AbstractUnderwater noise pollution from ships is a chronic, global stressor impacting a wide range of marine species. Ambient ocean noise levels nearly doubled each decade from 1963-2007 in low-frequency bands attributed to shipping, inspiring a pledge from the International Maritime Organization to reduce ship noise and a call from the International Whaling Commission for member nations to halve ship noise within a decade. Our analysis of data from 1,582 ships reveals that half of the total power radiated by a modern fleet comes from just 15% of the ships, namely those with source levels above 179 dB re 1 μPa @ 1 m. We present a range of management options for reducing ship noise efficiently, including incentive-based programs, without necessarily regulating the entire fleet.


We study Sutton's 'microcanonical' model for the internal organization of firms, that leads to non trivial scaling properties for the statistics of growth rates. We show that the growth rates are asymptotically Gaussian in this model, at variance with empirical results. We also obtain the conditional distribution of the number and size of sub-sectors in this model. We formulate and solve an alternative model, based on the assumption that the sector sizes follow a power-law distribution. We find in this new model both anomalous scaling of the variance of growth rates and non Gaussian asymptotic distributions. We give some testable predictions of the two models that would differentiate them further. We also discuss why the growth rate statistics at the country level and at the company level should be identical.


This paper solves a motion planning problem from a motion safety perspective, where a variant of the classical Rapidly exploring Random Tree (RRT) approach [1] called p-safe RRT is proposed. The exploration of the search space is similar to RRT, however, the highlight of p-safe RRT is the integration of passive motion safety. The basic principle of this safety level is to guarantee that the system can brake down and stop before collision. P-safe RRT extends a tree through the state time space, where tree's nodes and primitives are checked for passive motion safety. The computed trajectory is passively safe and drives the robot from its initial state to the goal state. The developed algorithms have been tested in simulation scenarios; featuring both fixed and moving objects with unknown trajectories for a car-like robot with a limited field of view.


Proboscia barboi and Proboscia curvirostris are two important diatom biostratigraphic markers from the high latitudes of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, dating back to the Pliocene-Pleistocene time. This study analyzes the biostratigraphic events and describes the morphology of P. barboi and P. curvirostris , particularly the morphologic variations of the latter species, based on observations of samples of Core U1340A from the IODP Expedition 323 in the Bering Sea. In Site U1340, the First Occurrence of P. curvirostris is observed at 1.52Ma and its First Common Occurrence at 1.39Ma, where morphologic variations were found abundantly. The Last Occurrence of P. curvirostris was found at 0.33Ma, while P. barboi 's Last Occurrence is found at 0.67Ma. Based on the morphological similarity and known biostratigraphic distribution, previous authors have assumed that P. curvirostris descends from P. barboi , although this hypothesis is still in debate. At 1.39Ma P. curvirostris shows an increased size and thickness, which is typical of P. barboi , and some specimens display an incipient structure characteristic of P. curvirostris - the secondary spine. This morphology is intermediate between the two species and suggests an evolutionary transition from P. barboi to P. curvirostris . However, P. curvirostris already existed since 1.9Ma in the subarctic indicating that its speciation happened much earlier than 1.39Ma. Furthermore, since P. barboi co-occurs with P. curvirostris in the North Pacific, this evolutionary process was cladogenetic. Besides being evidence for a phylogenetic relationship, the abundant occurrence of intermediate forms at 1.39Ma may constitute a bioevent for a short time interval in the Bering Sea.


"Smart contracts" are decentralized agreements built in computer code and stored on a blockchain. Proponents imagine a future where commerce takes place exclusively using smart contracts, avoiding the high costs of contract drafting, judicial intervention, opportunistic behavior, and the inherent ambiguities of written language.
These decentralized code-only contracts are part of a decades-long quest to eliminate supposed inefficiencies in traditional written agreements. Electronic data interchange (EDI), a contracting technology from the 1970s, was designed with the same goal and garnered similar fanfare. Commentators imagined a revolution in the way firms transacted and a full shift away from anything resembling a paper contract. Ultimately EDI failed to achieve these goals — it empowered, rather than circumvented, human decision-makers along with their "inefficient" way of forming agreements. In doing so, EDI successfully reduced some transaction costs while preserving efficient forms of contractual flexibility.
Smart contracts are indeed more technologically sophisticated than EDI. Smart contract scripting languages offer a broad range of operations and greater scalability. Firms' operational and financial infrastructures are digital. Smart contracts can directly interact with these systems, whereas EDI was ultimately reliant on human intermediaries. Proponents of the smart contract revolution do not describe the technology as a way to enhance human activity; they argue it can replace every stage of agreement formation and performance. From a purely technical standpoint, they might be right.
However, the shift from human-language contracts creates new inefficiencies. These stem from three features of smart contracts: automation, which requires that every agreement be formed from fully-defined terms; decentralization, which conditions performance on verification by third parties; and anonymity, which eliminates the use of commercial context to give meaning to agreement terms. As a result, it is extremely costly to form smart contracts in a volatile environment or whenever there's a level of uncertainty surrounding the agreement.
On the other hand, semantic contracts are flexible. They enable parties to use standards, generally-defined contract terms, to create an enforceable agreement without requiring complete knowledge of what might happen in the future. Standards also allow parties to responsively incorporate commercial customs into their agreement, circumventing the need for explicit but redundant negotiation. And once their agreement is formed and executed, the parties are nonetheless free to dynamically shape their relationship through informal modifications or by selectively enforcing breaches. These two forms of flexibility — linguistic ambiguity, and enforcement discretion — create important efficiencies in the contracting process. By eliminating this flexibility, smart contracting will impose costs that are more severe and intractable than the ones it seeks to solve.


Abstract. High concentrations of fine particles (PM2.5) are frequently observed during all seasons in Beijing, China, leading to severe air pollution and human health problems in this megacity. In this study, we conducted real-time measurements of non-refractory submicron aerosol (NR-PM1) species (sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, chloride, and organics) in Beijing using an Aerodyne Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor for 1 year, from July 2011 to June 2012. This is the first long-term, highly time-resolved (~ 15 min) measurement of fine particle composition in China. The seasonal average (±1σ) mass concentration of NR-PM1 ranged from 52 (±49) μg m−3 in the spring season to 62 (±49) μg m−3 in the summer season, with organics being the major fraction (40–51 %), followed by nitrate (17–25 %) and sulfate (12–17 %). Organics and chloride showed pronounced seasonal variations, with much higher concentrations in winter than in the other seasons, due to enhanced coal combustion emissions. Although the seasonal variations of secondary inorganic aerosol (SIA, i.e., sulfate + nitrate + ammonium) concentrations were not significant, higher contributions of SIA were observed in summer (57–61 %) than in winter (43–46 %), indicating that secondary aerosol production is a more important process than primary emissions in summer. Organics presented pronounced diurnal cycles that were similar among all seasons, whereas the diurnal variations of nitrate were mainly due to the competition between photochemical production and gas–particle partitioning. Our data also indicate that high concentrations of NR-PM1 (> 60 μg m−3) are usually associated with high ambient relative humidity (RH) (> 50 %) and that severe particulate pollution is characterized by different aerosol composition in different seasons. All NR-PM1 species showed evident concentration gradients as a function of wind direction, generally with higher values associated with wind from the south, southeast or east. This was consistent with their higher potential as source areas, as determined by potential source contribution function analysis. A common high potential source area, located to the southwest of Beijing along the Taihang Mountains, was observed during all seasons except winter, when smaller source areas were found. These results demonstrate a high potential impact of regional transport from surrounding regions on the formation of severe haze pollution in Beijing.


Social media was born an efficient method of personal networking. As more and more researchers took to social media platforms, we have witnessed an organic growth of collaboration among scholars, faculty, students, etc. This phenomenon has led us to a profound change in the way we conduct research through social media. Research through collaboration is now increasingly important in order to achieve a higher impact throughout the research community. But where does the library fit into this? The simple answer is that researchers are now bypassing the library. This presentation will look at the new reality of social research collaboration and discuss what kinds of webbased tools can support the workflow and peer collaboration of researchers. The presenters will also discuss why it is essential for libraries to become part of the solution before they are left out in the cold.


Gas coring and lava flow through a small vent, followed by hydro thermal activity has produced a calcite-baryte-fluorite-anatase-bearing syenite and types of metagabbro which intersect Precambrian gneiss. A pegmatite dike, also of Precambrian age, is cut by diabase dikes. Breccia with xenoliths of diabase and gneiss and a matrix of syenite is locally developed along the rim of the syenite body. Permian or late Precambrian age of the syenite is discussed. The feldspars of the syenite: low temperature al bite and highly ordered submicroscopically twinned microcline is assumed to be the result of alteration or original alkali-feldspar mixed crystals by low temperature and high water pressure.


This paper addresses the problem of automatically labeling contrast in spontaneous spoken speech, where contrast here is meant as a relation that ties two words that explicitly contrast with each other. Detection of contrast is certainly relevant in the analysis of discourse and information structure and also, because of the prosodic correlates of contrast, could play an important role in speech applications, such as text-to-speech synthesis, that need an accurate and discourse context related modeling of prosody. With this prospect we investigate the feasibility of automatic contrast labeling by training and evaluating on the Switchboard corpus a novel contrast tagger, based on support vector machines (SVM), that combines lexical features, syntactic dependencies and WordNet semantic relations.


Estimates of intermolt duration of giant crabs, based on tag-recapture methodology, are used in evaluating management options. However, several short-comings of tag-recovery data have been noted including the low number of tags inserted in legal-sized animals and that the unusually long intermolt duration requires long periods of time-at-large. This need led to the evaluation of alternative methods to estimate intermolt duration. Reproduction in female giant crabs occurs in annual cycles, although females occasionally 'skip' a reproductive season and do not become ovigerous; it has been noted previously that this appears to be associated with molting. Thus the proportion of females that do not participate in reproduction may indicate the proportion molting. We tried this approach with a sample of 342 females and measured the number that were 'skipping' a reproductive season by computerised tomography scanning (CT-scanning) of their ovaries prior to the extrusion of eggs. From the inferred proportion molting intermolt duration was estimated at 9 years for mature size classes, however 95% confidence limits were broad (6.8-13.1 years). This estimate does, however, corroborate those previously reported from studies in which tag and recapture methods were employed. Radiometric ageing (228Th/ 228Ra) of carapaces was also undertaken with the focus of this work on testing an assumption of the method, rather than describing the intermoult duration of a population. We tested the assumption that there is negligible exchange of radionuclides during intermolt in the exoskeleton, which is critical for reliable estimation of intermoult. SEM images of the internal structure of the exoskeleton indicated that exchange of material within the exoskeleton was unlikely and the majority of radiometric assays were consistent with this observation. Radiometric age was estimated by gamma spectroscopy, which allowed rapid analysis compared to previously reported methodology. This rapid processing may facilitate broader application of radiometric ageing to crustacean research.


We present a systematic study of the long-timescale dynamics of the Drew–Dickerson dodecamer (DDD: d(CGCGAATTGCGC)2) a prototypical B-DNA duplex. Using our newly parameterized PARMBSC1 force field, we describe the conformational landscape of DDD in a variety of ionic environments from minimal salt to 2 M Na+Cl− or K+Cl−. The sensitivity of the simulations to the use of different solvent and ion models is analyzed in detail using multi-microsecond simulations. Finally, an extended (10 μs) simulation is used to characterize slow and infrequent conformational changes in DDD, leading to the identification of previously uncharacterized conformational states of this duplex which can explain biologically relevant conformational transitions. With a total of more than 43 μs of unrestrained molecular dynamics simulation, this study is the most extensive investigation of the dynamics of the most prototypical DNA duplex.


This paper examines the effects of immigration on the labor market outcomes of less-skilled natives. Working from a simple model of a local labor market, we show that the effects of immigration can be estimated from the correlations between the fraction of immigrants in a city and the employment and wage outcomes of natives. The size of the effects depend on the fraction and skill composition of the immigrants. We go on the compute these correlations using city-specific outcomes for individuals in 120 major SMSA's in the 1970 and 1980 Censuses. We also use the relative industry distributions of immigrants and natives to provide a direct assessment of the degree of labor market competition between them. Our empirical findings indicate a modest degree of competition between immigrants and less-skilled natives. A comparison of industry distributions shows that an increase in the fraction of immigrants in the labor force translates to an approximately equivalent percentage increase in the supply of labor to industries in which less-skilled natives are employed. Based on this calculation, immigrant inflows between 1970 and 1980 generated l-2 percent increases in labor supply to these industries in most cities. A comparison of industry distributions of less-skilled natives in high- and low-immigrant share cities between 1970 and 1980 shows some displacement out of low-wage immigrant-intensive industries. We find little effect of immigration on the employment outcomes of the four race/sex groups that we consider. Our estimates of the effect of immigration on the wages of less-skilled natives are sensitive to the specification and estimation procedure. However, our preferred estimates, which are based on first differences between 1980 and 1970 and the use of instrumental variables to control for the endogeneity of immigrant inflows, imply that an increase in immigrants equal to l percent of an SMSA's population reduces native wages by roughly 1.2 percent.


Favorable application of controlled‐release agrochemicals requires an understanding of the two simultaneous processes of release from the controlled‐release sources into the surrounding soil, and the subsequent spread, uptake, and degradation in the soil profile. In previous research the release process was conceptually approximated by artificial decoupling of the diffusional release and vertical, convective–dispersive transport of the released material. The present article describes a new physical model that avoids this decoupling approximation and conceptualizes the complete three‐dimensional, axisymmetric problem of diffusional controlled release and convective–dispersive vertical transport of the agrochemical in the soil. A numerical finite‐element scheme was coded for solving the model equations, and it was employed to investigate the effects of the various quantifiers of the controlled‐release source and the soil on the release process and, in particular, to study the interplay between the processes of release into the cylindrical soil domain and the convective–dispersive spread in the soil. The actual computations refer to the three‐dimensional water velocity filed around an impermeable capsule and the resulting spreading mechanisms, but for the sake of brevity, the outline of the model equations refers to vertical water velocities throughout the cylindrical domain, disregarding radial water fluxes and the resulting vertical dispersive fluxes of the released material. In general, the release rate is expected to increase with increasing membrane conductance, capsule radius, capsule inner concentration, water flux, and the soil longitudinal and, especially, transverse dispersivities. A dimensional analysis of the problem provided a deeper understanding of the dependence of the release rates on these factors, and provided a distinction between the two extremes of slow capsule‐controlled release and fast soil‐controlled release.


Fairtrade certification aims at transferring wealth from the consumer to the farmer; however, coffee passes through many hands before reaching final consumers. Bringing together retail, wholesale, and stock market data, this study estimates how much more consumers are paying for Fairtrade-certified coffee in US supermarkets and finds estimates around $1 per lb. I then assess how this price premium is split between the different stages of the value chain: most of the premium goes to the roaster's profit margin, while the retailer surprisingly makes smaller absolute profits on Fairtrade-certified coffee, compared to conventional coffee. The coffee farmer receives about a fifth of the price premium paid by the consumer, but it is unclear how much of this (quantity-dependent) benefit goes toward the payment of (quantity-independent) license fees.


The existence of neutrino oscillation is the first evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model. It proves that neutrinos are massive and motivates the study of the neutrino nature, mixings and mass generation models. To have a better understanding of neutrino masses and mixings, the existence and character of sterile neutrinos would be an important factor. In this thesis, we will describe the phenomena of neutrinoless double beta decay and sterile neutrino oscillations. The studies of these two topics will contribute to understanding the properties of sterile neutrinos in the heavy and light mass regime.

We first study the neutrinoless double beta decay process to tackle the issue about the nature of neutrino. Establishing the nature of neutrinos, whether they are Dirac or Majorana particles is one of the fundamental questions we need to answer in particle physics, and is related to the conservation of lepton number. Neutrinoless double beta decay is the tool of choice for testing the Majorana nature of neutrinos. However, up to now, this process has not been observed, but a wide experimental effort is taking place worldwide and soon new results will become available.

Different mechanisms can induce neutrinoless double beta decay and might interfere with each other, potentially leading to suppressed contributions to the decay rate. This possibility would become of great interest if upcoming neutrino mass measurements from KATRIN and cosmological observations found that neutrino mass is larger than 0.2 eV but no positive signal was observed in neutrinoless double beta decay experiments. We focus on the possible interference between light Majorana neutrino exchange with other mechanisms, such as heavy sterile neutrinos and R-parity violating supersymmetric models. We show that in some cases the use of different nuclei would allow to disentangle the different contributions and allow to test the hypothesis of destructive interference. Finally, we present a model in which such interference can emerge and we discuss the range of parameters which would lead to a significant suppression of the decay rate.

Heavy sterile neutrino is involved in the studies of neutrinoless double beta decay and mass generation involve. On the other hand, the effect of light sterile neutrino may be present in the oscillation experiments. To measure the light sterile neutrino mixing, high statistics measurements are necessary. A neutrino factory has been suggested as a powerful tool for studying new physics, for example, sterile neutrinos, exploiting its near detectors. Here, we use the new version of GLoBES to study the potential of a low energy neutrino factory (LENF) in constraining the sterile mixing angles and the mass-square difference. Unlike in conventional long baseline neutrino experiments, the electron neutrino disappearance and appearance channels are also included, since they have been proved helpful in constraining some of the mixing angles.

We will explore the dependence of the performance of the LENF depending on different experimental setups, such as the detector type (TASD and LiAr), the energy range, the systematic errors. etc.
Moreover, the re-analysis of reactor neutrino experiments suggests the presence of neutrino oscillations due to large sterile neutrino mixing
with electron neutrino. We show that, with a near detector, LENF can constrain the sterile parameter values in a very small range and helps us to check the recent Reactor Anomaly.


The uses of Internet technology within educational settings reflect particular perspectives on a host of issues including ability, race, and learning styles, but are often not examined for their implicit ideological or epistemological foundations. Web accessibility (ensuring that web content is accessible to persons with disabilities), though laden with progressive intent, is increasingly connected to neo-liberal agendas within higher education. The delivery of instruction online, and the increased use of technology in all modes of instruction positions teachers and learners within particular discursive formations and mediates instruction in ways that privilege certain epistemologies. In the present article the concept of articulation is utilized to make sense of the diverse ideological and philosophical perspectives that find a nexus in web accessibility and that are analyzed vis-à-vis the increasing technologizing of instruction. As part of this analysis, distance education technology and web accessibility standards are discussed and the notion of "marketizing" disability is explored within the context of shifts toward online instruction.


This essay attempts to construct a normative justification for the imposition of human rights duties on transnational corporations (TNCs) that commit environmental wrongs in the developing world. Under the now near-hegemonic worldview of welfare economics, TNCs are analogised to individuals competing in the marketplace and thus placed squarely on the private side of the public/private divide. If we step outside of the economic worldview, however, and recognise the extent to which the normative justifications for civil and political human rights have traditionally been rooted in a perceived need to counteract the imbalance of power between the individual and the state, it becomes clear that it is frequently far more appropriate to treat TNCs as like states than like individuals. Many TNCs, after all, wield more power and resources than many states. Accordingly, at least where one of two sets of factual circumstances exist, human rights duties should be imposed directly on TNCs for environmental harms: 1) where the state has become so weak and/or corrupt as to be non-functional, or 2) where the TNC has so much power and influence within the domestic government that it essentially controls state decision-making.


A Role for IFN-ɛ Type I interferons (IFNs) are critical cytokines involved in host defense against pathogens, particularly viruses. IFN-ɛ is an IFN-like gene encoded within the type I IFN locus in mice and humans whose function has not been characterized. Fung et al. (p. 1088) created mice with a genetic deletion in Ifn-ɛ and found that, like other type I IFNs, IFN-ɛ signals through the IFN-α receptors 1 and 2. However, unlike these other cytokines, which are primarily expressed by immune cells and are induced upon immune cell triggering, IFN-ɛ was expressed exclusively by epithelial cells of the female reproductive tract in both mice and humans and its expression was hormonally regulated. IFN-ɛ–deficient mice were more susceptible to infection with herpes simplex virus 2 and Chlamydia muridarum, two common sexually transmitted pathogens. The cytokine interferon-ε is expressed in the female reproductive tract and protects against sexually transmitted diseases. The innate immune system senses pathogens through pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) that signal to induce effector cytokines, such as type I interferons (IFNs). We characterized IFN-ε as a type I IFN because it signaled via the Ifnar1 and Ifnar2 receptors to induce IFN-regulated genes. In contrast to other type I IFNs, IFN-ε was not induced by known PRR pathways; instead, IFN-ε was constitutively expressed by epithelial cells of the female reproductive tract (FRT) and was hormonally regulated. Ifn-ε–deficient mice had increased susceptibility to infection of the FRT by the common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) herpes simplex virus 2 and Chlamydia muridarum. Thus, IFN-ε is a potent antipathogen and immunoregulatory cytokine that may be important in combating STIs that represent a major global health and socioeconomic burden.


The liver X receptors (LXR-α and -β) are nuclear transcription factors that have been implicated in both glucose and lipid metabolism; their activation by oxysterol ligands elicits both a decrease in atherosclerosis and antidiabetic effects. Although synthetic LXR ligands decrease hepatic gluconeogenesis and increase lipogenesis in rodent models, the normal rodent diet lacks cholesterol, which led Mitro et al. to search for other ligands. They found that glucose and glucose derivatives stimulated the transcriptional activation of a Gal4-responsive gene reporter in human HepG2 cells expressing constructs in which LXR ligand-binding domains (LBDs) were fused to the Gal4 DNA binding domain and transcriptionally activated LXR-RXR (retinoid X receptor) targets. Cell-free coactivator recruitment assays and scintillation proximity assays indicated that glucose and glucose-6-phosphate were direct LXR agonists that bound to the LXR LBD. Furthermore, glucose protected LXR-α from proteolytic attack and increased the LXR-β melting temperature. Glucose had effects on the transcription of LXR target genes in HEPG2 cells similar to those of known ligands, stimulating the expression of genes involved in fatty acid synthesis and cholesterol homeostasis and inhibiting expression of gluconeogenic genes; moreover, it potentiated the effects of LXR ligands. Similarly, glucose- or sucrose-feeding stimulated the expression of LXR target genes in the livers of fasted mice, even mice that were insulin deficient. Thus, glucose itself appears to act as a ligand for LXR, leading the authors to propose that LXR acts as a "transcriptional switch" to coordinate carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. N. Mitro, P. A. Mak, L. Vargas, C. Godio, E. Hampton, V. Molteni, A. Kreusch, E. Saez, The nuclear receptor LXR is a glucose sensor. Nature 445, 219-223 (2007). [PubMed]


Centuries after his death, al-Ghazali remains one of the most influential figures of the Islamic intellectual tradition. Although he is best known for his Incoherence of the Philosophers, Moderation in Belief is his most profound work of philosophical theology. In it, he offers what scholars consider to be the best defense of the Ash'arite school of Islamic theology that gained acceptance within orthodox Sunni theology in the twelfth century, though he also diverges from Ash'arism with his more rationalist approach to the Qur'an. Together with The Incoherence of the Philosophers, Moderation in Belief informs many subsequent theological debates, and its influence extends beyond the Islamic tradition, informing broader questions within Western philosophical and theological thought. The first complete English edition of Moderation in Belief, this new annotated translation by Aladdin M. Yaqub draws on the most esteemed critical editions of the Arabic texts and offers detailed commentary that analyzes and reconstructs the arguments found in the work's four treatises. Explanations of the historical and intellectual background of the texts also enable readers with a limited knowledge of classical Arabic to fully explore al-Ghazali and this foundational text for the first time. With the recent resurgence of interest in Islamic philosophy and the conflict between philosophy and religion, this new translation will be a welcome addition to the scholarship.


AIM
In demyelinating disease spectrum, tumor-like (tumefactive) demyelinating lesions (TDL) are rarely seen. Atypical imaging and clinical features of these lesions may cause misdiagnosis of tumor or abscess.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
25 patients with TDL in our center were followed and clinical, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) findings and disease course were retrospectively evaluated.

RESULTS
Mean age at symptom onset was 29 years. Motor and sensory deficits were most common symptoms and 18 of them were polysymptomatic. Mostly frontal and parietal regions were affected. 10/25 patients were initially misdiagnosed clinically as brain abscess, primary central nervous system tumor metastasis. T2-hypointense rim, incomplete ring enhancement of the lesions on post-gadolinium T1- weighted imaging on brain MRI enabled accurate diagnosis of TDLs. 13 of 21 patients with first-TDL presentation sustained a monophasic course, remaining 8 patients converted to multiple sclerosis (MS) at a mean 38.4 months follow-up. Clinical isolated syndrome (CIS) patients were older than patients who developed MS and Expanded Disability Status Scale was lower (0.96 vs 3.7).

CONCLUSION
Although MRI, CSF and pathologic examination help in differential diagnosis of the mass lesions, close follow-up is still crucial for the definite diagnosis. A higher MS conversion rate was found in patients with a younger TDL onset age.


Collective modes of molecular motion result in long-range correlations between molecules. Orientation correlations between the molecules of an isotropic fluid owing to polar collective modes result in hyper-Rayleigh scattering with distinctive polarization and angle dependence. The polarization and angle dependence for hyper-Rayleigh scattering from polar transverse-optical and longitudinal-optical nonlocal modes, and for dipolar and quadrupolar hyper-Raleigh scattering from local modes, is calculated and compared.


Consumers worldwide are becoming health conscious and are concerned about nutrition (Hart, 2000) and the quality of food consumed. Consumers are also increasingly concerned with food safety issues taking into consideration, the recent salmonella case in Germany and elsewhere. Gil, Gracia and Sanchez (2000) have investigated that consumers are getting health conscious and are paying more attention to qualit y of food consumed. Therefore, food must deliver an added value that are sought after by consumers besides basic hedonistic and functional needs such as nutrition, taste, health, favorable price-quality ratio, etc in the selection of food. This added value may be perceived in the form of ecological, social and individual benefit.
 Consumer interest in organic and local foods has shown continued growth for the past two decades. Organic food sales in the U.S. have grown at a rate of approximately 20% per year from $1 billion in 1990 to $17 billion in 2006, currently representing about 2.5% of all food sales (Dimitri and Greene, 2002; Klonsky and Greene, 2005; Organic consumers Association, 2007; Organic Trade Association, 2007).
 In a report on US public opinion, organic food markets evolve at noticeably different rates. For example, the British and German markets have developed at a faster pace as has been investigated by Baker, Thompson and Engelken (2004). Fotopoulos and Krystallis (2002) studied the earlier Greek market which was considered to be a mature market to be lagging behind a decade when compared to the rest of the developed markets. Krystallis and Chryssohoidis (2005) have investigated that a total of 130 countries are engaged in producing certified organic food with 90 of them belonging to the developing countries having a favorable environmental condition for growing organic produce.
 The organic food market in India is at a nascent stage. Country specific research undertaken by A.C.Neilsen in 2006 has indicated that Indians are among the top ten buyers of food with health supplements but lack access to organic food products. Due to high logistic cost & low volume operation, organic food products are costly. The domestic market is driving organic market in India and 96.7% of India's 5,85,000 MT of certified organic products produced in 2007 – 08 is used in domestic markets. An eight city survey in 2006 has indicated a potential demand to the tune of INR 5.6 billion for organic food products in India (Mukherjee,2008). However, the domestic market is characterized by limited retail presence, low certified branded produce and a small range of organic product offerings with respect to varieties though potential growth is becoming evident. Chen (2007) identified that awareness of organic food products are generally not promoted and public is not well informed.
 A study on consumer perception towards organic food products may add insight into the nascent but emerging organic food industry in India.
 The review of related literature in the area of organic food products and consumer perception studied has provided many insights for the study. It has also provided direction in designing the present study. A number of researchers have identified various factors that influence consumer perception of organic food products mainly in developed countries. Some studies have also been undertaken in Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. Very few researchers have attempted to focus in detail the various factors that influence consumer perception towards organic food. Having reviewed several studies and having identified the gap, the investigator felt an imperative need to undertake the present investigation.
 The sample consisted of 246 respondents across the city of Bangalore. Convenience sampling technique was adopted for selecting the respondents.
 The questionnaire was developed by the investigator. Pilot study was conducted to test the reliability. The Cronbach's alpha reliabilit y for the scale was 0.790 which is considered as fairly good.

The major findings of the study were:
 1.Consumers of organic food products evaluate product quality with the price they pay.

 2.Demographic variables namely gender has a positive impact on consumer perception towards organic food products while difference in educational qualifications do not have a significant impact.
 3.There is significant impact of psychographic factors on overall satisfaction of consumers towards organic food products.
 4.Consumers consider organic food products as safe for consumption.
 5.The respondents have also felt that organic food products are healthy to consume
6.Consumers generally prefer to consume grain based organic food products followed closely by organic grains and organic fruits.

 The implication of the study will be to help marketers develop and strategize their offerings of organic food products more effectively and efficiently contributing to the overall well being of the society and the individual consumer.

Key Words used in this study: demographic factors, organic food products and psychographic factors influencing consumer perception.


Since the discovery of nitric oxide (NO) as a vasodilator, numerous NO therapies have been attempted to remedy disorders related to pathological vasoconstriction such as coronary artery disease. Despite the advances, clinical applications of NO therapies remain limited mainly because of the low stability of molecular NO donors (and NO molecules), and concerns about the increased oxidative stress and reduced arterial pressure associated with the systemic administration of NO. Here we design a photoresponsive polymersome with nitrosothiols and Cu1.6S nanoparticles in its core and shell, respectively, and demonstrate the photo-triggered release of NO and its vasodilatory activity on zebrafish. Unlike conventional approaches, our design enhances the stability of NO donors and prospectively enables spatiotemporal regulation of NO release, thus minimizing the harmful effects associated with conventional NO therapies. We anticipate that such a strategy will open up new clinical applications of NO and help reveal the complex biological effects of NO in vivo.


We investigate the verification of Multi-agent Systems against strategic properties expressed in Alternating-time Temporal Logic under the assumptions of imperfect information and perfect recall. To this end, we develop a three-valued semantics for concurrent game structures upon which we define an abstraction method. We prove that concurrent game structures with imperfect information admit perfect information abstractions that preserve three-valued satisfaction. Further, we present a refinement procedure to deal with cases where the value of a specification is undefined. We illustrate the overall procedure in a variant of the Train Gate Controller scenario under imperfect information and perfect recall.


I propose a new scenario for the discovery of America. By analogy with other successful animal invasions, one may assume that the discovery of the New World triggered a human population explosion. The invading hunters attained their highest population density along a front that swept from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico in 350 years, and on to the tip of South America in roughly 1000 years. A sharp drop in human population soon followed as major prey animals declined to extinction. Possible values for the model include an average frontal depth of 160 kilometers, an average population density of 0.4 person per square kilometer on the front and of 0.04 person per square kilometer behind the front, and an average rate of frontal advance of 16 kilometers per year. For the first two centuries the maximum rate of growth may have equaled the historic maximum of 3.4 percent annually. During the episode of faunal extinctions, the population of North America need not have exceeded 600,000 people at any one time. The model generates a population sufficiently large to overkill a biomass of Pleistocene large animals averaging 9 metric tons per square kilometer (50 animal units per section) or 2.3 x 108 metric tons in the hemisphere. It requires that on the front one person in four destroy one animal unit (450 kilograms) per week, or 26 percent of the biomass of an average section in 1 year in any one region. Extinction would occur within a decade. There was insufficient time for the fauna to learn defensive behaviors, or for more than a few kill sites to be buried and preserved for the archeologist. Should the model survive future findings, it will mean that the extinction chronology of the Pleistocene megafauna can be used to map the spread of Homo sapiens throughout the New World.


Recent laboratory studies have shown that the compaction can highly affect the
performance of Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) mixtures. California kneading
compactors, Gyratory compactors and Marshall impact compactors are being used as
SMA compactors in the mix design methods. But according to the performance of the
SMA compacted specimens, none of them could simulate the field compaction one
hundred percent. Breaking down of the aggregates during compaction is one of the most
extensive problems in road mixtures and if that becomes prevalent, the mixture may not
meet the minimum VMA (void in mineral aggregate) and VCA (void in coarse
aggregate) requirements.
In this study, the newly developed Rotary compactor was introduced as a new
equipment for laboratory compaction to reduce the previous laboratory compactor
problems and to have better field simulation. Physical properties of materials such as aggregates, bitumen and fiber have been considered as one of the objectives in this
research. So the physical properties of the asphalt mixture materials were determined in
accordance with relevant international standards such as ASTM, AASHTO and BS. The
weight of required materials per each Rotary slab was approximately130kg and
Marshall mix design was selected as a mix design method to measure the Optimum
Asphalt Content (OAC) and based on the Asphalt Institute method the OAC was
obtained 6%. A total of three SMA slabs were prepared in accordance with UPM inhouse
protocol for Rotary compactor and 88 core specimens with 100mm diameters and
8 core specimens with 200mm diameter were cored out and subjected to performance
tests.
SMA core specimens with 100mm diameters were tested for density, air void, stability,
flow, resilient modulus, indirect tensile strength (IDT), moisture induced damage and
fatigue. Also, 8 core specimens with 200mm diameters were subjected to Loaded Wheel
Tracking (LWT) test to measure the rut resistance level of the Rotary SMA specimens.
Finally, the performance test results were tabulated and analyzed. The entire analysis
indicated that the results can be accepted in terms of performance of the SMA core
specimens compacted using the newly developed Rotary compactor. It can be
concluded that Rotary compactor can be used as a new heavy duty laboratory
compactor.


Cerebral autoregulation (CA) describes the capability of the brain to maintain its flow as relatively stable over a wide rage of mean arterial pressures (MAPs), for example, from 60 to 150 mm Hg. Because the brain is encompassed in the skull, CA is vital for preventing cerebral edema and hemorrhage, as illustrated in some patients experiencing acute liver failure.1 Also, CA counteracts the effect on cerebral blood flow (CBF) of a reduction in MAP in response to, for example, hemorrhage or a change in body position. Yet, when rising from a supine or seated position, one sometimes experiences symptoms indicative of a reduced CBF, like blurred vision.2 Thus, CA is of general clinical interest. For example, diabetic patients have increased risk of developing ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, and in some diabetic patients CA is affected.

Evidence for CA was provided in the 1930s when Fog,3 through a cranial window, observed the pial artery reaction to manipulation of MAP. For humans, CBF was measured with introduction of the method of Kety-Schmidt in 1948,4 and it was used in 1954 by Finnerty et al5 to determine cerebral hemodynamics of the ischemic brain after an acute reduction in MAP in attempt to define what now would be considered the lower limit of CA. However, it was the review by Lassen6 that introduced the concept of CA by plotting CBF against MAP to illustrate the relative stability of CBF over a wide range of blood pressure. Also, the lower and upper limits of CA were identified by a decrease in CBF at a low MAP and an increase …


We propose a novel space domain volume holographic correlator system. One of the limitations of conventional correlators is the bandwidth limits imposed by updating the filter and the readout speed of the CCD. The volume holographic correlator overcomes these by storing a large number of filters that can be interrogated simultaneously. By using angle multiplexing, the match can be read out onto a high speed linear array of sensors. A scanning window can be used to implement shift invariance, thus, making the system operate like a space domain correlator. The space domain correlation method offers an advantage over the frequency domain correlator in that the correlation filter no longer has shift invariance imposed on it since the kernel can be modified depending on its position. This maybe used for normalising the kernel or imposing some non-linearity in an attempt to improve performance. However, one of the key advantages of the frequency domain method is lost using this technique, namely the speed of the computation. A large kernel space-domain correlation, performed on a computer, will be very slow compared to what is achievable using a 4f optical correlator. We propose a method of implementing this using the scanning holographic memory based correlator.


Dividend policy is one of controversial financial issues. There are various theories about dividend but in this study, the focus is on empirical test of signaling theory. This theory says that the payment of dividends provides information for investors and analysts. The aim of this study is preparing the evidence on dividend signaling about corporate operating characteristics (return, performance and earning). Therefore, linear regression models were fitted. Results showed that significantly positive correlation exists between dividend and return. Also, there was a similar relationship between dividend and earning. It means that dividend has information content about return and earning and so, signaling theory was approved about them. Nonetheless, a significant relationship was not funded between dividend and performance proxies and so, signaling theory was not approved. In addition to, there was a significantly positive relationship between dividend and size. It indicates that larger firms pay more dividends.


This article analyzes the organizational structure of the public opinion survey industry in Russia as an independent market and society sector. The article consists of two parts: the first part attempts a macroanalysis of the principles of this industry's organization. I argue that, despite the ontogenetic and organizational differences in design of the spheres of market research and public opinion surveys, over time the public opinion survey industry has adopted standards of governance and representation conventional in marketing. The second half of the article lays out my research findings, collected via organizational ethnography, allowing insight into this industry's work on a micro level. The main conflict discussed in the second part is the struggle between managers and professionals over who will control the work process and dominate the organizations' management. This article draws on work in the subfields of organizational theory, sociology of markets, and sociology of professions. In Russian, extended summary in English.


It is demonstrated that the method for locating a velocity profile origin, or plane of zero velocity, by fitting log profiles to streamwise velocity measurements is applicable to a larger range of roughness scales than previously expected. Five different sets of detailed, experimental velocity measurements were analyzed encompassing sediment-scale roughness elements, roughness caused by rigid vegetation, and large-scale roughness elements comprised of mobile bedforms. The method resulted in similar values of normalized zero-plane displacement for all roughness types considered. The ratios of zero-plane displacement, dh, to roughness height, ks, were 0.20 and 0.26 for the sedimentand vegetation-scale experiments, respectively. The results for the two experiments with bedform dominated roughness were 0.34 and 0.41. An estimate of dh/ks ranging from 0.2 to 0.4 is therefore recommended for a range of roughness types with the higher end of the range being more appropriate for the larger, bedform-scale roughness elements, and the lower end for the sediment-scale roughness elements. In addition, it is demonstrated that the location of the plane of zero velocity is temporally constant even when the bed height is not. The effects of roughness element packing density were also examined with the identification of a possible threshold at 4%, above which zero-plane displacement is independent of packing density. The findings can be applied to field velocity measurements under mobile bed conditions, facilitating the calculation of turbulence parameters such as shear velocity, by using point measurements and providing guidelines for the estimation of an appropriate value for zeroplane displacement.


The present research examined how being described as a dancer affects Black and White men and women's assessed mate value in two studies. Study 1 examined evaluations of men by women and study 2 examined evaluations of women by men. Based on prior research examining how dancers are perceived and how body movements affect social perceiver's evaluations of others, men and women described as dancers were expected to receive better ratings. Additionally, race of the individual being assessed was not expected to have any impact on mate value ratings. The results were consistent with the hypotheses. Men and women described as dancers received higher ratings than men and women described as non-dancers. Static manipulations of dancing ability also lead to evolutionary theory based evaluations of men and women.


Abstract. The Basilica of San Marco in Venice is a well-known masterpiece of World Heritage. It is a real multi-faceted architecture. The management of the church and its construction site is very complicated, and requires an efficient system to collect and manage different kinds of data. The BIM approach appeared to be the most suitable to collect multi-source data, to monitor activities and guarantee the well-timed operations inside the church. The purpose of this research was to build a BIM of the Basilica, considering all aspects that characterize it and that require particular care. Many problems affected the phase of the acquisition of data, and forced the team to establish a clear working pipeline that allowed the survey simultaneously, hand in hand, with all the usual activities of the church. The fundamental principle for the organization of the whole work was the subdivision of the entire complex in smaller parts, which could be managed independently, both in the acquisition and the modelling stage. This subdivision also reflects the method used for the photogrammetric acquisition. The complexity of some elements, as capitals and statues, was acquired with different Level of Detail (LoD) using various photogrammetric acquisitions: from the most general ones to describe the space, to the most detailed one 1:1 scale renderings. In this way, different LoD point clouds correspond to different areas or details. As evident, this pipeline allows to work in a more efficient way during the survey stage, but it involves more difficulties in the modelling stage. Because of the complexity of the church and the presence of sculptural elements represented by a mesh, from the beginning the problem of the amount of data was evident: it is nonsense to manage all models in a single file. The challenging aspect of the research job was the precise requirement of the Procuratoria di San Marco: to obtain the 1:1 representation of all the mosaics of the Basilica. This requirement significantly increased the effort in the acquisition stage, because it was necessary to reach a submillimetre resolution in the photographic images sufficient to distinguish perfectly each single tessera, also in the highest domes (28 meters). Furthermore, it introduced a new problem about the management of the gigapixel - orthophotos. The BIM approach presented in this paper tries to offer a solution to all these problems. The BIM application is based not on commercial software, but on a self-implemented system, which was previously tested on the Main Spire of Milano Cathedral. The multi-scale and multi-area approach have also been maintained in the BIM construction phase. In the case of Basilica di San Marco, the most important requirement was the management of the orthophotos of each single element. It was necessary to give the user the possibility to recover, for each item, not only the geometric model, but also the raster representation -orthophoto- of its surface: in order to do it, the BIM model acts as a three-dimensional catalogue.


The influence of the orientation of a 3′-OH group on the conformation and stability of hexitol oligonucleotides in complexes with RNA and as single strands in aqueous solution was investigated by molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations with AMBER 4.1. The particle mesh Ewald (PME) method was used for the treatment of long-range electrostatic interactions. An equatorial orientation of the 3′-OH group in the single-stranded D-mannitol nucleic acid (MNA) m(GCGTAGCG) and in the complex with the RNA r(CGCAUCGC) has an unfavorable influence on the helical stability. Frequent H-bonds between the 3′-OH group and the O−C(6′) of the phosphate backbone of the following nucleotide explain the distorted conformation of the MNA⋅RNA complex as well as that of the single MNA strand. This is consistent with experimental results that show lowered hybridization potentials for MNA⋅RNA complexes.

An axial orientation of the 3′-OH group in the D-altritol nucleic acid (ANA) a(GCGTAGCG) leads to a stable complex with the complementary RNA r(CGCAUCGC), as well as to a more highly preorganized single-stranded ANA chain. The averaged conformation of the ANA⋅RNA complex is similar to that of A-RNA, with only minor changes in groove width, helical curvature, and H-bonding pattern. The relative stabilities of ANA⋅RNA vs. HNA⋅RNA (HNA=D-hexitol nucleic acid without 3′-OH group) can be explained by differences in restricted movements, H-bonds, and solvation effects.


Issues of racial inequality and violence are front and center in today's society, as are issues surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). This Article, written by a law professor who is also a computer scientist, takes a deep dive into understanding how and why hacked and rogue AI creates unlawful and unfair outcomes, particularly for persons of color.

Black Americans are disproportionally featured in criminal justice, and their stories are obfuscated. The seemingly endless back-to-back murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and heartbreakingly countless others have finally shaken the United States from its slumbering journey towards intentional criminal justice reform. Myths about Black crime and criminals are embedded in the data collected by AI and do not tell the truth of race and crime. However, the number of Black people harmed by hacked and rogue AI will dwarf all historical records, and the gravity of harm is incomprehensible.

The lack of technical transparency and legal accountability leaves wrongfully convicted defendants without legal remedies if they are unlawfully detained based on a cyberattack, faulty or hacked data, or rogue AI. Scholars and engineers acknowledge that the artificial intelligence that is giving recommendations to law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and parole boards lacks the common sense of an 18-month-old child. This Article reviews the ways AI is used in the legal system and the courts' response to this use. It outlines the design schemes of proprietary risk assessment instruments used in the criminal justice system, outlines potential legal theories for victims, and provides recommendations for legal and technical remedies to victims of hacked data in criminal justice risk assessment instruments. It concludes that, with proper oversight, AI can increase fairness in the criminal justice system, but without this oversight, AI-based products will further exacerbate the extinguishment of liberty interests enshrined in the Constitution.

According to anti-lynching advocate Ida B. Wells-Barnett, "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." Thus, transparency is vital to safeguarding equity through AI design and must be the first step. The Article seeks ways to provide that transparency, for the benefit of all America, but particularly persons of color who are far more likely to be impacted by AI deficiencies. It also suggests legal reforms that will help plaintiffs recover when AI goes rogue.


Cite this article: Tewari D, Sah AN, Bawari S. Pharmacognostical Evaluation of Rhododendron arboreum Sm. from Uttarakhand. Pharmacog J. 2018;10(3):527-32. ABSTRACT Objective: Rhododendron arboreum Sm. commonly known as Burans is an important plant of the Himalayan region. It is the national flower of Nepal and state tree of Uttarakhand. The present study pertains to the pharmacognostical evaluation of R. arboreum from Uttarakhand. Methods: Macroscopy, microscopy by free hand section cutting and with the help of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were done along with the physicochemical analysis. Preliminary phytochemical studies and fluorescence analysis was also carried out. Results: Results revealed that the leaves contain paracytic or amphiparacytic stomata in cluster form. The epidermal cells were long and spongy. The cells also contain some grooves and papillae throughout the surface. Preliminary phytochemical analysis showed the presence of different secondary metabolites like alkaloids carbohydrates, phenols, proteins, saponins, and tannins. Conclusion: R. arboreum from Uttarakhand region was investigated for its morphological and cytological characteristics with the help of scanning electron microscopy for the first time. The results provide details on the presence of several specific characters which are important for the identification of the genuine crude drug.


Differences in self-reported depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and coping were evaluated in two groups of pediatric oncology patients: newly diagnosed (less than six months post-diagnosis) (n=5) and patients on cancer treatment for seven months or longer (n=5). Participants (6 males, 4 females, ages 7-17 years) completed the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), and the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory (CFSEI-2); nine of the ten participants discussed in a semi-structured interview their personal experiences and feelings about having cancer. Although the newly diagnosed group had a higher mean score on the CDI than the 7 months or greater group, the difference was not significant (p = .054). The newly diagnosed group also had higher mean state and trait anxiety scores on the STAIC, indicating higher anxiety levels, and a slightly lower CFSEI-2 mean score, indicating slightly lower self-esteem than the 7 months or greater group, but differences were not at a statistically significant level (p>.05).


Abstract The aim of this study is to predict the viscoelastic behaviour of high density polyethylene (HDPE) used in bottles and containers for liquid manufacturing, under compressive static long-term of creep and stress relaxation. A new mathematical model, based on the gradient method and the experimental compressive creep or relaxation results, is proposed. In this model, the response is assumed to be second order and is given as a linear combination of two exponential terms with different time constants. For the creep response, the deformation ε(t) given by the mathematical model is assumed to be time dependent. The model predictions at low stresses and strains are in good agreement with the experimental data. The maximal storage time of filled tanks is predicted to avoid the critical value of deformation of filled tanks (εc) respecting the relation (ε(t) >εc). In addition, the theoretical models, used in the prediction of the viscoelastic behaviour, determine the compressive stress relaxation through the compressive creep compliance, and vice versa.


Food consumption patterns in South Africa have changed dramatically over the past decades and likely will continue to change over the coming decades. Various food-related studies conducted over the last few decades indicate that food consumption shifts in South Africa have been towards a more Westernorientated diet, with nutritional consequences contributing to increased obesity and other non-communicable diseases. Several sources of data may be used to examine patterns in food consumption over time. Each of these methods has its own merits depending on the desired outcome, but are difficult to compare as each measures different levels of dietary information. As a result of the lack of regular national or comparable food consumption data in South Africa, the objective of this study was to establish, through the use of databases (FAOSTAT food balance sheets and Euromonitor International© Passport), the broad food and beverage consumption shifts in South Africa since 1994. Our findings indicate that food consumption shifts have been towards an overall increase in daily kilojoules consumed, a diet of sugar-sweetened beverages, an increase in the proportion of processed and packaged food including edible vegetable oils, increased intake of animal source foods, and added caloric sweeteners, and a shift away from vegetables. The largest shifts in food consumption were observed for soft drinks, sauces, dressings and condiments, sweet and savoury snacks, meat, and fats and oils. Convenience, health and nutrition, and indulgence were the main drivers of the increase in consumption of packaged foods and beverages. These shifts in food consumption are concerning as relates to their fat, sugar and salt composition and potential effect on public health.


Thorium and its compounds have received considerable attention in recent years due to the renewed interest in developing the thorium fuel cycle as an alternative nuclear energy technology. There is pressing current need to explore the physical properties essential to the fundamental understanding and practical application of these materials. Here we report on a computational study of thorium disulfide (${\mathrm{ThS}}_{2}$), which plays an important role in the thorium fuel reprocessing cycle. We have employed the density functional theory and evolutionary structure search methods to determine the crystal structures, electronic band structures, phonon dispersions and density of states, and thermodynamic properties of ${\mathrm{ThS}}_{2}$ under various pressure and temperature conditions. Our calculations identify several crystalline phases of ${\mathrm{ThS}}_{2}$ and a series of structural phase transitions induced by pressure and temperature. The calculated results also reveal electronic phase transitions from the semiconducting state in the low-pressure phases of ${\mathrm{ThS}}_{2}$ in the $Pnma$ and $Fm\overline{3}m$ symmetry to the metallic state in the high-pressure phases of ${\mathrm{ThS}}_{2}$ in the $Pnma$ and $I4/mmm$ symmetry. These results explain the experimental observation of the thermodynamic stability of the $Pnma$ phase of ${\mathrm{ThS}}_{2}$ at the ambient conditions and a pressure-induced structural phase transition in ${\mathrm{ThS}}_{2}$ around 40 GPa. Moreover, the present study reveals considerable additional information on the structural and electronic properties of ${\mathrm{ThS}}_{2}$ in a wide range of pressure and temperature. Such information provides key insights into the fundamental material behavior and the underlying mechanisms that lay the foundation for further exploration and application of ${\mathrm{ThS}}_{2}$.


Since its launch in 2006, Twitter has evolved from a niche service to a mass phenomenon; it has become instrumental for everyday communication as well as for political debates, crisis communication, marketing, and cultural participation. But the basic idea behind it has stayed the same: users may post short messages (tweets) of up to 140 characters and follow the updates posted by other users. Drawing on the experience of leading international Twitter researchers from a variety of disciplines and contexts, this is the first book to document the various notions and concepts of Twitter communication, providing a detailed and comprehensive overview of current research into the uses of Twitter. It also presents methods for analyzing Twitter data and outlines their practical application in different research contexts.


A photonic and phononic crystal (phoxonic crystal PxC) is a periodically patterned material that can at the same time localize optical and mechanical modes. Here we theoretically model one-dimensional PxC in diamond and find high quality mechanical resonances with very high frequencies > 10 GHz and optical properties comparable to those of PxC in other materials. The simultaneous confinement of photons and phonons leads to an optomechanical interaction that we calculate in a perturbation approach. The optomechanical coupling strengths reach values in the MHz range. We identify design rules to simultaneously achieve high optical and mechanical quality factors along with strong optomechanical coupling.


Recognition of Detroit's place in United States history has tended to range from the sensational, such as the two major racial explosions of 1943 and 1967, to the symbolic as in the case of the depression-era struggles of the United Auto Workers, or the 1970s-era deindustrialization. For African Americans in many U.S. cities, Detroit stands in for economic and social processes happening to them elsewhere, To be sure, Detroit has been the site of race riots and labor strikes, but African Americans' participation in these episodes should be seen in the context of the city's long, proud history of sheltering fugitives of the slave regime, educating the free black population, and producing employment, housing, and educational opportunities for southern black migrants and their children. In other words, conflict is not the only lens for viewing black Detroit; community is a powerful lens as well. (1) Within the history of Jazz, as historian Robin D. G. Kelley argues, there is "a general inability to recognize 'community'--a musician's community, a dancer's community, an African American community, and various overlapping communities that make up the world of jazz." Heeding Kelley's reminder that "new ideas come out of collective work, improvisation, and competition, but also from musicians educating each other," this essay focuses on a generational cohort of Jazz instrumentalists and vocalists who created a musically rigorous, but historically underappreciated Bebop scene in the 1940s and 1950s. (2) By continuing and expanding a tradition of communal values, sustained study, collective creativity, and improvisational individuality, these Detroit beboppers enriched and extended African American expressive culture and the world of music. For the most part, Detroit enters African American cultural history through the entrepreneurial figure of Barry Gordy, his successful black capitalist enterprise, the Motown Record Company, and its slick, soulful "Sound of Young America." As Suzanne Smith demonstrates, the signature Motown sound was tied both to the automobile industry, with the rhythms of the factory floor inspiring the beats of "Hitsville, U.S.A.," and to the larger history of sacred Gospel and secular Blues music. (3) In the matter of Jazz, however, Detroit is often passed by as scholars trace north-south itineraries from New Orleans to Kansas City and Chicago, and east-west circuits from New York to Los Angeles. Yet Detroit has something to tell us about Jazz as a communal, participatory art, just as Jazz has something to tell us about the quotidian experiences of black Detroit. Specifically, examining the rise of Bebop in Detroit sheds light on the intellectual character of working-class cultural production by African American creative personalities, musicians, artists, educators, mentors, and critics. In short, digging deeper into Jazz, rather than the Blues or Motown, yields new insights into Detroit, just as paying greater attention to Detroit expands the social geography of Jazz music, and reveals new facets of African American vernacular culture. In a speech in 1941 Duke Ellington declared that African Americans had ''recreated in America the desire for true democracy, freedom for all, the brotherhood of man, principles on which this country had been founded." Eric Porter argued that Bebop musicians ''refused" to play the entertainer role of "Uncle Tom," and they sought "to escape the stereotypes and audience expectations of the past," while maintaining an "aversion to musical boundaries." (4) The Bebop movement favored experimental small combos over commercial big bands in an industry that perpetuated an unfair racial differential in terms of musicians' wages, employment opportunities, and critical accolades. As Amiri Baraka argued, "liberal" white music critics, acting as patronizing cultural gatekeepers by privileging bourgeois cultural norms, "descended on the new music with a fanatical fury." (5) Frank Kofsky saw "Jazz criticism as social control," and "the Jazz revolution, in its social aspect," as "an indictment of the very inequalities of class and race that have given these critics their privileged position. …


Health outcomes vary across different welfare state arrangements (Bergqvist et al., 2013). Strikingly, while overall health is typically better in social democratic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), these countries do not always have the smallest health inequalities. A range of potential explanations has been put forth to explain this 'Nordic Paradox' (Bambra, 2011a). A commonly invoked one is that the welfare state itself plays a major role in determining health inequalities as welfare states both distribute major determinants of health (such as income, education, and employment) and mediate their health impact (Beckfield et al., 2015). Global processes have also been acknowledged as important influences on these broader, social determinants of health (Blouin et al., 2009; McNamara, 2017), but little is known about how global processes interact with welfare state policies to influence health inequalities (see also Huijts and McNamara, 2018). It has been found that social policies can both moderate the health impact of trade liberalization and influence the type of health-related pathways resulting from it (McNamara, 2015), but we lack studies on whether global processes might influence how social policies shape health. This is the focus of this article which specifically asks whether the persistence of health inequalities in Nordic states can be partly seen as a failure of welfare states to compensate for the impacts of greater global market integration. Two trade-related mechanisms that may in part explain the Nordic paradox are explored with the aim of laying the ground work for a more in-depth investigation and bringing a global perspective into the fold of health inequality research.


The antioxidant capacity and the phytochemical composition of two by-products from beeswax recycling processes were recently investigated. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the efficacy of one of these by-products, MUD1, against the oxidative stress induced by 2,2′-azobis(2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (AAPH) in human dermal fibroblast (HDF) cells. After a preliminary viability assay, the protective effect of MUD1 was investigated through the measurement of apoptosis level, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitrite (NO2−) production, the level of protein and lipid biomarkers (carbonyl groups, total glutathione and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance) of oxidative damage, and the measurement of antioxidant enzymes activities (glutatione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione transferase, superoxide dismutase and catalase). The obtained results showed that MUD1 exerted protective effects on HDF, increasing cell viability and counteracted the oxidative stress promoted by AAPH-treatment, and improved mitochondria functionality and wound healing capacities. This work shows the antioxidant effects exerted by beeswax by-products, demonstrating for the first time their potential against oxidative stress in human dermal fibroblast cells; however, further research will be necessary to evaluate their potentiality for human health by more deeply in vitro and in vivo studies.


In situations where self-interested agents interact repeatedly, it is important that they are endowed with negotiation techniques that enable them to reach agreements that are profitable in the long run. To this end, we devise a novel negotiation algorithm that generates promises of rewards in future interactions, as a means of permitting agents to reach better agreements, in a shorter time, in the present encounter. Moreover, we thus develop a specific negotiation tactic based on this reward generation algorithm and show that it can achieve significantly bettter outcomes than existing benchmark tactics that do not use such inducements. Specifically, we show, via empirical evaluation, that our tactic can lead to a 26% improvement in the utility of deals that are made and that 21 times fewer messages need to be exchanged in order to achieve this under concrete settings.


Over the past few months, the National Association for Clean Air (NACA) branches have been active in organizing knowledge-sharing sessions - particularly concerning the implementation of the new Air Quality Act. The National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act 2004 (Act no. 39 of 2004) will be replacing the Atmospheric Pollution Prevention Act 1965 (Act no. 45 of 1965), and will affect all industries currently in possession of a Registration Certificate under the APPA legislation. In addition, several new industrial processes have been included in the list of activities requiring licenses.


MORE THAN A SILHOUETTE: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMENS' GRADUATE STUDENT EXPERIENCE African American women have been silhouetted. They have been reduced to a one dimensional version of themselves and defined by societies White – male hegemonic background. Currently, limited research exists on the experiences of African American (AA) women graduate students from an Afrocentric perspective. Despite the increase enrollment of AA women in higher education, barriers to degree completion still persist as evidenced by the lower rates of graduation. The lack of AA women in higher education demonstrates that the literature holds a minority position not unlike that of AA women in society. Subsequently, the accomplishments, challenges and overall experiences of these students are missing. To date, both scholarly literature and educational praxis have dimensional voids in addressing the needs of women of African descent in the academy. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe and understand the experiences of African American women graduate students by elevating their voices. The two mechanisms of Black Feminist Thought: Matrix of domination and intersectionality were used to understand the women's experiences in the context of being Black first, gendered a woman second and then the issues that arise from a textured life where intersections of identity occur. This study addresses the gap in research by not only drawing attention to statistical outcomes as reported by National reporting agencies on student academic success but also brings to the surface the lived experiences of AA women graduate students with respect to how they see their epistemological selves. The researcher used both a survey and interviews to highlight the ways institutions further


Although sentiment analysis on traditional online texts has been studied in depth, sentiment analysis for social media texts is still a challenging research direction. In the social media that contains a huge amount of texts and a large range of topics, it would be very difficult to manually collect enough labeled data to train a sentiment classifier for different domains. Distant supervision that considers emoticons as natural sentiment labels in the microblog texts has been widely used in social media sentiment analysis. However, the previous distant supervision works were normally trained based on an isolate set of data, and they were not capable to deal with the scenario where the texts are continuously increasing and the topics are constantly changing. To address such challenges, in this work we propose a distantly supervised lifelong learning framework for large-scale social media sentiment analysis. The key characteristic of our approach is continuous sentiment learning in social media. It learns on past tasks sequentially, retains the knowledge obtained from past learning and uses the past knowledge to help future learning. The lifelong sentiment classifier is trained on two large-scale distantly supervised social media datasets respectively, and evaluated on nine benchmark datasets. The results prove that our lifelong sentiment learning approach is feasible and effective to tackle the challenges of continuously updated texts with dynamic topics in social media. We also prove that the belief "the more training data the better performance" does not hold in large-scale social media sentiment analysis. In contrast, by conducting continuous learning from past tasks, our approach beats the traditional way of using all training data in one task, in terms of both classification performance and computational efficiency.


In this dissertation, I argue that David Lewis' abductive argument for Genuine Modal Realism (GMR) has the unwelcome, and hidden, implication of being unable to accommodate agent causation theories of free will. This is because of his formulation of plenitude, which basically says that every way that a world or a part of a world could be is the way that some world, or part of some world is. This formulation tacitly assumes that chance and nomological principles are sufficient to account for everything that happens at worlds. However, agent causation theories argue that free will is neither reducible to chance nor determined by physics. My argument recasts a fork argument made by Andrew Beedle. I proceed by arguing that chance-based principles evince an ontologically distinct kind of modality than agent causation principles. However, plenitude only accounts for the physics/chance-based kind of modality. There is no similar principle of plenitude that can be given for agential modality that does not collapse into the chance-based principle. But even if such a principle could be found, it would violate the doctrine in GMR that claims worlds are causally isolated. If no agential plenitude principle can be found and there is agential modality, then plenitude fails. If there is no agency at our world, and Lewis' original formulation of plenitude is correct, then GMR implies no agency at any world. This is the fork: If there is agency and GMR holds, then either plenitude fails, or isolation fails. But if there is no agency, and GMR holds, then there is no agency at any possible world. The latter prong is too strong a claim for an abductive argument like GMR. The former proves that GMR cannot accommodate agent-causation theories. GMR loses its neutrality either way, to its detriment.


Feature extraction and dimensionality reduction are important tasks in many fields of science dealing with signal processing and analysis. The relevance of these techniques is increasing as current sensory devices are developed with ever higher resolution, and problems involving multimodal data sources become more common. A plethora of feature extraction methods are available in the literature collectively grouped under the field of multivariate analysis (MVA). This article provides a uniform treatment of several methods: principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares (PLS), canonical correlation analysis (CCA), and orthonormalized PLS (OPLS), as well as their nonlinear extensions derived by means of the theory of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHSs). We also review their connections to other methods for classification and statistical dependence estimation and introduce some recent developments to deal with the extreme cases of large-scale and low-sized problems. To illustrate the wide applicability of these methods in both classification and regression problems, we analyze their performance in a benchmark of publicly available data sets and pay special attention to specific real applications involving audio processing for music genre prediction and hyperspectral satellite image processing for Earth and climate monitoring.


In a study of foraminiferal distribution in southeast Baffin Bay and the associated environmental parameters, 44 grab samples and 4 cores were analysed for their foraminiferal and sediment contents. Environmental parameters studied were bathymetry, sediment distribution and calcium carbonate content of the sediments. Of the environmental factors considered depth and substrate were found to be most closely associated with f oraminif eral distribution, with the sediment type related to the source of sedimentary particles and the pre vailing currents. A foraminiferal depth zonation based on the grouping of stations with like faunas was worked out and showed: a shallow water (40-250 metres) diverse calcareous fauna dominated by Cibicides lobatulus and Astrononion gallowayi; an intermediate depth (150-400 metres) arenaceous fauna with Adercotryma glomeratum, Textularia torquata, Trochammina nana and Spiroplectammina biformis dominant; a deep water (300-750 metres), very sparse mixed fauna with calcareous specimens in the majority and Melonis zaandami a common species. In the core samples arenaceous Foraminifera virtually disappear at distances greater than 5-10 cm below the top, probably as a result of mechanical or chemical disintegration soon after burial, caused by com paction of the sediments or the action of annelids or both. Accordingly only calcareous assemblages could be considered for further paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Planktonic foraminiferal tests were rare in the sediments despite being present in the water column in the area. Tests were almost all Globigerina pachyderma and were found in the more calcareous benthonic popu lations. The inorganic calcium carbonate content of the sediments was found to be closely associated with the calcareous foraminiferal content, indicating a negligible carbonate contribution to the sediments from terrestrial sources. The application of Similarity Analysis and Group Average Sorting tech niques gives a grouping of stations with like faunal assemblages similar to that obtained from a visual inspection of the raw data, but these techniques also extract some finer distinctions not otherwise obvious. This indicates that Similarity and Cluster Analyses, and statistical techniques are valuable for studies using larger amounts of more complex data.


Immigration of those working in the health sector (including nurses) as parts of the intellectual assets of a country is of great political, social and economic importance. Due to its influence on the efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare system, lack of nurses is one of the major concerns in many developing countries. Meanwhile, the availability of various incentives encouraging the nurses to immigrate to other countries is another cause which has further complicated the situation in the countries of origin. Problems such as job dissatisfaction, social or political unrest and less social welfare are some of the factors that increase the pace of this immigration. The present review article seeks to study the causes of nurses' immigration, the problems caused by it and possible solutions.


This thesis reports the first realisation of a Ti:sapphire channel waveguide laser by the thermal diffusion of titanium(Ti) into a sapphire wafer. The Ti-diffused region provides both the optical gain medium and the optical waveguide. These results comprise the first realisation of Ti3+ diffusion in sapphire and the first realisation of optical waveguides in sapphire by diffusion doping. The attraction of the Ti:sapphire laser in a planar waveguide configuration is its potential as a compact, broadly tunable source over 400nm in the near infra-red, which would provide a versatile radiation source for sensing or spectroscopy. The basis for the Ti:sapphire laser formed in a waveguide geometry by diffusion doping is discussed, and a simple model indicates that pump power thresholds less than 100mW are achievable. Previous work on the difhsion of metals into sapphire is reviewed, indicating that temperatures as high as 1950°C are appropriate for initial experimental work. Processes, equipment and characterisation techniques are presented that enable the investigation of Ti diffusion in sapphire. Spectroscopic characterisation of the diffused material indicates that fluorescent Ti3+ ions are incorporated, appropriate for use as an optical gain medium. The diffused Ti distribution is investigated following diffusion at temperatures between 1480°C and 1950°C over diffusion times between 0.2 and 8 hours, achieving depths in excess of 50µm and peak Ti3+ concentrations greater than 0.4wt% Ti2O3 in Al2O3. Following diffusion from a series of stripe sources, a fast lateral diffusion is observed. Slab and channel waveguides are formed in the Ti-diffused sapphire and trends in the effective refractive index, mode intensity profiles and spectral attenuation are reported. Channel waveguides appropriate for the realisation of a miniature laser are identified. Ti:sapphire waveguide lasers are reported for two cavity configurations, with operation at wavelengths between 770nm and 810nm. With 7% output coupling, a pump power threshold of 1.2±0.4W and slope efficiency of 0.5% is achieved. This first realisation of a waveguide laser by the thermal diffusion of titanium into sapphire clearly demonstrates the feasibility of this approach to the realisation of a miniature broadly tunable Ti:sapphire waveguide laser.


We present a de novo design of an objective for use in multi-photon (MPM) and second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy. This objective was designed to have a large field of view (FOV), while maintaining a moderate numerical aperture (NA) and relative straight forward construction. A dichroic beam splitter was incorporated within the objective itself allowing for an increase in the front aperture of the objective and corresponding enhancement of the solid angle of collected emission by an order of magnitude over existing designs.


In this paper implementation of a novel completion detection method for self-timed, asynchronous subthreshold circuits is presented. By employing the self-timed operation principle, substantial speed gains in the operation of the asynchronous pipelines can be realized. The completion detection system is very simple, consisting of a sensor transistor, a very basic AC- coupled amplifier and a monostable multivibrator. The proposed method can be easily integrated into the CMOS design flow. The advantages of the proposed completion detection system is shown through simulations on an 8-bit ripple carry adder in a standard 0.18/irre CMOS process operating at 400mV supply voltage.


Myer Myers, a Jewish silversmith in colonial America, created outstanding works for leading members of the New York elite, and the objects made in his workshop have long been regarded as among the most important American statements of the Rococo style. These works are also valuable for the information they provide about craftsmanship, patronage, colonial Judaism, and changing cultural values in pre- and post-Revolutionary America. This stunning catalogue presents works from Myers's workshop in conjunction with essays by eminent authorities on his life and times, all of which shed light on significant themes and events in American culture and history. Myers's lifelong membership in the New York Jewish community, for example, reveals much about the role of religious minorities and social toleration in eighteenth-century America, and the artefacts he created for his family and religious community provide a vivid picture of colonial Jewish life. At the same time, Myers's career as a silversmith offers insights into the complexities of preindustrial craftsmanship in America, showing that silversmiths were less autonomous than has previously been assumed. Catalogue entries provide a chronological survey of Myers's career, highlighting his finest work, situating it within his routine shop production, and focusing on key objects to evoke the interplay of influences that shaped individual works of American art. This catalogue accompanies an exhibition that will be on view at the Yale University Art Gallery from 14th September 2001 to 30th December 2001. It then travels to the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum in Los Angeles from 19th February to 26th May 2002, and to the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware from 20th June to 13th September 2002.


Triatoma nitida is a wild species occurring in Mexico and Central America. In order to establish the length of its life cycle and transmission potential, the following parameters were observed: the incubation period, the interval between hatching, or moulting, and the first feeding; the number of blood meals and the time of development. The time-lapse before the bite, the length of feeding and the interval between the end of the blood meal and defecation, as well as the site of defecation were also analyzed. Average length of the egg incubation period was 18.2 days. Time interval between the food source offering and the bite was less than 4 min in 60//of the analyzed cases, except in the fifth instar, where only 38//of the insects began feeding in less than 5 min. The blood-sucking period was long and rising until the fifth instar, decreasing in adults, and ranging from 1 min to 2 and a half hours. Only 26//of the blood meals were followed by defecations within 20 min. The average length of the life cycle was 897.5 days.


Detailed major/trace element and high-precision Hf-Nd-Sr isotope data has been acquired for 86 samples of kimberlites from the recently discovered Lac de Gras kimberlite field in the Northwest Territories, Canada, plus 23 samples from other Canadian kimberlite occurrences. This constitutes the most comprehensive geochemical database available for kimberlites at the present time, and allows detailed comparisons to be made with the well-documented kimberlites of the Kaapvaal craton, southern Africa. Major and trace element data shows that some Lac de Gras kimberlites have interacted extensively with continental crust, whereas others are minimally contaminated with crust but have physically incorporated large quantities (˃30%) of lithospheric mantle peridotite. Fresh, minimally-contaminated kimberlites from Lac de Gras have both elemental and isotopic characteristics that are transitional relative to those typical of southern African Group I and II kimberlites. The Hf-Nd isotope variations of these samples also define a linear array that strongly suggests mixing of two or more components/reservoirs within the mantle. Isotopic mixing models and mass balance considerations constrain the most likely candidate components/reservoirs to be depleted sub-continental lithospheric mantle and a component with an isotopically-enriched, negative ΔɛHf signature that is derived from beneath the lithosphere. Such a component has previously been identified in southern African kimberlites, indicating that it is globally extensive within the mantle. Its resfriction to magmas generated at great depths, and its unusual Hf isotope signature also suggest that it may reside in isolation at some mantle boundary layer. Ancient oceanic crust, generated by melting in the presence of garnet and subsequently subducted and stored below the lithosphere, could evolve to negative ΔɛHf compositions. Melts of this material, variably recombined with the depleted, garnet- rich melting residua that constitute the lithosphere, can then account for the Hf-Nd kimberiite isotopic array. Trace element characteristics, such as K and Sr anomalies, are consistent with those of OIB-like magmas derived from within the convecting mantle.


In this paper, we propose a self-assembled microlens on top of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on hydrophilic effect under ultraviolet (UV)/ozone treatment to improve extraction efficiency and to increase viewing angle. The LED chip was encapsulated by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) (n=1.44) before the fabrication process of microlens. The microlens was made of transparent negative photoresist SU-8 (n=1.63). The SU-8 photoresist became more hydrophilic after UV/ozone treatment. After hydrophilic zones were produced by using shadow masks and UV/ozone, the substrate with hydrophilic zones was dipped in and out of diluted SU-8 photoresist solution with slow and constant velocity. Meanwhile, a 200- microlens was formed by self-surface tension and cohesion of diluted SU-8. Finally, microlens was hardened after UV curing. This approach is cost effective and low time-consuming. It did not require photo masks, heating, or etch-transfer processes. It's a new fabrication method that can be easily applied to opto-electronic devices. Integrated with LED, microlens can improve extraction efficiency 28% in total power and increase viewing angle 17 degree.


Many studies recognize importance of innovations for the international competitiveness of firms. This applies to both innovations introduced internally and those introduced in cooperation. The paper is based on a survey of 209 Polish manufacturing firms. It focuses on an analysis of the influence of process and organizational innovation on the firms' export intensity and on new product sales intensity. The study reveals that process innovation (undertaken both internally and in cooperation with business partners) is positively related to the firms' export intensity, while rejective the hypothesis that organizational innovation has an impact on export intensity. Moreover, the analysis provides evidence that both process and organizational innovations (introduced either internally or in cooperation) have no statistically significant influence on new product sales intensity of Polish exporters. These findings reflect the traditional competitive strategies based on the cost advantage rather than the differentiation-based advantage. The analysis of the relationships between process and organizational innovation reveals that these two types of innovation are positively related only in the high-export-intensity/high-new-product-sales-intensity cluster of firms. This correlation appears both in the case of internal and collaborative innovation. The authors argue that Polish exporters do not take full advantage of the opportunity to simultaneously implement complementary types of innovation and do not gain potential synergies from innovation.


In Italy, the surveillance of Mosquito-Borne Diseases (MBDs) is regulated by two national preparedness plans: (1) for West Nile and Usutu viruses, integrating human and veterinary surveillance in order to early detect viruses circulation and to quickly apply control measures aimed at reducing the risk of transmission through blood and blood components and (2) for Arbovirosis transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, mainly Chikungunya, Dengue and Zika viruses, based on surveillance of both imported and autochthonous human cases. This chapter reports the results of the application of these National Plans in Northwestern Italy and their impact for human health. In detail, we present the coordinated activities enforced in Piemonte and Liguria Regions, as a good example of the 'One Health approach' to control MBDs and prevent human transmission.


Since 2000 a number of community-driven sanitation approaches have emerged that counter a historical trend to subsidise the provision of latrines to the poor. This study reports on a set of findings and conclusions concerning the effectiveness and sustainability of two such approaches operating in Zimbabwe, the community health club (CHC) approach and community-led total sanitation (CLTS). Surveys, interviews and focus groups were conducted in a total of ten project communities from three districts. Results show that, despite little resistance to the idea, a household's ability to own a latrine depends heavily on its ability to afford one. Affordability is also key in moving up the 'sanitation ladder', which is necessary if behaviour change is to be sustained in the long term. Whilst both approaches effectively encouraged measures that combat open defecation, only health clubs witnessed a significant increase in the adoption of hand washing. However, CLTS proved more effective in promoting latrine construction, suggesting that the emphasis the CHCs place on hygiene practices such as hand washing needs to be coupled with an even stronger focus on the issue of sanitation brought by CLTS.