Planning of sustainable development in a city depends on a lot of factors: policy, economy advantages, social justice and environmental safeguard. Technology evolution in the field of science can help in achieving one's aim. This paper concentrates the analysis on some new technologies of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) activity. These, together with electronic nanotechnology development, allow more efficient management of data and tools that are indispensable for an efficient plan. WiFi and WiMAX (standards of wireless communications) devices, the Internet and GIS as Terrapack  are fundamental for developing a modern architecture of environmental management. Sensors distributed on the territory of an urban area define the WSN (Wireless Sensor Network). They use Internet Protocol (IP) for the link to the co-ordination station (central or local station): the SNS (Sensor Network Server). IP addressing allows device setup and the use of an Internet connection. This one increases enormously the number of potential data which can be included in the algorithms of environmental evaluations. We designed and tested the prototype architecture by use of LAN (Local Area Network) for controlling some detection sensors and standard monitoring devices such as a webcam. The WLAN (Wireless LAN) version of this architecture is carried out immediately in the case of a small monitoring area. A metropolitan area needs new technologies that are in the experimental phase or submitted to policy convenience.


Objective To compare short and medium-term prognosis in South Asian and Caucasian patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to determine if there are ethnic differences in case death rates. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting A cardiology referral centre in east London. Patients 9771 patients who underwent PCI from October 2003 to December 2007 of whom 7966 (81.5%) were Caucasian and 1805 (18.5%) were South Asian. Main outcome measures In-hospital major adverse cardiac events (MACE; death, myocardial infarction, stroke and target vessel revascularisation), subsequent revascularisation rates (PCI and coronary artery bypass grafting; CABG) and all-cause mortality during a median follow-up of 2.5 years (range 1.5–3.6 years). Results South Asian patients were younger than Caucasian patients (59.69±0.27 vs 64.69±0.13 years, p<0.0001), and more burdened by cardiovascular risk factors, particularly type II diabetes mellitus (45.9%±1.2% vs 15.7%±0.4%, p<0.0001). The in-hospital rates of MACE were similar for South Asians and Caucasians (3.5% vs 2.8%, p=0.40). South Asians had higher rates of clinically driven PCI for restenosis and subsequent CABG, although Kaplan–Meier estimates of all-cause mortality showed no significant differences; this was regardless of whether PCI was performed post-acute coronary syndrome or as an elective procedure. The adjusted hazard of death for South Asians compared with Caucasians was 1.00 (95% CI 0.81 to 1.23). Conclusion In this large PCI cohort, the in-hospital and longer-term mortality of South Asians appeared no worse than that of Caucasians. South Asians had higher rates of restenosis and CABG during follow-up. Data suggest that the excess coronary mortality for South Asians compared with Caucasians is not explained by differences in case-fatality rates.


This book explores the precarious margins of contemporary labour markets. Over the last few decades, there has been much discussion of a shift from full-time permanent jobs to higher levels of part-time and temporary employment and self-employment. Despite such attention, regulatory approaches have not adapted accordingly. Instead, in the absence of genuine alternatives, old regulatory models are applied to new labour market realities, leaving the most precarious forms of employment intact. The book places this disjuncture in historical context and focuses on its implications for those most likely to be at the margins, particularly women and migrant workers. Managing the Margins provides a rigorous analysis drawing on original qualitative and quantitative material. It innovates by analyzing the historical and contemporary interplay of employment norms, gender relations, and citizenship boundaries.


ABSTRACT Why do Indonesian Muslims join Islamist extremist groups? This article explores four pathways to entry into Indonesian militant groups: study sessions, local conflict, kinship, and schools. It argues that within all four of these pathways, social bonds and relationships are the common thread in encouraging entry as well as in fostering commitment. Specifically, these relationships contribute to the formation and eventual consolidation of one's identity as a member of the jihadi group through regular participation in activities, attending meetings, narrowing the circle of friends to those within the group, and participating in increasingly risky and possibly violent activities together. Drawing on original fieldwork including 49 interviews with current and former members of Jemaah Islamiyah, Mujahidin KOMPAK, Darul Islam, Mujahidin Tanah Runtuh, Indonesia's pro-ISIS network, and other jihadist groups as well as 57 depositions and court documents, this article explores the development and evolution of these pathways and how relational ties play a role in each.


Background: Molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH) is a developmental dental defect and has a significant impact on the quality of life of affected individuals. Most of the prevalence studies of MIH have been carried out in the European countries; very little data are available from India. Aim: The aim and objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of MIH in 8–15-year-old Malayalee school children in and around Muvattupuzha, Kerala. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional epidemiological study was conducted in 5318 healthy Malayalee school children aged between 8 and 15 years in and around Muvattupuzha. Materials and Methods: The first permanent molars (FPMs) and all permanent incisors were examined for MIH using the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry 2003 diagnostic criteria. The severity of hypomineralization was recorded according to the Wetzel and Reckel scale. Statistical Analysis: The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 20.0, and a comparison between groups was carried out using the Chi-square test. P ≤ 0.05 was considered for statistical significance. Results: A total of 216 children were diagnosed with MIH. The maximum MIH-affected tooth was found to be mandibular right FPM (186), followed by mandibular left FPM (172), maxillary left FPM (160), and maxillary right FPM (156). Conclusion: The prevalence of MIH in permanent dentition of Malayalee school children in and around Muvattupuzha was 4.1%. Among the MIH-affected children, very few have undertaken dental treatment for the same. Hence, proper awareness and planned preventive and restorative programs are required to minimize the problem.


INTRODUCTION
Motion streaks are the smeared representation of a moving object produced by the response persistence of cortical cells. They can be treated as form cues by the visual system, and can facilitate motion processing (Geisler, 1999, Nature). Here we investigated where in the visual system this interaction between form and motion signals occurs. Two likely candidates are the local (V1) and global (V5/MT or MSTd) motion levels.

METHODS
We used a three-frame global-motion stimulus consisting of signal and noise dots. Strong or weak motion streaks were generated by moving a given dot in either the same direction or a different direction on each frame transition, respectively. There were three conditions: 1) No strong motion-streaks (No Streak); 2) Strong streaks on the signal (Signal Streak); 3) strong streaks on the noise (Noise Streak). Thresholds were the percentage of signal dots required to perform a 2AFC direction judgement. The Noise-Streak condition was designed to tap differences in the tuning of cells at the local- and global-motion levels. At the global-motion level, cells are tuned to particular signal directions, so motion streaks should enhance the motion response only when they are in that signal direction, so this would not occur in the Noise-Streak condition. At the local-motion level, each cell is tuned to the direction it is extracting, so if the form-motion interaction occurs here, the noise strength in the Noise-Streak condition would be enhanced.

RESULTS
Thresholds for the Signal Streak condition were the lowest (consistent with Edwards & Crane, 2007, VisRes) and thresholds for Noise-Streak condition were the highest.

CONCLUSIONS
Strong streaks in Noise-Streak impaired motion extraction, consistent with those streaks enhancing the strength of those noise motion-signals. This finding supports the form and motion interactions in motion streak facilitation occurring at the local-motion level. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


During 2009–2010, a large US mumps outbreak occurred affecting two-dose vaccinated 9th–12th grade Orthodox Jewish boys attending all-male yeshivas (private, traditional Jewish schools). Our objective was to understand mumps transmission dynamics in this well-vaccinated population. We surveyed 9th-12th grade male yeshivas in Brooklyn, NY with reported mumps case-students between 9/1/2009 and 3/30/2010. We assessed vaccination coverage, yeshiva environmental factors (duration of school day, density, mixing, duration of contact), and whether environmental factors were associated with increased mumps attack rates. Ten yeshivas comprising 1769 9th–12th grade students and 264 self-reported mumps cases were included. The average yeshiva attack rate was 14.5% (median: 13.5%, range: 1–31%), despite two-dose measles-mumps-rubella vaccine coverage between 90–100%. School duration was 9–15.5 h/day; students averaged 7 h face-to-face/day with 1–4 study partners. Average daily mean density was 6.6 students per 100 square feet. The number of hours spent face-to-face with a study partner and the number of partners per day showed significant positive associations (p < 0.05) with classroom mumps attack rates in univariate analysis, but these associations did not persist in multivariate analysis. This outbreak was characterized by environmental factors unique to the yeshiva setting (e.g., densely populated environment, prolonged face-to-face contact, mixing among infected students). However, these features were present in all included yeshivas, limiting our ability to discriminate differences. Nonetheless, mumps transmission requires close contact, and these environmental factors may have overwhelmed vaccine-mediated protection increasing the likelihood of vaccine failure among yeshiva students.


: Zoochina Zapotec (Zapotecan, Oto-Manguean) has two independent but crisscrossing systems of verbal classification. One is an affixal system and it involves the selection of different sets of prefixal inflections for the incompletive, completive and irrealis. This allomorphy results into four inflectional classes. The other system involves two stem alternation patterns for the irrealis. Affixal classes I and II interact with the stem classes in interesting ways, resulting into four mixed classes. The inflectional system I describe for Zoochina Zapotec is very innovative with regard to other Zapotec languages.


Search engines -- "web dragons" -- are the portals through which we access society's treasure trove of information. They do not publish the algorithms they use to sort and filter information, yet how they work is one of the most important questions of our time. Google's PageRank is a way of measuring the prestige of each web page in terms of who links to it: it reflects the experience of a surfer condemned to click randomly around the web forever. The HITS technique distinguishes "hubs" that point to reputable sources from "authorities," the sources themselves. This helps differentiate communities on the web, which in turn can tease out alternative interpretations of ambiguous query terms. RankNet uses machine learning techniques to rank documents by predicting relevance judgments based on training data. This article explains in non-technical terms how the dragons work.


The object of this study is to investigate the sintering mechanism of lightweight ceramic by different sintering temperature. The raw materials were sewage sludge and fly-ash, and clay was added as cementing agents (by ratio of 50wt% in each sample). The raw materials were mixed and pressed into raw pellets. After drying and preheating treatment, the raw pellets were sintered at temperatures ranging from 1050 to 1150 , in 25 increments for 10min. The physical properties (bulk density, grain density, water absorption and rate of expansion) were the indexes used to determine the technical parameters for the preparation of lightweight ceramic pellets and investigate the sintering mechanism of bloating. The results suggested that temperature was the key control factor of sintering process, and 1150 was the starting point of bloating reaction. Observation of the microstructure by SEM indicated that a higher flux content in the raw materials could lower the melt point during sintering process.


To improve the etiological diagnosis of neurodegenerative dementias like Alzheimer's disease (AD) or frontotemporal dementia (FTD), we evaluated the value of individual and combined measurements of the following relevant cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers: Tau, 181p-Tau, Aβ38, Aβ40, Aβ42, sAβPPα, and sAβPPβ. This study conducted in two centers included patients with FTD (n = 34), AD (n = 52), as well as a control group of persons without dementia (CTRL, n = 42). Identical clinical criteria and pre-analytical conditions were used while CSF biomarkers were measured using commercial single and multiplex quantitative immunoassays. Thorough statistical analyses, including ROC curves, logistic regressions, and decision trees, were performed. We validated in AD the specific increase of p-Tau levels and the decrease of Aβ42 levels, two biological hallmarks of this disease. Tau concentrations were highest in AD and intermediate in FTD when compared to CTRL. The most interesting results were obtained by focusing on amyloid biomarkers as we found out in FTD a significant decrease of sAβPPβ, Aβ38, and Aβ40 levels. Aβ38 in particular was the most useful biomarker to differentiate FTD subjects from the CTRL population. Combining p-Tau and Aβ38 led us to correctly classifying FTD patients with sensitivity at 85% and specificity at 82%. Significant changes in amyloid biomarkers, particularly for Aβ38, are therefore seen in FTD. This could be quite useful for diagnosis purposes and it might provide additional evidence on the interrelationship between Tau and AβPP biology which understanding is essential to progress towards optimal therapeutic and diagnostic approaches of dementia.


Using 462fb-1 of e+e- annihilation data recorded by the Belle detector, we report the first observation of the decay Ds1(2536)+→D+π-K+. The ratio of branching fractions B(Ds1(2536)+→D+π-K+)B(Ds1(2536) +→D*+K0) is measured to be (3.27±0.18±0.37)%. We also study the angular distributions in the Ds1(2536)+→D*+KS0 decay and measure the ratio of D- and S-wave amplitudes. The S-wave dominates, with a partial width of ΓS/Γtotal=0.72±0.05±0.01. © 2008 The American Physical Society.


The use of deep neural networks (DNNs) has improved performance in several fields including computer vision, natural language processing, and automatic speech recognition (ASR). The increased use of DNNs in recent years has been largely due to performance afforded by GPUs, as the computational cost of training large networks on a CPU is prohibitive. Many training algorithms are well-suited to the GPU; however, writing hand-optimized GPGPU code is a significant undertaking. More recently, high-level libraries have attempted to simplify GPGPU development by automatically performing tasks such as optimization and code generation. This work utilizes Theano, a high-level Python library, to implement a DNN for the purpose of phone recognition in ASR. Performance is compared against a low-level, hand-optimized C++/CUDA DNN implementation from Kaldi, a popular ASR toolkit. Results show that the DNN implementation in Theano has CPU and GPU runtimes on par with that of Kaldi, while requiring approximately 95% less lines of code.


This paper describes a general framework and its implementation in a tool called EXPLORER for statically answering a class of interprocedural control flow queries about Java programs. EXPLORER allows users to formulate queries about feasible callstack configurations using regular expressions, and it employs a precise, demand-driven algorithm for answering such queries. Specifically, EXPLORER constructs an automaton A that is iteratively refined until either the language accepted by A is empty (meaning that the query has been refuted) or until no further refinement is possible based on a precise, context-sensitive abstraction of the program. We evaluate EXPLORER by applying it to three different program analysis tasks, namely, (1) analysis of the observer design pattern in Java, (2) identification of a class of performance bugs, and (3) analysis of inter-component communication in Android applications. Our evaluation shows that EXPLORER is both efficient and precise.


Recent years have seen renewed calls to revise the Constitution to make it more democratic. Unfortunately, efforts to "democratize" the Constitution face serious obstacles that advocates of reform have largely ignored. In particular, they have failed to grapple with the reality of widespread political ignorance, which both reduces the extent to which the Constitution can ever be fully democratic and makes the reform process more difficult. Part I of this article notes that advocates of "democratizing" the Constitution rarely specify the theory of democratic participation they would like the Constitution to conform to. This is a very significant omission. There is more than one theory of participation and different theories have widely divergent implications for constitutional reform. Some theories such as "deliberative democracy," imply a much higher level of political knowledge in the electorate than is likely to be feasible in the foreseeable future. In Part II we provide examples of how elected officials and interest groups employ pro-democracy rhetoric to cloak reform proposals. Examples include the 22nd Amendment, term limits and other Contract with America reform proposals, voter initiative and referendum, the constantly changing positions of leading political actors on the question of executive power, and battles over the composition of the federal courts. By highlighting the exploitation of political ignorance by elites, Part II suggests that substantive visions of democracy - as structured by political ignorance - have significantly affected constitutional debates throughout our history. Part III considers the implications of political ignorance and substantive concerns for the actual process of constitutional change. Widespread ignorance is likely to reduce the quality of constitutional reforms that can be instituted, since it might lead voters to support deeply flawed institutional reforms and create opportunities for manipulation by political elites. These dangers are heightened by the reality that any major constitutional changes are likely to occur as a result of a major political or economic crisis. History suggests that even relatively well-informed voters might be tempted to approve of measures that promise relief from the immediate danger without considering their potential long-term effects.


Roadway lane departure accidents caused 25,082 fatalities which accounted for about 58 percent of all roadway fatalities in the United States this year (AASHTO, 2008). In order to reduce these fatalities different types of strategies were implemented such as providing shoulder and/or centerline rumble strips, enhancing delineation of sharp curves, removing or relocating objects, eliminating shoulder drop-offs and providing skidresistant pavements. Of these strategies, the rumble strips strategy has been found to be more effective to warn drivers. But, the drawbacks of rumble strips have led to the introduction of in-vehicle warning systems. In-vehicle Lane Departure Warning Systems were machine vision-based that use algorithms to interpret video images to check the car's current position and time to lane crossing. However, it is not clear if the warnings themselves may be a potential hazard in terms of distracting or startling drivers. This distraction and startle might impede drivers from quickly and appropriately responding to the original traffic hazard. The present study is intended to better understand how human participants react to such sudden warnings given to them to warn in case of a possible hazard during roadway lane departure. Twelve participants (six male and six female) were asked to drive a simulated vehicle and they were alerted with auditory, haptic, combination of auditory & haptic and no-warning modalities during their lane departure. The responses of the participants were recorded using electromyography (EMG) from the deltoid, biceps brachii, pronator teres and tibialis anterior muscles. The results of the study determined that there is no significant difference in EMG activity between the warning modalities except for the deltoid muscle. The difference in EMG activity for the deltoid muscle for auditory condition is likely due to the greater maximum steering response. Moreover, there is no significant difference among warning modalities during the participant's first warning event. Also, there is no difference in EMG activity between genders due to warning modalities. Overall, findings suggest that there is no potential startle/panic response perceived by the participants due to warning systems in roadway lane departure.


Geomatics Science (Surveying and mapping) is the science and art of determining the precise positions of points and dimensions of features above, on and beneath the earth's surface. It is indispensable in all meaningful environmental development. This is buttressed in the case of Itu irrigation and flood control project in Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria which was designed to facilitate all year round farming on a farm land beside Itu river. The project was achieved by the application of series of Surveying and mapping processes ranging from Control extension, setting out of setback lines, Traversing, Area Computation, Setting out of Dyke alignment and farm roads, Grid Data processing, Plan Presentation to report writing. The instruments employed were Trimble TSC2 Differential Global Positioning System and its Accessories, Wild T2 theodolite and accessories, and a Standardized 100 m Steel Tape. The project seats on a 32.805 hectares of land. The grid and spot heights were at 50 m intervals along the distributor drains. From the spot heights, the highest reduced level within the farm was 5.437 m and the lowest reduced level was 2.760 m. The linear accuracy of the work was equal to 1/43,000 and the elevation differences were 2.677 m. The following plans were produced: Boundary plan, Spot height plan, Contour Plan on a Two Dimensional view standard Channel irrigation structure depicting the Setback from river bank, dyke alignment, farm roads, distributor and collector drains.


Value-dependent noninterference allows the classification of program variables to depend on the contents of other variables, and therefore is able to express a range of data-dependent security policies. However, so far its static enforcement mechanisms for software have been limited either to progress-and termination-insensitive noninterference for sequential languages, or to concurrent message-passing programs without shared memory. Additionally, there exists no methodology for preserving value-dependent noninterference for shared memory programs under compositional refinement. This paper presents a flow-sensitive dependent type system for enforcing timing-sensitive value-dependent noninterference for shared memory concurrent programs, comprising a collection of sequential components, as well as a compositional refinement theory for preserving this property under componentwise refinement. Our results are mechanised in Isabelle/HOL.


Objective: The aim of the study was to see the effect of ethanolic extract of Solanum nigrum Linn on Acute and Sub-acute inflammation. Method: Wistar rats weighing 150-200gms were used, divided into four groups Group 1 was control group, two groups Group 2 and 3 treated with the plant extracts at 100 & 200 mg/kg b.w and Group 4 treated with indomethacin, 10 mg/kg b.w. Acute inflammation was induced by injecting 0.1 mL of 1% homogenized carrageenan suspension in normal saline to the right hind paw of the rats prior to which drug treatment was given and paw volume was measured using a digital plethysmometer. Sub-acute anti-inflammatory studies were carried out as described by winter and Porter and hematological parameters were estimated. The granuloma tissue formed during the proliferative process was isolated and wet and dry exudates formation was estimated in various treatment groups. The effect of extract and indomethacin on vital organs like liver, kidney, stomach was also studied by performing histological studies. Results: Study shows that the hydroalcoholic extract of whole plant of Solanum nigrum L. is effective only at higher dose effectively suppressing carrageenan induced inflammation suggesting the inhibition of release of prostaglandin, bradykinin, leukotrienes and polymorphonuclear cells. The histological studies further confirm the anti-inflammatory property of the extract while simultaneously maintaining normal cellular architecture of vital organs than as compared to indomethacin treated group. Conclusion: The ethanolic extract of whole plant of Solanum nigrum Linn shows promising anti-inflammatory activity on both acute and sub-acute stages of inflammation. Key words: Acute Inflammation, Sub-acute Inflammation, Anti-inflammatory activity, Solanum nigrum , Hematological parameters, Histological studies.


Although Jane Hading (1859-1940), Lily Elsie (1886-1962), and Billie Burke (1884-1970) gained fame as stage actresses, their popular appeal also rested on their ability to cultivate a glamorous appearance. Their careers illustrate the early transformation of actresses into marketable commodities whose celebrity status depended on the consumption of their images. This celebrity, in turn, was used to market an array of beauty and fashion goods to women striving to emulate them. The three women featured in Staging Fashion exemplify the factors that ensured success for 20th-century actresses. Each of these women was dressed by a leading couturier (or several couturiers), both onstage and offstage. In major cities such as New York, Paris, and London, actresses depended on exquisite, custom-made gowns both to secure principal roles and to maintain popularity. Their physical beauty, which was consistent with elite notions of class and race, was depicted on postcards and in popular fashion and theatre magazines and newspapers. Finally, these actresses developed distinct "personalities," which were conveyed by their stage roles and in numerous photos and articles.


477 words) The Waiapu River drains a small mountainous basin, characterized by steep terrain, heavy rainfall, and unconsolidated soft Tertiary mudstone and siltstone. These factors, combined with heavy deforestation over the past 100 years have created one of the world's highest sediment yields. Water discharge of the Waiapu River is very episodic over both interand intra-annual timescales, and almost all of the discharge is associated with floods brought by cyclonic storms. The Waiapu River drains an active margin that has a narrow shelf and steep slope. Marine conditions on the Waiapu continental shelf are very energetic, with strong waves as well as shelf currents. This special river-ocean system makes the Waiapu area an ideal site to study gravity-driven flows. Instrumented tripods deployed at water depths of 40 m and 60 m on the Waiapu shelf directly offshore of the river mouth recorded data on waves, currents, and sediment fluxes from May through August, 2004. The tripod data showed direct field evidence of current-supported gravity flows on the Waiapu shelf. Data analysis indicated that the Waiapu River floods were characterized by two distinct phases: a flood phase and a resuspension phase. The flood phase was characterized by large sediment input, coupled with moderate to strong waves but weak currents. Strong near-bed sediment signals, however, were not recorded by the tripods until the post-flood resuspension phases, during which seaward near-bed currents started to intensify. A one-dimensional boundary layer model provided the inference that those strong seaward near-bottom turbid flows during the resuspension phase were dynamically similar to wave-supported gravity flows observed on Eel and Po Shelves, except that both waves and currents were important for sediment resuspension. In contrast to thin and dense wave-supported gravity flows, current-supported gravity flows on the Waiapu shelf were significantly thicker and more dilute. Another two-dimensional model for waveand current-supported sediment gravity flows was used to estimate sediment deposition on the Waiapu shelf from September 2003 to August 2004. The time period for the model calculations was divided into two segments: a low-energy (September to May) and high-energy portion (May to August). Model results showed that sediment delivered by the Waiapu River were trapped between the 20and 80-m isobaths during the low-energy period, but then redistributed obliquely across the shelf between the 60and 120-m isobaths during the high-energy period. Depositional locations estimated for the lowand high-energy portions, respectively, matched well with shortand long-term observed accumulation patterns based on Be and Pb activity as reported by Kniskern (2007; Kniskern et al. 2008). Sensitivity analysis indicated that the gravity-driven flows on the Waiapu shelf were mainly wave-supported landward of the 40-m isobath, but became increasingly current-supported as wave orbital decayed in deeper water. This dissertation provided the first documentation of current-supported gravity flows, and hence contributed greatly to the study of sediment transport on continental shelves. Continental Shelf Sediment Transport and Depositional Processes on an Energetic, Active Margin: the Waiapu River Shelf, New Zealand


Introduction Shiftwork is common amongst nurses and it is known to be a workplace hazard as it may cause poor sleep quality, which can impact adversely on the health and safety of nurses and their patients. The aims of this study were to identify and describe the association between poor sleep quality and shiftwork in nurses. Additionally, to explore factors that contribute to poor sleep quality and to assess the awareness of support from Occupational Health (OH). Methods Cross-sectional study of nurses at a National Health Service Foundation Trust, February to March 2016. Data was collected via an online questionnaire. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Result 888 nurses participated; 34% response rate. The prevalence of poor sleep quality was 78% (95% CI: 0.748 to 0.813) in the shift working nurses (SWNs), compared to 59% (95% CI: 0.503 to 0.678) in the non-shift working nurses (NSWNs). There was a mean sleep quality score difference of 1.58 between the SWNs and the NSWNs, which was statistically significant, p<0.001 (95% CI: 0.913 to 2.246). Undertaking shiftwork was the only significant association with poor sleep quality, when controlling for the other variables of age, gender and number of years worked, OR 0.410 p<0.001 (95% CI: 0.265 to 0.634). Discussion There is a higher prevalence of poor sleep quality in SWNs compared to NSWNs. OH should be aware of any form of shiftwork as an important risk factor for poor sleep, as well as Trust managers acknowledging this workplace hazard. OH can provide staff with support for good sleep practice which aims to lead to healthier nurses.


A number of highly cited papers by Flyvbjerg and associates have shown that ex-ante infrastructure appraisals tend to be overly optimistic. Ex post evaluations indicate a bias where investment cost is higher and demand lower on average than predicted ex ante. These authors argue that the bias must be attributed to intentional misrepresentation by project developers. This paper shows that the bias may arise simply as a selection bias, without there being any bias at all in predictions ex ante, and that such a bias is bound to arise whenever ex ante predictions are related to the decisions whether to implement projects. Using a database of projects we present examples indicating that the selection bias may be substantial. The examples also indicate that benefit-cost ratios remains a useful selection criterion even when cost and benefits are highly uncertain, gainsaying the argument that such uncertainties render cost-benefit analyses useless.


CONTEXT
There is growing pressure to avoid hospitalizing emergency department patients who can be treated safely as outpatients, but this strategy depends on timely access to follow-up care.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the association between reported insurance status and access to follow-up appointments for serious conditions that are commonly identified during an emergency department visit.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Eight research assistants called 499 randomly selected ambulatory clinics in 9 US cities (May 2002-February 2003) and identified themselves as new patients who had been seen in an emergency department and needed an urgent follow-up appointment (within 1 week) for 1 of 3 clinical vignettes (pneumonia, hypertension, or possible ectopic pregnancy). The same person called each clinic twice using the same clinical vignette but different insurance status.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Proportion of callers who were offered an appointment within a week.

RESULTS
Of 499 clinics contacted in the final sample, 430 completed the study protocol. Four hundred six (47.2%) of 860 total callers and 277 (64.4%) of 430 privately insured callers were offered appointments within a week. Callers who claimed to have private insurance were more likely to receive appointments than those who claimed to have Medicaid coverage (63.6% [147/231] vs 34.2% [79/231]; difference, 29.4 percentage points; 95% confidence interval, 21.2-37.6; P<.001). Callers reporting private insurance coverage had higher appointment rates than callers who reported that they were uninsured but offered to pay 20 dollars and arrange payment of the balance (65.3% [130/199] vs 25.1% [50/199]; difference, 40.2; 95% confidence interval, 31.4-49.1; P<.001). There were no differences in appointment rates between callers who claimed to have private insurance coverage and those who reportedly were uninsured but willing to pay cash for the entire visit fee (66.3% [132/199] vs 62.8% [125/199]; difference, 3.5; 95% confidence interval -3.7 to 10.8; P = .31). The median charge was 100 dollars (range, 25 dollars-600 dollars). Seventy-two percent of clinics did not attempt to determine the severity of the caller's condition.

CONCLUSIONS
Reported insurance status is associated with access to timely follow-up ambulatory care for potentially serious conditions. Having private insurance and being willing to pay cash may not eliminate the difficulty in obtaining urgent follow-up appointments.


Abstract Since its reconfiguration in 1986, DIII-D has performed a number of experiments involving resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability. These were and are directed to understand the conditions in which confinement and beta reducing tearing mode islands form, how to avoid them, and if unavoidable, how to stabilize them. Coils for correction of toroidal nonaxisymmetry have been developed to avoid error field locked mode islands. Basic classical tearing mode stability physics has been confirmed with a state-of-the-art ensemble of profile diagnostics, MHD equilibrium reconstruction, and stability code analysis. Neoclassical tearing mode thresholds and seeding are now much better understood with future large higher field devices expected to be "metastable." DIII-D is the leader in sophisticated real-time alignment of stabilizing electron cyclotron current drive on otherwise unstable rational surfaces. In all, DIII-D experiments are showing how higher stable beta with good confinement can be maintained without tearing mode islands limiting the plasma pressure.


We present Bayesian Controller Fusion (BCF): a hybrid control strategy that combines the strengths of traditional hand-crafted controllers and model-free deep reinforcement learning (RL). BCF thrives in the robotics domain, where reliable but suboptimal control priors exist for many tasks, but RL from scratch remains unsafe and data-inefficient. By fusing uncertainty-aware distributional outputs from each system, BCF arbitrates control between them, exploiting their respective strengths. We study BCF on two real-world robotics tasks involving navigation in a vast and long-horizon environment, and a complex reaching task that involves manipulability maximisation. For both these domains, simple handcrafted controllers exist that can solve the task at hand in a risk-averse manner but do not necessarily exhibit the optimal solution given limitations in analytical modelling, controller miscalibration and task variation. As exploration is naturally guided by the prior in the early stages of training, BCF accelerates learning, while substantially improving beyond the performance of the control prior, as the policy gains more experience. More importantly, given the risk-aversity of the control prior, BCF ensures safe exploration and deployment, where the control prior naturally dominates the action distribution in states unknown to the policy. We additionally show BCF's applicability to the zero-shot sim-to-real setting and its ability to deal with out-of-distribution states in the real world. BCF is a promising approach towards combining the complementary strengths of deep RL and traditional robotic control, surpassing what either can achieve independently. The code and supplementary video material are made publicly available at https://krishanrana.github.io/bcf.


Background and aims: Transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) is frequently involved in gastrointestinal carcinogenesis although its contribution to oesophageal adenocarcinoma (AC) and its precursor Barrett's oesophageal epithelium (BE) metaplasia are unclear. Methods: Expression of TGF-β signalling components was assessed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR), western blot, and immunohistochemistry in oesophageal endoscopic biopsies and cell lines. Genomic alterations in SMAD4 were characterised by fluorescence in situ hybridisation, methylation specific PCR, and sequencing. Functional integrity of TGF-β signalling was assessed by characterisation of p21 and proliferation status. Smad4 negative BIC-1 cells were transiently transfected with smad4 and TGF-β responsiveness evaluated. Results:smad4 mRNA expression was progressively reduced in the metaplasia-dysplasia-adenocarcinoma sequence (p<0.01). A quarter of AC samples displayed an abnormal Smad4 protein isoform, with no corresponding changes in gene sequence or organisation. Methylation of smad4 has not been described previously but we found promoter methylation in 70% of primary AC samples. In 6/8 oesophageal cell lines, chromosomal rearrangements affected the smad4 locus. Lack of smad4 expression in BIC-1 cells occurred secondary to loss of one copy and extensive deletion of the second allele's promoter region. TGF-β dependent induction of p21 and downregulation of minichromosome maintenance protein 2 was lost in >80% of BE and AC. TGF-β failed to inhibit proliferation in 5/8 oesophageal cell lines. In BIC-1, the antiproliferative response was restored following transient transfection of smad4 cDNA. Conclusions: In BE carcinogenesis, downregulation of Smad4 occurs due to several different mechanisms, including methylation, deletion, and protein modification. Frequent alterations in TGF-β signalling lead to a functionally significant impairment of TGF-β mediated growth suppression.


The principle of subsidiarity was formally introduced as a principle of intention in the 1991 Treaty of Maastricht that recognized the devolution of competence, i.e., 'decision-making to be performed at the lowest possible effective administrative level' in the European multi-level system of governance. The rhetoric deployed on behalf of the principle of subsidiarity elaborated it and strongly suggested that it was, as it were, a principle of 'nearness' to the people, implying a more bottom-up form of governance and a more democratic mean of voicing opinions. But in what kind of framework should 'nearness' take place? Should it take place within the framework of the devolution of competence to elected national assemblies and the emancipation of constituencies? Or should it be applied within the framework of the regulatory stat that makes use of national and international arm's-length agencies and other governmental bodies in its governance approach? The paper gives answers to these questions, and examines how different approaches to the concept of democracy transform governance


Background Overuse shoulder injuries are common among professional male handball players. However, little is known about risk factors for the development of injury. Objective To determine whether rotator cuff strength, glenohumeral joint range of motion and scapular stability are associated with the presence of overuse shoulder problems among elite male handball players. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting The Norwegian professional handball league for men (Postenliga). Participants A total of 206 professional players were tested prior to the 2011–12 season and followed prospectively over the course of the season (30 weeks). During this time, shoulder problems were registered bi-weekly using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Overuse Injury Questionnaire. Sufficient data was collected from 162 players to be able to be included in risk-factor analyses. Risk factor assessment Risk factor measures included: (1) Glenohumeral internal and external rotation range using a digital inclinometer; (2) isometric internal rotation, external rotation and abduction strength using a hand-held dynamometer, and (3) assessment of scapular control, using a validated subjective protocol. Main outcome measurements A cumulative severity score was calculated for each player based on their questionnaire responses. The score reflects the degree to which they experienced shoulder pain throughout the season, as well as reductions in handball participation and performance due to shoulder problems. Results The average prevalence of shoulder problems throughout the season was 28% (95% CI: 25–31%). A significant associations was found between obvious scapular dyskinesis and shoulder problems (OR 11.6, 95% CI 2.0–68.4, P<.05). Players with shoulder problems also had reduced Glenohumeral total rotational motion (mean difference 9°, P<.05). No significant associations were identified between isometric strength and shoulder problems. Conclusions The prevalence of overuse shoulder problems is high among male professional handball players. This study provides important information which may help to guide the development of prevention programs.


Job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intention (intention to stay or to quit) are much-studied phenomena, yet they are still not entirely understood. Public service ethos is a concept that is believed to have been eroded significantly due to a series of waves of public sector reforms that reached their peak in the 1980s and 1990s, but with impacts that are still being felt today. The underlying philosophy of using market forces to inject commercial rigour into the provision of services to the public is controversial, and there is uncertainty regarding what impact if any this trend has had on both the services themselves and the people involved in delivering them. This study was carried out primarily among the staff of a "typical" local government body in southeast England in 2007/08, with semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire based on the earlier work of Spector (1997), Price (2001) and Lyons et al (2006). It was intended to assess the overall levels of job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intention among this workforce in order to benchmark against pre-existing norms from earlier studies, and then examine the data to identify any correlations that might exist, whilst screening for the moderating effects of public service ethos. Job satisfaction levels were found to be slightly below the norm, while the scores for voluntary turnover intention (intention to stay) were far higher than the norm. A medium positive correlation between job satisfaction and turnover intention was found, but no clear correlation with, or moderating effect of, public service ethos. Whilst the findings were broadly in line with expectations, there is an inference that the management might wish to seek to improve job satisfaction levels in some aspects, particularly relating to co-workers and the nature of the work that the employees are required to do. This might be translated into common parlance as giving people more interesting work with more interesting colleagues. The correlation between levels of satisfaction and turnover intention suggests that staff will tend to stay if they are reasonably satisfied in their jobs, but the strength of this relationship tends to weaken noticeably as staff get older and their length of service increases. An unexpected additional consequence of this study concerns the matter of public service ethos. Findings from the initial qualitative phase of the study indicated a powerful set of forces leading staff to work in the public sector. However, no corroborating evidence was found in the subsequent quantitative phase of the study. Does 'public service ethos' still exist in Great Britain in the 21st century?


As real estate forms a significant part of the asset portfolios of most investors and lenders, it is crucial that analysts and institutions employ sound techniques for modelling and forecasting the performance of real estate assets. Assuming no prior knowledge of econometrics, this book introduces and explains a broad range of quantitative techniques that are relevant for the analysis of real estate data. It includes numerous detailed examples, giving readers the confidence they need to estimate and interpret their own models. Throughout, the book emphasises how various statistical techniques may be used for forecasting and shows how forecasts can be evaluated. Written by a highly experienced teacher of econometrics and a senior real estate professional, both of whom are widely known for their research, Real Estate Modelling and Forecasting is the first book to provide a practical introduction to the econometric analysis of real estate for students and practitioners.


Industrial effluents from tanneries and electroplating industries from small‐ and large‐scale sector industrial plants contain substantial amount of toxic heavy metal, which pollutes riv‐ ers and lakes, land, air and sea leading to imbalance of ecosystem and certain health issues to humans, animals as well as plants. The worldwide environmental regulations stipulate the reduction of heavy metals in the effluents to permissible levels before discharging into water bodies. Enzyme‐mediated precipitation of heavy metals affords a novel eco‐friendly method for remediation of toxic heavy metals from various industrial effluents like tan‐ nery, electroplating and dye industries. This chapter has paid attention to bacterial alka‐ line phosphatase (BAP) from Escherichia coli C90 and calf‐intestinal alkaline phosphatase (CIAP), which catalyses phospho mono‐ and diesters and produces inorganic phosphate (Pi). The Pi thus generated precipitates the heavy metals as metal‐phosphate complexes. The kinetic behaviour of both the enzymes with para ‐nitrophenyl phosphate, ascorbic acid 2‐phosphate and α‐naphthyl phosphate was investigated at various pH regimes from 8 to 11. The chapter also explains in detail the descriptive information on the capability of BAP‐ and CIAP‐mediated precipitation of heavy metals, which is desirable and convenient method for the toxic heavy metals such as chromium, cadmium, nickel and cobalt.


Interest in the use of vadose zone transport models for fumigant risk assessment is increasing. Good modeling practice includes an assessment of model sensitivity and output uncertainty. This computational study evaluated the sensitivity of HYDRUS‐1D‐ and HYDRUS 2D/3D‐simulated fumigant cumulative flux, maximum 6‐h period mean flux density, and soil gas concentrations to 15 model input variables using Monte Carlo Latin hypercube analysis. The input variables included fumigant physicochemical properties, agricultural film (tarp) properties, and soil properties. Three different application scenarios were investigated: tarped broadcast, tarped bedded shank injection, and a tarped drip line‐source application. Model sensitivity to initial water content (θi), saturated water content (θs), and tarp permeability varied among scenarios depending on the relative importance of soil gas diffusive resistance and tarp mass transfer resistance to fumigant volatilization. Model outputs were sensitive to fumigant air–water partition and gas‐phase diffusion coefficients, two parameters that probably have a small contribution to overall modeling uncertainty because accurate estimation methods for these parameters are available. Sensitivities to the fumigant degradation rate were high in all scenarios, and sensitivity to tarp permeability was high only when substantial volatilization occurred from the tarped portion of soil surfaces. Existing literature data for both degradation and tarp permeability are highly variable; parameterizing these processes using literature estimates may contribute substantially to model uncertainty. In several cases, the highest output sensitivities were to θs. For model comparisons to site‐specific field data, soil texture‐based estimates of θs are potentially large contributors to model uncertainty; direct measurement is recommended.


An easy efficient method for the synthesis of N-(3,5-dichlorophenyl)-5-alkyl/aryl-3H-1,2,4-triazol-3-one derivatives under microwave irradiation has been developed using the reaction of 3,5-dichloroaniline and ethoxycarbonylhydrazones. This reaction occurs more efficiently and faster than the conventional heating method. We obtained 5-mercapto-1,3,4-oxadiazol derivatives by this method. The newly synthesised compounds have been tested for their antimicrobial activity against Enterobacter cloaceae, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonie, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris, Salmonella typhimurium, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aereus.


This dissertation consists
of an investigation of the historical and sociolinguistic implications of some
of the linguistic data that have been preserved from Merovingian Gaul. The data
that was investigated here mainly consisted of Romance and Germanic lexis,
which is the outcome of earlier lexical exchange (borrowing) between Germanic,
Romance and Celtic. The central aim of this dissertation was to provide an
overview of the linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that were involved in
this lexical exchange, and thereby contribute to our knowledge of the
Merovingian vernaculars in particular and Merovingian society in general. On a
more general level, this study provides an overview of how linguistic data
might complement the archaeological and historical frameworks, that are used to
understand the transition from Roman to Merovingian Gaul. Special attention is
paid to the Merovingian redactions of the Salic Law, both as a unique
historical witness to everyday life in post-Roman Gaul as well as being a
unique linguistic witness in its preservation of the Old Frankish Malberg
glosses. Additionally, this dissertation provides an overview of Pre-French
sound change and its relation to Merovingian Latin.


Google has been a giant in the global Internet economy, but the company has encountered a series of setbacks in China. In order to prevent its search results from being filtered out or slowed down by the Great Firewall, Google launched the Chinese search engine Google.cn in 2006 and self-censored the search results disapproved by the Chinese government. However, as the Chinese government's regulation of and policies toward the Internet have significantly affected the fundamental principles on which Google's business has been built, the company eventually terminated its physical search-engine operations in China in 2010 after several rounds of negotiations with the Chinese government. Using Google.cn as a case study, this Article illustrates China's method of regulating the Internet, which may become a dominant approach in global Internet governance. Through the Great Firewall and rigid regulations on Internet business licenses, the Chinese government has illustrated how to effectively regulate the Internet by controlling relevant facilities and activities in the physical world within a nation's borders. Moreover, the Chinese regulatory model that pushes for the alignment of private interests with the authoritarian state's preferences and ideology may lead to serious accountability problems in both the domestic and global spheres. This Article proposes several strategies that Internet-related companies, national governments, and non-governmental organizations might use to solve such accountability crises.


The Regional History Project at UC Santa Cruz has rich collections of interviews with generations of narrators, ranging across the administration, faculty, and staff. In the early years of the campus, founding director Elizabeth Spedding Calciano conducted two rounds of interviews focused on the student experience at what was then the newest campus of the University of California. Those interviews, conducted in 1967 and 1969 as the campus was still adding a new college every year, give a window into the original UCSC experiment, and into a time of sociocultural transformation as students responded to the Vietnam War and other social justice issues of the time. While the Project's archive includes various individual interviews with students conducted in the intervening years, in 2016 a decision was made by director Irene Reti to launch a follow-up endeavor focused specifically on the student perspective at UCSC today.            The ensuing project, Student Interviews: 50 Years Later, consists of fourteen interviews conducted in April and October 2017 in a conference room the McHenry Library. In many ways, it was a very different endeavor from the original Student Interviews. At the beginning of 1967, there were only two colleges at UCSC; in 2017, there were ten, and the student population had boomed exponentially from less than 1,000 to more than 18,000. UCSC has grown into a major research university, offering more than sixty undergraduate majors and dozens of graduate programs across the divisions. In selecting students, there were new challenges of scale, and the challenge of finding a scope of voices that could speak to meaningfully different and diverse experiences on campus became a project in itself.            However, while many things have changed at UCSC, this was a venture of continuities as well. Like the original Student Interviews, we accepted from the beginning that it was neither possible nor desirable to strive for a group that could fully represent the student story at UCSC. In addition to that story being far too plural and varied, we know that surprise and singularity are as much an element in oral history work as trends and commonalities. This is a gathering of unique and powerful life histories. That said, we did seek a group that could illustrate distinct points along the range of student experience here. Taking our cue from the '67 and '69 interviews, we contacted the provost of each college for recommendations, compiling a long list that we narrowed down to our final candidates. We also reached out to the directors of the resource centers, EOP, the graduate division, and selected student organizations. As a result, all ten colleges are represented here, as are many resource centers. While the group is mostly undergraduates, we do have graduate students as well. We also made certain that we had majors from all divisions, and strove for an intersectionally diverse and dynamic group, exploring relationships to place and space through the lens of racial and ethnic identity, sexuality, gender, class, and other markers of social difference. For 50 Years Later, this task was baked into our larger exploration of our narrators' academic and extracurricular work at UCSC, as well as their life histories, inspirations, struggles, and aspirations.One notable bias of our selection process is that, since we largely relied on faculty and staff recommendations, we tended to locate students that were exceptionally involved in their residential or academic communities, and were therefore especially visible to their recommenders. There are, of course, many other students who choose different spheres of involvement, or who, especially in the context of a growing research university, may simply not find the same recognition. For those who are struck by the thoughtfulness, eloquence, and importance of the stories included in this compendium, it is our hope that this reading can be the beginning of a greater curiosity and connection with the breadth of the student experience at UCSC. These are voices that need to be heard more widely and more clearly when it comes to the present and future of this campus.            An unexpected parallel between the '67 and '69 student interviews and this new '17 project came through the rise of political awareness, activism, and debate at UCSC in the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump. The Sixties interviews took place in the Johnson and Nixon presidencies, a time when many students here were asking pointed questions about the priorities of their school, the Vietnam War, the nature of their education, and the future of justice in their society. These themes return in our 2017 interviews, as students share their life journeys of coming to this campus, their work finding a place here—more than one narrator describes our campus as a "PWI [predominantly white institution]"—and their hopes for how their UCSC education can shape their opportunities and outlook going forward. While some of their stories are particular to certain colleges or majors, many shine a light on deeper issues about this campus, including who is welcome here, how students adapt and make their way in their education, and what debates, dialogues, and differences mark the institution today. These are stories of community, stories of creativity, and stories of critique alike.


Abstract: There is currently a renaissance of interest in indigenous knowledges, after a long period of neglect and disdain by Western scientific and academic establishments. However, educational institutions have not made some of the more fundamental changes required to successfully integrate indigenous knowledges. Interventions and programs in ECD similarly tend to be based on an accepted body of knowledge built on Western experience and practice. The ECDVU takes a very different approach to capacity building. Its curriculum is built around the idea of co-construction of knowledge, requiring the participation of all in the creation and dissemination of content. The initial results of this process of generating curriculum within concrete cultural contexts are encouraging. The participants in the ECDVU program recognize the value of indigenous knowledges and are actively pursuing the documentation and incorporation of these knowledges into their research and program activities in the field of ECD. This article presents arguments in favour of incorporating indigenous knowledge into the ECD field and highlights the work of a number of ECDVU participants contributing to this area. The Paradigm Shift After decades of development research and practice in the Majority World (1) based primarily on the Western scientific canon, a paradigm shift has begun that looks towards 'indigenous knowledge' to supplement, integrate with and, at times, even supplant the previous approach. In practice, the collection and documentation of local practices and knowledges by 'outsiders' has taken place for as long as people have been travelling the globe and recording their observations. However, despite being built upon a long history of the exchange of local knowledges, by the middle of the 20th century the Western scientific paradigm had developed an approach that was relatively insular, universalizing, and exclusionary. Although there continued to be an interest in local practices and cultures, primarily in the field of anthropology, both scientific and policy-oriented research in development appeared to lose respect for indigenous knowledge and advocate the wholesale adoption of Western scientific models as the best solution to development problems. By the mid-1980s, the socioeconomic situation of Africa had not responded to the modernist development approach in the ways envisioned by the proponents of modernization theory (Leys, 1996). In academic and policy circles, there arose several divergent new approaches to 'solving the African crisis.' At the two extreme poles were neo-liberal economics and post-structuralist analysis. Despite great differences between the paradigms, the majority of scholarship on Africa shared a renewed interest in participatory development and the incorporation of indigenous knowledge into development practice. The most commonly cited definition of 'indigenous knowledge' is that of Louise Grenier (1998): "the unique, traditional, local knowledge existing within and developed around the specific conditions of women and men indigenous to a particular geographic area." Arguments in favour of recognizing the importance of indigenous knowledge range from those based on philosophical principles to those derived from more utilitarian, pragmatic rationales. On the side of principles, there is recognition of the intrinsic value of cultural diversity and tolerance--or celebration--of different worldviews and philosophical systems. Some see indigenous knowledges as providing an alternative to the capitalist, individualist moral system of the North/West that has been blamed for damaging the planet and compromising the survival and quality of life of future generations (Obomsawin, 1993). Pragmatic reasons for valuing indigenous knowledge are many. Indigenous knowledge is perceived as having developed over time as a dynamic response to the challenges of survival and development in a specific context. …


A misclassified size-biased Borel Distribution (MSBBD), where some of the observations corresponding to x = c + 1 are wrongly reported as x = c with probability α, is defined. Various estimation methods like the method of maximum likelihood (ML), method of moments, and the Bayes estimation for the parameters of the MSBB distribution are used. The performance of the estimators are studied using simulated bias and simulated risk. Simulation studies are carried out for different values of the parameters and sample size.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequent cancers worldwide. Current treat- ments include surgery and chemotherapy, but disease recurrence occurs frequently. The continuous renewal of intestinal epithelium relies on the presence of intestinal stem cells that are also at the origin of CRC and contribute to therapy resistance and metastatic dis-semination. Several nuclear signaling pathways and transcription factors regulate both intestinal cell homeostasis and tumorigenesis. However, the transcriptional events that govern the emergence of aggressive therapy-resistant cancer stem cells are still poorly defined. This review summarizes the relevance of transcription factors in intestinal stem cell biology and their involvement in colon cancer development and drug resistance.


Image captioning can show great performance for generating captions for general purposes, but it remains difficult to adjust the generated captions for different applications. In this paper, we propose an image captioning method which can generate both imageability- and length-controllable captions. The imageability parameter adjusts the level of visual descriptiveness of the caption, making it either more abstract or more concrete. In contrast, the length parameter only adjusts the length of the caption while keeping the visual descriptiveness on a similar degree. Based on a transformer architecture, our model is trained using an augmented dataset with diversified captions across different degrees of descriptiveness. The resulting model can control both imageability and length, making it possible to tailor output towards various applications. Experiments show that we can maintain a captioning performance similar to comparison methods, while being able to control the visual descriptiveness and the length of the generated captions. A subjective evaluation with human participants also shows a significant correlation of the target imageability in terms of human expectations. Thus, we confirmed that the proposed method provides a promising step towards tailoring image captions closer to certain applications.


Ten years after the foundation book "Affective Computing" which proposed concepts and approaches related to the measure and the use of emotion in human computer interaction scenarios, several decades after the first psychological and physiological study on emotion and hundreds years after philosophical study about aesthetical emotion, very few automated systems are nowadays able to manipulate multimedia contents (selection, design, creation) according to the felt affective states and emotions (which can be measured by different means) by an individual. Among several limitations, we consider in this thesis that one important problem is the amount of inter-individual differences both in the indirect measure of emotion and in our affective evaluation of multimedia contents. In this thesis we propose enhancements of computer possibilities to manipulate media contents on the basis of felt affective states by modeling affective and emotional associations to multimedia contents and by automating the process of interpretation of emotion from indirect measure. This enhancement is achieved by the design of two user models which can take into account user's specificities toward a better adaptation. First we introduce the Embodied Affective Relationship to Multimedia Contents (EAR) as a model aiming at formalizing association between multimedia contents and emotional experience of individuals. This model is then presented in a practical way toward systematic affective handling of multimedia contents. Then we introduce the Psycho Physiological Emotion Map (PPEM) as a parametric model of emotion interpretation from physiological signals taking into account inter and intra-individual differences. Our technique aims at psychologically interpreting physiological parameters (skin conductance and heart rate), and at producing a continuous extraction of the user's affective state during Human Computer Interaction. An experiment is presented to estimate emotion from physiological signals. Both models are built upon an engineering cognitive science approach, i. E. Implementing psychological and neuroscience knowledge to design a computer system. Finally, an experimental Application Programming Interface built upon the proposed models is presented to enable novel form of affective state and emotion driven-human multimedia interaction.


Philippe Starck describes him as a "mystic in a country which is no longer mystic." Drew Philip calls his buildings "land art" that "struggle to emerge from the earth." He is the only architect to have won the discipline's four most prestigious prizes: the Pritzker, Carlsberg, Praemium Imperiale, and Kyoto Prize. His name is Tadao Ando, and he is the world's greatest living architect. Combining influences from Japanese tradition with the best of Modernism, Ando has developed a completely unique building aesthetic that makes use of concrete, wood, water, light, space, and nature in a way that has never been witnessed in architecture. Ando has designed award-winning private homes, churches, museums, apartment complexes, and cultural spaces throughout Japan, as well as in France, Italy, Spain, and the USA. This book, created at the height of Ando's illustrious career, presents his complete works to date.


Dwight D. Eisenhower's meteoric rise to prominence during World War II was not - as popular myth would have us believe - accidental, but the logical outcome of years of preparation. Eisenhower had enormous talents, opportunities to develop them, and an attentive corps of senior officers who watched and encouraged his ascent to high command. The diaries, letters and documents assembled in this volume for the first time presents a fresh, detailed examination of Dwight D. Eisenhower's formative years and the evolution of his genius for organization, logistics and strategy. "Eisenhower: The Prewar Diaries and Selected Papers, 1905-1941", edited by Daniel D. Holt and James W. Leyerzapf, follows Eisenhower's career from his service as a Tank Corps commander to his experience as a student at the Command and General Staff College and at the Army War College. It covers his duties in Western Europe with the American Battle Monuments Commission, his assignment to the office of the Assistant Secretary of War, his service in the War Department with Chief of Staff Gen Douglas MacArthur, and his role as Assistant Military Advisor to the American Mission to the Philippines under General MacArthur. The five diaries, personal and family letters, official military correspondence, speeches, published writings and reports that comprise this volume offer the most compelling evidence yet of the impressive range of Eisenhower's experiences with the interwar army. Eisenhower emerges from these documents as a man with uncommon insight into the critically important relationship among military preparation, economic imperatives, public opinion and bureaucratic politics. His diaries - particularly the "Notes on Men", the diary entries expressing his mounting exasperation with MacArthur and his appraisal of the Philippine Army's officer corps - also reveal a natural leader who could instinctively discern the assets and liabilities of those around him. Eisenhower's conduct of coalition warfare in World War II, when he welded so many strong, disparate personalities into a unified command, is foreshadowed in "Eisenhower: The Prewar Diaries and Selected Papers, 1905-1941". Helpfully annotated, with an introduction by John S.D. Eisenhower that places his fathers papers in professional and personal context, this volume greatly enhances the portrait we have of Eisenhower's military career and his maturation as a soldier and a leader.


Social dominance hierarchies play a pivotal role in shaping the behaviour of many species, and sex differences within these hierarchies often exist. To date, however, few physical markers of dominance have been identified. Such markers would be valuable in terms of understanding the etiology of dominant behaviour and changes in social hierarchies over time. Animals may also use such traits to evaluate the potential dominance of others relative to themselves (i.e. a physical "cue"). Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), for example, has been suggested as a cue to dominance in humans, with links to both dominant behaviour and the perception of dominance in other individuals. Whether this association is present in non-human animals is currently not known. Therefore, here we examine within-species links between fWHR and dominant behaviour in 64 brown capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.) aged between 2 and 40 years. fWHR was positively associated with alpha status and with a dimensional rating of assertive personality in both males and females. Moreover, fWHR showed significant sexual dimorphism in adults but not juveniles, suggesting a developmental change may occur during puberty. In a sub-sample, sex differences were mediated by weight, suggesting fWHR dimorphism does not exceed what would be expected by differences in body weight. This is the first report of an association between face shape and behaviour in a non-human species. Results are discussed in terms of the role that face-behaviour associations might play within capuchin societies, and the possible selective forces that might have led to the evolution of fWHR-dominance associations in humans.


Recent evolutions in the theater practice since the turn of the millennium show a clear renewed interest in the trope of visual illusion. This tendency is remarkable, because postdramatic theater is traditionally associated with an inclination away from coherent narrative and illusion. The present research explores this tension, endeavoring to understand the reappearance of visual illusion on the background of a theater tradition that is known for its anti-illusionistic stance.
The research analyzes how visual illusion is constructed on the theater stage in highly visual dramaturgies that stage complex interactions and transactions between different media. At the same time, the analysis focuses on how these dramaturgies influence contemporary accounts of spectatorship. This dual approach brings together theater studies and visual studies in order to understand theater as a visual event that unfolds between the spectator, the object of vision and culturally and historically specific ways of seeing that mediate the relationship between both.
As a case in point, the analysis scrutinizes the system of linear perspective and the practice of trompe l'oeil as two central visual strategies of illusion that appear on the postdramatic stage. Considering how new media are staged according to the conventions of these strategies, this study aims to uncover how visual illusion in postdramatic theater critically engages with historical scopic regimes while simultaneously exploring new, contemporary ways of looking.


Soft-particle materials include colloidal pastes, vesicles, many powders, microgels and suspensions. They share the common feature of being composed of particles that can undergo large deformations without rupture. For the simulation of such materials, we present a modelling approach based on an implicit formulation of the Material Point Method (MPM) interfaced with the Contact Dynamics (CD) method for the treatment of frictional contacts between particles. Each particle is discretized as a collection of material points. The information carried by the material points is projected onto a background mesh, where equations of motion are solved. The mesh solution is then used to update the material points. The implicit formulation of MPM allows for unconditional numerical stability and efficient coupling with implicit treatment of unilateral contacts and friction between the particles by the CD method. We use this model to analyse the compaction process of 2D soft-particle packings. The packing can reach high solid fractions by particle shape change and still flow plastically. The compaction is a nonlinear process in which new contacts are formed between particles and the contact areas increase. We find that the evolution of the packing fraction is a slow logarithmic function of the driving stress as a consequence of increasing contact area. We also evidence the effect of friction, which favours strong stress chains and thus the elongation of particles, leading to a larger packing fraction at a given level of compressive stress as compared to a frictionless particle packing.


Medication errors are common within the United States health system. Preventable medication errors are often the result of ineffective processes that contribute to the occurrence of adverse drug events. Care transitions, movement between settings or levels of care, present a particularly vulnerable time for patients. Errors are frequently introduced into a patient's medication regimen during transitions of care, including the inappropriate discontinuation or duplication of medications. Inappropriate discontinuation (non-persistence) of evidence based therapies for chronic diseases places patients at an increased risk for adverse health outcomes. Previous investigations have indicated that care transitions due to hospitalization have been associated with increased rates of non-persistence, and that nonpersistent patients were at an increased risk for poor health outcomes. We conducted a matched retrospective cohort study of patients enrolled with the commercial health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island. Patients included in the study were adults at least 18 years of age with diagnosed diabetes confirmed by outpatient medication use and a diagnosis code. We evaluated the disruptive impact of hospitalization on the medication regimen by comparing the odds of persistence with evidence based therapies between hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients. Persistence was assessed with two medication classes: angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors/angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) and lipid lowering drugs (LLD). We classified patients with an eligible hospitalization as exposed, and matched unexposed non-hospitalized patients to the exposed cohort on the variables age, gender, Charlson comorbidity score and enrollment period. The primary outcomes of persistence and treatment duplication were assessed during the 60 day period following the hospitalized patient's discharge date. Differences in baseline characteristics and the bivariate odds of persistence were assessed between groups for the primary risk factor hospitalization as well as patient demographic and health related variables. We constructed multivariable logistic regression models to measure the effect of hospitalization on persistence with medications from each class while controlling for potential confounders and assessing for interaction terms. A total of 201 exposed and 199 unexposed ACE inhibitor/ARB users and 202 exposed and 199 unexposed LLD users were evaluated for persistence. After adjusting for potential confounders and an interaction term between hospitalization and cardiovascular disease, hospitalization was found to be a significant risk factor for non-persistence in patients using ACE inhibitors/ARBs [(Beta coefficient0.931 [P = 0.0283]). Patients that were hospitalized and had cardiovascular disease had an increased odds of persistence relative to patients that were not hospitalized and had cardiovascular disease (Odds Ratio (OR): 2.052 [95% CI 0.384-10.972)]. Patients that were hospitalized and did not have cardiovascular disease were significantly less likely to persist compared with patients that were not hospitalized and did not have cardiovascular disease (OR: 0.394 [95% CI 0.171-0.906]). The odds of persistence with LLD therapy did not differ between hospitalized patients and non-hospitalized patients (OR: 0.961 [95% CI 0.469-1.972]). The duration of prescription supply for study medication was found to be a confounder of the exposure and outcome relationship for both medication classes. Therapeutic duplication occurred infrequently with both medication classes regardless of exposure status and the low frequencies of duplication observed precluded logistic regression analysis. Our results implicate hospitalization as a risk factor for non-persistence with medications treating chronic diseases in commercially insured patients with diabetes. Interventions such as medication reconciliation that strive to improve communication during transitions of care and prevent the introduction of errors into the medication regimen should continue to be implemented and evaluated.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether a prognostic index could predict one-week mortality more accurately than hospice nurses can.

METHOD
An electronic health record-based retrospective cohort study of 21,074 hospice patients was conducted in three hospice programs in the Southeast, Northeast, and Midwest United States. Model development used logistic regression with bootstrapped confidence intervals and multiple imputation to account for missing data. The main outcome measure was mortality within 7 days of hospice enrollment.

RESULTS
A total of 21,074 patients were admitted to hospice between October 1, 2008 and May 31, 2011, and 5562 (26.4%) died within 7 days. An optimal predictive model included the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) score, admission from a hospital, and gender. The model had a c-statistic of 0.86 in the training sample and 0.84 in the validation sample, which was greater than that of nurses' predictions (0.72). The index's performance was best for patients with pulmonary disease (0.89) and worst for patients with cancer and dementia (both 0.80). The index's predictions of mortality rates in each index category were within 5.0% of actual rates, whereas nurses underestimated mortality by up to 18.9%. Using the optimal index threshold (<3), the index's predictions had a better c-statistic (0.78 versus 0.72) and higher sensitivity (74.4% versus 47.8%) than did nurses' predictions but a lower specificity (80.6% versus 95.1%).

CONCLUSIONS
Although nurses can often identify patients who will die within 7 days, a simple model based on available clinical information offers improved accuracy and could help to identify those patients who are at high risk for short-term mortality.


Introduction In trying to address the vexed challenge of theorizing learning transfer to make sense of how we learn across social contexts and what learning might mean in more informal domestic circumstances, Stevens and his colleagues offer a series of detailed studies of gaming in the home (Stevens, Satwicz, & McCarthy, 2008). They argue that we need to look at the "dispositions and purposes" that people bring with them to experiences and then consider "what people make of experiences in other times and places in their lives" (pp. 63–64). Learning, they suggest, is the process of interpretation as people reach back and forth across experiences (and the meanings that have been attributed to them). Rather than focusing on the learning experience in isolation, we need to pay attention to how learners conceptualize, contextualize, and reflect on experiences and to what resources they use and draw on to do this. Stevens et al. suggest that only by developing methods that allow us to study people across and within a range of settings can we see how people actively juxtapose, reject, select, contrast, or build on experiences. The research focus then needs both an intrapersonal historical dimension, reflecting how individuals frame their experiences over time, as well as a way of describing the types of understanding involved—the language and values that circulate within those experiences.


We place the European summer heat wave of 2003 in the context of other extreme summer tropospheric temperature events from 22°N to 80°N since 1979, as well as globally using annual averages. The analysis is performed in terms of standard deviations (SD) exceeded and correlations between regional extremes and temperatures at larger spatial scales. As has been pointed out previously the heat wave was statistically unusual and was a deep tropospheric phenomenon. In this analysis we also find the following. (1) Extreme warm anomalies equally, or more, unusual than the 2003 heat wave occur regularly. (2) Extreme cold anomalies also occur regularly and occasionally exceed the magnitude of the 2003 warm anomaly in terms of the value of SD. (3) There is a correlation between global and hemispheric average temperature and the presence of warm or cold regional anomalies of the same sign (i.e., warmer than average years have more regional heat waves and colder than average years have more cold waves). (4) Natural variability in the form of El Niño and volcanic eruptions appear to be of much greater importance in causing extreme regional temperature anomalies than a simple upward trend in time. Extreme temperature anomalies in the wake of the 1997–98 El Niño were larger than the anomalies seen in summer 2003 both in area affected and SD extremes exceeded. (5) Regression analyses do not provide strong support for the idea that regional heat waves are increasing with time.


The European clam, Ruditapes decussatus is a species with high commercial importance in Portugal and other Southern European countries. However, the development of R. decussatus culture has been limited by the highly variable patterns of natural recruitment. The development of hatchery technology will provide an alternative source of spat. The effect of six nutritional regimes on the survival, growth and biochemical composition of R. decussatus larvae were evaluated, aiming to provide crucial information on its nutritional requirements. A holistic approach incorporating all physiological response showed that the bispecific diet I. aff galbana and C. calcitrans (60/40 cell μL−1) was the more adapted throughout larval development. Moreover, the monospecific diet I. aff galbana provided an overall good performance. Larvae cannot use C. calcitrans at early stages of development; however, the inclusion of these microalgae improved late larval development. The results obtained constitute an important first step in the hatchery R. decussatus larval nutrition and a prerequisite for future work on the improvement of larval development and the optimization of feeding practices that will maximize larvae yield and minimize cost in aquaculture hatcheries.


This volume focuses on how, in Europe, the debate on the commons is discussed in regard to historical and contemporary dimensions, critically referencing the work on Elinor Ostrom. It also explores from the perspective of new institutional political ecology (NIPE) how Europe directly and indirectly affected and affects, the commons globally.

Most of the research on the management of commons pool resources is limited to dealing with one of two topics: either the interaction between local participatory governance and development of institutions for commons management, or a political-economy approach that focuses on global change as it is related to the increasingly globalised expansion of capitalist modes of production, consumption and societal reproduction. This volume bridges the two, addressing how global players affect the commons worldwide and how they relate to responses emerging from within the commons in a global-local (glocal) world. Authors from a range of academic disciplines present research findings on recent developments on the commons, including: historical insights; new innovations for participatory institutions building in Europe or several types of commons grabbing, especially in Africa related to European investments; and restrictions on the management of commons at the international level. European case studies are included, providing interesting examples of local participation in commons resource management, while simultaneously showing Europe as a centre for globalized capitalism and its norms and values, affecting the rest of the world, particularly developing countries.

This book will be of interest to students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines including natural resource management, environmental governance, political geography and environmental history.


The field of African economic history is in resurgence. This paper reviews recent and on-going research contributions and notes strengths in their wide methodological, conceptual and topical variety. In these strengths there is also a challenge: different methodological approaches may also result in divisions, particularly on the quantitative versus qualitative axis. The African Economic History Network has recently been formed to bridge the gap between methods and sources and to facilitate intellectual exchanges among the widest possible range of scholars working on Sub-Saharan economic history. This paper outlines current research projects and calls for future research as well as suggesting promising lines of enquiry in the discipline.


This study of early Christian monasticism by Derwas Chitty has already proved to be a classic. No other account of this vital period in the history of the monastic movement equals it for detailed scholarship combined with vivid and dynamic writing. Dr. Chitty, one of the major scholars in this period, deals with the golden age of Egyptian monasticism and describes the three founders of the movement, Anastasius, Anthony and Pachomius. He follows the development of monastic life in all its forms in Egypt to the end of the fourth century, when the center shifted to Palestine; the following chapters are devoted to accounts of the great ascetics of Palestine. The controversies surrounding the monastic movement are examined in their political and ecclesiastical aspects and the book concludes with an account of the monastic history of Mount Sinai. This book contains a wealth of material indispensable to any serious student of monasticism; it is also a book which will bring alive for any reader the great questions underlying monasticism in any age. As Dr. Chitty writes in his prologue,


Trends in Consumer Finances Today's financial world is highly complex as compared with that of a generation ago. Twenty-five years ago, knowing how to maintain a checking and savings account at a local financial institution was sufficient for many Americans. Today's consumers, however, must be able to differentiate among a wide range of products, services, and providers of financial products in order to manage their personal finances successfully. Certainly young adults have access to credit at a much earlier age than their parents did. Accordingly, they need a more comprehensive understanding of credit than was afforded to the previous generation--including the impact of compounding interest on debt balances and the implications of mismanaging credit accounts. In addition, as technological advances have contributed significantly to dramatic changes within the financial services market, consumers generally must be familiar with the role computers play in the conduct of every traditional financial transaction, from withdrawing funds to gaining access to credit. In addressing such concerns, educators need to focus directly on providing youth with a foundation for understanding personal financial management. The need for such efforts can be gauged from information about a much broader audience. Research studies and anecdotal reports point to trends in consumer financial conditions that have caused concern among consumer groups. For example, Federal Reserve statistics indicate that household debt outstanding increased by more than nine percent in 2002, the largest rate of increase since 1989. And while analyses suggest that, overall, this level of debt is being serviced adequately, reports of nonbusiness bankruptcy filings reaching record highs in 2002 reveal that many consumers are experiencing significant financial crises. Regulators, lenders, community leaders, and consumer advocates continue to be concerned about abusive home-mortgage lending practices. More recently, the emergence of certain deposit-linked products has also sparked debate among these parties. For example, one product marketed as protection against bounced checks has generated concerns among consumer groups ranging from the appropriateness of assessed fees to the possible unintended effect of reinforcing poor account-management practices on the part of consumers who do not properly monitor their accounts. Trends in the Financial Services Industry The information summarized above might seem to indicate that the combination of market forces and industry trends has had negative effects on consumers. On the contrary, because of the remarkable growth and technological developments in financial services, many benefits have accrued to consumers of household and business credit. Computer and telecommunications technologies have lowered the cost and broadened the scope of financial services. As a consequence, specialized lenders and new financial products tailored to meet very specific market needs have proliferated. At the same time, the development of credit-scoring tools and the securitization of loan pools hold the potential for opening doors to national credit markets for both consumers and businesses. Deregulation has created important structural changes in the financial services industry and has contributed significantly to creating a marketplace that is increasingly competitive and highly innovative. Throughout our banking history, we have seen significant adjustments to existing policies to enable markets to respond to the demand for services. These structural changes have heightened competition, resulting in market efficiencies that continue to help drive down costs and foster the emergence of increasingly diverse and highly specialized organizations. These entities range from banks and brokerage firms that offer their services exclusively through electronically based delivery mechanisms to locally based public-private partnerships that provide counseling and financing arrangements to low- and moderate-income families. …


Optical polarimetry observations on La Palma, Canary Islands, during a Saharan dust episode show dichroic extinction indicating the presence of vertically aligned parti- cles in the atmosphere. Modelling of the extinction together with particle orientation indicates that the alignment could have been due to an electric field of the order of 2 kV/m. Two alternative mechanisms for the origin of the field are ex- amined: the effect of reduced atmospheric conductivity and charging of the dust layer, the latter effect being a more likely candidate. It is concluded that partial alignment may be a common feature of Saharan dust layers. The modelling in- dicates that the alignment can significantly alter dust optical depth. This "Venetian blind effect" may have decreased opti- cal thickness in the vertical direction by as much as 10% for the case reported here. It is also possible that the alignment and the electric field modify dust transport.


This paper estimates the effects of offshoring on labour market inequalities between skill groups based on German industry level data from 1995 to 2007. Our main findings are the following: First, offshoring is on average biased in favour of high-skilled employees and in disfavour of low-skilled employees. This effect is strongly driven by the manufacturing sector, material offshoring, and offshoring to Central and Eastern Europe. Second, we find that the labour market adjusts to offshoring mainly through changes in relative wages rather than changes in relative employment. This runs counter to the classical argument that German labour market institutions (collective bargaining, unemployment benefits, etc.) lead to rigid wage structures and high unemployment rates. Third, in the service sector it is the group of medium-skilled employees which is particularly exposed to offshoring, possibly due to the different nature of tasks there. Fourth, medium-skilled employees are also negatively affected by technological change, which explains recent trends towards a polarisation in labour demand.


Abstract. Submarine melting of the calving face of tidewater glaciers and the mechanical back force applied by the ice melange layer are two mechanisms generally proposed to explain seasonal variations at the calving front of tidewater glaciers. However, the way these processes affect the calving rate and glacier dynamics remains uncertain. In this study, we used a finite element-based model that solves the full Stokes equations to simulate the impact of these forcings on two-dimensional theoretical flow line glacier configurations. The model, which includes calving processes, suggests that frontal melting affects the position of the terminus only slightly (less than a few hundred metres) and does not affect the multiannual glacier mass balance at all. However, the ice melange has a greater impact on the advance and retreat cycles of the glacier front (more than several kilometres) and its consequences for the mass balance are not completely negligible, stressing the need for better characterization of forcing properties. We also show that ice melange forcing against the calving face can mechanically prevent crevasse propagation at sea level and hence prevent calving. Results also reveal different behaviours in grounded and floating glaciers: in the case of a floating extension, the strongest forcings can disrupt the glacier equilibrium by modifying its buttressing and ice flux at the grounding line.


This third volume in the outstanding series makes important new contributions to our understanding of the process whereby individuals and groups attribute meanings to the political structures and communities they create or inherit. Avoiding simplistic distinctions between religion and politics, each of these essays suggests more satisfactory ways of approaching the complex nature of these dynamic phenomena. They explore the role of traditional religious values, symbols, affiliations, and/or leaders in dealing with contemporary sociopolitical realities, analyzing the way in which religious traditions help shape the understanding and meaning of contemporary political realities and how they are reinterpreted and used to accomplish political and religious goals.