This article explores implications of the transition to an environment in which users have become secondary gatekeepers of the content published on media websites. This expanded user role, facilitated by technology and enabled by digital news editors, includes assessment of contributions by other users; communication of the perceived value or quality of user- and journalist-produced content; and selective re-dissemination of that content. The result is a two-step gatekeeping process, in which initial editorial decisions to make an item part of the news product are followed by user decisions to upgrade or downgrade the visibility of that item for a secondary audience. Preliminary empirical evidence indicates these user gatekeeping capabilities are now pervasive on US newspaper sites.


The present business environment of extreme competition and rapid changes has motivated scholars to identify variables that can help companies stand up to and overcome these challenges. Research on self-regulation found that self-perceptions of efficacy not only can mediate the effects of external influences on results, but can also regulate employees' initiation, persistence and choice of purposeful actions. Within the self-regulatory framework, this paper specifically explores the role of managerial coaching as an antecedent of employee self-efficacy and performance. Using a sample of 122 Financial Advisors, we found that managerial coaching can increase employee self-efficacy, which in turn fully mediates the effects of coaching on results and behavioural performance. We suggest that, if generalised use of coaching by managers can increase employees' self-efficacy (which is instrumental in increasing employees' initiation and persistence of coping behaviour when faced with challenges and problematic situations), then the use of managerial coaching by an organisation might promote employee self-regulation, increase the organisation's general resilience and, thus, can be considered a sustainable competitive advantage.


Using such materials as light, wind, steam, water, and ice combined with modern materials, the Danish/Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson explores the boundaries between nature, art, and technology. The Weather Project, his installation for the cavernous Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London (part of the Unilever Series), deals with the age-old preoccupation with the weather. This volume features spectacular installation photography and an interview with Eliasson.


Price discrimination is an extremely common type of pricing strategy engaged in by virtually every business with some discretionary pricing power. The issue of whether price discrimination reduces or increases social welfare has been considered by economists since at least 1920. At that time, it was demonstrated that, under certain (restrictive) conditions, price discrimination will reduce social welfare. Subsequent research has shown that price discrimination can increase social welfare, and that a necessary (but not a sufficient) condition for welfare to rise is that total output with discrimination exceeds the no-discrimination level. First, we present evidence about international drug price differentials. Drug prices in the top 5 countries are almost five times as high as they are in the bottom five countries. Certain features of the drug price distribution are surprising. For example, according to our drug price index, the price of drugs in Mexico (which has the second-highest drug prices) is 24% higher than it is in the U.S. (which ranks sixth out of 38 countries). There is a highly significant positive correlation between per capita income and the drug price index: on average, the price of drugs is lower in low-income countries. However, there are large deviations from the regression line. Countries (particularly low-income countries) with similar levels of income pay vastly different prices for drugs. Next, we examine income-related price differentials in the U.S. When price is defined as the amount paid by the patient, there is an inverted-U-shaped relationship between income and price. People in the lowest income category pay 25% less than high income people (16% less if cases when the patient paid nothing are excluded), but people in the middle income category (whose income is 125-200% of the poverty line) pay 6% more than high income people (whose income exceeds 400% of the poverty line). We perform an empirical investigation of whether the necessary condition for price discrimination to increase welfare—that it increase total output—is satisfied in the case of international pharmaceutical prices, by analyzing the relationship across drugs between total output growth and growth in international price dispersion. Drugs that had larger increases in international price dispersion had larger increases in total utilization, controlling for the growth in the mean price of the drug and the drug's vintage. Numerous studies have shown that increased prescription drug use results in improved health outcomes, or the converse: reductions in drug use result in worse health outcomes, such as higher risk of hospitalization and death. In addition to increasing the output of existing products, the ability to engage in price discrimination is likely to increase the number of new products. Contrary to the assumptions of some theoretical models, some markets that would not be served under uniform pricing will be served under price discrimination. This would be the case whenever there are fixed production costs, and the pharmaceutical industry has much higher fixed costs (especially R&D expense) as a percentage of sales than most other industries. Studies have shown that the amount of pharmaceutical R&D investment is influenced by factors (other than the ability to price discriminate) that determine the expected profitability of investment. Studies have also provided evidence that the development and use of new drugs has resulted in significant increases in longevity and health, and that overall, new drugs have been highly cost-effective. Author Notes: This research was supported by Eli Lilly and Company via a Public Policy Research Project Agreement with Columbia University.


TO THE EDITOR: Thymoma is known to be associated with autoimmune disorders such as myasthenia gravis, which occurs in approximately 30% of cases [1], and sometimes is also accompanied by T-cell lymphocytosis [2]. However, thymoma patients with concurrent myasthenia gravis rarely develop lymphocytosis [3]. In the majority of cases, thymoma-associated lymphocytosis consists of a polyclonal population of mature T cells expressing CD4, CD8, or neither marker [2]. We report the unusual case of a patient with a history of invasive thymoma and myasthenia gravis who was subsequently found to have peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM) CD8+ T-cell lymphocytosis and pure red cell aplasia.

A 38-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with abdominal pain. Nine years earlier, she had been diagnosed as having invasive thymoma and myasthenia gravis. The thymoma had been treated surgically, followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy until one year prior to the present admission. A computed tomography scan of her abdomen and chest revealed multiple thymoma metastases involving the lung, pleura, pericardium, liver, both ovaries, and peritoneal seeding. Percutaneous needle biopsy of the pleural mass was consistent with thymoma. The patient's complete blood count showed the following results: white blood cell count: 44.4×109/L (58.9% neutrophils, 34.9% lymphocytes); hemoglobin: 9.5 g/dL; platelet count: 170×109/L. In the workup for anemia, progressive anemia (6.7 g/dL) and persistent lymphocytosis (7.8-31.0×109/L) were noted over 3 months. Analysis of a PB smear showed an increased number of mature lymphocytes with dense chromatin, no nucleoli, and scanty agranular cytoplasm (Fig. 1). Flow cytometry of the PB revealed that 78.4% of lymphocytes were CD3+ and CD8+ T cells. The ratio of CD4+/CD8+ cells was 0.13. A BM study revealed mild hypocellular marrow with erythroid aplasia and diffuse scattered infiltration of small lymphocytes (26.3% lymphocytes on BM aspirate) (Fig. 1). Immunophenotyping by flow cytometry showed proliferation of T cells with expression of CD2, CD3, CD5, CD7, and CD8, which was consistent with the pattern expressed by the T cells in the PB. The result of TCR gene rearrangement in the BM demonstrated no clonal rearrangement. The patient underwent one cycle of chemotherapy with cisplatin, etoposide, and ifosfamide to treat thymoma. After the first cycle, chemotherapy was put on hold because the patient was in poor clinical condition. PB analysis showed somewhat reduced T-cell lymphocytosis (5.8×109/L) over four months of observation (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1

(A) Peripheral blood smear showing mature lymphocytes with dense chromatin, no nucleoli, and scanty agranular cytoplasm (Wright-Giemsa stain, ×1,000). (B) Bone marrow lymphocytosis on aspirate (Wright-Giemsa stain, ×1,000).

Fig. 2

Change of white blood cell and lymphocyte counts during the follow-up period.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of PB and BM CD8+ T-cell lymphocytosis occurring concurrently with invasive thymoma. In most reported cases of T-cell lymphocytosis associated with thymoma, lymphocytes consist of a mixed mature population of T cells with a normal or slightly abnormal CD4:CD8 ratio [2,4,5,6]. In the present case, besides peripheral T-cell lymphocytosis, a predominance of mature lymphocytes was found in the BM, which primarily raised the suspicion of T-cell leukemia/lymphoma. Chronic peripheral T-cell lymphocytosis with BM lymphocytosis generally reflects proliferation of a neoplastic T-cell clone. The differential diagnosis between reactive lymphocytosis and lymphoma/leukemia is of chief importance in patients with thymoma [2]. Flow cytometric studies and TCR gene rearrangement analysis can establish the monoclonality or polyclonality of lymphocytes, therefore resulting in the appropriate diagnosis. The current patient was diagnosed with T-cell lymphocytosis associated with thymoma, which was confirmed with a combination of lymphocyte morphology, flow cytometric studies, and TCR gene rearrangement.

The etiology of T-cell lymphocytosis associated with thymoma is uncertain. It has been speculated that lymphocytosis can be caused by the 'spillover' effect of thymic lymphocytes into the PB [7]. Other theories such as thymoma-related dysregulation of BM hematopoiesis and 'ill-defined immunoregulatory disorder' based on thymic hormone imbalances have been proposed [2,8]. Thymoma is the only tumor proven to generate mature T cells from immature precursors. It has been reported that the proportion of circulating CD45RA+ CD8+ T cells is significantly increased in patients with thymoma compared with that in normal controls, and this phenomenon is due to their export from the tumor itself [9]. The increase of CD8+ T cells with significantly decreased CD4/CD8 ratio found in our patient was in agreement with that finding.

In our case, PB and BM lymphocytosis was an unusual CD8+ T-cell lymphocytosis. The presence of a relatively mature, persistent CD8+ T cell expansion in the absence of molecular evidence of monoclonal proliferation should provide a strong clue for the diagnosis of thymoma associated T cell lymphocytosis.


The act of 'sexting' or to 'sext' is defined as the exchange of pornographic material or sexually explicit messages, pictures or videos via a mobile phone or the internet. The assumption is that not all pornography, and especially sexting, is reported in case law in South Africa, which creates gaps in the reported case law. Therefore most of the information is article based. The objective of this article is to, first, establish the relation between sexting and pornography, secondly, to determine whether there are reported cases of sexting and, lastly, to determine how South African courts and legislation have dealt with sexting. It discusses the premise that sexting is influenced by an increase in the use of mobile technology making it more available globally for both adults and children.


Recent technological developments have led to a situation in which the employment of clicker technology in the law school lecture theatre is now a feasible possibility. Influential studies carried out in pure science disciplines (Hake, 1998; Crouch and Mazur, 2001) indicate positive results in both engagement and assessment success attributed to extensive clicker use. There is however a paucity of studies outlining the tailoring of this technology to the specific nature of legal education. This paper presents the findings of a small-scale use of clicker technology within the context of a wider study addressing issues of lecture engagement across a law course. These observations are drawn into the existing debate on clicker use by highlighting key emerging themes and commenting upon their potential impact within the field of legal education. An overview is then presented of the small body of literature on clicker use to teach law. This is then analysed to make observations on the opportunities for legal education presented by clicker technology and the factors affecting its adoption on a law school-wide basis.


This paper looks at some issues that may arise as Bitcoin, and its underlying blockchain technology, plays a greater role in commercial transactions. Bitcoin and other public blockchains permit identification of every transaction that has occurred. But tracing bitcoin – an issue arising in cases from fraud to secured transactions - will not be technically possible in many cases. Equitable tracing doctrines, along with information beyond the blockchain, may fill the gap. Blockchain smart contracts may provide self-help as an alternative to legal enforcement. Coding transactions, however, will not necessarily put them beyond the scope of contract law. Beyond that, some smart contracts may be functionally more like letters of credit, and so be subject to the principles of documentary credits. Smart contracts used in financing transactions may be limited by the debtor-protective principles of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Existing commercial law principles could be adapted to cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, as some have persuasively argued. Sensitivity to existing practices should guide such regulation, as discussion of relevant adaptations of the law to technological change suggest.


Built environment experts, steeped in their default modes of operation, have been critiqued in post-disaster scenarios as silent perpetrators of unsustainable solutions that focus solely on physical deliverables, rendering them as 'useless'. This paper, grounding the analysis in the recent post-earthquake landscape of Chile and its reconstruction plan in Constitución, adopts a theoretical framework of post-colonial discourse to elucidate the significance of the notion of the 'expert as translator', activating the capacity to amplify the voices of those excluded by dominant forms of knowledge production. Such an attempt would aim to challenge architecture, urban design and the built environment – as disciplines and as practices – in planning for equitable reconstruction. Aligned with Lefebvre's socially produced space, the paper seeks to enlighten the idea of encouraging cultural agency and constructive insurgency in a post-disaster context. It examines how the adaptable, multiple, open, integrative and transformative qualities of reconstruction spaces are essential in responding to cultural differences and dynamic processes.


HIV is disproportionately prevalent among Blacks. Black women most often contract HIV from having risky sex, and adolescence is a time when risky sex behaviors peak. This study tested the feasibility and initial efficacy of an intervention designed to help Black adolescent girls avoid risky sex behaviors. The intervention included group education for girls followed by a service learning opportunity in which the girls practiced the assertiveness and communication skills they had learned in the education sessions, and individual education for the girls' mothers. The intervention was guided by a risk and protective factors framework and by the goal of promoting racial/ethnic pride in the girls. We determined that the intervention was feasible. Schools allowed recruitment of potential participants and the use of their facilities for meeting with the girls. We encountered little participant dropout from the study, and the intervention was highly regarded by the girls who participated and their mothers. We found improvements in aspects of the girls' relationships with their mothers, their sexual assertiveness, and their self-efficacy to use condoms.


Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has become a mainstay in treatment for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are considered high-risk surgical candidates. The use of TAVR in low-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis is being explored as an alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR). Recent results from the Medtronic Evolut Low Risk trial and the Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves (PARTNER) 3 trial shed light on the use of TAVR in low-risk surgical candidates. The Evolut Low Risk trial compared TAVR with a self-expanding supra-annular bioprosthesis to SAVR in 1468 patients with severe aortic stenosis who were low surgical risk. Patients with a mean age of 74 and a mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) risk score of 1.9% were randomized to either TAVR or SAVR groups. Using the composite end point of death or disabling stroke at 24 months, the study found an incidence of 5.3% in the TAVR arm and 6.7% in the surgical arm. The Evolut Low Risk trial thus concluded that TAVR was statistically noninferior but not superior to SAVR (difference, -1.4 percentage points; 95% Bayesian credible interval for the difference, -4.9 to 2.1; posterior probability of noninferiority, >0.999). The PARTNER 3 trial assigned 1,000 patients with severe aortic stenosis and low surgical risk to either TAVR with transfemoral placement of balloon expandable valve or SAVR. Patients with a mean age of 73 and a mean STS score of 1.9% were randomized to either TAVR or SAVR groups. With respect to the primary endpoint of composite death from any cause, stroke, or rehospitalization, the study found an occurrence of 8.5% in TAVR and 15.1% in SAVR, confirming both noninferiority and superiority in the TAVR group [absolute difference, -6.6 percentage points; 95% confidence interval (CI), -10.8 to -2.5; P<0.001 for noninferiority; hazard ratio, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.79; P=0.001 for superiority]. Both the Evolut low risk trial and the PARTNER 3 trial provide evidence that the use of TAVR extends beyond the scope of high and intermediate risk surgical patients and is at the very least equivalent to SAVR in the treatment low-risk surgical candidates when using a transfemoral approach in patients without bicuspid aortic valves. In this article we provide an extensive review on the Evolute low risk and PARTNER 3 trials, including a discussion on clinically relevant outcomes.


A model of mortgage defaults is built into the standard incomplete markets model. Households face income and house-price shocks and purchase houses using long-term mortgages. Interest rates on mortgages are determined in equilibrium according to the risk of default. The model accounts for the observed patterns of housing consumption, mortgage borrowing, and defaults. Default-prevention policies are evaluated. The mortgage default rate, housing demand, households' ability to self-insure, and welfare are hump-shaped in the degree of recourse (the level of defaulters' wealth that can be garnished). Two forces affect default. More recourse implies that the punishment for default is harsher; this reduces the default rate. But more recourse also decreases the interest rates offered; this increases borrowing and the default rate. Introducing loan-to-value (LTV) limits for new mortgages contains borrowing, lowering the default rate with negligible negative effects on housing demand. The combination of recourse mortgages and LTV limits reduces the default rate while boosting housing demand. The behavior of economies with alternative prudential regulations is evaluated during a boom-bust episode in aggregate house prices. In the economy with both recourse mortgages and LTV limits, the mortgage default rate is less sensitive to fluctuations in aggregate house prices.


Objective: Pneumonia is a common disease in infants that has been a major cause of death in children worldwide. Although studies have suggested that T cell subsets and cytokines in the Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid (BALF) may reflect the severity of pneumonia, the exact connection remains un-clarified. This study aimed to elucidate the changes of T cell subsets and cytokines in BALF in paediatric pneumonia.
Patients and Methods: A total of 90 cases of pneumonia children who were examined in our hospital between January 2015 and January 2016 were selected in this study. The patients were divided into mild-to-moderate (n=36) and severe pneumonia group (n=54). Thirty children without any lung diseases were used as controls. The bronchial secretion was collected and analyzed by flow cytometry to determine the expression of surface activation marker of CD3+ T cell subpopulation (CD69, CD25 and HLA-DR). The expression of IL-6, IL-17 and HMGB1 was measured by ELISA.
Results: The expression of CD69, CD25 and HLA-DR in BALF in patients was significantly higher compared with controls (P=0.033). The level of IL-6, IL-17 and HMGB1 in patients was also significantly higher than that in control (P=0.026). The expression of CD69, CD25 and HLA-DR as well as IL-6, IL-17 and HMGB1 in severe pneumonia group was significantly higher compared with mild-tomoderate pneumonia group (P <0.05).
Conclusions: The significant increase in the surface activation markers and cytokines in BALF suggested the immune dysfunction in pneumonia patients. The positive correlation between cytokine expression and the severity of pneumonia indicated their role as biomarkers in immunotherapy.


In McDonnell v. United States, the Supreme Court constrained the reach of federal anti-corruption law, declared the inevitability and even desirability of representatives aggrandizing favored constituents, and asserted patronage to be a hallmark of democracy. The unanimous decision is the latest and clearest indication that the Court will frustrate regulations that require officials to discharge their roles with disinterested neutrality. This article demonstrates the impact of the Court's minimalist view of integrity through political philosophy and game theory. Given the Court's hostility to regulatory prohibition of self-interested political behavior, the final bulwark of public-minded governance is the electorate, which must use the ballot box to reject corrupt representatives. Additionally, the Court's position erects significant obstacles for reform of campaign finance and political institutions. The article concludes that implementing civic anti-corruption requires either jurisprudential innovation or novel approaches to enforcement.This article thereby integrates the history of modern anti-corruption law with the latest leading decision on the topic, weaves together the Court's blackletter doctrine with its substantive politics, describes the impact of the law on democratic governance, and points the way forward for both scholarship and policy.


Abstract A revision of the genus Lejeunea in Malaysia based on examination of about six hundred fresh collections and about four hundred herbarium specimens leads to the recognition of 30 species and 2 varieties. All species are keyed and illustrated, their morphological characters are described and discussed in detail, and distribution and habitat in Malaysia and world distribution are given. In addition, notes are presented on little-used or neglected morphological characters including superior central cells, oil bodies and vegetative propagules. Two species, Taxilejeunea cuculliflora Steph. [= L. umbilicata (Nees) Nees] and Eulejeunea infestans Steph. (=L. papilionacea Steph.) are new synonyms. Eight species are reported for the first time from Peninsular Malaysia [L. alata Gottsche, L. cocoes Mitt., L. dimorpha Kodama, L. fleischeri (Steph.) Mizut., L. micholitzii Mizut., L. papilionacea Steph., L. tuberculosa Steph., and L. umbilicata (Nees) Nees] and one species from East Malaysia, i.e. L. compacta (Steph.) Steph.


The relation between quasiconvexity and k-quasiconvexity, k ≥ 2, is investigated. It is shown that every smooth strictly k-quasiconvex integrand with p-growth at infinity, p > 1, is the restriction to k-th order symmetric tensors of a quasiconvex function with the same growth. When the smoothness condition is dropped, it is possible to prove an approximation result. As a consequence, lower semicontinuity results for k-th order variational problems are deduced as corollaries of well-known first order theorems. This generalizes a previous work by Dal Maso, Fonseca, Leoni and Morini, in which the case k = 2 was treated.


Richer people are happier than poorer people, but when a country becomes richer over time, its people do not become happier. This seemingly contradictory pair of findings of Richard Easterlin has become famous as the Easterlin Paradox. However, it was met with counterevidence. To shed more light on this controversy, we distinguish between five different versions of the paradox. These versions apply to either groups of countries or individual countries, and to either the long or the medium term. We argue that the long term is most appropriate for testing the paradox, and that tests of the paradox should always control for an autonomous time trend. Unfortunately, this requirement renders the long-term version of the paradox for individual countries untestable. We test all other versions of the paradox with Eurobarometer data from 27 European countries. We do so by estimating country-panel equations for mean life satisfaction that include trend and cyclical components of per capita GDP as regressors. When testing variants of the paradox that apply to groups of countries, we find a clear and robust confirmation of the longand medium-term versions of the paradox for a group of nine Western and Northern European countries. Moreover, we obtain a non-robust rejection of the medium-term variant of the paradox for a set of eleven Eastern European countries. On the level of individual countries, the medium-term variant of the paradox clearly holds for the nine Western and Northern European countries, but is consistently rejected for Greece, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. In the case of the Eastern European countries, the medium-term version of the paradox is rejected for Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Poland. As the Western and Northern European countries have a high per capita GDP as compared to that of Southern and Eastern European countries, our results are in line with the finding of Proto and Rustichini (2013), who find a non-monotonic relation between per capita GDP and life satisfaction over time which is positive for poorer countries, but flat (or negative) for richer countries. JEL codes: I31, I32, O11


Recent geological and geophysical surveys in the Izu-Bonin-Mariana forearc have revealed the occurrence on the seafloor of oceanic crust generated in the initial stages of subduction and the earliest stage of island arc formation. The earliest magmatism after subduction initiation generated forearc basalts, and subsequently, boninitic and tholeiitic to calc-alkaline lavas were produced. Collectively, these rocks make up the extrusive sequence of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana forearc oceanic crust. This volcanic stratigraphy and its time-progressive development are analogous to those documented from many suprasubduction zone ophiolites. Most suprasubduction zone ophiolites may be on-land fragments of forearc oceanic crust, produced during the initiation of subduction and the early stages of island arc development.


Part of the International Series in Mathematics Ideal for the 1-term course, A Journey into Partial Differential Equations provides a solid introduction to PDEs for the undergraduate math, engineering, or physics student. Discussing underlying physics, concepts and methodologies, the text focuses on the classical trinity of equations: the wave equation, heat/diffusion equation, and Laplace's equation. Bray provides careful treatment of the separation of variables and the Fourier method, motivated by the geometrical notion of symmetries and places emphasis on both the qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as geometrical perspectives. With hundred of exercises and a wealth of figures, A Journey into Partial Differential Equations proves to be the model book for the PDE course.


A design for a novel microstrip planar MIMO antenna for 4G application is presented. A decoupling network is added to improve the MIMO antenna ports isolation. The decoupling network is compact and consists of two elements having similar dimensions. The MIMO antenna resonates at 5.1GHz, 5.29GHz, 6GHz, 6.1GHz, 11.4GHz and 11.92GHz. The MIMO antenna exhibits good isolation below -20 dB at the required bands which reduces the mutual coupling between the antenna ports. A prototype of the MIMO antenna system was fabricated using thin film and photolithographic technique, and then measured by using vector network analyzer. Good agreement was found between the simulated and measured results.


1. In eight normal subjects, ten patients with labile hypertension, six with advanced essential hypertension and six with renovascular hypertension, plasma renin concentration, cardiac output, mean arterial pressure, clearances of creatinine and p -aminohippurate (PAH), and sodium excretion were measured before and after 30 min of 45° upright tilting. Changes in plasma adrenaline and noradrenaline concentration were measured in addition in the normal subjects, and in plasma volume in normal subjects and patients with labile essential hypertension. 2. In patients with advanced essential hypertension, heart rate and calculated peripheral resistance increased significantly less than in normal subjects, and plasma renin increased by 15% in this group, in comparison to 37% in normal subjects, 48% in labile essential hypertension, and 57% in renovascular hypertension. There was a positive relationship between changes in renin and noradrenaline concentrations in normal subjects. 3. Apart from a negative correlation between the increases in plasma renin concentration and mean arterial pressure in patients with renovascular hypertension, there were no significant relationships between changes in plasma renin and haemodynamics. 4. A negative correlation between changes in plasma renin and filtration fraction and a positive relationship between changes in renin and sodium excretion were found in normal subjects and patients with labile hypertension. Plasma renin increase was directly related to changes in the tubular rejection fraction of sodium in patients with labile hypertension. In the same group there was a negative correlation between changes of sodium rejection fraction and filtration fraction. 5. The results suggest a role of the adrenergic system in orthostatic renin release, but the functional connection between renal haemodynamics, tubular sodium handling and renin release across orthostasis cannot fully be explained on the basis of our present knowledge of renin releasing mechanisms.


Among the four different ways (and their combinations) to colour a solid, the dispersion of a phase, already coloured and stable in the fired/molten matrix – a pigment – is the technique offering the largest palette. The pigment preparation involves sophisticated high-temperature routes and/or the use of selected, sometimes rare minerals. Consequently, ancient painters, potters, craftsmen and glassmakers selected natural rocks or minerals to obtain blue, green, red and black colours. For instance, the blue coloration requires the use of a rare element: cobalt. Pure cobalt ores spots were exceptional and the difficult purification of cobalt derivatives could be obtained during the 19th century only. Thus, potters and glassmakers solved the problem by using recycling or specific minerals, for instance lapis lazuli, and developed convenient techniques with the use of mixed ores to obtain the blue, green, red or black colour. We discuss here enamelling/glazing technologies of ceramic and glass masterpieces with emphasis on the lapis lazuli use as blue or green pigment. We will reveal how the recent Raman microscopy studies deeply change our knowledge on the history of colouring techniques.


In many organizations, information technology (IT) has become crucial in the support, sustainability, and growth of the business. This pervasive use of technology has created a critical dependency on IT that calls for a specific focus on IT governance. Implementing Information Technology Governance: Models, Practices and Cases presents insight gained through literature reviews and case studies to provide practical guidance for organizations who want to start implementing IT governance or improving existing governance models, and provides a detailed set of IT governance structures, processes, and relational mechanisms that can be leveraged to implement IT governance in practice.


Australia has about 1700 species of orchids, com- prising about 1300 named species in about 190 gen- era, plus at least 400 undescribed species (Jones 2006, pers. comm.). About 1400 species (82%) are geophytes, almost all deciduous, seasonal species, while 300 species (18%) are evergreen epiphytes and/or lithophytes. At least 95% of this orchid flora is endemic to Australia. While the tropical and subtropi- cal epiphytic/lithophytic orchid flora is low by world standards, the temperate terrestrial orchid flora is amongst the richest and most diverse of any compara- ble region in the world.


Have you ever wondered what a term in international economics means? This useful reference book offers a glossary of terms in both international trade and international finance, with emphasis on economic issues. It is intended for students getting their first exposure to international economics, although advanced students will also find it useful for some of the more obscure terms that they have forgotten or never encountered. Besides an extensive glossary of terms, there is a picture gallery of diagrams used to explain key concepts such as the Edgeworth Production Box and the Offer Curve Diagram in international economics. This section is followed by several lists of terms that occur a lot in international economics, grouped by subject to help users find terms that they cannot recall. Prior to the bibliography is a section on the origins of terms in international economics which records what the author has been able to learn about the origins of some of the terms used in international economics. This is a must-have portable glossary in international trade and international economics!


In 1967 Robert H. Roy and James H. MacNeil's Horizons for a Profession proposed a common body of knowledge for CPAs. That study's horizons are being attained as more highly qualified people are entering the CPA profession, which is changing from an undergraduate to a graduate entry-level profession. By the next decade the changeover should be complete. The modifications needed to bring about the change in accounting education should benefit the CPA's employer and the individual CPA as well as provide the public with a more valuable set of services. SCOPE OF SERVICES At present accounting is taught along functional-technical course lines (auditing, financial reporting, managerial, tax, fund accounting, etc.), which follow the Uniform CPA Examination, with little emphasis on specific industry applications. Until the 1970s public accounting practice was well served by this approach. Now, however, the scope of CPA firms' services has further developed along functional lines; today firms emphasize lines of business, resulting in, for example, practitioners who concentrate on oil and gas tax issues and others who focus exclusively on auditing retail business. This change will have a significant impact on accounting curriculums as the scope of CPA services in both public and corporate practice, not the professional exam, will be the primary driving force behind accounting curriculum development. ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES Beginning in 1994, the changed content of the CPA exam will include a new component on professional duties and responsibilities. Adding such a topic to the accounting curriculum will emphasize that the ethical aspects of practice are as important as technical competency. This will be a challenge to educators, who may consider such "subjective" notions as integrity, objectivity, competence and commitment to serve others' interests as difficult--if not inappropriate--subject matter for an accounting curriculum. However, other professions for generations have been incorporating similar treatments in their curriculums. Lawyers are educated in their responsibility to serve as advocates of their clients' rights; physicians are taught the Hippocratic oath's provisions to place their patients' well-being above all else; other social service disciplines provide similar, if less obvious, treatments in their education programs. In the past such an emphasis in the accounting curriculum has been secondary to the functional-technical focus on competency as measured by the CPA examination. Employers and society have a right to expect the coming generation of CPAs to be functionally and technically competent as well as to incorporate the ideals of professionalism that are commonly expected in practice. AGENTS OF CHANGE Education reform will be limited and ineffective without broader social and institutional support. The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) is the prototype of the agency that will be required if institution and curriculum reforms are to occur on a timely and efficient basis. However, the AECC's charter, which was developed in cooperation with the largest CPA firms, sets limits on its financial resources. Can accounting--the language of business--be transformed through a single, limited education effort, even if well administered? For pervasive reforms to be accomplished, a permanent agency with access to broad public support and resources at a national level, along the lines of the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health or some other body, is needed. LIFELONG LEARNING Among the most important changes affecting CPAs are the efforts to implement formal continuing professional education requirements to maintain and upgrade every CPA's skills. Educators and professional and academic institutions need to cooperate in developing consistent, convenient and cost-effective lifelong learning education systems. …


The Sava Depression, located on the southern margin of the Pannonian Basin, contains a number of small oil and gas fields. The depression is filled principally with Neogene sediments resting on Palaeozoic crystalline basement. Rifting occurred in Early to Middle Miocene times. Geochemical data imply that Middle to Upper Miocene pelites are good oil-prone source rocks. Most of the oil and oil–gas fields are situated at depths of 370 to 2300 m. Weathered basement rocks and Miocene conglomerates and sandstones are reservoir rocks and the fields are mostly structural and/or structural–stratigraphic traps. Oils from the fields correlate well with the identified source rock facies and maturity level and we propose short migration distances. Sava oil properties show variations in bulk and specific parameters that can be attributed to post-generative processes.


This paper presents a robust location-aware activity recognition approach for establishing ambient intelligence applications in a smart home. With observations from a variety of multimodal and unobtrusive wireless sensors seamlessly integrated into ambient-intelligence compliant objects (AICOs), the approach infers a single resident's interleaved activities by utilizing a generalized and enhanced Bayesian Network fusion engine with inputs from a set of the most informative features. These features are collected by ranking their usefulness in estimating activities of interest. Additionally, each feature reckons its corresponding reliability to control its contribution in cases of possible device failure, therefore making the system more tolerant to inevitable device failure or interference commonly encountered in a wireless sensor network, and thus improving overall robustness. This work is part of an interdisciplinary Attentive Home pilot project with the goal of fulfilling real human needs by utilizing context-aware attentive services. We have also created a novel application called ldquoActivity Maprdquo to graphically display ambient-intelligence-related contextual information gathered from both humans and the environment in a more convenient and user-accessible way. All experiments were conducted in an instrumented living lab and their results demonstrate the effectiveness of the system.


In the current paper, the technical progress of aluminum refining over the past 30 years has been summarized, including the improvement of batch reactor and in-line continuous reactors, the evolution of gas purging methods by nozzle, porous plug, and rotating impellor, and the use of fluxing by using gas mixtures (including argon, nitrogen, and chlorine) and solid salts (such as AlF3, MgCl2, and KCl). The mathematical models developed for the removal of impurity elements from molten aluminum were also reviewed. Thermodynamic factors were summarized, including the Gibbs free energy of the chemical reactions, activity coefficients of the impurity elements, and the melting and boiling points of impurity elements and related compounds. Kinetic factors used and derived by researchers are also reviewed, such as mass transfer coefficient of impurity elements, mixing power and mixing time in reactors stirred by gas, impellor and circulation of the fluid, and the size, residence time, and terminal velocity of bubbles. The current review provides useful information for the future study of the removal of impurity elements from aluminum.


Stories help us make sense of the world around us and our role in it, including defining 'success'. Stories reflect society and culture at large, but are also very context-specific; they involve particular individuals and organizations. Thus, stories are a powerful mechanism linking the society and the organization. We offer an institutional view of storytelling's role in small businesses and entrepreneurial endeavors. In academic vernacular, from our institutional viewpoint, we examine the types of organizational stories told, their sources and processes of creation, along with their direct and indirect effects. In practical terms: what stories are told, how, why, and with what effect? To do so, we rely primarily on research and examples from organization theory, strategy and entrepreneurship, focusing on new and small ventures where possible. In our concluding discussion, we suggest potential directions for researchers and possible storytelling improvements for small business owners and entrepreneurs.


Abstract The synthesis, characterization and photophysical properties of two perfluoroalkyl (5,10,15,20-tetrakis-[trifluoromethyl]- and [heptafluoropropyl]-porphyrin) and two perfluoroaryl (5,10,15,20-tetrakis-[2,6-difluorophenyl]- and [pentafluorophenyl]-porphyrin) are described, with reference to their potential in both photodynamic therapy (PDT) and in vivo imaging by fluorescence and 19F nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Absorption and fluorescence spectra, fluorescence lifetimes and triplet–singlet difference spectra are reported. Triplet yields have been obtained by flash photolysis and pulse radiolysis, whereas yields of sensitized singlet oxygen formation have been determined by time-resolved phosphorimetry. All four compounds show high yields of triplet formation and singlet oxygen sensitization. The spectral properties, stability and attractive solubility characteristics of the perfluoroalkyl derivatives make them particularly suitable candidates for future study for applications in PDT.


The United States is a party to hundreds of treaties that create a vast array of international obligations for the country. Many of these treaty obligations require some action by the government to become effective in the U.S. legal system. Domestic implementation of these international obligations has created structural tensions, both between the branches of the federal government and between the states and the federal government. This article uses President Bush's efforts to implement the recent judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Avena) to illustrate some of the problems presented by this issue. In Avena, the ICJ found that that the United States had breached its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to inform certain Mexican nationals who had been arrested in the United States of their consular notification rights. The ICJ further found that the appropriate reparation would consist of providing, by means of the United States' own choosing, review and reconsideration of the convictions and sentences of the Mexican nationals that were the subject of the case. In the domestic implementation stage of that decision, President Bush asserted the power to order state courts to provide review and reconsideration of the Mexican nationals' judgments in state criminal proceedings. The President's claim to such authority is troubling because it appears to violate structural principles of separation of powers and federalism. The article begins by providing some background regarding the Avena judgment and post-Avena litigation, with a particular focus on Medellin v. Texas. Medellin was one of the Mexican nationals involved in Avena and his case was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2008. The article analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of arguments that have been made in that case regarding the proper method of implementation of the ICJ judgment by the United States. The article then places that litigation in the larger context of the debate regarding the proper role of each branch of the federal government with respect to the implementation of the United States' international obligations more generally. The article also examines the issue from a federalism perspective and the interplay between the state and federal governments with respect to implementation of the United States' international obligations. Finally, the article provides some suggestions as to how the United States can better handle implementation of these obligations in the future.


Technical analysis is deemed to be a futile practice among academicians who propose efficient market hypothesis, typically the weak form market efficiency which strongly protests the application of past prices and trading volume data for prediction of future market movement. As candlestick charting is one of the oldest technical indicators for short term investment, therefore this study examines the predictability of candlestick charting with combination to trading volume for Malaysian stock market within the period of 2000 to 2014. Skewness adjusted t-test is employed to test the statistical significance of candlestick returns. After taking into account the transaction costs and also out-of-sample test as robustness checking, the findings show that only bullish reversal patterns prior to trend are profitable for investors while most of the bearish reversal patterns have shown significant predictive power both before and after trend. The effective holding period for candlestick reversal patterns tend to accumulate around 10-day to 15-day holding period. Keywords: Efficient Market Hypothesis, Technical Analysis, Candlestick Charting, Reversal Patterns JEL Classifications: G11, G12, G14


3) and is also present in all life forms as an essential component of cellular material. In natural ecosystems, phosphorus is derived from the erosion of rocks and is conserved for plant growth as it is returned to the soil through animal waste and the decomposition of plant and animal tissue; but in agricultural systems, a portion of the phosphorus is removed with each harvest, especially since phosphorus is concentrated in the seeds and fruit. Phosphorus is added to soil by using chemical fertilizers, manure, and composted materials. Agricultural use of chemical phosphorus fertilizer, in the United States, in 2008 was 4,247,000 tons, which is an increase of 25 percent since 1964 (http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/FertilizerUse/). Widely grown corn, soybeans, and wheat use the greatest amount of phosphorus fertilizer among agricultural crops. Phosphorus is largely retained in soil by a process called adsorption. Soils have a limited capacity to store phosphorus, and once the capacity of soil to adsorb phosphorus is exceeded, the excess will dissolve and move more freely with water either directly to a stream or downward to an aquifer. Surface-water runoff from rainstorms or excess irrigation is the primary way that phosphorus or soil containing phosphorus is transported to streams in most watersheds. There is a growing awareness that long-term over-application of manure and chemical fertilizer contributes to phosphorus movement into the groundwater system, resulting in a significant groundwater source of phosphorus to streams and lakes, as well as potential contamination of the groundwater resources. Leaching of applied fertilizer and surface runoff of phosphorus from the soil can contribute to excess growth of algae in downstream water bodies, a condition known as eutrophication. Excessive amounts of algae in eutrophic water bodies can cause large daily changes in the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water because oxygen concentrations tend to be high during daylight hours as a result of photosynthetic activity but then decrease at night. Low concentrations of dissolved oxygen can stress or kill sensitive species living in the water. This study examined concentrations and movement of phosphorus in the soils and groundwater in five agricultural settings across the United States characterized by differences in soil geochemistry, climate, irrigation usage, and cropping systems to assess potential phosphorus movement in the soil and groundwater under common agricultural conditions. The study design included assessment of a variety of agricultural practices, especially cropping patterns and irrigation, so that the factors that contribute to phosphorus movement to groundwater, or sequestration of the phosphorus to soil could be compared and examined. This type of information could potentially be used to formulate best management practices to limit the transport of phosphorus from the agricultural fields.


There is a growing need to engage our undergraduate students in international, cross-cultural experiences. In an effort to engage every education student in an international experience, we explored the idea of using a shared wiki to enable students in a required, core course to interact with international peers. In this paper, we describe the evolution of this project including the initial design decisions made, the participants and context, the constraints encountered, as well as the subsequent design decisions. This design case focuses on the experience from the perspective of the American students and project participants. We end with a reflection on insights we have gleaned from the process.


It was previously thought that infants and young children did not possess the neurological wiring to experience pain. We are now certain that the nervous systems of even the unborn foetus, as well as children, have developed enough in order for them to experience pain. 1 In fact, they may perceive pain greater than adults can, because of increased inflammatory responses and lack of inhibitory responses to pain. It is crucial to treat pain appropriately to prevent long-term lower pain thresholds later in life. 2


Accent morphing aims to modify the accent of a speaker whilst maintaining speaker identity. A textindependent approach could be based on voice conversion systems which manipulate speaker identity through spectral mapping. However, it is not clear to what extent accent changes can be captured with spectral mapping alone. In this paper we implement and evaluate a text-dependent accent morphing system capable of manipulating both spectral and prosodic features. We show how accent morphing can significantly improve the intelligibility of English-accented Japanese sentences to native Japanese listeners (from 57% to 84% words correct). Analysis of the different processing conditions shows that much of the benefit of morphing comes from integrated changes to both spectrum and prosody. This suggests that text-independent morphing is unlikely to provide anything but a small increase in intelligibility.


Heat treatment of wood leads to improvement of properties such as durability and dimensional stability but also to loss in strength which can be an obstacle for use in wood products. The underlying explanation is often attributed to the degradation of hemicelluloses and lignin. In this work degradation by acid hydrolysis of cellulose is proposed to be a major cause for strength loss in heat treated wood. Hydrothermal treatment was performed at 180 C in a sealed autoclave where the wood samples were soaked in non-buffered and in buffered solutions at pH 4, 7 and 10. Also industrially produced samples of heat treated wood were analysed. The molecular chain length of cellulose was characterized by viscosimetric measurements of dissolved α-cellulose after mild delignification of the samples. The results clearly show that non-buffered systems similar to industrially heat treatment lead to a considerable degradation of cellulose. In the non-buffered systems the pH drops to approximately 3 (room temperature) as a result of heat treatment. Samples from industrially heat treated wood also show cellulose degradation to similar extent as the non-buffered samples. In buffered conditions at pH 7 and pH 10 the degradation of cellulose is clearly diminished. The results indicate that the cellulose degradation can be avoided by modifications that controls or minimizes the effect of acid hydrolysis during the heat treatment process.


Abstract The Quaternary Bandas del Sur Formation in the south of Tenerife comprises a complex sequence of pyroclastic rocks and lavas. In contrast to the NW- and NE-Rift zone on Tenerife, the S-Rift zone comprises a number of characteristics with respect to the morphological features, eruption cyclicity and the geochemistry of the volcanic deposits. Various flank eruptions of the Las Cañadas volcano associated with basaltic lavas and the formation of cinder cones within the Bandas del Sur are important volcanic units for understanding the explosive volcanic cycles during the Pleistocene on Tenerife. A number of palaeomagnetic studies, as well as major and trace element geochemistry and two radio-isotope dates (K–Ar), have been carried out on prominent cinder cones, in order to discover their stratigraphic position. Combining our results with previous K–Ar data, the cones and lavas can be subdivided into three stratigraphic units. The first unit contains cinder cones with reverse magnetization and Y/Nb ratios between 0.37 and 0.41. Cinder cones which belong to the second unit show normal magnetization and Y/Nb ratios of < 0.35. The third unit comprises cinder cones with normal magnetization and Y/Nb ratios of about 0.47. The first two units were constructed between c. 0.948–0.779 Ma and 0.323–0.300 Ma. These units define volcanic cycles ending in violent Plinian eruptions. The third and youngest unit possibly marks the beginning of a further volcanic cycle that started c. 0.095 Ma ago.


The use of videoconferencing in the workplace has been steadily growing. While multitasking during video conferencing is often necessary, it is also viewed as impolite and sometimes unacceptable. One potential contributor to negative attitudes towards such multitasking is the disrupted sense of eye contact that occurs when an individual shifts their gaze away to another screen, for example, in a dual-monitor setup, common in office settings. We present an approach to improve a sense of eye contact over videoconferencing in dual-monitor setups. Our approach uses computer vision and desktop activity detection to dynamically choose the camera with the best view of a user's face. We describe two alternative implementations of our solution (RGB-only, and a combination of RGB and RGB-D cameras). We then describe results from an online experiment that shows the potential of our approach to significantly improve perceptions of a person's politeness and engagement in the meeting.


This paper summarizes the literature on the impact of state subsidized or social health insurance schemes that have been offered, mostly on a voluntary basis, to the informal sector in low- and middle-income countries. A substantial number of papers provide estimations of average treatment on the treated effect for insured persons. The authors summarize papers that correct for the problem of self-selection into insurance and papers that estimate the average intention to treat effect. Summarizing the literature was difficult because of the lack of (1) uniformity in the use of meaningful definitions of outcomes that indicate welfare improvements and (2) clarity in the consideration of selection issues. They find the uptake of insurance schemes, in many cases, to be less than expected. In general, we find no strong evidence of an impact on utilization, protection from financial risk, and health status. However, a few insurance schemes afford significant protection from high levels of out-of-pocket expenditures. In these cases, however, the impact on the poor is weaker. More information is needed to understand the reasons for low enrollment and to explain the limited impact of health insurance among the insured.


Work on voice sciences over recent decades has led to a proliferation of acoustic parameters that are used quite selectively and are not always extracted in a similar fashion. With many independent teams working in different research areas, shared standards become an essential safeguard to ensure compliance with state-of-the-art methods allowing appropriate comparison of results across studies and potential integration and combination of extraction and recognition systems. In this paper we propose a basic standard acoustic parameter set for various areas of automatic voice analysis, such as paralinguistic or clinical speech analysis. In contrast to a large brute-force parameter set, we present a minimalistic set of voice parameters here. These were selected based on a) their potential to index affective physiological changes in voice production, b) their proven value in former studies as well as their automatic extractability, and c) their theoretical significance. The set is intended to provide a common baseline for evaluation of future research and eliminate differences caused by varying parameter sets or even different implementations of the same parameters. Our implementation is publicly available with the openSMILE toolkit. Comparative evaluations of the proposed feature set and large baseline feature sets of INTERSPEECH challenges show a high performance of the proposed set in relation to its size.


Many industrialized countries in Europe and North America have experienced a steady decline in the manufacturing sector over the last few decades. Amid growing concerns that outsourcing and offshoring have destabilized European economies, policymakers have suggested that a large manufacturing sector can: i) boost R&D, ii) encourage exporting, and iii) raise productivity. We examine these claims. Non-parametric plots and regressions show a robust positive association between the manufacturing sector and Business R&D expenditures (BERD), while the relationship between manufacturing and exports or productivity is more elusive. Finally, we explore whether a manufacturing sector target of 20% of value-added will help reach a BERD target of 3% of GDP.


The impressive market success of monoclonal antibody drugs (mAbs) and their upcoming patent expiry, have lead many companies to start biosimilar mAb development. They all seek to gain share in the multibillion-dollar mAb market. For healthcare payers biosimilar mAbs promise a great savings opportunity and may contribute to sustaining the increasing cost of medical treatment. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has designed a regulatory pathway to support biosimilar mAb development but multiple barriers stand in the way of their potential market success. Complex production, clinical trials, marketing and compulsory post-authorization safety studies make biosimilar development expensive, compared to the development of small molecule generic drugs.
The South Korean company Celltrion demonstrated that with the right combination of resources and capabilities a biosimilar mAb can be developed and its biosimilar infliximab gained market approval in 2013. Subsequent market entry and success are dependent on intellectual property (IP) challenges, reach of the innovator, the impossibility of substitution and interventions by healthcare policymakers. The absence of a worldwide regulation on market entry and patent issues limits the potential market size. The removal of market entry barriers will lead to increased biosimilar competition and possibly a generic-like market, where competition is price driven. The biosimilar developer can make the highest profit in a brand-like market with a small number of competitors and competition driven by differentiation. The availability of biosimilar mAbs will lead to healthcare savings in the medium-term but this might not be sustainable in the long-term if price erosion occurs.


Soluble extract from Opuntia ficus-indica (Nopal extract) has been proposed in this chapter as a green inhibitor due to its component called mucilage, which has the ability to retain water; for this reason, it has been used as metal corrosion protection in machinery pieces, tools and other metallic components that need to be stored for short periods. In this way, three industrial carbon steels (AISI 1018, 1045 and 4140) have been exposed in sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) to evaluate the corrosion behavior with or without Nopal extract (NE). Some electrochemical techniques have been implemented to evaluate the corrosion inhibition efficiency (IE) such as DC linear polarization resistance (LPR) and AC elec - trochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Results indicated a considerable superficial modification of steel in terms of dielectric constant and ion charge capacity. When the NE was added, the corrosion mechanism changed from localized to general attack, decreas ing the corrosion rate in all cases. More susceptibility to fail by corrosion was observed in the 1045 carbon steel in comparison with the other two studied steels; these results were confirmed by the percentage of inhibitor's efficiency of about 95%.


ABSTRACT Purpose: This study sought to determine how children's participation in physical activity during a mastery-motivational climate changed during a 20-week intervention and to compare it to children's free-play activity during a typical day at their local day-care facility. Method: Twelve 4-year-old children participated in a mastery-motivational climate physical activity program delivered 2 days a week for 20 weeks during a period of 8 months. All children were fitted with an Actigraph GT3X triaxial accelerometer. Data from the accelerometers were reduced to determine minutes of sedentary time, light physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during (a) all 20 weeks, and (b) Weeks 1 through 4, Weeks 9 through 12, and Weeks 17 to 20 for the mastery climate. Activity levels in the mastery condition were compared to the children's activity during unplanned free play in Weeks 1, 10, and 20. Results: During the course of the mastery-motivational climate program, participation in sedentary behavior decreased statistically significantly, while participation in MVPA increased statistically significantly. Within the free-play condition, there were no changes in the levels of activity across time, with the children spending on average more than 80% of their time being sedentary. Conclusions: Findings indicate that when specific task structures associated with a mastery climate are included in an instructional setting, these climate manipulations seem to have a direct effect on physical activity levels once the children learned how to manage themselves in the setting. Free-play activity in and of itself does not appear to stimulate MVPA.


The purpose of the thesis is to determine whether Java, a programming language that evolved out of a research project by Sun Microsystems in 1990, is suitable for solving large sparse linear systems using direct methods. That is, can performance comparable to the language traditionally used for sparse matrix computation, Fortran, be achieved by a Java implementation. Performance evaluation criteria include execution speed and memory requirements. A secondary criterion is ease of development. Many attractive features, unique to the Java programming language, make it desirable for use in sparse matrix computation and provide the motivation for the thesis. The 'write once, run anywhere' proposition, coupled with nearly-ubiquitous Java support, alleviates the need to re-write programs in the event of hardware change. Features such as garbage collection (automatic recycling of memory) and array-index bounds checking make Java programs more robust than those written in Fortran. Java has garnered a poor reputation as a high-performance computing platform, largely attributable to poor performance relative to Fortran in its early years. It is now a consensus among researchers that the Java language itself is not the problem, but rather its implementation. As such, improving compiler technology for numerical codes is critical to achieving high performance in numerical Java applications. Preliminary work involved converting SPARSPAK, a collection of Fortran 90 subroutines for solving large sparse systems of linear equations and least squares problems developed by Dr. Alan George, into Java (J-SPARSPAK). It is well known that the majority of the solution process is spent in the numeric factorization phase. Initial benchmarks showed Java performing, on average, 3.6 times slower than Fortran for this critical phase. We detail how we improved Java performance to within a factor of two of Fortran.


During muscle regeneration, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) promotes both proliferation and migration. However, the relationship between proliferation and migration is poorly understood in this context. To elucidate this complex relationship on a physiological level, we established an intravital imaging system for measuring ERK activity, migration speed, and cell-cycle phases in mouse muscle satellite cells. We found that in vivo, ERK was maximally activated in satellite cells two days after injury, and this is then followed by increases in cell number and motility. With limited effects of immediate ERK activity on migration, we hypothesized that ERK increases migration speed in the later phase by promoting cell-cycle progression. Our cell-cycle analysis further revealed that in satellite cells, ERK activity is critical for the G1/S transition, and cells migrate more rapidly in the S/G2 phase three days after injury. Finally, migration speed of satellite cells was suppressed after CDK1/2, but not CDK1, inhibitor treatment, demonstrating a critical role of CDK2 in satellite cell migration. Overall, our study demonstrates that in satellite cells, the ERK-CDK2 axis not only promotes the G1/S transition, but also migration speed, which may provide a novel mechanism for efficient muscle regeneration.


While honesty is clearly a virtue of some educational as well as moral significance, its virtue-ethical status is far from clear. In this essay, following some discussion of latter-day virtue ethics and virtue epistemology, David Carr argues that honesty exhibits key features of both moral and epistemic virtue, and, more precisely, that honesty as a virtue might best be understood as the epistemic component of Aristotelian practical wisdom. In the wake of arguments to be found in Plato's Laws, as well as in those of more modern philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Iris Murdoch, Carr then traces the main roots of moral dishonesty to various forms of vain and self-delusive ego attachment. In this light, he argues in the final section of the essay that literature and the arts may provide a powerful educational antidote to such attachment.


We report a novel three-contacts vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) for use in polarization-sensitive optical applications. The device consists in two vertical optically active cavities, coupled by a common min-or. We demonstrate that one can independently choose both the power - through the Current in the first cavity - and the polarization state of the output beam - through the bias applied to the second cavity. The control of the polarization state is performed with a control of voltage required in the range -2V to 0V. Within this interval the structure exhibits bistable behaviour.


This chapter analyzes titling institutions and the regulation of supporting conveyancing services. After examining the tradeoff of enforcement benefits and consent costs posed by property rights, it explains how different public titling systems (privacy, recording and registration) try to solve this tradeoff, and what the consequences are for the nature and regulation of private conveyancing services. The chapter ends with a discussion of some empirical issues and data which are useful for comparing, designing and managing titling and conveyancing systems.


BACKGROUND: In plastic surgery, the postoperative scar is a frequent concern. It is very important for the surgeon to understand the natural evolution of the scar. The abdominoplasty scar has a natural tendency to move upwards over time. In this study, the extent of natural vertical scar migration after abdominoplasty was calculated and the effect of fixing the lower abdominal flap to prevent this rise was assessed. METHODS: This prospective and randomized study was conducted at the 38th Nursing service of Santa Casa de Misericordia do Rio de Janeiro, during 2010, and included 20 female patients with an indication for abdominoplasty. The patients were randomly divided into two groups, A and B. Classical abdominoplasty was performed in group A patients, according to the technique recommended by Prof. Ivo Pitanguy. Patients in group B also underwent lower abdominal flap fixation by suturing of Scarpa's fascia and the rectus abdominis muscle aponeurosis. At both two weeks and six months after surgery, the distance of vertical scar movement was measured in 16 patients after application of exclusion criteria. The average vertical migration and the mean difference between the groups were calculated. RESULTS: The average difference between the groups in vertical migration throughout the scar was 0.4 cm, with a mean overall migration of 1.06 cm and 0.68 cm in groups A (control group) and B (cases with fixation), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The scar formed after abdominoplasty undergoes vertical migration over time; this migration is decreased when the lower abdominal flap is fixed. The surgeon should be aware of scar migration for better planning of the incision location


The title of the project refers to India Street in the Vale of Leven, West of Scotland, which backs onto the remains of the biggest Turkey red factory, whose main export market was India. 'India Street Part 1: The Bombay Sample Book' (Edinburgh, August 2014) showed research into the Turkey red industry, how the mills of Vale of Leven rose to prominence in the 19th Century, and how they experienced rapid decline in the 20th Century when the madder rose plant became a redundant source of red dye, and Gandhi and the Swadeshi movement called for Indians to shop at home, as part of the drive for Home Rule. The exhibition explored Turkey red's relationship to the indigenous crafts of India still in production today, and The Bombay Sample Book, held within the National Museum Scotland's archives, produced by William Stirling & Sons from 1853-1868. It held samples that were thought suitable for an Indian market and trialled in the bazaars of Bombay. Within the archives of Turkey red we see designs ranging from graphic patterns in check, zigzag and polka dots, to illustrations depicting peacocks and paisley, wild animals and domestic life. These designs, roller-printed, are inspired by a wealth of textile crafts prevalent in the NW of India: We see specific copies of Block-printing, Bandhani, Leheria, Telia Roomal and Rabari embroidery. The exhibition juxtaposed this research alongside contemporary digital designs of initial responses to the archive by the designers. Designers were invited to explore the sample book, and respond aesthetically, and with hindsight, to the fabrics, their colours, patterns and motifs. Each of these design samples independently reflect on our current and historic position in relation to business models, ethics of production, fashion and taste.

These designs formed the basis of an exploratory workshop in India, 'India Street Part 2: Building Blocks' (2015) with a core group of designers producing editions of the fabric with block-printing, mud resist, digital printing and other relevant processes thriving in India. This workshop aimed to highlight the thriving textile production industry in India, and explore the possibilities of designing and making, internationally and collaboratively.

'India Street Bazaar', Tramway (2016) displayed the full research and investigation of the project, alongside contemporary products developed with the block-printed textiles. The designers developed a series of fabrics inspired by Turkey red, but produced in India where the original inspiration for the Turkey red fabrics came from. These final objects formed the core of the exhibition and illustrate the complex tale of Turkey red and current textile production in India. The samples were developed in conjunction with small-scale producers in India, into a range of new products showcased at India Street Bazaar. The project aimed to highlight the importance of economical and ecological sustainability and look at how contemporary designers can ethically work in a global digital age.


Education is a vital ingredient in the health of an economy, and has direct bearing on the quality of the Delaware workforce. Effective spending on public education may increase the quality of the labor market, enhance the productivity and competitiveness of state businesses, and render Delaware attractive to current and emerging industries.Understanding how the public education system currently uses financial resources is a first step towards insight on how best to turn dollars into productive resources in districts, schools, and classrooms.


Abstract This document aims to identify characteristics of water institutions which promote the sustainable integration of water, both as a resource and as service, into socioeconomic development. As this does not depend only on formal institutional factors, such as legislation and organizational structure, there are also references to dynamic conditions, such as socioeconomic circumstances and the quality of the administration, summarized in the concept of governance, understood as the capability of a social system to mobilize energies, in a coherent manner, for the sustainable development of water resources. As human society becomes ever more complex and the intensity of human impact on natural resources becomes more severe, the need to integrate the different elements of water management becomes imperative. It is for this reason that effective water governance will be more and more closely linked to integrated water resources management. The specific objectives of this paper are: (i); to contribute to focusing the regional debate on those aspects of water institutions and macroeconomic policies which are particularly critical for Latin American and Caribbean countries; (ii); to promote the formulation of a regional position that genuinely reflects its situation, visions, aspirations and problems; (iii); to promote a critical and balanced analysis of legislation, regulatory frameworks and public policies for water resources management and provision of related public services; and (iv); to make available in English a summary of the water-related research carried out by the Division of Natural Resources and Infrastructure of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC);.


Abstract This review addresses many of the chemical aspects of nitrosative stress mediated by N(2)O(3). From a cellular perspective, N(2)O(3) and the resulting reactive nitrogen oxide species target specific motifs such as thiols, lysine active sites, and zinc fingers and is dependant upon both the rates of production as well as consumption of NO and must be taken into account in order to access the nitrosative environment. Since production and consumption are integral parts of N(2)O(3) generation, we predict that nitrosative stress occurs under specific conditions, such as chronic inflammation. In contrast to conditions of stress, nitrosative chemistry may also provide cellular protection through the regulation of critical signaling pathways. Therefore, a careful evaluation of the chemistry of nitrosation based upon specific experimental conditions may provide a better understanding of how the subtle balance between oxidative and nitrosative stress may be involved in the etiology and control of various disease processes.


A commonly asked question during the past 2 weeks has been, How long will the overwintered bean leaf beetles still be in the fields? Populations normally start to drop dramatically after mid-June and by June 20-25 beetles are often very hard to find. I checked plots at Nashua in northern Iowa on June 13 and densities ranged from zero to five beetles per 3 feet of row, so they can still be found. If you are finding bean leaf beetles in your fields, it is too late to be managing these overwintered beetles. Most of the female beetles will have laid their eggs by now and most of the serious feeding injury has been done.


Strategies used to gather visual information are typically viewed as depending solely on the value of information gained from each action. A different approach may be required when actions entail cognitive effort or deliberate control. Integration of information across a graph and text is a resource-intensive task in which decisions to switch between graph and text may take into account the resources required to plan or execute the switches. Participants viewed a graph and text depicting attributes of two fictitious products and were asked to select the preferred product. Graph and text were presented: (1) simultaneously, side by side; (2) sequentially, where the appearance of graph or text was triggered by a button press, or (3) sequentially, where the appearance of graph or text was triggered by a saccade, thus requiring cognitive effort, memory, or controlled processing to access regions out of immediate view. Switches between graph and text were rare during initial readings, consistent with prior observations of perceptual "switch costs." Switches became more frequent during re-inspections (80% of time). Switches were twice as frequent in the simultaneous condition than in either sequential condition (button press or saccade-contingent), showing the importance of perceptual availability. These results show that strategies used to gather information while reading a graph and text are not based solely on information value, but also on implicit costs of switching, such as effort level, working memory load, or demand on controlled processing. Taking implicit costs into account is important for a complete understanding of strategies used to gather visual information.


At a given porosity, mudstone permeability increases by an order of magnitude for clay contents ranging from 57% to 36% (<2 μm). This increase in vertical permeability results from a dual-porosity system that develops through three mechanisms: (1) silt bridging preserves large pore throats, (2) stress bridges inhibit clay particle alignment, and (3) local clay particle compression within stress bridges alters pore throat size distribution. Uniaxial consolidation experiments on resedimented clay-silt mixtures illuminate how permeability varies as a function of clay fraction during burial. Backscattered electron microscope images show that silty mixtures have larger pore throats and fewer aligned clay particles than do more clay-rich mixtures. We describe the permeability of clay-silt mixtures with a geometric mean model. Our method provides a promising framework for modeling of mudstone permeability as a function of clay fraction and porosity. How permeability and consolidation evolve during burial affects the ability of mudstones to seal CO2 and hydrocarbons in the subsurface, how mudstones behave as gas reservoirs, and under what conditions mudstones will be overpressured. Dual-porosity systems have fundamentally different transient flow and solute transport behaviors.


The pavement structure of SR 12 between Montesano and Elma, Washington was evaluated for the proposed heavy loads associated with construction of the Satsop power plant. Information used in evaluating SR 12 resulted from two sources which included field studies conducted by the Washington State Department of Transportation and development of various material strength parameters by the University of Washington. These data were used to model the pavement structure as a layered elastic system. By use of this analysis procedure, the stresses, strains and deflections were estimated for the expected range of loading conditions. The results indicate that the most probable amount of damage (fatigue and rutting) expected for the non-cement treated base structural sections is less than one to two percent of available pavement life for the "expected" loading condition. An increase in either or both the trailer wheel load and pavement temperature will act to produce greater losses in pavement life. It is estimated that the tensile stresses in the cement treated base may exceed the tensile strength of this material.


Effects of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and indomethacin, an inhibitor of PGE2 oxygenase, on primary and secondary antibody (Ab) responses to Mycobacterium butyricum protein or keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) were studied in growing layer hens. Immunizations at 35 and 70 d of age were accompanied by immunomodulating treatments with PGE2, indomethacin, or PBS. In addition, we studied effects of various doses of indomethacin and PGE2 on mitogen-induced T-cell proliferation in vitro. Secondary Ab responses to KLH were enhanced by administration of indomethacin at secondary immunization and, to a lesser extent, by PGE2 administration at secondary immunization. Primary Ab responses to M. butyricum tended to decrease by administration of either PGE2 or indomethacin. Secondary Ab responses to M. butyricum were affected by administration of both PGE2 and indomethacin at primary immunization. Prostaglandin E2 increased phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-induced lymphocyte proliferation. Indomethacin decreased Concanavalin A (ConA)- and PHA-induced lymphocyte proliferation. The net effect of indomethacin on the Ab response could not be explained by inhibition of PGE2 oxygenase only. Our data rather suggest an inhibition by indomethacin of other immunosuppressing factors derived from arachidonic acid. We concluded that polyunsaturated fatty acid-derived products might especially affect secondary antibody responsiveness. This finding may depend on inhibition or enhancement of T-cell responsiveness. Consequently, immunomodulation by dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids may have profound effects at secondary rather than at primary exposure to pathogens.


The art historian Ernst Gombrich asserted that both artists and viewers are constrained by specific cultural mental sets within which they operate: he used "schemata" to refer to both actual sketches and our mental sets. In mapping the mechanism of culture, Juri Lotman situated both language and the "schematized image" at the centre of semiospheres: they function to introduce unity and eliminate contradictions. Schemata have obviously served as both the cause and the result of human knowledge, some loosely constructed yet highly condensed forms of art in different domains. Theorizing at a time of a hypertrophy of scientific and linguistic models, Lotman and Gombrich appear to have converged on theorizing our means of connecting people across cultures. They each put forward their own perspectives concerning the interplay between culture, art and pictorial representation. This paper serves to: (1) examine how Lotman and Gombrich interpreted Jakobson's scheme of communication; (2) reveal the paradox of schemata and nonverbal communication latent in their writings; (3) soften the paradox by drawing on Lotman's conceptulization of play as an emotional structure. It is argued that the kind of emotive potential defined from the perspective of beholders or addressees is crucial to our survival in the global village.


Nowadays a high quality standard of fish products, either fresh or frozen, is desired. Therefore a fast processing is of the highest priority. Since the world-wide consump-tion is rising steadily, larger refrigeration plants and warehouses are being built. Consequently, the energy usage of such facilities is increasing. To offset the additional electricity costs, the energy efficiency must be improved either by inventing and investigating new and highly efficient industrial processes. Furthermore, increasingly stringent environmental standards impose even higher efforts on developing refrigeration systems with natural refrigerants. Ammonia is known as the thermodynamic most efficient refrigerant and is used for many applications, including the state of the art industrial refrigeration of the pelagic fish. However there are limitations of using ammonia as a coolant. As an example, the application is limited below -40°C and the efficiency reduces significantly due to the required high pressure ratio and the high specific volume. Opposed to ammonia, carbon dioxide with its high volumetric efficiency has unique benefits in the temperature range between -40°C and -50°C. Due to the smaller system components, capacity enhancements have been realized for offshore applications in cascade systems with ammonia as high temperature media. Although many NH3/CO2 cascade systems have proven to be highly efficient in various applications all over the world, this technology has not yet been established for onshore plants within the pelagic fish industry in Norway. Therefore the motivation for this thesis was the investigation of a cascade refrigeration system for a given freezing tunnel provided by Norway Pelagic AS. The main tool was the objective-orientated, declarative modelling language Modelica with the simulation environment Dymola Control. Besides the investigation of various system parameters that mainly affected the freezing process time and the energy consumption, an energy recovery system was designed and a laboratory facility was constructed. Additionally, the effect of the substantial vulnerability for pressure losses and the resulting temperature reduction on the evaporator side was discussed. Since the cutting-edge cascade technology is not yet existent in onshore plants within the pelagic fish industry, positive feedback and an understanding of the technical and economical background and a literature review was an important indication which allowed different approaches for the project in the future


Depletion of GSH, oxidative stress and hyperhomocysteinemia have been linked to Alzheimer's disease. Recent work has shown that soluble oligomers of amyloid β, the pathological protein of Alzheimer's disease, disrupts glutamate uptake via EAAT3. EAAT3 is the transporter responsible for neuronal cysteine uptake. Cysteine is the rate‐limiting precursor of the antioxidant glutathione (GSH) which establishes the redox potential of a cell. Changes in redox state modify the activity of redox‐sensitive enzymes such as methionine synthase, the enzyme that methylates homocysteine to methionine. Since methionine is subsequently adenosylated to S‐adenosylmethionine (SAM), the major methyl donor of biological reactions including DNA methylation, methionine synthase links redox status to epigenetic regulation of gene expression. We examined the influence of soluble Aβ oligomers on [35S]‐labeled cysteine uptake, intracellular thiol and thioester metabolism, global DNA methylation and transcription of a panel of select redox and methylation‐linked genes in SH‐SY5Y cells, a human neuroblastoma cell line. Soluble Aβ oligomers significantly decreased cysteine uptake, caused oxidative stress, and decreased the ratio of SAM to SAH which was accompanied by a decrease in global DNA methylation. Finally, soluble Aβ oligomers were shown to change the transcription of a number of redox and methylation‐linked genes.


This dissertation examines the role that domestic institutions can play in the implementation of international intellectual property rights standards. In doing so, it argues that the path dependence of existing institutions can alter how international standards are actually implemented on the ground. It further argues that this altering of standards can create feedback effects that influence related state policies and the international standards themselves. This argument adds to the IPE literature on the creation of international intellectual property (IP) rights, which thus far, has tended to focus primarily on international-level negotiations rather than national-level implementation. It challenges the dominant 'market power' explanation that emphasizes the role of economic power in setting international regulatory standards. It does so by examining a critical case study of Canada and its implementation of trade-related intellectual property standards. Canada is a critical case due to its high trade dependence on the United States, which makes it 'least likely' to resist US market power. The dissertation shows how Canada has managed its adoption of trade-related IP standards through institutional layering and conversion strategies at various levels of governance. The analysis argues for, and significantly supports, the value of historical institutionalism in the study of international political economy.


From the mid-1800s, at the end of the Tokugawa feudal period and the beginning of the Meiji era, English has been a singularly important foreign language in Japan which has, since that time, risen to international prominence, mirroring the rise of the English speaking world powers in the west. While English education was limited to the elites at this time, after World War II English education became available to the general public through the newly-implemented public education system. Today, English is considered one of Japan's most important school subjects, and English conversational skills are regarded as a highly desirable special talent. At the same time, most Japanese do not hide the difficulty they encounter with learning both written and spoken English. Even today Japan remains an essentially monolingual country and average person's ability to utilize English in any practical capacity is quite limited. This paper discusses Japan's idealization of native English speakers and the dilemma of learning how to speak like them while at the same time living in an isolated monolingual nation. The Japanese government struggles with appropriate strategies on English education curriculum, leaving considerable room for improvement in the education system. Without revising the current education plan, English will remain a weakness for Japan.


This paper explores the distinction between representative and presentative conceptions of politics in the works of Alain Badiou and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Analyzing Badiou's reading of Rousseau's Social Contract , the paper shows that, contrary to a common view, Rousseau is not a normative theorist of legitimacy; instead, he is a political ontologist, one who thinks the being of politics rather than its norms. In this role, Rousseau defends a politics of presentation, a conception of politics as essentially creative rather than imitative. Against a view of politics as a representation of natural, divine or moral order, Rousseau's political ontology maintains that politics exists only so long as order is created, out of nothing as it were. In short, politics cannot be representational; it exists only as long as it is present, not represented. For Badiou and Rousseau, representation is not necessarily illegitimate or unjust; it is simply not political.


CALAP (Computer-Assisted Linguistic Analysis of the Peshitta), a joint research project of the Peshitta Institute Leiden and the Werkgroep Informatica at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (1999-2005) CALAP concerned the computer-assisted analysis of the Peshitta to Kings (Janet Dyk and Percy van Keulen) and the Peshitta to Sirach (Wido van Peursen) and the development of computer programs (Constantijn Sikkel and HendrikJan Bosman). The CALAP project leaders were Konrad Jenner and Eep Talstra. CALAP was succeeded by the Turgama project, again a joint research project of the Peshitta Institute Leiden and the Werkgroep Informatica at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2005-2010). The Turgama project leader was Wido van Peursen. Other researchers involved were Percy van Keulen (Targum Judges), Dirk Bakker (Book of the Laws of the Countries), Constantijn Sikkel (scientific programming), Jeffrey A. Volkmer (Oriental Institute, Oxford; Peshitta Psalms) and Ariel Gutman (working with Wido van Peursen on the two Syriac Versions of the Prayer of Manasseh). This dataset contains: (i) a pdf document on the digital encoding and analysis of the data: 'TURGAMA Computer-Assisted Analysis of the Peshitta and the Targum: Text, Language and Interpretation.' This document also serves to describe the method of encoding used by the CALAP project. (ii) the result of the CALAP project in several formats: (a) EMDROS (see relations below), which is the tool of choice adopted by the ETCBC to communicate its data with others (b) LAF = Linguistic Annotation Framework (see relations below), which is the result of converting the EMDROS database into the ISO standard LAF. (iii) A file containing tree representation of all sentences in the text. This has been compiled using LAF-Fabric (see relations below) to convert the Peshitta text from EMDROS to LAF and then to apply an algorithm to assemble the tree structures based on the LAF data (iv) A set of files containing the current version of LAF-Fabric, used to carry out all processing required for this data set.


Sedentary habits are an issue of concern during adolescence because they are a risk factor for several diseases and predispose adolescents to chronic diseases in adulthood. When associated with a sedentary lifestyle, pregnancy during adolescence is a determining factor for becoming vulnerable to developing disease. This study aimed to assess the perception of sedentary behavior by pregnant adolescents treated in Basic Health Care Units in the Municipality of Coari, Amazonas State, Brazil. The study also aimed to survey for associated factors through a cross-sectional, quantitative investigation of pregnant adolescents living in the urban area of the Municipality of Coari. Data were collected in September 2010 through the use of a semi-structured questionnaire with openand closed-ended items covering the level of physical activity and sedentary behavior. The results show that 69% of the pregnant adolescents were 17 or 18 years old, 44% were single, and 56% had started but not concluded primary education. Among the interviewees, 97% stated that they did not exercise during pregnancy; 75% considered themselves sedentary after acknowledging the meaning of a sedentary lifestyle, and only 25% considered themselves physically active. Thus, the perception of sedentary behavior by pregnant adolescents proved to be worrisome, and the pattern of activity on the part of the interviewees was classified as low and inadequate after the beginning of pregnancy. We conclude that behavioral, biological and cultural factors influence the determination of sedentary behavior. We also show a lack of stimulus for physical activities during pregnancy and illustrate the need for special attention from public health servants.


Monthly CO2 fluxes are estimated across 1988–2003 for 22 emission regions using data from 78 CO2 measurement sites. The same inversion (method, priors, data) is performed with 13 different atmospheric transport models, and the spread in the results is taken as a measure of transport model error. Interannual variability (IAV) in the winds is not modeled, so any IAV in the measurements is attributed to IAV in the fluxes. When both this transport error and the random estimation errors are considered, the flux IAV obtained is statistically significant at P ≤ 0.05 when the fluxes are grouped into land and ocean components for three broad latitude bands, but is much less so when grouped into continents and basins. The transport errors have the largest impact in the extratropical northern latitudes. A third of the 22 emission regions have significant IAV, including the Tropical East Pacific (with physically plausible uptake/release across the 1997–2000 El Niño/La Niña) and Tropical Asia (with strong release in 1997/1998 coinciding with large‐scale fires there). Most of the global IAV is attributed robustly to the tropical/southern land biosphere, including both the large release during the 1997/1998 El Niño and the post‐Pinatubo uptake.