to apply conventions. Conventions with semantic content and without semantic content are compared, and the different scopes of convention-based coordination (in time and space) are discussed. Also the conception of a political economy of classification and quantification is presented. At the end of the article, a typology of situations of classifications and quantifications is introduced.


Modeling the effect of duct sharing in a NGAN competition market Albert Domingo, Miquel Oliver2 Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Next Generation Access Networks, NGAN, are the infrastructures that will allow deploying ultra broadband in houses and companies during the following decades. Nowadays the investments are not speed up because of many reasons. One of them is related to the high-fixed costs that NGAN will require for update all the existing copper-based or even for building new infrastructures. The lack of trustable business models to control its risks and clarify its returns is one of the main reasons that slow down the progress of such networks. Sharing infrastructure is a diffuse concept that surely will get down these huge investments and will contribute to clarify the business models to each stakeholder and put some light on it. Sharing infrastructure is supposed to mainly affect the civil-works investments where ducts deployment is one of the heaviest parts of it. Thus, ducts-sharing must definitely be a good policy to alleviate the overall high-costs of NGAN roll out and hopefully will push forward in extending the places where competition is foreseen - called dark and grey areas - shortening the overall returns. The model presented tries to answer the following research question: Is there a price that would allow competition through sharing existing ducts? Under this perspective other derived questions are analysed: Is the neutral-open network the only way to achieve competition in FTTH? Should the regulation of NGAN be set as ex ante to give confidence to investors and operators that are intending to deploy new NGAN networks? Is there a minimum period to maintain those regulations to allow competition in case that ex ante procedure is set? The developed model allows analyzing most of these scenarios including a set of variables that have a direct impact on the last-mile of NGN deployment. The model also includes the main roll-out parameters (demand, cost/revenues, adoption/penetration, costs of deployment -geography rural vs. urban, materials prices, engineering prices, duct sharing price -, the technical design), excluding the ones linked to the backbone network. We assume FTTH as pure-fibre NGN access model. The economical viability is explored through the Net Present Value - NPV - to test the impact of ducts-sharing. A conclusion arisen from this work points out that an ideal competition market would be reached through a stable long term regulation of the sharing ducts' prices, allowing second-operators coming into this market. As a result of this regulatory measure fixing ducts' sharing price if this are too high (measured with NPV over 20), then the target to attract new actors will surely fail. In this case, the use of a common infrastructure ran by a neutral entity is the best way to achieve it. These results confirms that structural separation, as done with different flavours in many countries (UK, New Zealand, Australia, parts of US or Italy), is an effective policy to allow NGAN competition.


Orientation programs based on LNA encourage nurse interns to feel safe and enable them to demonstrate competency in the basic clinical and management skills needed for providing high quality and safe patient care. Using LNA ensure NIs commitment to these program. This study aimed to design, implement, and evaluate an orientation program about clinical and management skills needed for nurse interns based on the findings of learning needs assessment tool. The study was conducted at Tanta University Faculty of Nursing and Tanta University Emergency and Main Hospitals ICUs and obstetric and dialysis departments. SUBJECTS: (384) nursing students passed the 4 academic year attended the orientation program. (198) spent their internship year at TUHs were included in the researcher's observation 3 months post program. TOOLS: The data collection was achieved by using LNA scale, knowledge test, NIs' orientation program and follow up observation sheet. RESULTS: Pre program around half (51%) of NIs assessed themselves as cannot carryout different clinical and management skills. Majority (87%) of NIs got low knowledge level for both skills. Post orientation program statistical significant improvement at (P≤0.05) was found in NIs' knowledge and practical levels for both clinical and management skills. It is recommended to conduct orientation programs based on nurse interns' LNA and knowledge test before starting internship year and at the beginning of each new rotation, provide nurse interns with pass booklet include standard procedures required to be carried out in each rotation, provide them also with designed evaluation manual based on the pass booklet and implementing nursing mentor-ship and preceptor-ship programs during internship year [Heba K. Obied, Fouada M.Shabaan, Helmy H. Shalaby, and Samar H. Gadiry. Application of Designed Orientation Program for Nurse Interns Based on Learning Needs Assessment. J Am Sci 2013;9(3):80-92]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.jofamericanscience.org. 12


After World War II, bilateral agreements within the Eastern bloc brought youth from the newly established satellite states of Eastern Europe to study in higher education establishments in the USSR. Designed to impart Soviet knowledge and practices in the countries of people's democracy as well as to create a sense of solidarity within the bloc, the training of East Europeans in the center of world communism proved a tension-filled affair. Spurred by the xenophobia and chauvinism of the Soviet home front during the early Cold War, Soviet administrators, faculty members and students related to the foreign students, despite their socialist credentials, as outsiders and sometimes as carriers of unwanted influences. For this reason, the educational agreements deepened the sense that fundamental differences existed between the Soviet Union and its client states in Europe.


Though increasing nature of impacts from disasters has made post disaster management a
significant area of concern, management of disaster waste is identified as an area of least
concern. It presents momentous challenges for those with inadequate capacities due to
large volumes and hazardous constituents created, particularly in developing countries.
This is equally applicable to Sri Lanka which was severely affected by the Indian Ocean
Tsunami in 2004 and from three decades of civil war. In this context, it is vital to explore
capacities which need to be enhanced for post disaster waste management. Accordingly,
this study focuses on identification of existing capacities of post disaster waste
management with special emphasise on Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste at
national level entities in Sri Lanka. Disaster C&D waste comprises of waste such as
debris generated from totally or partially damaged buildings and infrastructure as a direct
impact of disasters or from demolished buildings and infrastructure at rehabilitation or
early recovery stages. Literature revealed that after the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004,
collected disaster waste containing a considerable proportion of C&D waste was not
recycled or reused at its optimum capacity in Sri Lanka, instead disposing it at landfill
sites.
Initially, a literature review and document survey was conducted on capacity building
with special emphasise on post disaster waste management to identify capacity building
principles, strategies, evaluation measures and challenges, if there are any. Pilot
interviews were conducted to identify current post disaster waste management practices
in Sri Lanka. Multiple case studies and expert interviews were subsequently conducted to
gather primary data on existing capacities of post disaster waste management in Sri
Lanka. Three case studies which included fourteen individuals and seven experts
representing government and non governmental organisations and other sector entities
were selected for data collection. Semi-structured interviews were conducted as the main
data collection method and code based analysis and cognitive mapping were used to
analyse collected data.
Results revealed existing capacities, capacity gaps and factors affecting capacity building
for post disaster waste management including: skills and confidence building, links and collaborations, continuity and sustainability, research and development, communication
and coordination, organisational implementations and investments in infrastructure.
Approaches for enhancing capacities in post disaster waste management were identified.
They include establishment of a regulatory body and enforceable rules and regulations,
promotion of holistic approaches for training and development focussing on indigenous
and sustainable methods, development of formal and transparent procedures to establish
linkages and collaborations, create awareness on sustainable, environmentally friendly
and culturally supportive techniques on disaster waste management. These approaches
were identified with the aim to contribute towards achieving sustainable post disaster
C&D waste management.


This article examines the portrayal of pregnancy and alcohol in thirtysix national network evening news broadcasts (ABC, CBS, NBC). Early coverage focused on white, middle-class women, as scientific authorities and government officials warned against drinking during pregnancy. After 1987, however, women who drank during pregnancy were depicted as members of minority groups and as a danger to society. The thematic transition began before warning labels appeared on alcoholic beverages and gained strength from official government efforts to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome. The greatest impetus for the revised discourse, however, was the eruption of a "moral panic" over crack cocaine use. By linking fetal harm to substance abuse, the panic suggested it was in the public's interest to control the behavior of pregnant women.


The experimental and analytical modal analysis is used to establish a system modelling methodology in rotating structures, which subsequently can help in design and development of rotating machinery.
The purpose of the study is to develop and use modal testing and vibration analysis which would involve obtaining the mathematical model of the system from the test data and subsequently obtaining the unbalanced parameters. The research work includes the application of modal testing method in rotor rig to investigate different modal parameters and detect the behaviour and performance of rotating machinery. This method would be capable of solving many of the related rotating machine problems, such as in turbine and compressor.
Unbalance is one of the problems which exist in rotating machinery. Balancing is usually an expensive and laborious procedure and a balancing system would be beneficial for rotor dynamic systems and power generation applications.
Excess vibration can cause noise, cyclic stress and wear in machinery. It is important to identify all the critical speeds within the range of operation and analyse the damping effect, mass unbalance and other phenomena in rotating machinery and their effects in their safe operation. These will be investigated in this study.
There are several phenomena associated with rotating machinery such as centrifugal and gyroscopic forces which would create complexity in the mathematical procedures in modal analysis that they need to be addressed and interpreted appropriately before they could be used in modal testing of rotating machinery.
The experimental technique used in this thesis to obtain the modal and dynamic response properties of structures. This technique has been applied to rotating structures, however the full implementation of modal testing in rotating structures and the implications are not fully understood. and are therefore in need of further investigations.
In this study the Frequency Response Function (FRF) data obtained from the specific experimental results are curve-fitted by theoretical data regenerated from overall statistical
analysis of measured data.
Different excitation methods are used in experiment (hammer and shaker). For hammer test, transient signal is produced. While for shaker test, different vibration signals are produced (Sine, Random and Burst Random).
In shaker test, a special frame was designed and used around a plain bearing and the accelerometers were attached to the outer surface of the bearing to measure the response of the lateral motion on several points of the shaft. The excitation force with help of push' rod was generated and applied to the shaft. This method can help to solve the problem in the attachment of shaker and force transducers to the rotor system.
The analysis of vibration suppression with different locations and configurations of the unbalanced masses and effect of the adding of balance masses to suppress the vibration amplitude has been studied properly.
The experimental results were used for verification of Finite Element (FE) models, since it has good capability for eigen analysis and also good graphical facility. 3-D models result in large number of nodes and elements. This project demonstrates how to extract a plane 2-D model from the 3-D model that can be used with fewer nodes and elements with no loss in accuracy of the results.
Transient orbit analysis in the literature indicates that the bearing stiffness and damping affects the vibration amplitude. In this project the study of the effects on the bearing reaction forces and cyclic. bending stress will be investigated.
It is envisaged that the approach is not limited to the condition diagnosis and predictive failure but could help the designers to have better understanding of rotor performance at the system design stage.
The experimental data are used to characterise the dynamic behaviour of the system and introduce to the correction unbalance to suppress the excess vibration.
The experimental data are also used to generate the FE models and subsequently calculate the dynamic reaction forces in the bearings and the cyclic bending stress.


We address the problem of recognizing the visual focus of attention (VFOA) of meeting participants from their head pose and contextual cues. The main contribution of the paper is the use of a head pose posterior distribution as a representation of the head pose information contained in the image data. This posterior encodes the probabilities of the different head poses given the image data, and constitute therefore a richer representation of the data than the mean or the mode of this distribution, as done in all previous work. These observations are exploited in a joint interaction model of all meeting participants pose observations, VFOAs, speaking status and of environmental contextual cues. Numerical experiments on a public database of 4 meetings of 22 min on average show that this change of representation allows for a 5.4% gain with respect to the standard approach using head pose as observation.


A new strategy for modeling the land surface component of the climate system is described. The strategy is motivated by an arguable deficiency in most state-of-the-art land surface models (LSMs), namely the disproportionately higher emphasis given to the formulation of one-dimensional, vertical physics relative to the treatment of horizontal heterogeneity in surface properties -- particularly subgrid soil moisture variability and its effects on runoff generation. The new strategy calls for the partitioning of the continental surface into a mosaic of hydrologic catchments, delineated through analysis of high-resolution surface elevation data. The effective "grid" used for the land surface is therefore not specified by the overlying atmospheric grid. Within each catchment, the variability of soil moisture is related to characteristics of the topography and to three bulk soil moisture variables through a well-established model of catchment processes. This modeled variability allows the partitioning of the catchment into several areas representing distinct hydrological regimes, wherein distinct (regime-specific) evaporation and runoff parameterizations are applied. Care is taken to ensure that the deficiencies of the catchment model in regions of little to moderate topography are minimized.


Proof-Carrying Code (PCC) is a static mechanism that mechanically verifies type safety of machine-language programs. But the problem in conventional PCC is, who will verify the verifier (the type checker) itself? The Foundational Proof-Carrying Code (FPCC) project at Princeton verifies the soundness of the type checker from the smallest possible set of axioms—logic plus machine semantics. One challenge in the verification is that machine code, unlike high-level languages, contains unstructured control flow (due to arbitrary jumps). A piece of machine code can contain multiple entry points that jump instructions might jump to, and multiple exit points. Traditional Hoare logic and its variants either verify the partial correctness of programs with only one entry and one exit, or need the whole program to verify jump instructions, which is not modular.
The major contribution of this dissertation is a program logic, Lc , which modularly verifies properties of machine-code fragments. Unlike previous program logics, the basic reasoning units in Lc are multiple-entry and multiple-exit code fragments. Lc provides composition rules to combine code fragments and to eliminate intermediate entries/exits in the combined fragment. Lc is not only useful for reasoning about properties of machine code with unstructured control flow, but also useful for deriving rules for common control-flow structures such as while-loops, repeat-until-loops, among others. We also present a semantics for Lc and prove that Lc is both sound and complete.
As an application to the FPCC project, I have implemented Lc on top of the SPARC machine language and used Lc 's rules to verify the soundness of the instruction rules of a full-fledged low-level typed assembly language—LTAL. This demonstrates Lc 's applicability of verifying properties of machine-language programs.


Was the biblical lex talionis to be applied by equal retribution or in a figurative sense? What was its origin? How or for what purpose was the lex talionis practiced in ancient Israelite life? This article argues that lex talionis in Exod 21:22-25 should be understood figuratively in the ancient village life context and that the development of the lex talionis should be understood as a complex process, depending on the corresponding social, economic structure of the time. Comparative considerations between the lex talionis in Exod 21:22-25 and other relevant ANE texts are advanced.


Large quantities of small diameter mains within Los Angeles' water distribution network has necessitated the development of new main improvement programs. The introduction of the Small Main Cement Mortar Lining Program, along with a planned main replacement program, is proving to be an economical means of dealing with the deteriorating water system infrastructure. A second new program, Small Main Replacement (by contract), has begun to increase the amount of annual main replacement. These new programs, in addition to the Department's Large Main Cement Mortar Lining Program and facilities replacement programs, will help achieve the goals of rehabilitating the pipeline system and providing long-term life extension of these vital facilities.


Modern nationalism in northeastern Europe has often led to violence and then reconciliation between nations with bloody pasts. In this fascinating book, Timothy Snyder traces the emergence of Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Belarusian nationhood over four centuries, discusses various atrocities (including the first account of the massive Ukrainian-Polish ethnic cleansings of the 1940s), and examines Poland's recent successful negotiations with its newly independent Eastern neighbors, as it has channeled national interest toward peace.


We have studied doubly resonant parametric oscillation in the regime of maximum conversion efficiency. A monolithic MgO:LiNbO3 resonator with a threshold of 28 mW, pumped by a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser, was employed. With an active frequency-stabilization scheme, single-mode operation without mode hops at 105 mW combined signal and idler output power was achieved at a pump power four times above threshold, with a conversion efficiency of 81%. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment was found for the dependence of efficiency and depletion on pump power. The efficiency and the nearly complete pump depletion of 94% were limited only by imperfect mode matching of the pump wave and by the small cavity losses.


BACKGROUND
Phytochemicals found in soy and other legumes have been speculated to reduce the risk of endometrial cancer; however, inconsistent findings have been reported in the few epidemiological studies conducted to date.

METHODS
We conducted a prospective analysis of 46 027 nonhysterectomized postmenopausal women who were recruited into the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) Study between August 1993 and August 1996 and provided detailed baseline information on diet and other endometrial cancer risk factors. A total of 489 women diagnosed with incident endometrial cancer were identified through the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results tumor registry linkages during a median follow-up period of 13.6 years. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate multivariable-adjusted relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for endometrial cancer associated with dietary intake of legumes, soy, and tofu, and for total isoflavones and specific isoflavones (daidzein, genistein, or glycitein). Truncated (age 50-89 years) age-adjusted incidence rates were calculated by applying age-specific rates within isoflavone quintiles to the overall MEC population eligible for endometrial cancer. To estimate the percentage of endometrial cancers that may have been prevented by consuming the highest quintile of total isoflavones, the partial population attributable risk percent was calculated.

RESULTS
A reduced risk of endometrial cancer was associated with total isoflavone intake (highest vs lowest quintile, ≥7.82 vs <1.59 mg per 1000 kcal/d, RR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.47 to 0.91), daidzein intake (highest vs lowest quintile, ≥3.54 vs <0.70 mg per 1000 kcal/d, RR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.46 to 0.90), and genistein intake (highest vs lowest quintile, ≥3.40 vs <0.69 mg per 1000 kcal/d, RR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.47 to 0.91). No statistically significant association with endometrial cancer risk was observed for increasing intake of legumes, soy, tofu, or glycitein. Truncated age-adjusted incidence rates of endometrial cancer for the highest vs lowest quintile of total isoflavone intake were 55 vs 107 per 100 000 women per year, respectively. The partial population attributable risk percent for total isoflavone intake lower than the highest quintile was 26.7% (95% CI = 5.3% to 45.8%).

CONCLUSION
This study suggests that greater consumption of isoflavone-containing foods is associated with a reduced risk of endometrial cancer in this population of nonhysterectomized postmenopausal women.


Abstract The strictly protected natural area of Sucha Bela Gorge, located in the Slovak Paradise National Park, Slovakia, is exposed to environmental degradation by heavy tourist loads. Although educational and technical measures have been put in place, there is ongoing debate whether and how to limit the intensity of tourist visits. This study evaluates the ability of the trail leading through the gorge to resist trampling disturbance and to minimise the environmental impacts in the wider area of Sucha Bela by keeping tourists from moving off the designated areas. Aspects of trail layout, geological and geomorphological structures, terrain altering during the summer season, and acceptable tourist flow were investigated.The results show the current development would be acceptable in the case of limited off-trail movement. It therefore seems appropriate to review the trail allocation and marking, and to focus on environmental education rather than on limiting tourist visits.


ONE OF THE BEST-ESTABLISHED FACTS in macroeconomics is that business fixed investment and output move strongly together over the business cycle. By contrast, investment and the cost of capital are either uncorrelated or only weakly correlated. These relationships might appear to suggest that business fixed investment can be best explained by an accelerator model of investment, whereby investment responds to changes in the desired capital stock, itself determined by the demand for output. The theory behind the accelerator model is akin to the man-onthe-street view that firms have little incentive to invest when current prospects for selling the output produced by the new capital are relatively poor. The claim that the correlation of output and investment is due to demand shocks provides a challenge to neoclassical and neo-Keynesian theories alike. Neoclassical theories of investment view output as the consequence of firms' choice of capital stock and other factors, not the cause. Put another way, if the neoclassical model is correct, firms should use prices and not quantities as signals in making their investment decisions. The observation that investment and output are strongly correlated while the cost of capital has little correlation with investment weighs against the neoclassical model.


This is an update to the previously published Saudi guidelines for the evaluation, medical, and surgical management of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. It is categorized according to the stage of the disease using the tumor node metastasis staging system 7th edition. The guidelines are presented with supporting evidence level, they are based on comprehensive literature review, several internationally recognized guidelines, and the collective expertise of the guidelines committee members (authors) who were selected by the Saudi oncology society and Saudi urological association. Considerations to the local availability of drugs, technology, and expertise have been regarded. These guidelines should serve as a roadmap for the urologists, oncologists, general physicians, support groups, and health care policy makers in the management of patients diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the prostate to.