Philippines is among the many countries which has a perennial problem on poverty. The country has made various ways to reduce its poverty rate; one is through conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme. This study measured the impact of CCT Program, particularly on food consumption among its household beneficiaries using Propensity Score Matching (PSM). Impact is measured in terms of the Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATT) using four matching algorithms: Nearest Neighbor Matching, Caliper (Radius) Matching, Kernel Matching, and Local Linear Regression matching. Binary logistic regression was used to identify covariates influencing program participation which include having children who are 6-12 years old, education of the household heads' spouses, marital status and sex of the household head, housing tenure, and ownership of household assets. Balance test indicates nonsignificant difference between 4Ps and non-4Ps beneficiaries across these covariates. Of the four matching algorithms, the Caliper (radius) matching generated ATT estimate with the least standard error. On the average, using the Caliper matching method, the monthly food expenditure of the household beneficiaries have significantly increased by PHP501.39, Thus, the CCT program of the government has brought significant improvement on the household beneficiaries, not only on education, health, and nutrition but also on their monthly food expenditure. It is recommended that the implementation of the CCT program should be strengthened, sustained, and maintained properly and orderly to gradually alleviate the current poverty conditions in the identified poor barangays around the nation. Moreover, the implementing agencies should consistently monitor the proper and synchronized implementation of the program in order to wholly purge the intergenerational transmission of poverty which is a perennial experience of the households who belong to the poorest populace in the country.


We set forth an information-theoretical measure to quantify neurotransmission reliability while taking into full account the metrical properties of the spike train space. This parametric information analysis relies on similarity measures induced by the metrical relations between neural responses as spikes flow in. Thus, in order to assess the entropy, the conditional entropy, and the overall information transfer, this method does not require any a priori decoding algorithm to partition the space into equivalence classes. It therefore allows the optimal parameters of a class of distances to be determined with respect to information transmission. To validate the proposed information-theoretical approach, we study precise temporal decoding of human somatosensory signals recorded using microneurography experiments. For this analysis, we employ a similarity measure based on the Victor-Purpura spike train metrics. We show that with appropriate parameters of this distance, the relative spike times of the mechanoreceptors responses convey enough information to perform optimal discriminationdefined as maximum metrical information and zero conditional entropyof 81 distinct stimuli within 40 ms of the first afferent spike. The proposed information-theoretical measure proves to be a suitable generalization of Shannon mutual information in order to consider the metrics of temporal codes explicitly. It allows neurotransmission reliability to be assessed in the presence of large spike train spaces (e.g., neural population codes) with high temporal precision.


We provide a formal test of the liquidity preference hypothesis (LPH), that is, the monotonicity of ex ante term premiums, using nonparametric estimates that do not require a structural model for conditional expected returns. Although the point estimates of the term premiums are consistent with previous conclusions in the literature regarding violations of the LPH, the test statistics are generally insignificant, even when powerful conditioning information is used. These results illustrate the importance of correctly accounting for correlations across maturities and of formally testing the inequality restrictions implied by the LPH.


This paper presents new evidence on the impact of the preferential treatment of owner-occupied housing in Europe. We find that tax benefits to homeowners reduce the user cost of housing capital by almost 40 percent compared to the efficient level under neutral taxation. On average, the tax subsidy translates into an excess consumption of housing services equivalent to 7.8 percent of the value of owner-occupied housing, or about 30 percent of financial asset holdings in household portfolios. The bulk of the subsidies stems from under-taxation of the return to home equity, while the average contribution of the tax rebate for mortgage interest payments is driven down by relatively low loan-to-value ratios in the data. However, at the margin, the tax–induced incentive to use mortgage debt to finance the purchase of the main residence is sizable. JEL Classification: H24, H31, D14


Previous research indicates that the narration disclosure in company annual reports can be used to assist in assessing the company's short-term financial prospects. However, not much effort has been made to systematically and
automatically assess the predictive potential of such reports using text classification, information retrieval, and machine learning techniques. In this study, we built SVM-based predictive models with different feature selection
methods from ten years of annual reports of 30 companies. We used feature selection methods to reduce the term space and studied the class-related vocabulary. Evaluation of predictive accuracy is performed with cross validation
and t-test significance tests. We compare different models' performance and analyze misclassification rates by year and by industry. We identify the strengths and weaknesses of each model. Our results support the feasibility of
automatically predicting next-year company financial performance from the current year's report. We suggest text features can be further studied to understand their roles as indicators of company's future performance. This
research paves the way for large-scale automatic analysis of the relationship between annual reports and short-term performance, as well as the identification of interesting signals within annual reports.


Background: When usual calcium consumption patterns were analysed most people in the U.S. and Europe consume less than the recommended daily allowance. Supplements and fortified foods offer alternative and additional sources of calcium to traditional food. Calcium carbonate is the most common supplement but it is less soluble in water and, therefore, not suitable for enrichment of beverages. New organic calcium salts have a better solubility but less is known about their bioavailability. In the present study, we assessed the solubility and bioavailability of the new organic calcium salts, calcium lactate citrate and calcium lactate malate, in comparison to the traditional supplements, calcium carbonate and calcium gluconate. Design: Randomized, single-blind, four way cross-over study comparing single doses of 500 mg calcium in the form of four different calcium-salts. Subjects were advised to consume 25 µg vitamin D3 daily two weeks prior to the start of the study and during the whole study period. Subjects: 20 healthy young men, Methods: Blood samples were drawn immediately before and 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24 h after ingestion of the calcium preparation. Concentration of total calcium and intact parathyroid hormone were measured in the serum. Urine was collected at baseline and during the intervals 0-3, 3-6, 9-15 and 15-24 h and excretion of calcium, sodium and creatinine was examined. Results: The tested new salts were easily water soluble, significantly better than calcium gluconate. Calcium carbonate is almost insoluble. The bioavailability of the four different calcium salts was found to be almost identical. The maximum total serum calcium increased by 7.6 % two hours after ingestion calcium lactate citrate, by 7.4 % after calcium lactate malate, by 5.5 % after calcium carbonate, and by 5.8 % after calcium gluconate. Intact parathyroid hormone concentration showed the expected depression for calcium lactate citrate, calcium lactate malate and calcium carbonate, whereas the serum level was significantly higher after ingestion of calcium gluconate. Conclusion: Given an almost equivalent bioavailability of the four tested calcium salts, we conclude that the new salts calcium lactate citrate and calcium lactate malate are well suited for fortification of beverages and thus to increase the average daily calcium intake.


Between 1902 and 1945, the Banff Indian Days and annual Indian Exhibition promoted by local Banff entrepreneur Norman Luxton, were a success both locally and internationally. Tourists came from around the world to attend the week-long festivities. The Banff Indian Days could be considered the Canadian equivalent of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. These Banff Indian Days form not only an undescribed part of Canada's popular culture history, but are also an important source of information on the nature of Indian-White relations in the province of Alberta between 1902 and 1945 - a period and region relatively little investigated by historians interested in Native history. In this paper the structure and function of the Banff Indian Days are investigated using traditional historical methods as well as theoretical concepts borrowed from the discipline of Anthropology. The article concludes that the Banff Indian Days constituted a form of public ritual through which participating Indians were able to invent, assert, and have sanctioned, their separate and unique identities.


Britain's low levels of social mobility has attracted considerable amounts of research with much of the attention focused on improving education and skills in young people. However, a crucial and often overlooked area is adult skills. In this report, we look at the adult skills landscape – by examining who invests in, and who participates in, job-related training and education. We consider how these trends have changed over time and to what extent adult skills affect social mobility. We uncover evidence that people from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds are the least likely to receive adult skills investment. First, there is growing evidence to suggest that those whose parents were working class are less likely to do training than if their parents were middle class – even though they are doing the same type of job. Second, employers are more likely to invest in those with higher skills while better-off individuals are also more likely to fund their own training. This results in widening existing skills gaps as people from working class backgrounds are less likely to have higher skills – and are less likely to earn high wages – than their peers from better off backgrounds. We also found mixed evidence of the returns to investment in adult skills. Research consistently suggests that the highest qualifications tend to lead to the highest returns, that academic qualifications lead to higher returns than vocational ones at the same level, and that qualifications gained later in life tend to secure lower returns than the same qualifications earlier on. Adult skills provide second chances to individuals, but those who benefit most are overwhelmingly those who already have higher levels of adult skills.


This paper summarizes the basic theory, methodology and data
Of an extensive research project carried on in Muranga District from June 1972 to August 1973. This project was a joint venture between the Department of Geography, University of Nairobi and the Department of Geography, Carleton University, Ottawa. The project was funded by the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.

The concept of growth centres plays an important part in the
1970-74 Development Plan and the basic hypothesis of this project is that the growth centre strategy, if refined and further developed could play a vital role in rural development in Kenya. In essence, it could form the keystone of a spatial strategy of rural development. It is argued that rural problems and urban problems should not be viewed in isolation but as an inter-related spatial system. The small place in the rural areas becomes vital in such a strategy as it is the interface between urban and rural systems, and an effective rural development strategy should concentrate on this interface.

The research project set out to answer two basic questions;
1) What is the role of the growth centre in rural development?
2) How can this role be made more effective? To answer these questions it was necessary to build up a comprehensive data bank on the existing small centres and the people in their hinterlands.
There were a number of elements involved. These included an understanding of the history of the centres; discernment and measurement of growth indicators especially the performance of the informal sector; the participation and involvement of the people; the linkages and interactions among centres and their hinterlands; the identification of the most likely centres for potential growth and diffusion of innovations and the spatial patterns of the centres together with the distribution of population. This paper will deal primarily with the methodology used and the data collected; a second paper will further develop the basic theory and give the major conclusions.


Velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) is most commonly associated with overt or submucous cleft palate. There are few reports of VPI as a symptom of Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Here we report a novel case of delayed onset and progressive VPI as the presenting symptom leading to the diagnosis of NF1. Examination revealed nasal air emissions, hypernasality, a persistent velopharyngeal gap and multiple cafe au lait spots. Subsequent neurology consultation revealed changes on MRI consistent with NF1. She was then evaluated by neurosurgery and underwent surgery to address hydrocephalus. With time, the patient has seen improvement in speech. Primary surgical intervention for VPI was avoided. This case underscores the importance of obtaining a complete history and performing a thorough physical exam in all patients.


The Delivering Inclusive Access to Disabled and Elderly Members of the community (DIADEM) project is funded through the Framework 6 European Union (EU) research programme. Its aim is to develop the DIADEM application which personalises the online form interface according to individual users' needs, making the content more accessible for cognitively impaired older adults. In this paper, we present a trial protocol which has been specifically designed to identify cognitively impaired older adults, and to evaluate the usability of online form content from an older adult user's perspective. To demonstrate the applicability of the trial protocol within the context of an ongoing research project, details of pan-European trials involving 77 eligible users, who evaluated DIADEM enabled online forms according to the trial protocol, are presented. The outcomes of the trials reveal a number of online form design recommendations, which will be incorporated into future versions of the DIADEM application. Although these have been primarily developed for informing the design of future versions of the DIADEM application, they also provide a valuable point of reference for online form developers more generally, which if followed, will ensure that content is more usable for the cognitively impaired older adult user group. To conclude, the lessons learned from implementing the trail protocol, and its appropriateness for this target user group is discussed, as well as how the findings may be incorporated into future versions of the DIADEM application.


The relationship between intellectual property and healthcare is ever growing, particularly when dealing with patent law and the access to essential medicines in the least developed countries. This study explores the socioeconomic statuses, and the impact it may have on patents and the access to essential medicines for a group of 102 countries, which is divided into three sets of 34 countries of various human development rankings—high human development, medium human development, and the least developed countries of Africa. The results of this study suggest that there are significant correlations between intellectual property, specifically patents, and the overall well-being of a country's population. Thus law and policy makers should take note and understand the implication of having such a patent system within our society, and understand how future decisions may affect the lives of millions.


Motivated by sponsored search auctions with hard budget constraints given by the advertisers, we study multi-unit auctions of a single item. An important example is a sponsored result slot for a keyword, with many units representing its inventory in a month, say. In this single-item multi-unit auction, each bidder has a private value for each unit, and a private budget which is the total amount of money she can spend in the auction. A recent impossibility result [Dobzinski et al., FOCS'08] precludes the existence of a truthful mechanism with Paretooptimal allocations in this important setting. We propose Sort-Cut, a mechanism which does the next best thing from the auctioneer's point of view, that we term semi-truthful. While we are unable to give a complete characterization of equilibria for our mechanism, we prove that some equilibrium of the proposed mechanism optimizes the revenue over all Pareto-optimal mechanisms, and that this equilibrium is the unique one resulting from a natural rational bidding strategy (where every losing bidder bids at least her true value). Perhaps even more significantly, we show that the revenue of every equilibrium of our mechanism differs by at most the budget of one bidder from the optimum revenue (under some mild assumptions).


This paper propose a kind of different view about the two dimensional signals, which uses a new kind novel technique and indexing method in retrieval applications. The problem of finding similar images from data base according to their content has been the subject of a significant amount of research in the last decade. Image retrieval based on region is one of the most promising and active research directions in recent years. As literature prove that region segmentation will produce better results. Human visual perception is more effective than any machine vision systems for extracting semantic information from image, hitherto no specific system has been suggested with the ability of extracting object individually. We introduce a new idea, hence object detection has been obtained as main contribution of this paper and a new feature extraction based on random analysis is presented.


ABSTRACT This article explores different phenomenological approaches to understanding one of the central elements of Pentecostal spirituality: the ecstatic experience of the divine (often referred to as the 'encounter' of the divine). The article begins with a description, based upon participant observation, of a typical church service at 'Breakfree' Pentecostal church in suburban Perth, Western Australia. I then outline two phenomenological categories—one theistic, one non-theistic—which shed light on the significance of this experience. These categories are Rudolf Otto's 'numinous' and Michel Foucault's 'limit experience'. It is demonstrated that neither of these can be prioritised, as both require an a priori position on the status of the divine. Instead of choosing one or the other, it is argued that both Otto and Foucault provide a resource for understanding and assessing the Breakfree encounter. The article concludes with the observation that a more playful methodology—one that allows the scholar to draw on theistic and non-theistic categories simultaneously—is required.


This paper analyzes systematic cases of revision of the discourse structure entailing a modification of the right frontier. We show that the coordinating or subordinating nature of discourse relations plays a major role in this revision, examining in particular a relation typical in narratives, Result , as well as a family of dialog relations: content-relations introduced by interrogatives. Their complex behaviour shows that the Right Frontier Constraint, a major principle in most discourse theories, needs to be handled with care. We also generalize the discussion about problems due to the multiplication and the sophistication of discourse principles operating within SDRT, in particular the Maximize Discourse Coherence principle which constitutes an important improvement of the theory but also introduces some methodological issues.


For many years, patent law has struggled with the issue of permissible claim scope. A patent's specification and its claims often suffer from a surprising disconnect. The specification generally describes an invention in terms of one or more specific implementations; suggesting a relatively narrow invention. But claims are drafted far more broadly. They frequently encompass unforeseen variations and even cover after arising technology. Although there are numerous existing doctrines that try to prevent claims from straying too far from their specification, these doctrines offer binary outcomes ill-suited for patent law. Under these doctrines, as a claim encompasses subject matter further and further away from what the specification describes, there is a point where the inventor suddenly loses all rights. These outcomes make sense when all trespasses are considered equal wrongs. However, in reality, there is an infringement continuum. At one end of the continuum, infringement can look exactly like the invention described by a patent. That infringement should be treated far more seriously than infringement that resides at the other end of the continuum and looks very different from the invention. Consequently, I propose a new theoretical framework that ties patent disclosure doctrine to the remedies the law provides. Although I would continue to use the claims to determine infringement, I suggest that the specification be used to assess the remedy. Specifically, I suggest replacing the current lost profits/reasonable royalty framework with one based on royalties that consider disclosure principles. The size of the royalty would be determined by comparing the infringement to the patent specification and adjusting the royalty based on the degree of similarity. The proposal improves on existing doctrines in two fundamental ways. First, instead of offering binary outcomes, the proposed remedies are highly adjustable. Therefore, they are well suited for addressing the full infringement continuum. Second, this proposal doesn't just focus on the patentee's injury like the current law. Rather, it advances the public interest by optimizing incentives for both initial and follow-on innovators.


"Graduating from college with a degree in Middle East studies, Rossmiller joined the Defense Department's Intelligence Agency in 2004 and soon volunteered to join a DIA unit in Iraq. He vividly recounts his six-month tour—the physical misery of the environment and the frustrations of feeling his work rarely made a difference. Good intelligence, he explains, begins with people on the spot (in this case usually Iraqis), who take risks but supply information that is often fragmented, out-of-date and even self-serving or false. Analysts, such as the author, tease out useful data and deliver it quickly to fighting men. Hobbled by clueless superiors and their turf wars, as well as ignorance of Iraqi culture, DIA units, including Rossmiller's, witnessed American forces repeatedly acting on poor or outdated intelligence. They killed and arrested plenty of genuine insurgents but also killed, arrested and infuriated many innocent Iraqis, which crippled their efforts. Back in Washington, Rossmiller discovered the agency under pressure to provide good news for the Bush administration. Superiors regularly rejected his analyses of Iraqi politics as "too pessimistic." If repeated rewrites lacked an upbeat conclusion, superiors inserted one. That his predictions turned out to be correct made no difference. This intense, partisan arm-twisting devastated morale, resulting in an exodus of agency experts, including the author. Rossmiller gives a lively insider's view of the petty and not-so-petty politics that affect the intelligence our leaders receive in their efforts to pacify Iraq; it is not a pretty picture." -Publishers Weekly


The purpose of this project is to create a mobile app for all taxi drivers in Dublin, which might want to interact, to each other by using this app. Every taxi driver would be very important because she/he can bring some relevant information to this app and make it more efficient. This application will be unique because will have a speech recognition functionality integrated which allows drivers to create text messages without typing any word.

Part of this app will be also related to "Gamification" which is a concept that awards the users in a way that increases interactivity with the application and records their progress. It can take the form of creating one or many messages, and all these activities/messages will be counted and the results will be posted for other users to view.

Awards are gained by the users in the form of, total number of points achieved and a ranking place on a leaderboard. The gamification aspect of this application will be based on messages on each section of the app. The user's activity/results will be displayed on a leader-board, allowing them to compare themselves with other users.

This mobile app would be available to work on both known operating systems, iOS and Android. The framework chosen to build this project is the cross-platform named Ionic framework and the scripting language is AngularJS. This Ionic framework allows programmers to build hybrid applications without having to write code twice for each operating system. This AngularJS scripting language gives the ability to control and create interactions within the app. The Ionic framework uses also Cordova library which will bundle the web code and compile it into native applications for both mobile platforms.

For the database storage, Firebase was chosen to be used because it is a free platform owned by Google and is very helpful to develop real-time applications. It uses NoSQL database structure that stores data in a JavaScript object notation and this makes it easy to work with AngularJS Apps.


The use of acid-tolerant precipitated calcium carbonate fillers, including phosphoric acid/sodium hexametaphosphate modified precipitated CaCO3 filler, and sodium silicate/phosphoric acid/sodium hexametaphos-phate modified precipitated CaCO3 filler in papermaking of deinked pulp derived from recycled newspaper was explored. These two acid-tolerant fillers provided considerably more brightness improvement in papers in comparison the unmodified filler, presumably indicating alleviated pulp darkening achieved as a result of better acid-resistant properties. The addition of acid-tolerant fillers into the furnish slurries gave lower system pH as compared with unmodified filler. Among the three fillers used in this work, the effect on retention of modification of the filler with sodium silicate/phosphoric acid/sodium hexametaphosphate was probably the best, as evaluated from ash content measurements. For air permeability of the paper, the use of acid-tolerant fillers provided slightly more improvement in comparison to the unmodified filler. For tensile and burst strength of the paper, the use of sodium silicate/phosphoric acid/sodium hexameta-phosphate modified precipitated calcium carbonate filler gave better results as compared with the other two fillers. Additionally, the improving effect of acid-tolerant fillers on furnish static drainage was found to be slightly weaker than that of unmodified filler.


William Howard Taft's Presidency (1909-1919), Succeeding Theodore Roosevelt's, was mired in bitter partisan fighting, and Taft sometimes blundered politically. However, this son of Cincinnati assumed his true calling when President Warren G. Harding appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court. Taft remains the only person to have served both as president of the United States and as chief justice of the Supreme Court. The Collected Works of William Howard Taft, Volume VIII, consists of "Liberty under Law" and selected Supreme Court opinions, among the most instructive accomplishments of Taft's ten years at the helm of the court. The writings reveal the sober judgments of a Federalist who viewed state regulation with suspicion, championed national government, and saw an independent and powerful judiciary as the bulwark protecting the "vested rights" that the framers of the U.S. Constitution sought to guarantee. Whatever his failings as a politician, Taft was an intellectual powerhouse who knew how to use the law as a lever to encourage society to move toward more stable and productive ends. Although Taft is considered an average president at best, historians and political scientists rank him among fifteen "near greats" who have served on the high court. His ability and his love for the law shine through in Volume VIII, the concluding volume of The Collected Works of William Howard Taft. As Taft reportedly said to President Harding upon his appointment as chief justice, "I love judges and I love courts. They are my ideals on earth of what we shall meet afterward in heaven under a just God."


Medical error is a leading problem of health care in the United States. Each year, more patients die as a result of medical mistakes than are killed by motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. While most government and regulatory efforts are directed toward reducing and preventing errors, the actions that should follow the injury or death of a patient are still hotly debated. According to Nancy Berlinger, conversations on patient safety are missing several important components: religious voices, traditions, and models. In After Harm, Berlinger draws on sources in theology, ethics, religion, and culture to create a practical and comprehensive approach to addressing the needs of patients, families, and clinicians affected by medical error. She emphasizes the importance of acknowledging fallibility, telling the truth, confronting feelings of guilt and shame, and providing just compensation. After Harm adds important human dimensions to an issue that has profound consequences for patients and health care providers.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new multiple imputation method that can effectively manage missing values in online review data, thereby allowing the online review analysis to yield valid results by using all available data.

Design/methodology/approach
This study develops a missing data method based on the multivariate imputation chained equation to generate imputed values for online reviews. Sentiment analysis is used to incorporate customers' textual opinions as the auxiliary information in the imputation procedures. To check the validity of the proposed imputation method, the authors apply this method to missing values of sub-ratings on hotel attributes in both the simulated and real Honolulu hotel review data sets. The estimation results are compared to those of different missing data techniques, namely, listwise deletion and conventional multiple imputation which does not consider text reviews.

Findings
The findings from the simulation analysis show that the imputation method of the authors produces more efficient and less biased estimates compared to the other two missing data techniques when text reviews are possibly associated with the rating scores and response mechanism. When applying the imputation method to the real hotel review data, the findings show that the text sentiment-based propensity score can effectively explain the missingness of sub-ratings on hotel attributes, and the imputation method considering those propensity scores has better estimation results than the other techniques as in the simulation analysis.

Originality/value
This study extends multiple imputation to online data considering its spontaneous and unstructured nature. This new method helps make the fuller use of the observed online data while avoiding potential missing problems.


The demand for voluntary individual lifetime annuities is low. To assess the rea-sons why, we designed a stated-preference experiment where we vary characteristics of annuity contracts to estimate individuals' sensitivity to their value-to-cost ratio, a statistic also known as an annuity's money's worth. Using different measures of longevity risk and survival expectations, including individually tailored estimates from a micro-simulation model and subjective expectations, we investigate how knowledge of the product and mortality risk misperceptions affect the take-up as well as the sensitivity of the demand for annuities. We find that annuities are objectively not priced fairly, although they can appear to be fairly priced given an individual's subjective mortality risk. We also find that demand is somewhat price-inelastic so that, given their current 10% take-up rate, lowering the price of annuities to fair actuarial levels could increase demand by at most 2 percentage points. Lack of knowledge of annuities explains another 1.2 percentage points. We find limited additional interest for deferred annuities compared to immediate ones although respondents are less price sensitive when evaluating deferred annuities.


Ever since Brandenburg v. Ohio, departures from content neutrality under the First Amendment have received strict scrutiny. However, in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project ("HLP"), the Supreme Court decided that the perils of content regulation were less pressing than was the need to curb the human capital of groups, such as Hamas, designated as foreign terrorist organizations ("DFTOs"). As a result, the Court upheld a statute that bars "material support" of terrorist organizations, ruling that the statute bars speech coordinated with DFTOs, including training in negotiation or the use of international law. Some commentators have labeled HLP as heralding a new McCarthyism. This Article argues that critics who condemn HLP as the reincarnation of Cold War content regulation overlook the tailored quality of the decision's hybrid scrutiny model, its roots in the Framers' concerns about foreign influence, and its surprising parallels with constitutional justifications for professional regulation. HLP is not the marked departure that critics claim. Just as professional regulation limits lawyers' use of pretrial publicity, HLP reduced the impact of asymmetries in information that terrorist groups exploit. To constrain government, HLP's framework of hybrid scrutiny also provides a safe harbor for the independent expression of ideas, and for scholars, journalists, human rights monitors, and attorneys. Nevertheless, HLP's critics are right that the Court's decision is flawed. Chief Justice Roberts's opinion invited confusion about the First Amendment status of lending "legitimacy" to violence, which could quickly drain the safe harbor that the Court created for independent advocacy. The opinion also made a studied show of deference to official sources, disdaining independent accounts of terrorist groups' penchant for defection. Only the next case will tell if these flaws were minor missteps in a balanced decision or signs of a more severe conflict with First Amendment values.


More than a quarter of a million Muslims live and work in Hong Kong. Among them are descendants of families who have been in the city for generations, recent immigrants from around the world, and growing numbers of migrant workers. Islam in Hong Kong explores the lives of Muslims as ethnic and religious minorities in this unique postcolonial Chinese city. Drawing on interviews with Muslims of different origins, O'Connor builds a detailed picture of daily life through topical chapters on language, space, religious education, daily prayers, maintaining a halal diet in a Chinese environment, racism, and other subjects. Although the picture that emerges is complex and ambiguous, one striking conclusion is that Muslims in Hong Kong generally find acceptance as a community and do not consider themselves to be victimised because of their religion.


We investigate the weakening of elastic materials through randomly distributed circles and cracks numerically and compare the results to predictions from homogenization theories. We find a good agreement for the case of randomly oriented cracks of equal length in an isotropic plane-strain medium for lower crack densities; for higher densities the material is weaker than predicted due to precursors of percolation. For a parallel alignment of cracks, where percolation does not occur, we analytically predict a power law decay of the effective elastic constants for high crack densities, and confirm this result numerically.


Companies today face volatile environments, short product life cycles, and changing customer requirements, which is especially the case in high-technology fields. In such environments, concentrating only on technological and product innovations is not sufficient to gain competitive advantages. Instead, companies need innovative business models in order to stand out from their competitors. To successfully change business models, companies require appropriate competencies. Thus, the objective of this research is to identify how companies can prepare their business model(s) to counteract environmental changes flexibly. With the aid of the chosen exploratory, qualitative research design, we investigate companies operating in high-technology branches. In total, 20 companies participated in our study. The interviews were conducted with CEOs, vice-presidents, product managers or other managers responsible for business model developments. The research revealed that companies can prepare the business model and its elements ex ante through developing capabilities in order to raise the flexibility of the business model. These capabilities have to be developed with regard to several internal and external issues driving these changes.


Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection is an important factor in human gastric disorders, including chronic active gastritis, peptic ulcers, intestinal metaplasia and cancer. Since epidemiologic studies overwhelmingly agree on a protective influence of fruits and vegetables in reducing the risk of gastric neoplasia and processed foods made from Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc. (Japanese apricot or "Ume" in Japanese) are traditionally known for their miscellaneous medical effects, in the present study we investigated the efficacy of a fruit-juice concentrate of Japanese apricot (CJA) in the glandular stomach of Hp-infected Mongolian gerbils. Hp-inoculated gerbils were given CJA in their drinking water at concentrations of 1 and 3% for 10 weeks. The microscopic scores for gastritis and mucosal hyperplasia in the CJA groups were significantly lower than in the Hp-inoculated control group, with dose-dependence. Real-time PCR was performed to quantitate Hp by demonstrating urease A gene amount using gerbils glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene as an internal control. Average relative urease A gene dosage in the glandular stomach in the 1 and 3% CJA and Hp-inoculated control groups was 26.6 +/- 11.6% (average +/- SE), 30.3 +/- 10.5%, 100 +/- 40.9%, respectively, the fruit-juice concentrate causing significant lowering (P<0.01 and P<0.05, respectively, with 1 and 3%). These findings suggest that suppressive effects on gastric cancer development might also be expected as a result of decreased numbers of Hp and improvement of Hp-induced chronic active gastritis on administration of CJA.


Studies in the history of French nineteenth-century stage music have blossomed in the last decade, encouraging a revision of the view of the primacy of Austro-German music during the period and rebalancing the scholarly field away from instrumental music(key to the Austro-German hegemony) and towards music for the stage. This change of emphasis is having an impact on the world of opera production, with new productions of works not heard since the nineteenth century taking their place in the modern repertory.This awakening of enthusiasm has come at something of a price. Selling French opera as little more than an important precursor to Verdi or Wagner has entailed a focus on works produced exclusively for the Paris Opera at the expense of the vast range of other types of stage music produced in the capital: opera comique, operette, comedie-vaudeville and melodrame, for example. The first part of this book therefore seeks to reintroduce a number of norms to the study of stage music in Paris: to re-establish contexts and conventions that still remain obscure. The second and third parts acknowledge Paris as an importer and exporter of opera, and its focus moves towards the music of its closest neighbours, the Italian-speaking states, and of its most problematic partners, the German-speaking states, especially the music of Weber and Wagner.Prefaced by an introduction that develops the volume's overriding intellectual drivers of cultural exchange, genre and institution, this collection brings together twelve of the author's previously published articles and essays, fully updated for this volume and translated into English for the first time.


Th ere is a growing feeling that analytic philosophy is in crisis. At the same time there is a widespread and prima facie attractive conception of analytic philosophy which implies that it equates to good philosophy. In recognition of these confl icting tendencies, my paper raises the question of whether anything could be wrong with analytic philosophy. In section 1 I indicate why analytic philosophy cannot be defi ned by reference to geography, topics, doctrines or even methods. Th is leaves open the possibility that analytic philosophy is a style of philosophizing (section 2). According to what I call a rationalist conception, the distinguishing feature of analytic philosophy is that it is guided by the ideal of rational argument. Th is conception implies that 'analytic philosophy' is an honorifi c title. In section 3 I point out that the rationalist defi nition yields a diff erent extension for 'analytic philosophy' than commonly recognized. Section 4 defends the appeal to ordinary use in debates about the nature of analytic philosophy. Section 5 grants that there is an honorifi c use of the label, while also pointing out that the rationalist-cum-honorifi c conception is at odds with a more wide-spread and entrenched taxonomic practice. Section 6 alleges that the rationalist conception boils down to a 'persuasive definition' of analytic philosophy, and argues in favour of a more neutral philosophical taxonomy. Section 7 argues that analytic philosophy is an intellectual tradition held together both by lines of infl uence and by family-resemblances. Th e consequences for my topic are two-fold. First, there could obviously be something wrong with this intellectual tradition; secondly, the question whether there is something wrong needs to be raised separately with
respect to individual phases or sections of that tradition.


An experimental study of the diffusion of helium in the wake of a circular cylinder was conducted in the GALCIT hypersonic wind tunnel at a Mach number of 5.8. The cylinder was constructed of material having random porosity and was mounted with its axis perpendicular to
the stream. The light gas was injected in small amounts and the thermal conductivity method was utilized to detect the concentration of helium in
the air at points downstream. Problems in the utilization of the thermal conductivity method for low sample densities were overcome by suitable calibration.

Flow in the wake of the cylinder was found to display characteristically similar behavior at a few diameters downstream, with respect
to decay and spread of the concentration. Reynolds number similarity was established in the laminar case, but turbulent Reynolds number similarity may require reference to momentum thickness, which was not
possible with the present data.

Profile data was somewhat marred by a tunnel pressure perturbation, but many of the important conclusions were not affected. The profiles appear to follow the theoretical Gaussian distribution in the similar region.

The thermal conductivity method is quite promising as a means of tracing the diffusion of one binary gas constituent in another, as applied to hyper sonic wind tunnel experiment. It will also serve in the
analysis of transition and turbulence, and of the lateral spreading of the turbulent fluid into the rest of the wake region behind the bow shock.


Title: Board Member Participation in Non Governmental Organizations: The Case of Selected Non Profits in Tanzania Author: Zabdiel Robinson Kimambo Supervisor: Dr. Thomas Danborg Department: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology Course: Master's Thesis in Business Administration, 10 credits Background and Problem Discussion: Recent research findings have revealed that Boards do often play an important hands-on role in the failure and turn-around of Non-governmental organization. NGOs are very diverse and unique in terms of set up, mission and mandate. There is therefore no single model on how NGO Boards operate and perform its functions. However, there are common held approaches that apply to effective Board participation practices. Purpose: This research aimed at exploring the differences and similarities in Board Member participation practices in selected NGO Boards in Tanzania. Method: Qualitative and quantitative methodology was employed. Theory: This section discusses the theoretical underpinnings relevant to NGOs, NGO Boards, Board Members, and Board Member roles, Board Member recruitment, participation and evaluation. Analysis: Collected data has been analyzed by means of tables, figures, classifying themes and transforming raw data into meaningful information which assisted in responding to the research question and specific objectives of this research Main Findings Evidence of best corporate governance practices in NGO sector in Tanzania such as the role of the boards to recruit new board members, to set and ensure compliance with organizational policies as well as recruit and evaluate the performance of senior management were found. NGO sector in Tanzania has well established standards and criteria for board member selection. However, these practices are not applied to all NGOs interviewed during this research Majority (75%) of board members in NGO sector in Tanzania are people that work within NGOs and are drawn from senior management cadre. The remaining are drawn from private sector, academia and government. Majority of interviewed members indicated a strong sense of support, trust and confidence on the impact of NGOs work in Tanzania as the main motivational factor for accepting to sit on NGO boards Key barriers that limit effective board member participation in NGOs in Tanzania include: None availability to attend board meetings and activities; lack of clarity on the roles and responsibilities of boards; inconsistencies in relation to total numbers of board members; lack of capacity and lack of induction and performance monitoring and reviews Recommendations: More capacity building is needed for NGO boards in Tanzania in the areas that were found wanting by this research including: recruitment of new board members, roles and responsibilities of boards. More research is needed to investigate impact of the emerging sitting allowances in NGO sector in Tanzania


Meta‐analytic data on the effect of coffee in prostate cancer risk are controversial. Caffeine as a bioactive compound of coffee has not yet been studied in deep in vitro. Our study aimed at evaluating in a population cohort the effect of Italian‐style coffee consumption on prostate cancer risk and at investigating in vitro the potential antiproliferative and antimetastatic activity of caffeine on prostate cancer cell lines. 6,989 men of the Moli‐sani cohort aged ≥50 years were followed for a mean of 4.24 ± 1.35 years and 100 new prostate cancer cases were identified. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition‐Food Frequency Questionnaire was used for the dietary assessment and the evaluation of Italian‐style coffee consumption. Two human prostate cancer cell lines, PC‐3 and DU145, were tested with increasing concentrations of caffeine, and their proliferative/metastatic features were evaluated. The newly diagnosed prostate cancer participants presented lower coffee consumption (60.1 ± 51.3 g/day) compared to the disease‐free population (74.0 ± 51.7 g/day) (p < 0.05). Multiadjusted analysis showed that the subjects at highest consumption (>3 cups/day) had 53% lower prostate cancer risk as compared to participants at the lowest consumption (0–2 cups/day) (p = 0.02). Both human prostate cancer cell lines treated with caffeine showed a significant reduction in their proliferative and metastatic behaviors (p < 0.05). In conclusion, reduction by Italian‐style coffee consumption of prostate cancer risk (>3 cups/day) was observed in epidemiological level. Caffeine appeared to exert both antiproliferative and antimetastatic activity on two prostate cancer cell lines, thus providing a cellular confirmation for the cohort study results.


The CLEVELAND DIESEL ENGINE DIVISION OF GENERAL MOTORS CORP., a leading research facility in the development of diesel engines, began operation in Nov. 1912 as the Winton Gas Engine & Mfg. Co. at 2116 W. 106th St. Founded by Cleveland automobile manufacturer ALEXANDER WINTON, the plant first produced the marine gasoline engine Winton designed, but later Winton adopted a diesel engine developed in Europe as an alternative and built the first one in 1913. When the firm was renamed the Winton Engine Works in 1916, it manufactured diesel engines for a variety of marine craft and government vessels. Later the firm produced engines for locomotives. In 1928 Geo. W. Codrington replaced Winton as president of the company, which then became the Winton Engine Corp. in 1930, when it was bought by GM. Its name officially changed to the Cleveland Diesel Engine Div. of General Motors Corp. in 1938. During the 1930s, a new, lighter-weight diesel engine with more speed and flexibility had been developed. By 1939 98% of the company's business was work performed for the government. In 1941 Cleveland Diesel expanded its plant, employed 5,000 people, and produced the new diesel engines for an estimated 70% of the navy's submarines during World War II. Employment dropped to 1,000 in 1947, but expansion began again in the 1950s with the acquisition of plants at 2160 W. 106th St. and 8200 Clinton Rd. However, in the next decade, the navy needed fewer diesel engines with the development of atomic-powered submarines, and GM closed the Cleveland plant in 1962, combining its operations with facilities in LaGrange, IL.


ABSTRACT Pebbles and cobbles of Cretaceous carbonate rocks in Eocene and Neogene fluvial conglomerates and lag deposits derived from them have patterns of silicification that indicate most silicification occurred after deposition. This interpretation is supported by oxygen isotopic values of silica and by the absence of conchoidal fracture surfaces and percussion scars that are typical of many fluvially transported chert clasts. Silicification is manifested chiefly as thin rinds on well-rounded carbonate pebbles and cobbles, although some carbonate cobbles are internally silicified in diffusion patterns (Liesegang bands) that conform to present clast shape. Silica phases are microcrystalline quartz and chalcedony (locally with beekite texture) with minor lutecite and opal-CT. Chertification wa affected by groundwater rich in silica, probably derived from the hydrolysis of volcanic ash in Neogene tuff beds. The likelihood that temperatures of groundwater were considerably higher than those found in marine pore waters, plus the likelihood that hydrological conditions could not have persisted for more than a few 106 years, suggests that silicification was much more rapid than for deep-sea cherts. Silicification of the clasts was similar to silcretization processes.


The favorable speed of an airship is chiefly determined by the condition of the consumption of the least amount of fuel per unit of traveled distance, although other conditions come into play. The resulting rules depend on the character of the wind and on the variability of the efficiency of the engine propeller units. This investigation resulted in the following rules. 1) Always keep the absolute course and steer at such an angle with reference to it as to neutralize the side wind. 2) In a strong contrary wind, take a speed one and one half times the velocity of the wind. 3) As a general rule, take the velocity of the wind and the velocity of the course component of the wind. Add them together if the wind has a contrary component, but subtract them from each other if the wind has a favorable component.


Musulmans a Catalunya: El repte de l'integracio i la Uibertat religiosa (Muslims in Catalonia: The Challenge of Integration and Religious Freedom). By Alex Seglers GomezQuintero. Barcelona: Angle Editorial, 2004. 206 pp. euro15.90. The history of the Catalans and Islam is distinctive from that of the rest of Spain. The Catalan language, which counts some 10 million speakers, is an official idiom along with Castilian, in the Spanish regions of Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands. Barcelona, the great Catalan metropolis, was taken back from Muslim conquerors in the year 80 1 - only ninety years after the Umayyad invasion of 7 1 1 - and became the capital of the Marca Hispanica, or the Spanish March, controlled by the Christian heirs of Charlemagne. Catalonia was thus never part of Al-Andalus and is one of the few regions of Spain from which a Muslim cultural legacy, in the form of architectural monuments and Arabic loan-words, is absent. Muslim immigration became a significant recent phenomenon in Catalonia in the 1980s when the need for agricultural labor in the region's rich vineyards and other farming enterprises became acute. Seglers, the author of a Catalunya, is a professor of ecclesiastical law at the University of Barcelona and has conducted wide-ranging studies of immigration in Canada and throughout the European Union. This book, aimed mainly for the use of Catholic clerics and governmental authorities, is a serious, factually -based examination of the legal issues that have emerged as Catalonia has struggled with North African and black African immigration. While Seglers does not take up the point, Catalonia resembles, in some ways, the Flemish areas of Belgium, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, and Switzerland vis-a-vis the challenges presented to a native population by an influx of new Muslim residents. Muslims represent a minority in these territories (anywhere from 4-6 percent of the population according to a 2005 estimate) and are increasingly demanding special status for themselves. In the meantime, the Catalans, Flemish, Dutch, etc. are communities and nations with small populations whose cultures and languages vary from those of their larger European neighbors. If Muslims are a minority in Catalonia, Catalans are a minority in Spain. Catalans, and other small European nations, thus fear cultural dilution from two directions, and concern about a growing, and increasingly militant, Muslim population in these small Western European communities is based in reality. At the same time, new Muslim residents have, for the most part, been slow to recognize the sense of cultural threat felt by those from whom they ask a privileged protection. Seglers argues that a peaceful integration of Muslims in Catalan life is possible if it is based on Muslim acceptance of European democratic values. The author writes that guarantees of religious freedom in Europe must rest not on acceptance of Islamist demands for special treatment but in demarcating the principle that Muslims may become citizens, as long as they jettison the tenets of Islamist ideology. As he writes, "Muslim citizenship" and Islamism remain at odds, producing "hidden conflicts." Such conflicts include controversies over Islamist proposals for European accommodation to Shari'a-based family law with rights to polygamy and an acceptance of forced marriages. …


Video games are extremely engaging experiences that could offer a productive learning environment to better understand concepts that are challenging to grasp within a traditional classroom setting. Mathematics provides one example of such a subject due to its high level of abstraction. Learning mathematics has long been a challenge for students, and a source of concern for educators. A considerable number of video games have been developed to teach basic mathematical concepts, yet, teaching more advanced mathematics remains a major challenge. This research explored ways to incorporate math education in video games, focusing on modeling concepts from high school mathematics. The goal of this research was to make a series of prototype games that act as extrinsic motivational tools to help students engage more effectively with abstract mathematical concepts. The intent was to help students understand the applications of those concepts by putting them into practice within a game environment.

Keywords: Video Games, Digital Games, Educational Games, Abstract Symbolic Mathematics, High School Mathematics, Learning Through Games, Design Research


We propose a novel sparse representation for heavily underdetermined multichannel sound mixtures, i.e., with much more sources than microphones. The proposed approach operates in the complex Fourier domain, thus preserving spatial characteristics carried by phase differences. We derive a generalization of K-SVD which jointly estimates a dictionary capturing both spectral and spatial features, a sparse activation matrix, and all instantaneous source phases from a set of signal examples. This dictionary can be used to extract the learned signal from a new input mixture. The method is applied to the challenging problem of ego-noise reduction for robot audition. We demonstrate its superiority relative to conventional dictionary-based techniques using real-room recordings.


HotNets has historically been invitation-only. The SIGCOMM community has recently encouraged HotNets to allow broader participation. This note reports on a HotNets 2015 experiment with a more open attendance policy, and on the results of a post-workshop survey of the attendees. Based on this experiment and the survey, the HotNets Steering Committee believes it is possible for the workshop to support broader attendance, while preserving an atmosphere that encourages free-flowing discussions.


Abstract Petrographic and mineralogical studies of samples of the Normal (or undisturbed) Merensky Reef from Frank Shaft No. 1 at Rustenburg Platinum Mine revealed the presence of a Pt-Fe-alloy, probably isoferroplatinum (58 vol.% of total precious metal minerals), arsenides (21 vol.%), bismuthotellurides (10 vol.%), electrum (9 vol.%) and platinum group element- (PGE-) sulfides and stannides (2 vol.%), associated predominantly with base-metal- and iron-sulfides. A Pt-Fe-alloy-dominated facies has been known for considerable time from potholes and discordant bodies and has been attributed to fluid activity with high fO₂ and low fS₂. Our petrographic results indicate that the normal thin reef has also undergone hydrothermal alteration. For the first time, the rare mineral troilite (stoichiometric FeS) was found as intergrowths with masses of Pt-Fe-alloy, together with Fe-rich pyrrhotite, secondary hydrous silicates, magnetite and calcite. The observed mineral assemblage and texture is interpreted as the product of partial desulfurization, caused by migrating S-undersaturated fluids, which led to the exsolution of Pt-Fe-alloy from pyrrhotite (Fex-1S) with the latter approaching a stoichiometric composition. Overall our new observations provide convincing support for the importance of metasomatism in the secondary modification of ore mineralogy and textures even in the undisturbed Merensky Reef.


A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCHOOL CLIMATE AND STUDENT PERFORMANCE ON THE VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING TESTS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS By Victoria Lee Thomasson, M.Ed. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006 Major Director: Dr. Rosemary Lambie, Professor, Educational Leadership School of Education Educators are examining many aspects of schools as they find ways to help students improve their performance on standardized tests in order to meet both federal and state standards. This study examined the relationship between organizational climate and student achievement on the Virginia Standards of Learning tests. A total of 1,061 teachers in 47 schools across the Commonwealth of Virginia responded to the climate survey. The survey instrument was the Organizational Health Inventory for Elementary Schools (OHI-E). This brief survey instrument examined five aspects of school climate. They were Teacher Affiliation, Collegial Leadership, Resource Influence, Institutional ... V l l l Integrity, and Academic Emphasis. Third and fifth grade Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) tests were the measure of student achievement in English. mathematics, science, and social studies. This study also examined the effects of socioeconomic status as measured by the percentage of students receiving free and reduced price lunches. There was a significant positive relationship between overall school climate and third grade performance on the mathematics SOL test and fifth grade performance on the social studies SOL test. Socioeconomic status was significantly negatively correlated with SOL scores in third grade math, science, and social studies and all fifth grade tests except mathematics. Further regression analyses of the aspects of climate measured by the OHI-E (Institutional Integrity, Collegial Leadership, Resource Influence, Teacher Affiliation, and Academic Emphasis) indicated that Academic Emphasis had a significant independent effect on third grade English and mathematics SOL scores as well as fifth grade English, science, and social studies SOL scores. There was a negative correlation between Institutional Integrity and English SOL scores in both the third and fifth grade. This negative correlation shows that when teachers perceive that the school is vulnerable to outside interference, English scores tend to be higher.


The fingerprint is a morphological aspect of the human fingertip that has interesting implications for our sense of touch. Previous studies focused on how the fingerprint affects the perception of stimuli that excite high temporal frequencies, such as for texture perception. These studies also only add papillary ridges to their sensors. Here, we endow a biomimetic sensor with both papillary ridges (fingerprint) and a dermal stiffness contrast (stiffer intermediate ridges), and assess the impact on localization perception accuracy. The sensor is based on a novel modular version of a three-dimensional printed tactile sensor (TacTip). Tactile data were collected with these tips on nine stimuli with varying curvature. The location perception acuity of three tips [smooth, fingerprint, and fingerprint (cores)] were compared with a probabilistic classification method, finding that both fingerprinted tips increase the perceptual acuity of small spatial scales. Interestingly, the fingerprint variant had poorer accuracy than the smooth tip for larger spatial scales; however, adding cores to enhance the dermal stiffness counteracted the degradation of accuracy. This supports the theories that the fingerprint aids the classification of edges and smaller spatial scales, and demonstrates that the addition of a fingerprint to an artificial tactile sensors improves its acuity.


Objectives: The case history is an important part of diagnostic reasoning. The patient management problem method has been used in various studies, but may not reflect the actual reasoning process because a list of choices is given to the subjects in advance. This study investigated the contribution of the history to making the correct diagnosis by using clinical case simulation, in which students obtained clinical information by themselves. Methods: A prospective study was conducted. Ninety-four fifth-year medical students from Chiba University who underwent supervised clinical clerkships in 2009 were surveyed. Each student randomly selected 1 of 4 test cases and attempted to make a diagnosis through medical interview, physical examination, and laboratory tests, while the teacher acted as a patient. The student ranked the disease(s) diagnosed at each stage of the process. Diagnostic accuracy rates were compared using analysis of the χ2-test. Results: Sixty students (63.8%) made a correct diagnosis, which was based on the history in 43 students (71.7%), physical findings in 11 students (18.3%), and laboratory data in 6 students (10.0%). Compared with students who considered the correct diagnosis in their differential diagnosis after taking a history, students who failed to do so were 5.0 times (95%CI = 2.5-9.8) more likely to make a final misdiagnosis (χ2(1) = 30.73; p<0.001). Conclusions: History taking is especially important for making a correct diagnosis when students perform clinical case simulation. To improve the diagnostic reasoning skills, medical students should be trained in methods for inferring the correct diagnosis from the case history.


The best peer-reviewed, published estimate of Cambodia's education premiums currently comes from a paper by Ashish Lall and Chris Sakellariou (2010), but their paper includes an error in the interpretation of dummy variable coefficients. Here I offer corrected estimates of the annualized education premiums for each level of education in Cambodia, and I also offer an extension by applying Lall and Sakellariou's model to more recent data. The result is that education premiums for Cambodia are generally higher than as published by Lall and Sakellariou, and substantially higher in the case of university education.


Objective/Jo optimize the planning of design of non-removable bridge in the anterior upper teeth. Material/ Instrument for measuring the angle of inclination of the front palatal vault and angles of palatal surfaces of the front teeth. To improve the functional properties of bridges modeling of the intermediate part of the body was carried out by bridge engineering Ovate Pontic. The nature of the fit, the position and shape of the intermediate bridge of frontal portion of the upper jaw were also studied. Results: It has been found that the slope of the palatine anterior facets varied from 34° to 55°. Data were obtained by odontometry of central, lateral incisors and canines of the upper jaw. Conclusion/The angle of the front facet of the palatine teeth equals the angle of inclination of the middle third of the anterior palatal vault, the body of the prosthesis should move smoothly into the line of the anterior palatal vault, passing in each restored tooth.


Stimuli-responsive luminescent materials have attracted considerable attention in recent years because of their potential application in various fields. In this work, dimethylamine substituted bisbenzocoumarin (DB-Cn) derivatives are synthesized and their optical properties are investigated. These molecules show solvatochromic and mechanochromic properties. Powder wide-angle X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry curves reveal that the initial crystalline states are transformed to amorphous states under various external stimuli. Single crystal X-ray analysis of DB-C2 reveals that the destruction of the crystal conformation and the changes of intermolecular π–π stacking interactions could be responsible for the red-shifted emission. Further investigation revealed that DB-C2 showed acidochromic properties and could be utilized as a security ink. The control 1H NMR experiment reveals that the protonation of the aromatic amines is essential for the acidochromic properties. This work provides information on the mechanism study of stimuli-responsive luminescence properties of binaphthalene-type luminescent materials and expands the potential application of these materials.


In a facility with front room and back room operations, it is useful to switch workers between the rooms in order to cope with changing customer demand. Assuming stochastic customer arrival and service times, we seek a policy for switching workers such that the expected customer waiting time is minimized while the expected back room staffing is sufficient to perform all work. Three novel constraint programming models and several shaving procedures for these models are presented. Experimental results show that a model based on closed-form expressions together with a combination of shaving procedures is the most efficient. This model is able to find and prove optimal solutions for many problem instances within a reasonable run-time. Previously, the only available approach was a heuristic algorithm. Furthermore, a hybrid method combining the heuristic and the best constraint programming method is shown to perform as well as the heuristic in terms of solution quality over time, while achieving the same performance in terms of proving optimality as the pure constraint programming model. This is the first work of which we are aware that solves such queueing-based problems with constraint programming.


To the Editor: More than three quarters of critically endangered species of amphibians are threatened by infectious disease; several are already extinct (1). In 2010, the yellow-spotted bell frog (Litoria castanea), which was presumed to be extinct, was rediscovered in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. This species of frog had not been seen for 30 years, and a chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, was thought to be the reason (1,2). The number of frogs in the rediscovered population is estimated to be 100; if numbers are that low, the Yellow-spotted bell frog is the most critically endangered frog in Australia.

Several yellow-spotted bell frogs were collected for a captive breeding program at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. Generalized edema developed in a subadult male frog after 8 months of captivity in strict quarantine conditions. The frog subsequently died, and later an adult male frog was also found dead. Results of necropsy on both frogs at the Australian Registry of Wildlife Health revealed subcutaneous edema, intracoelomic fluid, and swollen kidneys with pale foci. Histopathologic examination demonstrated chronic severe tubulonephropathy and acute severe encephalomalacia. Coalescing foci of hemorrhage and malacia were observed in the caudal brainstem and were associated with small multinucleated (1 × 1 μm) parasites forming plasmodia-like structures 10–20 μm in diameter (Figure). Plasmodia were present in large numbers (1–5/40× field) in the spinal cord. Organisms that were morphologically consistent with myxozoan parasites detected in other frogs in Australia were found predominately within axons and were uncommonly present in vascular endothelial cells (3). Characteristic hepatic lesions, including lymphoplasmacytic hepatitis with biliary hyperplasia and loss of hepatocytes, were also present.

Figure

Acute severe encephalomalacia in the caudal brainstem of a captive Yellow-spotted bell frog from Sydney, Australia. This lesion was characterized by hemorrhage, vascular necrosis, and parasites consistent with Myxozoa (arrowhead) (hematoxylin and eosin ...

The cause of death was renal failure, a common problem in aged frogs; however, these frogs were young, and therefore the cause of the renal changes was perplexing. We considered whether toxins (e.g., improperly cured polyvinyl chloride glue) or an infectious process might be possible causes. Staff in the zoo's breeding program were questioned and indicated that the opportunity for introduction of a toxin was low. In addition, results for virus isolation and fungal and bacterial cultures were negative. We retrospectively reexamined histologic sections of an endangered booroolong frog (Litoria booroolongensis) that had similar brain lesions and intralesional myxozoan parasites (3). Tissue samples were submitted to the Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, for identification.

DNA was extracted from brain tissues (20 mg) by using the PureLink DNA Kit (Invitrogen, Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia). To test for myxozoans, we used a highly Myxozoa-specific PCR to amplify the complete internal transcribed spacer of the ribosomal DNA (3). Myxozoan-positive amplicons were directly sequenced at Macrogen Inc. (Seoul, South Korea), analyzed by using the CLC Main Workbench (CLC bio, Aahrus, Denmark), and deposited in GenBank (accession nos. {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"JN977605","term_id":"363541154"}}JN977605–09).

PCR produced a 973-bp amplicon with DNA from brain and liver of the yellow-spotted bell frogs and the booroolong frog. DNA from the frogs showed 100% identity with each other, as did sequences from brain and liver. A BLASTN (4) search of public DNA sequence repositories returned the internal transcribed spacer of the ribosomal DNA of a myxozoan parasite, Cystodiscus axonis (syn. Myxidium sp. 'brain'), as the most closely related sequence (3,5). Pairwise comparison revealed 100% identity with C. axonis. During the brain phase of infection, C. axonis parasites reside within the myelinated axons (5), and special staining for axons confirmed this location for the brain parasites in this study. Screening of tissue sections from frogs trapped in the same locality as the yellow-spotted bell frogs revealed the presence of the parasite in the central nervous system of 8 of 10 stony creek frogs (Litoria wilcoxi) and 1 of 5 eastern banjo frogs (Limnodynastes dumerilii).

Little information exists about the pathologic significance of myxozoan parasite in frogs and tadpoles (6). In Australia, Cystodiscus spp. parasites of frogs are emerging and have spread widely along the eastern coast in the past 40 years; they were first detected in a frog collected in 1966 (7). Molecular characterization revealed 2 cryptic Cystodiscus parasites in frogs endemic to Australia and in the invasive cane toad (3). However, the cane toad did not introduce this parasite into Australia because cane toads from Hawaii, which are devoid of the parasite, were the source population for toads in Australia. The parasites seem to be native to Australia, and the invasive cane toad plays a spill-back role in their dissemination; however, it is not known how these parasites were disseminated outside the cane toad range (3).

Frog myxozoan parasites are yet to be documented as a cause of population decline; yet, the frequent presence of these parasites in moribund animals in captivity, including the yellow-spotted bell frog, demonstrates the need to monitor parasites in endangered frog populations worldwide. On the basis of our necropsy findings in the central nervous system of 2 yellow-spotted bell frogs, we encourage other investigators to consider the potential role that myxozoan parasites may play in wild and captive populations of declining frogs worldwide.


In the social sciences, evaluating the effectiveness of a program or intervention often leads researchers to draw causal inferences from observational research designs. Bias in estimated causal effects becomes an obvious problem in such settings. This article presents the Heckman Model as an approach sometimes applied to observational data for the purpose of estimating an unbiased causal effect and shows how the Heckman Model can be used to correct for the problem of selection bias. It discusses in detail the assumptions necessary before the approach can be used to make causal inferences. The Heckman Model makes assumptions about the relationship between two equations in an underlying behavioral model: a response schedule and a selection function. This article shows that the Heckman Model is particularly sensitive to the choice of variables included in the selection function. This is demonstrated empirically in the context of estimating the effect of commercial coaching programs on the SAT performance of high school students. Coaching effects for both sections of the SAT are estimated using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Small changes in the selection function are shown to have a big impact on estimated coaching effects under the Heckman Model.


The ongoing biennial environmental survey, undertaken by staff at Lincoln University since 2000, has been used as a basis for identifying some future directions for rural New Zealand in the 21 Century. In the main New Zealanders expect the government to provide high quality health and education systems and a strong economy, followed by a high quality environment. For individuals the priorities are different, and the environment and quality of life are more important drivers than economic considerations. In terms of the key resources and related pressures, states and responses the overall state of the New Zealand environment is very good, although of all resources considered freshwater rates the lowest. At a more local level there is considerable concern about lowland streams, rivers and lakes. Farming is increasingly blamed for damaging freshwater but also for damage to a range of other resources. There are important demographic differences. Those employed in resource based industries are much more positive about the state of specific water resources than are others – anglers are more pessimistic. Achieving sustainability would have multiple benefits for New Zealand and would arguably come at only one cost, a possibility of higher living costs. Overall these findings indicate a strong desire for New Zealand to have a high quality rural environment. A key implication therefore is that rural land development/intensification needs to occur with sustainability as a focus, and not afterwards as a quick fix solution.


Chem-Trete Silane sealer was applied to the prestressed girders and precast piles of the newly constructed Naselle River Bridge 101/24 in Washington State in 1984. The purpose of the experiment was to gain experience with the use of the product and to measure its effectiveness over time in preventing the intrusion of chlorides into prestressed concrete girders and precast concrete piles in marine environments. Recent rapid chloride permeability tests and chloride testing indicate that this sealer has had little or no effect on reducing the intrusion of chlorides into the concrete.


Network functions virtualization (NFV) attributes to the substitute of network functions on dedicated appliances such as load balancers and routers with the use of virtualized instances running as software. Any enterprise can easily implement a wide array of network functions using NFV while maximizing efficiencies and introducing new revenue-generating services that are significantly faster and easier than ever before. NFV is a key enabler of the coming 5G infrastructure, supporting the virtualization of various appliances in the network. The scope of this document is to provide a comprehensive overview of the development of NFV-based services, media services in particular, and their specific requirements that are addressed in existing service development kits (SDKs). By supplying an overview of available tools, the development workflow of an example use case on immersive media is demonstrated with an SDK that provides a set of open source tools facilitating the development of media applications.


This paper focuses on the impact that energy-efficient techniques have on the component lifetime in optical backbone networks. The study presented in the paper considers in particular the influence that green routing strategies have on the failure rate of Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs), i.e., if their lifetime is positively or negatively impacted when putting them into sleep mode in order to reduce their energy consumption. To this end, the paper proposes a model that estimates the failure rate acceleration factor as a function of: (i) for how long and how frequently a device is switched into sleep mode, and (ii) hardware parameters that characterize the device. The proposed model is then evaluated by considering an energy-efficient Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) strategy that targets saving energy by putting EDFAs into sleep mode. The results presented in the paper show that energy-efficient techniques may have the potential to lower the failure rate of EDFAs. However, this is true only under specific conditions, i.e., an energy-efficient strategy needs to be carefully planned in order to avoid frequent power state transitions, which result in shortening the lifetime of an EDFA.


Context: Cytological assessment using various morphological parameters helps segregate breast lesions in fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) into different categories. The prognosis and the line of management of each category differ accordingly. Aims: This study aims at assessing the validity of Modified Masood's Scoring Index (MMSI) by the evaluation of cytomorphological features of various breast lesions compared with histopathological findings. Settings and Design: This is a cross-sectional study done in 65 female patients with palpable or nonpalpable breast lesions, undergoing FNAC and biopsy over a period of 18 months from December 1, 2012, to May 31, 2014. Materials and Methods: MMSI categorizes breast lesions, based on six cytological parameters into different categories such as nonproliferative breast disease (NPBD), proliferative breast disease (PBD) without atypia, PBD with atypia, and malignancy. The findings are compared with gold standard histopathological diagnosis. Statistical Analysis Used: Percentage of agreement, Kappa statistics, and Chi-square test. Results: Of the total 65 cases, all cases in MMSI category I and IV showed good histopathological correlation. The agreement between MMSI and histopathology was 93.8% which is more when compared with 72.3% agreement between cytology without scoring and histopathology. MMSI has increased the diagnostic accuracy of FNAC to 93.8% from 80%. Conclusion: The scoring system is easily reproducible, simple, and reliable. MMSI proved good histopathological correlation in category I and IV. This scoring technique has clearly demarcated those cases requiring surgical management. It is applicable for palpable and nonpalpable cases.


Since 2004 the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has been analysing the online version of printed media in over twenty languages and has automatically recognised and compiled large amounts of named entities ( persons and organisations) and their many name variants. The collected variants not only include standard spellings in various countries, languages and scripts, but also frequently found spelling mistakes or lesser used name forms, all occurring in real-life text (e.g. Benjamin/ Binyamin/Bibi/Benyamin/Biniamin/Netanyahu/Netanjahu/Neanyahou/Netahny/ ). This entity name variant data, known as JRCNames, has been available for public download since 2011. In this article, we report on our efforts to render JRC-Names as Linked Data (LD), using the lexicon model for ontologies lemon. Besides adhering to Semantic Web standards, this new release goes beyond the initial one in that it includes titles found next to the names, as well as date ranges when the titles and the name variants were found. It also establishes links towards existing datasets, such as DBpedia and Talk-Of-Europe. As multilingual linguistic linked dataset, JRC-Names can help bridge the gap between structured data and natural languages, thus supporting large-scale data integration, e.g. cross-lingual mapping, and web-based content processing, e.g. entity linking. JRC-Names is publicly available through the dataset catalogue of the European Union's Open Data Portal.


This paper explores the aims, operation and outcomes of the MEET project (Maximise Erasmus Exchange Together), a project which commenced in the Department of Languages, DIT in the 2014/2015 academic year, and contributes to wider discussion on learning in study abroad (SA) contexts. The staff-led MEET initiative sought to engage students more effectively in their preparation for year abroad study and work placements. It brought together approximately twenty 20 students in second-year and fourth-year of BA (Hons) programmes in Languages and International Business or Tourism as well as Erasmus students from a variety of different programmes, who were studying at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Students took on group leadership roles to organise and deliver a range of cocurricular and extra-curricular social and cultural events, for which and at which particular language-learning activities were undertaken. Questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and empirical observations attest to the value for student learning and confidence of the interventions and actions undertaken. The findings suggest that student preparedness for work and study abroad programmes, in themselves significant transition and transformative experiences, is enhanced when students are more consciously engaged in concerted efforts to initiate and reflect on their own learning and behaviours prior to SA experiences. The research also highlights issues around student motivation and willingness to engage with nonprogramme related learning and reflects on individualised learning pathways. The research 1 Spencer and Olmos: The MEET Project: Engaging Students in Pre-Departure Socialisatio Published by ARROW@TU Dublin, 2017 2 will be of particular interest to those involved in language and intercultural teaching and learning, and to those preparing students for study and work placements abroad.


Background We identified secondary infection of Buruli ulcer (BU) wounds as a cause of healing delay. In order to contribute to the improvement of wound management and reduction of healing delay, we initiated a study to gain understanding of the possible routes of infection and also characterised the resistant profiles of Gram negative bacteria isolated from the wounds of patients attending two health facilities in Ghana. Methods Staphylococcus aureus isolates were characterised by the spa gene, mecA and the Pantone Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) toxin followed by spa sequencing and whole genome sequencing of a subset of isolates. Phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility testing of Gram negative clinical isolates was performed and multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa identified. The Enterobacteriaceae were further investigated for ESBL and carbapenem production, and some resistance conferring genes were analysed by PCR. Results Twenty-four isolates were identified as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and lukFS genes encoding PVL were identified in 67 isolates. Typing and sequencing of the spa gene from 91 isolates identified 29 different spa types with t355 (ST152), t186 (ST88), and t346 dominating. While many distinct strains were isolated from both health centres, genotype clustering was identified within centres pointing to possible health care-associated transmission. Phylogenomic analysis confirmed these clusters. Among the GNB, phenotype screening showed widespread resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, ticarcillin-clavulanic acid, cefuroxime and sulphamethoxazole-trimethoprim. ESBL production was confirmed in 15 isolates phenotypically while 61.5% of screen-positive isolates harboured at least one ESBL-conferring gene. Carbapenem encoding genes were detected in 41% of the isolates. Conclusions Our findings indicate that the health-care environment likely contributes to superinfection of BU wounds and calls for training in wound management and infection control techniques. The observed frequency of ESBL and carbapenem resistance indicates the need to set up surveillance networks and strictly enforce policies which guide the rational use of antibiotics.


Spiral structure in disk galaxies is modeled with nine collisionless N-body simulations including live disks, halos, and bulges with a range of masses. Two of these simulations make long-lasting and strong two-arm spiral wave modes that last for ∼5 Gyr with constant pattern speed. These two had a light stellar disk and the largest values of the Toomre Q parameter in the inner region at the time the spirals formed, suggesting the presence of a Q-barrier to wave propagation resulting from the bulge. The relative bulge mass in these cases is about 10%. Models with weak two-arm spirals had pattern speeds that followed the radial dependence of the Inner Lindblad Resonance.


The effects of the herbicides ametryn, trifloxysulfuron-sodium and the mixture (ametryn + trifloxysulfuron-sodium) on the yield components of ten sugarcane genotypes were evaluated in this study. The experiment was conducted in a Paleudultand and t was arranged in a randomized block design with split plots. The herbicides ametryn (2.000 g ha-1), tryfloxysulfuron-sodium (22,5 g ha-1) were allocated in the plots as well the commercial mixture ametryn + trifloxysulfuron-sodium (1.463 + 37 g ha-1) and control without herbicide application (hoed). The herbicides were applied at as initial post-emergence of the crop. The sugar cane genotypes (RB72454, RB835486, RB855113, RB855156, RB867515, RB925211, RB925345, RB937570, RB947520 and SP801816) were allocated in the subplots. At 14, 45 and 60 days after treatment application (DTA), sugarcane genotype intoxication by the herbicides was evaluated, using grades. At 14 and 45 DTA, plants had their leaf area and dry matter determined. Plant height was measured at 14 and 360 DTA, and stem productivity was determined by harvest time, 430 days after planting. The genotype RB855156 was the most sensitive to the applied products and the genotypes RB925345, RB947520 and SP80-1816, the most tolerant. In all cases of intoxication, a complete recovery of the crop was observed up to 60 DTA. It was concluded that selectivity of sugarcane to the herbicides ametryn, trifloxysulfuron-sodium and ametryn + trifloxysulfuron-sodium is dependent on the cultivated genotype.


Pattern formation in systems with a conserved quantity is considered by studying the appropriate amplitude equations. The conservation law leads to a
 large-scale neutral mode that must be included in the asymptotic analysis for pattern formation near onset. Near a stationary bifurcation, the usual
 Ginzburg--Landau equation for the amplitude of the pattern is then coupled to an equation for the large-scale mode. These amplitude equations show
 that for certain parameters all roll-type solutions are unstable. This new instability differs from the Eckhaus instability in that it is amplitude-driven and is
 supercritical. Beyond the stability boundary, there exist stable stationary solutions in the form of strongly modulated patterns. The envelope of these
 modulations is calculated in terms of Jacobi elliptic functions and, away from the onset of modulation, is closely approximated by a sech profile.
 Numerical simulations indicate that as the modulation becomes more pronounced, the envelope broadens. A number of applications are considered,
 including convection with fixed-flux boundaries and convection in a magnetic field, resulting in new instabilities for these systems.


Smucker, Barbara. Underground to Canada . Toronto: Penguin, 2013. Print. A reprint of a historical novel first published in 1977, Underground to Canada is the gripping story of two young girls who rely on the secret network of courageous and sympathetic people which helped thousands of fugitive slaves on their dangerous journey from the American south to Canada and freedom. This covert network came to be known as the "Underground Railroad." In his introduction, award-winning author Lawrence Hill notes that after being in print for decades, " Underground to Canada still serves as a wonderful introduction to a vital and fascinating element of Canadian history." In an excerpt from his 1967 Massey Lectures reprinted here, Martin Luther King Jr. says, "Deep in our history of struggle for freedom Canada was the North Star. The Negro slave, denied education, de-humanized, imprisoned on cruel plantations, knew that far to the north a land existed where a fugitive slave, if he survived the horrors of the journey, could find freedom." The subject matter of this novel is challenging, but, in a world which has yet to put an end to childhood slavery, its message is an important one. As Lawrence Hill notes, referring to the institution of slavery and the horrors of the Holocaust, "writers, teachers and parents do no one a favour by pretending that such things didn't exist." Written with young readers in mind, this novel avoids delving into the worst elements of the institution of slavery. It is, however, subtle enough to acknowledge the many difficulties faced by former slaves as they began new lives in Canada.  In addition to the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and the introduction by Lawrence Hill, this edition includes thought-provoking questions and activities in the back of the book which may help children to think about the novel's difficult topics, either individually or with classmates. This is a powerful, essential, novel for the education of young readers—it is recommended for readers over nine years of age—but this particular edition is shoddily produced. I could not help but notice obvious significant errors on pages 27, 84, 133, and 151, and I suspect that I could find many more if I tried. While I cannot give such a substandard edition four stars, I whole-heartedly recommend this title and urge readers to choose a different edition. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Linda Quirk Linda taught courses in Multicultural Canadian Literature, Women's Writing, and Children's Literature at Queen's University (Kingston) and at Seneca College (Toronto) before moving to Edmonton to become the Assistant Special Collections Librarian at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library at the University of Alberta.  Her favourite children's book to teach is  Hana's Suitcase, not only because Hana's story is so compelling, but because the format of this non-fiction book teaches students of all ages about historical investigation and reveals that it is possible to recover the stories of those who have been forgotten by history.


It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another's existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same people who had never learned to think but were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world." -George Orwell, 1984


Background— Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) are at high risk of cardiovascular events and benefit from aggressive secondary prevention; however, changes in the use of cardioprotective medications after incident diagnosis of PAD have not been well described. Methods and Results— We used Danish nationwide administrative registries (2000–2007) to identify 2 groups with incident PAD: PAD alone (n=34 160) and PAD with history of coronary artery disease (CAD) (n=9570). With the use of a comparator with incident CAD alone (n=154 183), we assessed temporal trends and comparative use of cardioprotective medications. Relative differences in medication use were examined by using multivariable logistic regression. Use of medications improved temporally among both groups: for PAD alone, any antiplatelet use increased from 29% to 59% from 2000 to 2007 (P<0.0001), whereas statin use increased 6-fold (9%–56%; P<0.0001). However, use of these therapies by 18 months after incident diagnosis for both PAD groups remained modest and lower in comparison with CAD alone (any antiplatelet, 53% versus 66%; statins, 40% versus 52%; angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, 20% versus 29%). Relative to CAD alone, patients with PAD alone were less likely to use any antiplatelet (adjusted odds ratio, 0.50; 95% confidence interval, 0.49–0.52), statins (adjusted odds ratio, 0.50; 95% confidence interval, 0.48–0.52), or angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (adjusted odds ratio, 0.51; 95% confidence interval, 0.49–0.53) by 18 months. Conclusions— Despite improvement in the use of cardioprotective medications over time, patients with PAD alone remain less likely than those with CAD alone to use these agents.


The consolidation behavior of soils is usually predicted by making use of the convectional theory of consolidation proposed by Terzaghi.Laboratory observations of the consolidation behavior exhibit discrepancies between the theory and the results. These discrepancies are usually attributed to the secondary effects that occur during primary consolidation. On the other hand, Terzaghi's theory presupposes the constancy of permeability and compressibility of the soil. In this study, the effect of variable permeability and compressibility on the consolidation behavior is investigated. For this objective, mathematical treatment of the behavior is presented. Subsequently, laboratory consolidation tests with mid-plane pore pressure measurements are conducted on soft, remolded, pre-consolidated and undisturbed samples of clay. The test results, when compared with the theoretical findings, indicate that most of the inherent discrepancies may be explained via the use of the theory developed in this study.