There is a wide range of Roman-law texts on the duty of support. This obligation may result from family connections, from the relationship between patronus and freedman or even from ownership of a slave. A duty of maintenance may be imposed on somebody in a will, it may be linked to the allocation of a marriage portion, it may fi gure as a secondary obligation in a contract, etc. Accordingly, Roman jurists often comment on aspects of maintenance law, even outside the sedes materiae (D 25.3.5 De agnoscendis et alendis liberis vel parentibus vel patronis). They focus on a variety of legal topics, such as inheritance or succession, marriage, or negotiorum gestio. In the title De negotiis gestis in D 3.5.33 (Paulus 1 quaestionum) a case is reported which includes contradictory statements by the parties as well as exceptionally detailed statements by the jurists: Avia nepotis sui negotia gessit – a grandmother was managing her grandson's affairs; both she and the grandson having died, their heirs appeared as plaintiff and defendant. The claims related to the grandmother's maintenance of her grandson, so that defendants and plaintiffs were opponents in an actio negotiorum gestorum (directa). Earlier decisions quoted in this trial and the arguments advanced during the proceedings highlight the juxtaposition between enforceable obligations and the role of conscience where there is a duty of support. In particular, the judicial relevance of pietas will be examined in this contribution.


Abstract. Recent explosive volcanic eruptions recorded worldwide (e.g. Hekla in 2000, Eyjafjallajokull in 2010, Cordon-Caulle in 2011) demonstrated the necessity for a better assessment of the eruption source parameters (ESPs; e.g. column height, mass eruption rate, eruption duration, and total grain-size distribution – TGSD) to reduce the uncertainties associated with the far-travelling airborne ash mass. Volcanological studies started to integrate observations to use more realistic numerical inputs, crucial for taking robust volcanic risk mitigation actions. On 23 November 2013, Etna (Italy) erupted, producing a 10 km height plume, from which two volcanic clouds were observed at different altitudes from satellites (SEVIRI, MODIS). One was retrieved as mainly composed of very fine ash (i.e. PM20), and the second one as made of ice/SO2 droplets (i.e. not measurable in terms of ash mass). An atypical north-easterly wind direction transported the tephra from Etna towards the Calabria and Apulia regions (southern Italy), permitting tephra sampling in proximal (i.e. ∼ 5–25 km from the source) and medial areas (i.e. the Calabria region, ∼ 160 km). A primary TGSD was derived from the field measurement analysis, but the paucity of data (especially related to the fine ash fraction) prevented it from being entirely representative of the initial magma fragmentation. To better constrain the TGSD assessment, we also estimated the distribution from the X-band weather radar data. We integrated the field and radar-derived TGSDs by inverting the relative weighting averages to best fit the tephra loading measurements. The resulting TGSD is used as input for the FALL3D tephra dispersal model to reconstruct the whole tephra loading. Furthermore, we empirically modified the integrated TGSD by enriching the PM20 classes until the numerical results were able to reproduce the airborne ash mass retrieved from satellite data. The resulting TGSD is inverted by best-fitting the field, ground-based, and satellite-based measurements. The results indicate a total erupted mass of 1.2  ×  109 kg, being similar to the field-derived value of 1.3  ×  109 kg, and an initial PM20 fraction between 3.6 and 9.0 wt %, constituting the tail of the TGSD.


The high pace of reallocation across producers is pervasive in the US economy. Evidence shows that this high pace of reallocation is closely linked to productivity. While these patterns hold on average, the extent to which the reallocation dynamics in recessions are "cleansing" is an open question. We find that downturns prior to the Great Recession are periods of accelerated reallocation even more productivity enhancing than reallocation in normal times. In the Great Recession, we find that the intensity of reallocation fell rather than rose and that the reallocation that did occur was less productivity enhancing than in prior recessions.


Accounting textbooks for law or business schools invariably provide secondary narrative presentations of materials in the authors' own words. A better approach to learning this subject is to present thematically arranged original accounting pronouncements. The design this innovative book, helps readers appreciate how accounting is a tool that provides conceptual organization to economic exchange. The tool facilitates analyzing legal, business and public policy aspects of the transactions that accounting addresses. The original accounting standards, as well as SEC enforcement actions, presented in this book illuminate why transactions are pursued and related decisions made, economic aspects of transactions, and the conceptual underpinnings of the activities of measuring, classifying and reporting on them. Law and Accounting thus emphasizes the intersection of the two subjects. It is neither accounting for lawyers nor law for accountants. It is both. It is not accounting qua accounting being presented, but a conception of law and accounting bearing an authentic interdisciplinary sense. Material downloadable from this abstract consists of the book's front matter: (1) Preface; (2) Summary, Table and Detail of Contents; (3) Table of Cases; and (4) Annotated Table of Accounting and Auditing Standards.


Abstract Andean Cenozoic shortening within the Malargüe fold–thrust belt of west-central Argentina has been dominated by basement faults largely influenced by pre-existing Mesozoic rift structures of the Neuquén basin system. The basement contractional structures, however, diverge from many classic inversion geometries in that they formed large hanging-wall anticlines with steeply dipping frontal forelimbs and structural relief in the order of several kilometres. During Cenozoic E–W shortening, the reactivated basement faults propagated into cover strata, feeding slip to shallow thrust systems that were later carried in piggyback fashion above newly formed basement structures, yielding complex thick- and thin-skinned structural relationships. In the adjacent foreland, Cenozoic clastic strata recorded the broad kinematic evolution of the fold–thrust belt. We present a set of structural cross-sections supported by regional surface maps and industry seismic and well data, along with new stratigraphic information for associated Neogene synorogenic foreland basin fill. Collectively, these results provide important constraints on the temporal and geometric linkages between the deeper basement faults (including both reactivated and newly formed structures) and shallow thin-skinned thrust systems, which, in turn, offer insights for the understanding of hydrocarbon systems in the actively explored Neuquén region of the Andean orogenic belt.


During the last 30 years computer and videogames have grown into a large entertainment industry of economic as well as cultural and social importance. As a distinctive field of academic inquiry begins to evolve in the form of Game Studies, the majority of approaches can be identified as emerging either from a background of literary theory which motivates a concentration on narrative structures or from a dedicated focus on the rules of video and computer games. However, one of the most evident properties of those games is their shared participation in a variety of spatial illusions. Although most researchers share the view that issues related to mediated space are among the most significant factors characterising the new medium, as of yet, no coherent conceptual exploration of space and spatial representation in video and computer games has been undertaken.

This thesis focuses on the novel spatial paradigms emerging from computer and video games. It aims to develop an original theoretical framework that takes the hybrid nature of the medium into account. The goal of this work is to extend the present range of methodologies directed towards the analysis of digital games. In order to reveal the roots of the spatial apparatus at work an overview of the most significant conceptions of space in western thought is given. Henri Lefebvre's reading of space as a triad of perceived, conceived and lived space is adopted. This serves to account for the multifaceted nature of the subject, enables the integration of divergent spatial conceptions as part of a coherent framework, and highlights the importance of experiential notions of spatiality. Starting from Michel Foucault's notion of the heterotopia, game-space is posited as the dynamic interplay between different spatial modalities. As constitutive elements of the dynamic spatial system mobilized by digital games the following modalities are advanced: the physical space of the player, the space emerging from the narrative, the rules, the audiovisual representation and the kinaesthetic link between player and game. These different modalities are examined in detail in the light of a selected range of exemplary games. Based on a discussion of film theory in this context an original model that serves to distinguish between different visual representational strategies is presented. A chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the crucial and often overlooked role of sound for the generation of spatial illusions. It is argued that sound has to be regarded as the privileged element that enables the active use of representational space in three dimensions. Finally the proposed model is mobilised to explore how the work of contemporary artists relates to the spatial paradigms set forth by digital games. The critical dimension of artistic work in this context is outlined. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the impact of the prevalent modes of spatial practice in computer and video games on wider areas of everyday life.


Hamartoma is a benign tumor-like lesion composed of overgrowth of mature cells and tissues. Along with its unspecific appearance, it may occur in the oral cavity and bear resemblance to the other lesions. In this report we describes the clini-cal appearance of hamartoma as well as the diagnosis method in the case of a 37-year-old-man. The patient explained that he already has redness plaque lesion on his skin left cheek region since he was born. The lesion was sensed to grow and discomfort at the age of 22. A surgical therapy had been performed to reduce the size of lesion one year after, but the red-ness plaque still existed. Thirteen years following the operation, white lesion appeared on the inner left cheek 10 x 8.5 x 6 cm of size and extended onto lower lips within half a year. Diagnostic procedure was carried out such as biopsy, CT-scan and radiography with neuroma as an initial conclusion. New histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of hamartoma. It is concluded that adequate and appropriate biopsy procedure along with sufficient clinical information are needed to develop a proper diagnosis to distinguish hamartoma from other oral lesions. DOI: 10.14693/jdi.v17i3.38


This text defends dialogue that negotiates conflict and keeps democracy alive, and at the same time it protrays America as dying from a refusal to engage in such a dialogue, a polity where everybody speaks, but nobody listens. It diagnoses the ailment of the body politic as the unwillingness of people in power to hear disagreement unless forced to, and precribes a new process of response. At the heart of this work is a re-reading of the Declaration of Independence that puts dissent, not consent, at the centre of the question of legitimacy of democratic government. The author argues that liberal constitutional ethos - the tendency to assume that the nation must everywhere be morally the same - pressures citizens to be other than themselves when being themselves would lead to disobedience. This he argues is particularly hard on the religious citizen whose sense of community may be quite different from that of the sovereign majority of citizens. This leads to a view for the autonomy of communities into which democratic citizens organize themselves as a condition for dissent, dialogue, and independence.


Measuring conditional dependence is one of the important tasks in statistical inference and is fundamental in causal discovery, feature selection, dimensionality reduction, Bayesian network learning, and others. In this work, we explore the connection between conditional dependence measures induced by distances on a metric space and reproducing kernels associated with a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). For certain distance and kernel pairs , we show the distance-based conditional dependence measures to be equivalent to that of kernel-based measures. On the other hand, we also show that some popular kernel conditional dependence measures based on the Hilbert-Schmidt norm of a certain cross-conditional covariance operator, do not have a simple distance representation, except in some limiting cases.


Introduction: Osteoma is a benign tumour of the temporal bone and is very uncommon. Osteomas are reported very rarely from temporal bone but may occur in external auditory canal commonly as in other parts of body. Case report: A 22 year old female presented to ENT & HNS Department of DRRPGMC Kangra At Tanda with very hard swelling in left post auricular region diagnosed as osteoma. Under local anaesthesia complete excision complete excision up to cortical bone was done through post auricular approach. Further histopathology confirmed the diagnosis. Conclusion: While dealing with bony hard mastoid swellings, osteoma should always be kept in mind although they are rare. To avoid the recurrence of these swellings complete removal should be done by drilling till the normal cortical bone is reached. If while drilling we realize there is involvement of the mastoid air cell system then cortlcal mastoidectomy should be done which was not required in this case as there was not any involvement of mastoid air cells.


This article examines whether textural generation system imagery evolved with computational aesthetic support can be judged as having aesthetic attributes, both when knowing and not knowing its true origin. Such a generation, depicting a digital landscape, is offered to two groups of participants to appraise. It is hypothesized that there will be no statistically significant difference between the groups on their appraisal of the image. Results from statistical analysis prove to be consistent with this hypothesis. A minority of participants, however, do exhibit significant differences in their perception of the image based on its means of production. This article explores and illustrates these differences.


Mr. Edwin S. Munger is a successful experiment. The experiment started a number of years ago. It was an experiment with a new method of producing an expert. After World War II ten million men returned from overseas to the United States. Many of them had been in Africa, Asia, Europe and elsewhere for years on end. But the country to which they returned was deeply ignorant of the very world which it had helped to save from conquest by Germany and Japan. There were some experts on Russia and China, fewer still on India and Southeast Asia. On Africa there were a couple of lonely men with no one to talk to and nobody much who wanted to listen. Expertness in the American university world, especially in those days, was often training in the difficult art of looking at the world through the eye of a needle. Geographers of China without history, historians of Russia without economics, economists of Japan without anthropology, anthropologists of Africa without geography - this gave concentration, good thesis titles and no community of discourse. But help was at hand. During the war a few bright spirits recognized that fighting Japan and then making peace with Japan might be carried on more successfully if the geography, history, economics and anthropology were regarded as aspects of a total Japanese culture. Moreover, it did not seem to be quite so ridiculous or impossible for well-trained men to acquire an expert understanding of a whole people, an entire country or a large and even diverse area. Universities experimented with area studies, and for a while the experts permitted the upstarts to look round instead of through the eye of a needle. Of the many excellent things about America is a readiness to try something that has not been tried before, even though it may look silly or wrong. And so a bold foundation undertook the experiment of trying to create an expert generalist or a general expert. There appeared in India, South Africa, East Africa, Brazil and elsewhere able young men with the mission of seeing all they wanted to see, learning each according to his qualities, all they could learn, and setting down in writing their opinions, observations and conclusions. If any of them had a thesis, or wanted a Ph.D., or planned ultimately to get back of the eye of a needle, that was incidental. Otherwise, it was not cricket. Edwin Munger was one of these people. He was a geographer, which meant that he had his own eye of a needle. With a Ph.D. under his belt, he could run for cover if he had to. But he did not. As any reading of his published work shows, he became very skillful at looking at Africa from all sorts of angles. He skipped over the Germanic spirit of the nineteenth century scholarship into a free-ranging eighteenth century Voltairean spirit willing to look at geography, history, politics and even Afrikaans poetry. It was not a pure zest for scholarship that caused him to marry a South African girl, but his admirers know that this was helpful. Of Voltaire the historians of the day said that he was a master of all knowledge except history. Mathematicians, philosophers and divines made the same exception in the case of their own subjects. Scholars may want to express the same qualifications about a geographer who writes on constitutions, ethnology, penal codes and even rape. But they would miss the point. Ten years of traveling, looking, learning, writing and talking have produced in Mr. Munger an expert generalist. He has much of Africa, and certainly South Africa, in his veins and in his pores. His has been a systemic as well as a cerebral education. For the United States the appearance of a growing number of men with this systemic, visceral, pervasive understanding of other lands and peoples is a superb enrichment. It means that Americans are less prone to fashion their opinions out of theoretical deductions from their own history. This bad habit explains much of the naive or clumsy handling of America's foreign policy. A position based on American political thought does, of course, lead to more sympathy for Julius Nyerere than for Verwoerd. But the new generation of scholars like Edwin Munger make it possible for American public opinion to understand that Mr. Verwoerd is a man involved in one of the most difficult problems of modern history. If one, indeed, accepts Mr. Verwoerd's assumptions, which I cannot, then Mr. Verwoerd becomes a very logical man, acting according to principle, and in a spirit of great courage.
One of the saddest paradoxes about Africa is that it needs literally millions of fresh highly skilled experts. But the clash of grinding racial antagonisms may be leading to the expulsion of nearly four million people already in Africa who have many of the skills that Africa must have in order to prosper. Maybe the dams have already burst, and the destroying floods are inexorably on their way. Mr. Verwoerd is certainly in their path. But meanwhile it is valuable to read the understanding and thoughtful things Mr. Munger has to say about Germans and Afrikaners, Jews and Indians, black men and colored men. He knows that if there is hope in South Africa it must come from Afrikaner liberals, although here I myself would wish that he had more to say of the now lonely, and courageous and generously minded English liberals. It is always a little harder to see the virtues of a people whose language is the same as your own. There is a special bias towards people whose tongue you have arduously learned to speak. All this will be written again, later on, in fuller knowledge, maybe not through a haze of tears or after the atomic dust has settled upon a broken world. If the fates are very kind, this may be written again by men free of the angers that now rack Africa. That Mr. Munger has written so fully, so variously means that the final and more definitive story will be better and more fairly told.


Bats are important ecosystems service providers, make a significant contribution to biodiversity and can be important pests and disease vectors. In spite of this, information on their migration and dispersal patterns is limited.
In temperate bats, migration is most evident in females. This reflects seasonal differences in their habitat requirements, and the fact that seasonally suitable sites can be geographically distant. Tropical bats mainly migrate to track variation in food availability.
Little direct information is available on the patterns and drivers of bat dispersal, although drivers may include mate competition and inbreeding avoidance. In many temperate species, differential energy requirements and local resource competition among the sexes drive sexual segregation in the summer: females remain philopatric to their natal region, and frequently to their natal colony, while males disperse. In contrast, many tropical Pteropodidae form single-male/multi-female groups in which local resource defence contributes to female-biased or all-offspring dispersal from the natal site.
Population genetic studies are the most common source of evidence used to infer the spatial dynamics of bats. As expected, migratory species tend to have less genetically structured populations over large geographical scales due to mating outside of breeding areas, weak migratory connectivity and long-distance movements. In contrast and as expected, populations of sedentary species tend to be more differentiated at smaller geographical scales.
Despite this general pattern, a range of factors, including historical events, dispersal capabilities, and behavioural, ecological and geographical barriers, are implicated in the genetic partitioning of bat populations, irrespective of movement patterns. These factors limit the study of bat movements using only genetic methods.
Combining population genetics with other methods, such as mark–recapture, tracking or stable isotope analysis, should provide more insight into the movements of these ecologically and economically important species.


The present article presents certain aspects of the relations between Romania, the Czech Republic and Yugoslavia in the interwar period. The fourth decade of the last century in particular was extremely rich in political, diplomatic and military events. Within this international context, Romanian Prime Minister Gheorghe Tătărescu (1934-1937) sought to establish bilateral contacts – with the great powers of Europe, but mainly with the members of the Little Entente – meant to both strengthen bilateral relations and clarify the states' perspective on the events in progress. During his visits to Belgrade and Prague – as emerges from the press of the time – Gheorghe Tătărescu permanently advocated maintaining the status-quo and the political, economic and military cooperation between the states of the Little Entente.


Chimeric ErbB ligand binding molecules having detectable binding activity for more ErbB ligands than any one of native ErbB1, ErbB3 or ErbB4 are disclosed. Preferably, the binding molecules bind a broad spectrum and, more preferably, the full spectrum of ErbB ligands. The chimeric ErbB ligand binding molecules generally have a subunit LI derived from one of ErbB1, 3, or 4 and a subunit LII derived from another distinct ErbB receptor type. The sub-domain, SI, which joins LI and LII can be from either one of the receptor types or can have portions from both. Pharmaceutical compositions that contain the molecules and methods for the treatment of ErbB sensitive diseases are also disclosed.


OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to determine whether a qualified dental hygienist could improve oral health outcomes for residents living in residential aged care facilities on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia.

METHODS
A qualified dental hygienist undertook a 24-week oral hygiene intervention in five residential aged care facilities to test the Senior Smiles, oral health model of care. The facilities were invited to take part in the research, which was funded by a grant from NSW Medicare Local, Erina. Residents were asked to consent to having oral health risk assessments, oral healthcare plans and to receiving referrals for treatment where needed. Pre- and post-intervention plaque scores were recorded for residents and P values calculated using a paired t-test. In addition, the number of residents examined, treated and referred for more complex dental care was recorded.

RESULTS
The statistical analysis program, SPSS, was used to conduct a paired t-test to compare pre- and post-intervention plaque scores on residents from the 5 RACFs. A statistically significant result of P < 0.0001 showed the intervention of the dental hygienist was effective in reducing plaque scores in residents across the 5 RACFs.

CONCLUSION
The Senior Smiles model of care provided residents with preventive oral hygiene care, referral pathways for complex dental treatment needs and established a formal management programme for ongoing oral health care within the RACFs. The Senior Smiles model of care is successful and transportable.


This book is both a concise history of British universities and their place in society over eight centuries, and a penetrating analysis of current university problems and policies as seen in the light of that history. It explains how the modern university system has developed since the Victorian era, and gives special attention to changes in policy since the Second World War, including the effects of the Robbins report, the rise and fall of the binary system, the impact of the Thatcher era, and the financial crises which have beset universities in recent years. A final chapter on the past and the present shows the continuing relevance of the ideals inherited from the past, and makes an important contribution to current controversies by identifying a distinctively British university model and discussing the historical relationship of state and market.


This article uses stochastic simulations on a calibrated model to assess the impact of different pension reform strategies where financial markets are less than perfect. We investigate the optimal split between funded and unfunded systems when there are sources of uninsurable risk that are allocated in different ways by different types of pension system when there are imperfections in financial markets. This article calculates the expected welfare of agents of different cohorts under various policy scenarios. We estimate how the optimal level of unfunded, state pensions depends on rate of return and income risks and also upon preferences.


Consciousness is "our deepest mystery and our most intimate reality" (de Quincey 2002: 64). None of what we experience happens outside of consciousness; but we know little about its nature or origins.

Despite this, educational and social researchers show scant interest in inquiring into the nature and scope of consciousness. I argue that this is due to the legacy of classical Newtonian science, which has instilled a materialist worldview into western culture. This worldview perceives consciousness to have emerged from matter at a late stage of a physical evolutionary process. Consequently, all our thoughts, feelings and intuitions are seen to be caused by the interaction of neurons in the brain (Dennett 1991).

However there is a different worldview emerging from quantum physics (Wheeler 1994), and from a revisiting of spiritual traditions (De Quincey 2005): which is that consciousness, not matter, is the primary 'stuff' of the universe. That is, there is a universal Consciousness that is the source of our individual experiences; and, as the radio is the receiver rather than the originator of programmes, so the brain is the receiver of a universal Consciousness (Kelly et al 2015).

One implication of this worldview is that all of our internal experiences may be manifestations of a reality whose source exists beyond matter. Studying the nature of this reality, which may be as infinite and timeless as the external cosmos, opens up the need for faculties other than our five senses, such as introspection and intuition, to be accepted as valid and meaningful methods of academic research (Wallace 2010).

I explore the challenges involved in understanding consciousness, and argue for the acceptance and development of research methods that will include an investigation of inner subjective experiences of consciousness, to complement those that investigate consciousness from a third person perspective.


Combining the principles of phase contrast microscopy and phase shifting interferometry, we have developed a microscope capable of retrieving the phase of transparent samples with 0.1 nm pathlength noise value. Our results on live cells demonstrate the utility of the technique for the non-invasive study of biological structure and dynamics.


This paper presets a method including a combination of the wavelet transform and fuzzy function approximation (FFA) for high impedance fault (HIF) detection in distribution electricity network. Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) has been used in this paper as a tool for signal analysis. With studying different types of mother signals, detail types and feeder signal, the best case is selected. The DWT is used to extract the best features. The extracted features have been used as the FFA Systems inputs. The FFA system uses the input-output pairs to create a function approximation of the features. The FFA system is able to classify the new features. The combined model is used to model the HIF. This combined model has the high ability to model different types of HIF. In the proposed method, different kind of loads including nonlinear and asymmetric loads and HIF types studied. The results show that the proposed method is able to distinguish no fault and HIF state with high accuracy.


Objectives To determine the incidence of any and referable diabetic retinopathy in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus attending an annual screening service for retinopathy and whose first screening episode indicated no evidence of retinopathy. Design Retrospective four year analysis. Setting Screenings at the community based Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Service for Wales, United Kingdom. Participants 57 199 people with type 2 diabetes mellitus, who were diagnosed at age 30 years or older and who had no evidence of diabetic retinopathy at their first screening event between 2005 and 2009. 49 763 (87%) had at least one further screening event within the study period and were included in the analysis. Main outcome measures Annual incidence and cumulative incidence after four years of any and referable diabetic retinopathy. Relations between available putative risk factors and the onset and progression of retinopathy. Results Cumulative incidence of any and referable retinopathy at four years was 360.27 and 11.64 per 1000 people, respectively. From the first to fourth year, the annual incidence of any retinopathy fell from 124.94 to 66.59 per 1000 people, compared with referable retinopathy, which increased slightly from 2.02 to 3.54 per 1000 people. Incidence of referable retinopathy was independently associated with known duration of diabetes, age at diagnosis, and use of insulin treatment. For participants needing insulin treatment with a duration of diabetes of 10 years or more, cumulative incidence of referable retinopathy at one and four years was 9.61 and 30.99 per 1000 people, respectively. Conclusions Our analysis supports the extension of the screening interval for people with type 2 diabetes mellitus beyond the currently recommended 12 months, with the possible exception of those with diabetes duration of 10 years or more and on insulin treatment.


PHARMACOKINETICS OF ULTRASONICALLY-RELEASED, MICELLE ENCAPSULATED DOXORUBICIN IN THE RAT MODEL AND ITS EFFECT ON TUMOR GROWTH Bryant J. Staples Department of Chemical Engineering Master of Science Chemotherapy is one of the most successful cancer treatments used today. Unfortunately, the amount of chemotherapy a patient can receive is limited by the associated negative side effects, such as cardiotoxicity, immune system suppression, and nephrotoxicity. Encapsulation of these drugs, Doxorubicin (DOX) in particular, in stabilized Pluronic micelles (Plurogel) shows success in limiting these harmful side effects. In previous studies, low-frequency ultrasound (US) has been shown, in vitro, to locally release DOX from these micelles. In this study, a novel drug delivery system involving the encapsulation of DOX in Plurogel and the release of the drug at the tumor site using ultrasound was studied in vivo using rats. These studies determined the effect of ultrasonically released drugs on tumor growth rate and drug delivery to the tumor tissue. Concurrently, different frequencies (20 kHz, 500 kHz) were tested for the same effects. Treatments consisted of micelle-encapsulated doxorubicin injected intravenously followed by ultrasound application to one of the two bilateral tumors. Also, in different experiments, pharmacokinetic studies of the drug in the heart, liver, leg muscle, and tumors were performed up to a period of one week after treatment. Results showed that tumors treated with ultrasound displayed, on average, slower growth rates than non-insonated tumors (P = 0.0047). Also, insonated tumors displayed a weak increased concentration of DOX than non-insonated tumors within the first eight hours after treatment (P = 0.064). However, comparison between tumors which received 20 kHz and 500 kHz ultrasound treatment showed no statistical difference (P = 0.9275) in tumor growth rate or DOX concentration. It is noteworthy that the insonated tumor has slower growth even though the amount of DOX was not that much greater in the noninsonated tumor. This suggests that US also affects the uptake and/or processing of the DOX by the tumor cells, and that the therapeutic effect may not be attributed solely to a higher concentration of drug released by insonation. Pharmacokinetic studies showed significant drug accumulation in the heart but no accumulation in the liver, skeletal leg muscle, or tumors over the course of four weeks of consecutive weekly injections of DOX-encapsulated Plurogel. After 24 hours, DOX concentration remains the greatest in the tumors, regardless of whether they received


Stream ciphers are fast cryptographic primitives to provide confidentiality of electronically transmitted data. They can be very suitable in environments with restricted resources, such as mobile devices or embedded systems. Practical examples are cell phones, RFID transponders, smart cards or devices in sensor networks. Besides efficiency, security is the most important property of a stream cipher. In this thesis, we address cryptanalysis of modern lightweight stream ciphers. We derive and improve cryptanalytic methods for different building blocks and present dedicated attacks on specific proposals, including some eSTREAM candidates. As a result, we elaborate on the design criteria for the development of secure and efficient stream ciphers. The best-known building block is the linear feedback shift register (LFSR), which can be combined with a nonlinear Boolean output function. A powerful type of attacks against LFSR-based stream ciphers are the recent algebraic attacks, these exploit the specific structure by deriving low degree equations for recovering the secret key. We efficiently determine the immunity of existing and newly constructed Boolean functions against fast algebraic attacks. The concept of algebraic immunity is then generalized by investigating the augmented function of the stream cipher. As an application of this framework, we improve the cryptanalysis of a well-known stream cipher with irregularly clocked LFSR's. Algebraic attacks can be avoided by substituting the LFSR with a suitable nonlinear driving device, such as a feedback shift register with carry (FCSR) or the recently proposed class of T-functions. We investigate both replacement schemes in view of their security, and devise different practical attacks (including linear attacks) on a number of specific proposals based on T-functions. Another efficient method to amplify the nonlinear behavior is to use a round-based filter function, where each round consists of simple nonlinear operations. We use differential methods to break a reduced-round version of eSTREAM candidate Salsa20. Similar methods can be used to break a related compression function with a reduced number of rounds. Finally, we investigate the algebraic structure of the initialization function of stream ciphers and provide a framework for key recovery attacks. As an application, a key recovery attack on simplified versions of eSTREAM candidates Trivium and Grain-128 is given.


This report evaluates the effects of a possible application of the general VAT rate to ornamentals on turnover and employment in the Dutch and European ornamental supply chain. The effects are calculated for the scenario in which the Netherlands decide to apply the general VAT rate and the scenario in which all member states of the European Union (EU) decide to apply the general VAT rate. In 2015, the lower VAT rate is applied to ornamentals in 13 EU member states. The effects are measured using the Hortus model of LEI Wageningen UR, which models demand and supply in European horticulture.


Italy's labour market is highly segmented by gender and age with high labour costs, high rates of self-employment and undeclared work, high minimum wages, strong dismissal constraints and uneven job opportunities between Northern and Southern regions. Italy has experienced three decades of reforms aimed at liberalising its labour market, boosting competitiveness and introducing flexibility to address low productivity and weak employment dynamics. The 2014 Jobs Act is Italy's latest market labour reforms aimed at rationalising employment protection legislation, improving the effectiveness of social protection and boosting female and youth participation in the labour force. Labour market data for the first 18 months of the implementation of the Jobs Act point to positive upward trends for both employment and job creation as well as to a decrease in unemployment.


The 11 September attacks and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan have raised profound questions about the scope of the right of self-defence in intemationallaw, in particular, to whom it applies. The United States has asserted that it has a right of self-defence against attacks by the AI-Qaeda terrorist organisation. However, this would seem to depart from what might be called the "traditional" interpretation of self-defence, which limits the right to between states. In this view, both the perpetrator and the victim of an "armed attack", which gives rise to a right of self-defence, can only be a state. Yet this view itself has somewhat uncertain foundations, not being spelled out in the main provision on self-defence in the UN Charter and instead derived from a custom which shows some notably inconsistent practice. How, then, should the right of self-defence be considered? Is it reserved only for states, or can it also relate to other actors, such as terrorists, peoples and even individuals?


Never fall in love with a stock, because it will never love you back." The objective of this technical paper is to present the leading fundamental analysis and stock valuation techniques used by daily equity traders in the selection of stocks in actively traded equity portfolios. Daily equities traders use mostly technical charts and other instruments to recognize patterns that can advocate perspective activity without measuring a stock's intrinsic value to make trading decisions. Chart analysis is devised to detect trades with highly expected probability outcomes by setting exact price targets. The purpose of this technical paper is to advocate the importance of fundamental analysis in the investment decisions of daily traders. Fundamental analysis is based on the critical comparisons of a stock's intrinsic value to the prevailing market price. If the stock's intrinsic value exceeds the marker price, it makes sense for a fundamental investor/trader to buy the stock. This paper supports the idea that utilization of both investment techniques would lead into more successful investing decisions for equities traders.


The contractile system can be isolated in two forms which are able to act like the living muscle : (1) as the water-glycerine-extracted muscle fibre, and (2) as the oriented actomyosin thread. The extensibility of the extracted fibre is similar in all conditions to that of the intact fibre. Both pass into a state of rigor when they do not contain ATP and extensibility is then very small; during a slow small stretch the modulus of elasticity has a value between 5000 and 10000 g/cm2. On the other hand, with a normal content of ATP (5 x 10-3M), the extensibility both of the intact and of the extracted fibre is 10 to 50 times larger (elastic modulus between 100 and 1000 g/cm2), provided that contraction does not occur. If, however, the living or the extracted fibre containing ATP is in a contracting condition the extensibility is again smaller (elastic modulus nearly half as large as in rigor). The extracted fibre and the oriented actomyosin thread contract on treatment with ATP, or ITP, with the same amount of shortening and the same dependence on temperature as are characteristic of the living muscle. The extracted fibre thereby develops the tension of a maximal tetanic contraction (4 Kg/cm2) of a skeletal muscle. Both models show the same gradual recovery of tension after release, as does the living muscle. During contraction the birefringence of the extracted fibre is diminished by the same amount as is that of the living fibre. Both systems when contracted by treatment with ATP relax again if ATP splitting is stopped and if rigor is avoided. That is to say, they relax in spite of the presence of ATP when its breakdown is inhibited by adding appropriate ATP-ase-poisons (e. g. salyrgan). They relax also if ATP is washed out provided that rigor is prevented by the presence of pyrophosphate, triphosphate or ADP. If the poison is removed, or if ATP is added again, they contract anew. Thus ATP has two effects: (1) it makes actomyosin more plastic and more extensible ; in this it can be replaced by other poly orthophosphates; (2) as an operative substance ATP causes contraction and provides the energy needed for the working cycle; in this it can be replaced only by the chemically closely related ITP which can also be split by actomyosin. The experimental separation of the working cycle from the other cycles of the living muscle fibre (excitation, recovery) shows that relaxation is the thermodynamically spontaneous phase of the working cycle, while contraction occurs only when free energy is supplied to the contractile mechanism by ATP splitting. If so, muscle contraction cannot be a thermokinetic process, for then energy would be required to stretch again the statistically coiled molecules. The dependence on temperature of the tension during contraction is apparently the dependence of a steady state of ATP splitting and is not a sign of a change of elastic equilibrium.


[1] This study presents a methodology for estimating the upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) for a layer between 500 and 200 hPa from observations in the water vapor channel (5.6–7.2 μm) of the Indian geostationary satellite, Kalpana. Radiative transfer simulations for different UTH conditions have been used to develop the relationship between water vapor channel radiances and UTH. A new technique has been described to include the normalized reference pressure in the algorithm, to account for latitudinal variation of temperature that is derived from a diverse radiosonde profiles data set and is a polynomial function of the latitude for different months. This has an advantage that the forecast or analysis profiles from the operational numerical weather prediction model are not required to compute the normalized reference pressure. The operationally retrieved UTH products have been extensively compared and validated for the period of 1 March to 1 May 2009, using Meteosat-7 UTH products over the Indian Ocean and the UTH computed from the radiosonde profiles. The results suggest that UTH estimates from Kalpana match very well with the Meteosat-7 UTH products having RMS difference of ∼6%. Validation with the UTH computed from the radiosonde observed relative humidity shows that the RMS error of Kalpana UTH is 9.6% and the mean bias is −3.0%. Similar validation of Meteosat-7 UTH with the same set of radiosonde derived UTH shows an RMS error of 13.3% and the bias of −6.5%, which is higher in comparison to the Kalpana UTH.


Automatic activity recognition systems aim to capture the state of the user and its environment by exploiting heterogeneous sensors, and permit continuous monitoring of numerous physiological signals, where these sensors are attached to the subject's body. This can be immensely useful in healthcare applications, for automatic and intelligent daily activity monitoring for elderly people. In this paper, we present a novel data analytic scheme for intelligent Human Activity Recognition (AR) using wireless body sensors and smartphone inertial sensors which use information theory-based feature ranking algorithms and classifiers based on random forests, ensemble learning and lazy learning. Further, we propose a novel multimodal scheme based on combining multimodal three dimensional (x, y, z) accelerometer and gyro data from smart phone inertial sensors. Extensive experiments using different publicly available database of human activity show that the proposed approach can assist in the development of intelligent and automatic real time human activity monitoring technology for eHealth application scenarios for elderly, disabled and people with special needs.


We consider networks of passive systems with time delays in the interconnections, and present a stability analysis technique with the help of the integral quadratic constraint (IQC) framework. Unlike the classical passivity approach that fails to characterize delay robustness, and the small-gain approach that conservatively accounts for arbitrarily large delays, the new technique gives sharp stability estimates that depend on the duration of delay. Since the effect of delay depends on its duration relative to the time scales of the system, we make use of a "roll-off" IQC that captures magnitude roll-off at high frequencies, thus, providing the critical time-scale information. We then combine this roll-off IQC with an output strict passivity IQC that incorporates gain and phase information, and demonstrate the benefit of this combined IQC approach on a cyclic interconnection structure with delay. Finally, we develop a technique to verify these IQCs for classes of nonlinear state-space models and present an example from Internet congestion control.


Purpose: All trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) is successful in treating acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) by inducing terminal differentiation-mediated cell death, but it has limited activity in non-APL acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We aim to improve ATRA therapy of AML by enhancing apoptosis through repression of the antiapoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Mcl-1. Experimental Design: APL and AML cell lines, as well as primary AML samples, were used to explore the mechanisms regulating differentiation and apoptosis during ATRA treatment. Stable transfection and gene silencing with siRNA were used to identify the key factors that inhibit apoptosis during induction of differentiation and drugs that accelerate apoptosis. Results: In differentiation-responsive AML cells, ATRA treatment induces long-lasting repression of Bcl-2 while first upmodulating and then reducing the Mcl-1 level. The Mcl-1 level appears to serve as a gatekeeper between differentiation and apoptosis. During differentiation induction, activation of MEK/ERK and PI3K/Akt pathways by ATRA leads to activation of p90RSK and inactivation of glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β), which increase Mcl-1 levels by increasing its translation and stability. Sorafenib blocks ATRA-induced Mcl-1 increase by reversing p90RSK activation and GSK3β inactivation, maintains the repressed Bcl-2 level, and enhances ATRA induced apoptosis in non-APL AML cell lines and in primary AML cells. Conclusions: Inhibition of Mcl-1 is required for apoptosis induction in ATRA differentiation-responsive AML cells. ATRA and sorafenib can be developed as a novel drug combination therapy for AML patients because this drug combination augments apoptosis by inhibiting Bcl-2 and Mcl-1. Clin Cancer Res; 22(5); 1211–21. ©2015 AACR.


Pore fluids strongly influence the seismic properties of rocks. The densities, bulk moduli, velocities, and viscosities of common pore fluids are usually oversimplified in geophysics. We use a combination of thermodynamic relationships, empirical trends, and new and published data to examine the effects of pressure, temperature, and composition on these important seismic properties of hydrocarbon gases and oils and of brines. Estimates of in-situ conditions and pore fluid composition yield more accurate values of these fluid properties than are typically assumed. Simplified expressions are developed to facilitate the use of realistic fluid properties in rock models. Pore fluids have properties that vary substantially, but systematically, with composition, pressure, and temperature. Gas and oil density and modulus, as well as oil viscosity, increase with molecular weight and pressure, and decrease with temperature. Gas viscosity has a similar behavior, except at higher temperatures and lower pressures, where the viscosity will increase slightly with increasing temperature. Large amounts of gas can go into solution in lighter oils and substantially lower the modulus and viscosity. Brine modulus, density, and viscosities increase with increasing salt content and pressure. Brine is peculiar because the modulus reaches a maximum at a temperature from 40 to 80°C. Far less gas can be absorbed by brines than by light oils. As a result, gas in solution in oils can drive their modulus so far below that of brines that seismic reflection bright spots may develop from the interface between oil saturated and brine saturated rocks.


The web is a complicated graph, with millions of websites interlinked together. In this paper, we propose to use this web site graph structure to mitigate flooding attacks on a website, using a new web referral architecture for privileged service ("WRAPS"). WRAPS allows a legitimate client to obtain a privilege URL through a simple click on a referral hyperlink, from a website trusted by the target website. Using that URL, the client can get privileged access to the target website in a manner that is far less vulnerable to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) flooding attack than normal access would be. WRAPS does not require changes to web client software and is extremely lightweight for referrer websites, which makes its deployment easy. The massive scale of the web site graph could deter attempts to isolate a website through blocking all referrers. We present the design of WRAPS, and the implementation of a prototype system used to evaluate our proposal. Our empirical study demonstrates that WRAPS enables legitimate clients to connect to a website smoothly in spite of a very intensive flooding attack, at the cost of small overheads on the website's ISP's edge routers. We discuss the security properties of WRAPS and a simple approach to encourage many small websites to help protect an important site during DoS attacks.


Objective: To investigate the relationship between intrauterine growth and renal function among Jamaican young adults. Methods: Data from 744 participants from the Jamaica 1986 Birth Cohort Study were analysed. We evaluated the relationship between infant characteristics (birthweight and gestational age), maternal characteristics at child's birth (age and socio-economic status), and renal function at ages 18–20 years (using estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), calculated using the Schwartz-Lyon equation and urine albumin excretion), or prevalent chronic kidney disease (CKD; defined as eGFR < 60 ml/minute/1.73 m2 or urinary albumin ≥ 30 mg/g creatinine). Associations were examined using multi-level mixed effects regression models. Results: The mean eGFR was 86.3 ml/minute/1.73 m2 among males and 102.4 ml/minute/1.73 m2 among females (p < 0.001). The prevalence of CKD was 8.3% (7.4% males, 9.1% females, p = 0.387). Birthweight was not significantly associated with eGFR in unadjusted models, but after adjustment for potential confounders/mediators (gender, blood pressure, body mass index, maternal occupation and education), individuals born with a low birthweight (< 2.5 kg) had a 5.1% lower eGFR compared to those with a normal birthweight (ß = -0.052, p = 0.002). Furthermore, a one standard deviation increase in birthweight was associated with a 2.2% increase in eGFR (ß = 0.022, p = 0.044). No statistically significant associations were observed between early life factors and urinary albumin or CKD in adjusted models. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of CKD in this Afro-Caribbean young population. Lower birthweight was associated with reduced renal function in early adulthood, which may result in an increased risk of CKD later on in adulthood. Early life interventions may also be warranted in addressing the CKD epidemic.


Nowadays, movie box-office revenue and movie theater visitor numbers are relatively stagnant. A particular problem is that there are fewer movie goers among young people in their early twenties to early thirties, who tend to spend more. In order to solve this problem, it is important to use advertising to increase customers' desire to watch movies, and movie trailers in particular play a significant role. Currently, the production of movie trailers is very subjective and relies on experience and intuition. It is a matter of concern that the relative quality of movie trailers is inconsistent and, furthermore, qualitative evaluations are ambiguous (implicit). Thus, this research aims to create movie trailers that will increase customers' desire to watch movies by using statistical science and biometrics. Specifically, this involves (1) investigating the compositional elements of movie trailers, (2) conducting tests using electrodermal responses, (3) analysing lines of sight during viewing of movie trailers, (4) analysing the scenes composing the trailer using pair comparison, and (5) measuring brain activity during viewing of movie trailers. Based on the findings, the authors constructed a "movie trailer scene composition model" by quantitatively clarifying factors such as when and what kind of scenes should be incorporated into movie trailers. This model has been used to create movie trailers that will increase customers' desire to watch movies, and the required results have been attained.


The working assumption of this research is that the utilization of information technology (IT) and IT-based practices in any part of the world currently is taking place within the globalization trends. In recent times, studies in information systems (IS) are beginning to examine whether the globalization process portends homogeneity for developing countries' organizations or whether these organizations can utilize IT and IT-based management techniques according to the sociocultural requirements of their contexts. These studies show the importance of the local context and, more specifically, the importance of adapting global IT-based practices when implementing them in developing countries. However, the precise nature of these adaptations and the factors that shape them are still poorly understood--leaving this a fruitful area for research. In line with this view, this article explores how a Nigerian bank implemented and adapted a global IT-based technique, the factors that influence such adaptations, and what results are achieved.


The purpose of this phenomenological study is to examine the reasons why Hispanic middle grade students choose not to participate in school-based extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities have been recognized to have a positive influence on the educational success of students. Despite the positive effects, Hispanic students have been shown to participate in extracurricular activities at school less than other groups of students. The lack of participation by students in extracurricular activities is related to student disengagement and ultimately dropping out of school. This study uses three methods of data collection: analysis of documents and artifacts, a scaled survey, and a critical case participant who described the experiences of this minority population. The site of the study is a middle school with the highest percentage of minority students in its district. The results of this study provide valuable insights into the current trends of Hispanic nonparticipation in extracurricular activities while in middle school by identifying cultural predictors which prevent this population of students from participating in extracurricular activities. Further, the results may be used to implement strategies to encourage Hispanic students to become more involved in their school community through extracurricular activity participation.


Cacao (Theobroma cacao Linn.), a plant with great perennial leaves and yellow or reddish flowers is reported to be antiseptic, diuretic, ecbolic (promotes labor by stimulating uterine contractions), emmenagogue (promotes or stimulates menstrual flow), and parasiticide, Cacao is a folk remedy for alopecia, burns, cough, dry lips, eyes, fever, listlessness, malaria, nephrosis, parturition, pregnancy, rheumatism, snakebite, and wounds. With its wide range of medicinal values, its activity against selected bacterial isolates will be determined in order to find alternative substances that will prevent the widespread of bacterial infection. This study used the experimental research method to determine the antibacterial activity of cacao (Theobroma cacao Linn.) pulp crude extract against selected bacterial isolates including Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 using the paper disc diffusion method. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and the biological stability of cacao against the test microorganisms were also determined using the tube dilution method. Stability tests were also performed such as the detemination of the effects of pH and temperature on the activity of cacao against bacterial isolates. Keywords - Cacao, Theobroma cacao, Bacterial Isolates


Background: Starting a new extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program requires synergizing different organizational aspects and extensive training of a core team to deliver care safely.1,2 Sidra Medicine, a newly opened facility in Qatar, started accepting acute inpatients and activated its ECMO program in 2018. The aim of this quality review is to evaluate the training of ECMO Specialists through benchmarking our ECMO program mechanical complications to the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) data. Methods: The hospital trained ECMO Specialists (experts and novices) come from different parts of the world with varying degrees of knowledge and experience and use a comprehensive training program based on the ELSO guidelines for ECMO training and continuous education.3 This program was delivered over a two-year period to all ECMO team members and included: multiple conferences on key ECMO topics; basic wet labs and emergency drills including the change of different components, and; immersive simulation-based training (SBT) on a modified neonatal manikin (Figures 1 and 2). These face to face interactions, in small groups, with different critical scenarios were followed by debriefing.4,5 SBT sessions started before the opening of the acute unit and continued after the acceptance of the first ECMO patient. Immersive SBT sessions occur monthly and include minor and major troubleshooting, de-airing, priming, circuit change, oxygen failure, pump failure, and other problems that can be encountered during ECMO runs. All ECMO Specialists, both experts and novices, completed a full ECMO training program and had gone through the Sidra ECMO certification examination before handling ECMO patients. They were evaluated and certified using a checklist assessment tool and with skills having to be demonstrated competently by the candidates. Novice clinicians were initially ECMO bedside nurses and as they became familiar with the ECMO daily routine and learned the protocols and policies, they started caring for patients as ECMO Specialists. We retrospectively reviewed collected data of technical complications for the 13 patients who have received ECMO therapy since program activation. We analyzed ECMO mechanical complications and benchmarked them with ELSO registry data in corresponding categories to evaluate the training of ECMO specialists and our ECMO program infrastructure. Result: The Sidra ECMO program has now trained a total of 20 ECMO Specialists (experts and novices). Out of the 13 novice clinicians who volunteered to be trained, 8 successfully became ECMO Specialists. There has been a total of 13 patients on ECMO (Table 1). One of these was the first successful neonatal respiratory ECMO patient in Qatar. Over the 13 cases, minor mechanical complications and usual circuit clots were experienced. There was no pump failure or oxygenator failure encountered. Conclusion: SBT is a valuable ECMO educational approach. It offers the opportunity to practice technical skills repeatedly and to become proficient in high-risk/low frequency events while avoiding harm to patients. Using consistent and continuous training is the key for the success of the ECMO Specialist's model. This is a limited study due to the low number of patients, but as ECMO is a low-volume/high-risk procedure, it still highlights the benefits of simulation in establishing new ECMO programs.


Being the most popular online video platform nowadays, YouTube is a complex ecosystem that generates billions of dollars of revenue yearly. This revenue mostly stems from online advertisements that are shown on the website. Like other social media platforms, YouTube enables any user to create and upload content, create ad-campaigns that promote advertisement content, as well as monetize channels (i.e., YouTube video uploaders) by showing ads from other channels to viewers. More importantly, any individual can watch videos for free and, in consequence, be exposed to advertisements. The mediation of these different parties that interact through ads, as well as the YouTube platform itself is done by online ad auction algorithms. In this paper, we study the aforementioned ecosystem through the use of advertisements in the form of video (video-ads). Online video-ads are a novel medium that is gaining significant traction on social media platforms like YouTube. Our study presents insights on (1) the behavior of users when exposed to video-ads; (2) the popularity of the video-ads over time; (3) the relation between contextual advertising and the effectiveness of ads; (4) the success of ads in generating revenue; and, (5) the success of channels in attracting revenue as exposers of ads. The results here presented have practical implications for content providers, creators, channels, and YouTube viewers.


This study uses discourse analysis to examine the experiences of female registered nurses caring for their own relatives in palliative care. As people living within their own families and communities, nurses sometimes feel drawn to use their professional knowledge and skills to care for their own relatives, and may be encouraged to do so by other health professionals and family members [1]. There is little research that explores the forms and meaning of caring work across home and work boundaries and the effect that simultaneous paid and unpaid caring work has on women's lives [2]. This research contributes to knowledge about the nurse/person interface and how nurses negotiate their lives across the personal and professional boundaries between their work and home lives. However, it involves the collection of data related to bereavement experiences, which requires careful management of ethical challenges throughout the research process. Ethical approval for the research was granted by the Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee in June 2005.

While this research affords nurses the opportunity to talk in depth about the experience of caring for their own relative in palliative care, it constitutes sensitive research. Research is considered sensitive when it presents a substantial threat to both the participants and the researcher [3], which in this case requires surfacing memories about the loss of a loved one and providing palliative care for this person. Problematic areas in the research include recruiting appropriate participants, obtaining consent, avoiding harm to both the participants and the researcher, and ensuring anonymity for the participants. Anticipating and planning for potential problems is essential for the ethical conduct of the research and in obtaining approval to conduct it [4]. While the participants are registered nurses who, as health professionals have substantial knowledge of emotional self care, there is the potential for discussion of events surrounding the illness and death of a family member to evoke feelings of discomfort. This presentation illuminates specific threats that have surfaced in the process of conducting the research and identifies strategies that were used to minimise and manage these threats.


Plant functional traits are the features (morphological, physiological, phenological) that represent ecological strategies and determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels and influence ecosystem properties. Variation in plant functional traits, and trait syndromes, has proven useful for tackling many important ecological questions at a range of scales, giving rise to a demand for standardised ways to measure ecologically meaningful plant traits. This line of research has been among the most fruitful avenues for understanding ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes. It also has the potential both to build a predictive set of local, regional and global relationships between plants and environment and to quantify a wide range of natural and human-driven processes, including changes in biodiversity, the impacts of species invasions, alterations in biogeochemical processes and vegetation–atmosphere interactions. The importance of these topics dictates the urgent need for more and better data, and increases the value of standardised protocols for quantifying trait variation of different species, in particular for traits with power to predict plant- and ecosystem-level processes, and for traits that can be measured relatively easily. Updated and expanded from the widely used previous version, this handbook retains the focus on clearly presented, widely applicable, step-by-step recipes, with a minimum of text on theory, and not only includes updated methods for the traits previously covered, but also introduces many new protocols for further traits. This new handbook has a better balance between whole-plant traits, leaf traits, root and stem traits and regenerative traits, and puts particular emphasis on traits important for predicting species' effects on key ecosystem properties. We hope this new handbook becomes a standard companion in local and global efforts to learn about the responses and impacts of different plant species with respect to environmental changes in the present, past and future.


The use of relevant and appropriate datasets is recognised as an important prerequisite in teaching statistics to non-statisticians. Such examples help to provide motivation for the student and can aid both understanding and performance. While impressive resources such as the Data and Story Library and the datasets section of STATLIB exist, there is a need for a more comprehensive index of datasets which are freely available on the web. Datasets exist in a wide variety of locations, however, and it is often a hard task for the lecturer to find an appropriate dataset which both illustrates a particular technique and is relevant to the background of the student. This paper discusses the problem of constructing a resource to allow lecturers to discover appropriate data sources. It reports on a demonstration project which is trawling a wide number of types of data sources for relevant datasets, and describes the successes and pitfalls.


In this study, we investigated the ability of a melamine-based microporous polymer network as an adsorbent for removal of copper(II) species from aqueous solutions. A designed Schiff based network (SNW) with high specific surface area was synthesized using melamine and terephthalaldehyde monomers at 180 °C for 3 days followed by a freeze-drying process. The porous structure of the material was confirmed by SEM analysis and CO2 adsorption/desorption studies at 77.3 K. The adsorption character of the SNW polymer for various metal salts, namely Pb(II), Fe(II), Hg(II), Zn(II), Ni(II) and Cd(II), was investigated and a specific sorption behaviour against Cu(II) salts was observed. The role of pH and contact time was examined and the highest adsorption capacity for Cu(II) was found as 92% with pH 3.5 at the end of 300 min. As evidenced by XRD and Fourier transform infrared spectral analysis, the sorption mechanism is attributed to the coordination system formed between amino groups in the porous structure and Cu(II) ions. Reusability of the system was also demonstrated by applying four cycles without any significant loss of activity. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry


Background Four cardiovascular hormones, ie, vessel dilator, long-acting natriuretic peptide, kaliuretic peptide, and atrial natriuretic peptide each at 1 mmol/L, decrease up to 97% of human breast, ovarian, pancreatic, colon, kidney, and prostate adenocarcinoma cells, as well as small cell and squamous cell lung cancer cells within 24 hours. Methods Vessel dilator, long-acting natriuretic peptide, and kaliuretic peptide were investigated in vivo. Results These cardiac hormones completely stop the growth of human pancreatic adenocarcinomas in athymic mice and decrease their tumor volume by 49%, 28%, and 11%, respectively, in 1 week. When these cardiac hormones are given subcutaneously for 1 month via osmotic pumps with the pumps changed weekly, up to 80% of the human pancreatic adenocarcinomas growing in athymic mice can be completely eliminated. Similarly, two thirds of human breast cancers in athymic mice can be eliminated without surgery with these cardiac hormones. Natriuretic peptide receptors A-, B-, and C- are present on the cancer cells to mediate atrial natriuretic peptide's effects. Conclusions The cardiac hormones' anticancer mechanism of action(s) include a strong inhibition of mitogen (epidermal growth factor and insulin) activated extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) 1/2 and as well as inhibition of basal extracellular-signal regulated kinase 1/2 and upstream MEK 1/2 phosphorylation. They cause 80% to 90% inhibition of DNA synthesis in the nucleus where these cardiac hormones have been demonstrated to localize by immunocytochemical techniques.


Two studies show that eating a diet low in protein and high in carbohydrates is linked to a longer, healthier life, and may even help explain why extreme calorie restriction delays aging. But the findings are controversial and underscore the complex interplay between food, health, and aging.


Background: The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (B.1.617.2), initially identified in India, has become predominant in several countries, including Portugal. Few studies have compared the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines against Delta versus Alpha variant of concern (VOC) and estimated variant-specific viral loads in vaccine infection breakthroughs cases. In the context of Delta dominance, this information is critical to inform decision-makers regarding the planning of restrictions and vaccination roll-out. Methods: We developed a case-case study to compare mRNA vaccines' effectiveness against Delta (B.1.617.2) versus Alpha (B.1.1.7) variants. We used RT-PCR positive cases notified to the National Surveillance System between 17th of May and 4th of July 2021 (week 20 to 26) and information about demographics and vaccination status through the electronic vaccination register. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) or spike (S) gene target failure (SGTF) data were used to classify SARS-CoV-2 variants. The odds of vaccinated individuals to become infected (odds of vaccine infection breakthrough) in Delta cases compared to Alpha SARS-CoV-2 cases was estimated by conditional logistic regression adjusted for age group, sex, and matched by the week of diagnosis. As a surrogate of viral load, mean RT-PCR Ct values were stratified and compared between vaccine status and VOC. Results: Of the 2 097 SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positive cases included in the analysis, 966 (46.1%) were classified with WGS and 1131 (53.9%) with SGTF. Individuals infected with the Delta variant were more frequently vaccinated 162 (12%) than individuals infected with the Alpha variant 38 (5%). We report a statistically significant higher odds of vaccine infection breakthrough for partial (OR=1.70; CI95% 1.18 to 2.47) and complete vaccination (OR=1.96; CI95% 1.22 to 3.14) in the Delta cases when compared to the Alpha cases, suggesting lower mRNA vaccine effectiveness against Delta cases. On our secondary analysis, we observed lower mean Ct values for the Delta VOC cases versus Alpha, regardless the vaccination status. Additionally, the Delta variant cases revealed a Ct-value mean increase of 2.24 (CI95% 0.85 to 3.64) between unvaccinated and fully vaccinated breakthrough cases contrasting with 4.49 (CI95% 2.07 to 6.91) in the Alpha VOC, suggesting a lower impact of vaccine on viral load of Delta cases. Conclusions: We found significantly higher odds of vaccine infection breakthrough in Delta cases when compared to Alpha cases, suggesting lower effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines in preventing infection with the Delta variant. Additionally, the vaccine breakthrough cases are estimated to be of higher mean Ct values, suggesting higher infectiousness with the Delta variant infection. These findings can help decision-makers weigh on the application or lifting of control measures and adjusting vaccine roll-out depending on the predominance of the Delta variant and the coverage of partial and complete mRNA vaccination.


In this paper, we study the propagation of a shock wave in water, produced by the expansion of a spherical piston with a finite initial radius. The piston path in the x, t plane is a hyperbola. We have considered the following two cases: (i) the piston accelerates from a zero initial velocity and attains a finite velocity asymptotically as t tends to infinity, and (ii) the piston decelerates, starting from a finite initial velocity. Since an analytic approach to this problem is extremely difficult, we have employed the artificial viscosity method of von Neumann & Richtmyer after examining its applicability in water. For the accelerating piston case, we have studied the effect of different initial radii of the piston, different initial curvatures of the piston path in the x, t plane and the different asymptotic speeds of the piston. The decelerating case exhibits the interesting phenomenon of the formation of a cavity in water when the deceleration of the piston is sufficiently high. We have also studied the motion of the cavity boundary up to 550 cycles.


Field trials in Puerto Rico were conducted to compare the attractiveness of the standard bait of pelletized torula yeast/borax with a two-component (ammonium acetate and putrescine) synthetic lure for Anastrepha spp. within orchards of sapodilla, mamey sapote, and carambola. In addition, the trapping was conducted to provide information on the fruit fly pressure and species composition within these three fruit crops. In sapodilla and mamey sapote, significantly more female and male flies were collected over the entire collection periods in traps containing torula yeast than with the twocomponent synthetic lure. Fruit fly pressure from predominantly A. suspensa within sapodilla was extremely high; in contrast, very few of either species was found in mamey sapote. Within carambola, significantly more flies were captured with the two-component synthetic lure, and the predominant species was A. obliqua. With both lure types, more female flies than males were captured within all fruit plots.


Abstract.
 The demonstration of sexual dimorphism in the fossil record can provide vital information about the role that sexual selection has played in the evolution of life. However, statistically robust inferences of sexual dimorphism in fossil organisms are exceedingly difficult to establish, owing to issues of sample size, experimental control, and methodology. This is particularly so in the case of dinosaurs, for which sexual dimorphism has been posited in many species, yet quantifiable data are often lacking. This study presents the first statistical investigation of sexual dimorphism across Dinosauria. It revisits prior analyses that purport to find quantitative evidence for sexual dimorphism in nine dinosaur species. After the available morphological data were subjected to a suite of statistical tests (normality and unimodality tests and mixture modeling), no evidence for sexual dimorphism was found in any of the examined taxa, contrary to conventional wisdom. This is not to say that dinosaurs were not sexually dimorphic (phylogenetic inference suggests they may well have been), only that the available evidence precludes its detection. A priori knowledge of the sexes would greatly facilitate the assessment of sexual dimorphism in the fossil record, and it is suggested that unambiguous indicators of sex (e.g., presence of eggs, embryos, medullary bone) be used to this end.


Emerging research suggests that many adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience impairing Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) or social anxiety symptoms (e.g., Joshi et al., 2013; Kleinhans et al., 2010), yet there is little guidance or agreement about how to best assess social anxiety in this population. Direct examination of overt eye gaze patterns may help determine if the attentional biases often reported in people with SAD also operate in those with ASD and cooccurring social anxiety. This study sought to assess the influence of social anxiety on gaze patterns in adults with ASD. An exploratory aim was to better understand the phenomenology of SAD within ASD. Three groups of participants were included: adults with ASD (n = 25), adults with SAD (n = 25), and adults without ASD or SAD (n = 25). As hypothesized, a large subset (n = 11; 44%) of the participants with ASD met diagnostic criteria for SAD. Contrary to study hypotheses related to gaze patterns, however, there was no evidence for gaze vigilance followed by avoidance for socially threatening stimuli in either the ASD or SAD groups, and there was no relationship between fear of negative evaluation and gaze duration toward socially threatening stimuli within the ASD group. Possible reasons for these null findings are considered. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.


In February 2009, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and partners hosted the first International Conference on Road Safety at Work, identifying the following for 200+ participants from 44 countries. Occupational motor vehicle crashes affect a substantial proportion of road and worker fatalities, meaning that occupationally focused initiatives can be highly significant. There is a consensus for the need to adopt a systems-based approach to at-work road safety, engaging all stakeholders. At the macro level, purpose of journey should be identified in road safety statistics, and on-road incidents should be included in health and safety datasets to guide policy, regulation and enforcement. Government leadership is also required by to manage the safety of their own employees. At the organisational level, it is important to make the business case for road safety and to ensure collection of data for baseline assessment and monitoring progress. These activities should be guided by a systems-led, risk-based approach and supported by rigorous evaluation. Further efforts are required to link research and practice, and continue to engage governments, researchers, practitioners and NGOs around the globe. Follow-up activities in Europe (already taking place through the ETSC PRAISE project), Asia, Africa and the emerging BRICK economies can sustain the energy and momentum generated by NIOSH. This paper describes these outcomes in detail, making recommendations for researchers, policy makers and practitioners; and identifying how barriers to success can be overcome, based on the conference white paper, proceedings and PRAISE project reports, including good practice cases from around the world.


According to recently influential conceptions of public reasoning, citizens have the right to demand of each other 'public justifications' for controversial political action. On this view, only arguments that all reasonable citizens can affirm from within their diverse ethical standpoints can count as legitimate justifications for political action. Both proponents and critics often assume that the case for this expectation derives from the special justificatory burden created by the systematically coercive character of political action. This paper challenges that assumption. While conceding that citizens who propose to deploy the coercive apparatus of the state to enforce controversial legislation owe their fellows a justification that overcomes the strong presumption against coercing agents, it denies that this consideration can explain why public justifications are also required. Having argued that the public justification requirement is not among the justification conditions for public coercion, the paper then proposes an alternative rationale for the expectation that political action be publicly justified. On this alternative, the case for the public justification requirement depends on democratic citizens' standing as legislative co-authors, and not on considerations having to do with their liability as private individuals to coercion at the hands of the state.


This research project examines the impact of a direct communication style on the establishment of trust in intercultural business settings. A qualitative research approach was chosen as it was the aim of this research project to capture and evaluate participants' perceptions of directness and its impact on trustworthiness, owing to underlying cultural values and beliefs of participants. The focus group method was chosen as a stand-alone method to collect rich and indepth data. The group effect of the focus group method was significant for this research project as cultural differences were under examination. A critical incident approach was employed, and three different scenarios were discussed in each focus group. The three focus groups were culturally specific, and findings were compared across the focus group to identify culturally specific perceptions and patterns. Cultures under examination were the German and Chinese cultures, with New Zealand as a control group. Findings disclose an unexpected preference for a direct communication style in business settings from the Chinese participants, and hence, strongly support the call for more empirical research in this area. A variety of culturally specific factors were identified to impact participants' willingness to trust another party, and findings indicate that the elements of directness and indirectness impact participants' perceptions of another person's trustworthiness.


This title was short-listed for the Society of Biology Book Award 2014, and, Long-listed for the Royal Society Winton prize for science books 2014. In The Compatibility Gene, leading scientist Daniel M Davis tells the story of the crucial genes that define our relationships, our health and our individuality. We each possess a similar set of around 25,000 human genes. Yet a tiny, distinctive cluster of these genes plays a disproportionately large part in how our bodies work. These few genes, argues Davis, hold the key to who we are as individuals and our relationship to the world: how we combat disease, how our brains are wired, how attractive we are, even how likely we are to reproduce. The Compatibility Gene follows the remarkable history of these genes' discovery. From the British scientific pioneers who struggled to understand the mysteries of transplants to the Swiss zoologist who devised a new method of assessing potential couples' compatibility based on the smell of worn T-shirts, Davis traces a true scientific revolution in our understanding of the human body: a global adventure spanning some sixty years. "Unusual results, astonishing implications and ethical dilemmas". (The Times). "Packed with an insider's knowledge". (New York Times). "He makes immunology as fascinating to popular science readers as cosmology, consciousness, and evolution". (Steven Pinker). "An elegantly written, unexpectedly gripping account". (Bill Bryson Guardian, Books of the Year). Daniel M Davis is director of research at the University of Manchester's Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research and a visiting professor at Imperial College, London. He has published over 100 academic articles, including papers in Nature and Science, and Scientific American. He has won the Oxford University Press Science Writing Prize and given numerous interviews for national and international media. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2011.


Abstract This research explores how the CDC Hepatitis Epidemiology Investigation Team at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) constructs Hepatitis C (HCV) in the public and medical discourse through their monitoring and education activities. Data in the form of field notes and ethnographic observation was collected during 16 months of participant observations at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. This research provides evidence that the team's actions give voice to a silent epidemic by being responsible for the construction of the conversations happening around HCV in Philadelphia. Their actions in the domains of risk factors, support systems, public health and prevention, stigmatized behaviors and safe practices, bodily proof and silent epidemics, health insurance, and medical hierarchy will ultimately determine the future climate of hepatitis in Philadelphia. This research can serve as insight into the functioning of public health teams and how more positive and proactive conversations surrounding diseases can be instigated. Abstract This research explores how the CDC Hepatitis Epidemiology Investigation Team at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) constructs Hepatitis C (HCV) in the public and medical discourse through their monitoring and education activities. Data in the form of field notes and ethnographic observation was collected during 16 months of participant observations at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. This research provides evidence that the team's actions give voice to a silent epidemic by being responsible for the construction of the conversations happening around HCV in Philadelphia. Their actions in the domains of risk factors, support systems, public health and prevention, stigmatized behaviors and safe practices, bodily proof and silent epidemics, health insurance, and medical hierarchy will ultimately determine the future climate of hepatitis in Philadelphia. This research can serve as insight into the functioning of public health teams and how more positive and proactive conversations surrounding diseases can be instigated.


Infrastructure as a Service cloud providers are increasingly relying on scalable and efficient Virtual Machines (VMs) placement as the main solution for reducing unnecessary costs and wastes of physical resources. However, the continuous growth of the size of cloud data centers poses scalability challenges to find optimal placement solutions. The use of heuristics and simplified server consolidation models that partially discard information about the VMs behavior represents the typical approach to guarantee scalability, but at the expense of suboptimal placement solutions. A recently proposed alternative approach, namely Class-Based Placement (CBP), divides VMs in classes with similar behavior in terms of resource usage, and addresses scalability by considering a small-scale server consolidation problem that is replicated as a building block for the whole data center. However, the server consolidation model exploited by the CBP technique suffers from two main limitations. First, it considers only one VM resource (CPU) for the consolidation problem. Second, it does not analyze the impact of the number (and size) of building blocks to consider. Many small building blocks may reduce the overall VMs placement solution quality due to fragmentation of the physical server resources over blocks. On the other hand, few large building blocks may become computationally expensive to handle and may be unsolvable due to the problem complexity. This paper extends the CBP server consolidation model to take into account multiple resources. Furthermore, we analyze the impact of block size on the performance of the proposed consolidation model, and we present and compare multiple strategies to estimate the best number of blocks. Our proposal is validated through experimental results based on a real cloud computing data center.


The Strong Stackelberg Equilibrium (SSE) has drawn extensive attention recently in several security domains. However, the SSE concept neglects the advantage of defender's strategic revelation of her private information, and overestimates the observation ability of the adversaries. In this paper, we overcome these restrictions and analyze the tradeoff between strategic secrecy and commitment in security games. We propose a Disguised-resource Security Game (DSG) where the defender strategically disguises some of her resources. We compare strategic information revelation with public commitment and formally show that they have different advantages depending the payoff structure. To compute the Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium (PBE), several novel approaches are provided, including a novel algorithm based on support set enumeration, and an approximation algorithm for -PBE. Extensive experimental evaluation shows that both strategic secrecy and Stackelberg commitment are critical measures in security domain, and our approaches can efficiently solve PBEs for realistic-sized problems.


Gauge bosons are fundamental fields that mediate the electroweak interaction of leptons and quarks. The underlying mechanism explaining how gauge bosons acquire mass is neither definitively settled nor universally accepted and several competing theories coexist. The prevailing paradigm is that boson masses arise as a result of coupling to a hypothetical scalar field called the Higgs boson. Within the current range of accelerator technology, compelling evidence for the Higgs boson is missing. We discuss in this paper a derivation of boson masses that bypasses the Higgs mechanism and is formulated on the basis of complexity theory. The key premise of our work is that the dynamics of the gauge field may be described as a stochastic process caused by the short range of electroweak interaction. It is found that, if this process is driven by Levy statistics, mass generation in the electroweak sector can be naturally accounted for. Theoretical predictions are shown to agree well with experimental data.


A novel application of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) is reported to gain three dimensional structural information on cofactors in proteins. The method is applied here to determine the unknown position of the electron acceptor QK, a phylloquinone (vitamin K1), in the electron transfer chain in photosystem I of oxygenic photosynthesis. The unusual electron spin echo (out-of-phase echo) observed for the light induced radical pair P700.+QK.- in PS I allows the measurement of the dipolar coupling between the two radical pair spins which yields directly the distance between these two radicals. Full advantage of the information in the out-of-phase echo modulation can be taken if measurements using single crystals are performed. With such samples, the orientation of the principal axis of the dipolar interaction, i.e., the axis connecting P700.+QK.-, can be determined with respect to the crystal axes system. An angle of theta = (27 +/- 5)degrees between the dipolar coupling axis and the crystallographic c-axis has been derived from the modulation of the out-of-phase echo. Furthermore, the projection of the dipolar axis into the crystallographic a,b-plane, is found to be parallel to the a-axis. The results allow for the determination of two possible locations of QK within the electron transfer chain of photosystem I. These two positions are related to each other by the pseudo C2 symmetry of the chlorophyll cofactors.


We investigate the diffusion interaction and quantitative analysis of zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) mixed with lube base oil (LBO) at different concentrations using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). When the concentration exceeds 6.78%, the characteristic absorption peaks exhibit significantly shift, and the absorption coefficient peak value is nonlinear against concentration. Moreover, the absorption coefficients of mixed samples follow the Beer's law at a concentration below 6.78%. The quantitative analysis enables a strategy for monitoring the formulation of lubricating oil in real time.


Employers have been afforded new opportunities with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). ACA creates a unique opportunity for employers to take a fresh, strategically based total compensation approach to planning. The concept of a total compensation framework is not new; however, a new way to achieve this approach is now possible. Employers need to create their own level playing field, and a total compensation approach is the optimal solution. This article discusses how employers that consider a framework driven toward total compensation accomplish many key objectives.


Setting the stage for a special section dedicated to interrogating the Canada–South Africa relationship, the paper finds the current South Africa–Canada relationship to be disconnected, fraught and uneasy. This comes as a surprise given the close ties forged during South Africa's democratic transition. In line with a history of support and shared membership of the Commonwealth, G20, Cairns Group and involvement in the Kimberley Process, it is assumed that both countries are natural allies on the international stage. Instead, South Africa and Canada have consistently been on opposite sides of big international problems. The paper considers whether apparent differences between traditional and emerging middle powers create challenges in fostering meaningful cooperation and advances a number of conceptual conditions important in understanding when and how middle power cooperation occurs. The authors examine an important condition for emerging middle powers in prioritising cooperative endeavours, aid and trade, and draw conclusions from the South Africa–Canada case.


Abstract A simple relation between the root mean square (rms) of the ground acceleration and earthquake spectral (or source) parameters is introduced: in which Ω 0 is the low‐frequency displacement spectral plateau, f 0 is the corner frequency, κ is an attenuation parameter, and T is the data interval. This result uses the omega‐square model for far‐field radiation and accounts for site‐specific attenuation. The main advantage of the new relation with respect to that of Hanks (1979) is that it relaxes the simplifying assumption that the spectral corner frequency is much smaller than the maximum corner frequency resulting from attenuation, and that the spectrum may be approximated as being perfectly flat between the two frequencies. The newly proposed relation is tested using a composite dataset of earthquake records from Japan, California, Mexico, and Taiwan. Excellent agreement is found between observed and predicted ground acceleration for any combination of corner frequencies. Thus, use of the above relation enables the extrapolation of ground‐motion prediction equation inferred from the frequent small‐magnitude earthquakes to the rare large magnitudes. This capacity is extremely useful near slow‐slip plate boundaries, where the seismic moment release rates are low.