OBJECTIVE
To determine the independent contribution of admission delirium to hospital outcomes including mortality, institutionalization, and functional decline.

DESIGN
Three prospective cohort studies.

SETTING
Three university-affiliated teaching hospitals.

PATIENTS
Consecutive samples of 727 patients, aged 65 years and older.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Delirium was present at admission in 88 (12%) of 727 patients. The main outcome measures at hospital discharge and 3-month follow-up were death, new nursing home placement, death or new nursing home placement, and functional decline. At hospital discharge, new nursing home placement occurred in 60 (9%) of 692 patients, and the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for delirium, controlling for baseline covariates of age, gender, dementia, APACHE II score, and functional measures, was 3.0, (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4, 6.2). Death or new nursing home placement occurred in 95 (13%) of 727 patients (adjusted OR for delirium 2.1, 95% CI 1.1, 4.0). The findings were replicated across all sites. The associations between delirium and death alone (in 35 [5%] of 727 patients) and between delirium and length of stay were not statistically significant. At 3-month follow-up, new nursing home placement occurred in 77 (13%) of 600 patients (adjusted OR for delirium 3.0; 95% CI 1.5, 6.0). Death or new nursing home placement occurred in 165 (25%) of 663 patients (adjusted OR for delirium 2.6; 95% CI 1.4, 4.5). The findings were replicated across all sites. For death alone (in 98 [14%] of 680 patients), the adjusted OR for delirium was 1.6 (95% CI 0.8, 3.2). Delirium was a significant predictor of functional decline at both hospital discharge (adjusted OR 3.0; 95% CI 1.6, 5.8) and follow-up (adjusted OR 2.7; 95% CI 1.4, 5.2).

CONCLUSIONS
Delirium is an important independent prognostic determinant of hospital outcomes including new nursing home placement, death or new nursing home placement, and functional decline-even after controlling for age, gender, dementia, illness severity, and functional status. Thus, delirium should be considered as a prognostic variable in case-mix adjustment systems and in studies examining hospital outcomes in older persons.


This article seeks to transform how we think about "affirmative action." The Supreme Court's affirmative action jurisprudence appears to be a seamless whole, but closer examination reveals important differences. Government race-consciousness sometimes grants a benefit to members of a minority group for remedial or diversifying purposes. But the government may also undertake remedial or diversifying race-conscious action without it resulting in unequal treatment or disadvantage to non-minorities. Under the Court's current equal protection doctrine, both categories of cases are treated as presumptively unconstitutional. Race-consciousness itself has become a constitutional harm, regardless of tangible effects.Prior scholarship has suggested that the "strict colorblindness" doctrine is best understood as the Court finding that race-conscious government action inflicts an expressive harm. This Article breaks new ground by arguing that functionally, the Court has come to view race-conscious government action as a form of prohibited government speech because it conflicts with the Court's preferred message of post-racialism. In essence, the Court has decided that when the government takes such action, it is sending an impermissible message that race still matters in our society. The Court's colorblindness doctrine, which is premised on expressive harm, is fundamentally inconsistent with the rationales for the government speech doctrine under the First Amendment. As that doctrine recognizes, disagreement with the message sent by government action is not by itself sufficient to state a constitutional claim. Rather, such disagreement is best addressed through the political process. This Article argues that the Court should use government speech principles to inform its equal protection analysis in cases where the harm alleged is predominantly expressive in nature.


It is known that traffic is a source of pollutants and that pollutant loads increase with elevated traffic densities. Studies executed in Stockholm, Sweden advocate that highway runoff from roads with an annual average daily traffic (AADT) exceeding 30,000 vehicles need treatment before discharge to the receiving water. It is common knowledge that sedimentation is the most expedient method for stormwater treatment. However, sedimentation units are area demanding and in highly urbanised watersheds the land use is often restricted. Studies have implied the occurrence of first flush, i.e. an initially higher pollutant load in the beginning of the runoff event, in highway watersheds. With an emphasized first flush it would be possible to treat only a part of the total runoff volume reducing the area needed for a sedimentation basin. In general two methods are used to design stormwater treatment ponds. One method is based on the reduced catchment area and pond surface and the other is based on an average runoff volume and a permanent pond volume. The methods are relaying on data from routine monitoring of various treatment systems and suggest removal efficiencies for pollutants. Applying general removal efficiencies for design it can be intricate to estimate an outlet concentration when the specific removal efficiency may be dependent on the initial concentration of the pollutant. Consequently, knowledge of the removal efficiencies dependence on initial concentration would be helpful to optimise stormwater treatment systems. This research has studied runoff from highly trafficated watersheds. The aim has been to evaluate the mass transport, stormwater quality and sedimentation behaviour and their implications for stormwater treatment. The study sites, Eugenia and Fredhall, are located along the six-lane highway E4 through Stockholm that has an AADT load of 120,000 vehicles and a speed limit of 70 km/h. In lack of a unified definition of first flush the mass transport was studied using the EU directive 1991/271/EEC discharge demand for TSS of 60 mg/l. It was found that for the majority of the runoff events during winter the event mean concentration exceeded 60 mg/l suggesting that the complete runoff volume should be captured during winter. The dissolved concentration of metals showed significant variations between winter and summer, as did the concentration in the particulate matter (mg/kg). It was possible to correlate total metal concentration to total suspended solids with good correlation (r2 >0.90) for the majority of studied metals in winter and summer. The findings would imply that a successful treatment of the studied metal pollutants could be carried out by sedimentation. However, depending on discharge criteria, the elevated levels of dissolved matter, especially during winter, have to be considered with regards to the selection of the appropriate water treatment process. The sedimentation process could be described by a logarithmical function and initial turbidity. Good correlation (r2 >0.90) was indicated between turbidity and TSS. The sedimentation process of the studied highway runoff varied significantly (p<0.05) when elevated levels of NaCl could be found in the runoff. A significant difference (p<0.05) was shown for turbidity and TSS between summer and winter, which was assumed to be related to the use of studded tires. This study implies that the entire runoff volume must be treated and that the use of first flush as a design criterion is less applicable for the winter period. The study implies good correlation between total metal concentration and TSS. In addition the indicated correlation between turbidity and TSS would point to the possibility to use turbidity as a surrogate measurement for TSS and the studied metals. Moreover, the possibility to describe the sedimentation process by the initial concentration of turbidity would infer the utilisation of turbidity as a tool for process control for stormwater treatment systems. In addition, the novel results for the dependence on the sedimentation process could be incorporated in existing models for design of stormwater treatment systems in similar watersheds.


Although these lectures were given to teachers as preparatory material, they are by no means concerned only with education. Study of Man is Steiner's most succinct presentation of his human-centred spiritual psychology, accessible to anyone interested in the riddles of human existence. His approach is unique in that it takes account not only of influences working into humanity from the past, but also of future states of consciousness and being. Reprinted here in the original 'classic' Harwood/Fox translation, the lectures were delivered in 1919 to the teachers of the Waldorf school in Stuttgart, the first to be founded on the work of Rudolf Steiner. Over the years, since the exponential growth of Steiner education around the world, this volume has become the basic study text for teachers in Steiner schools. But as well as providing a grounding for the work of educators, Study of Man will be of keen interest to parents, counsellors, psychologists, and students of Steiner's philosophy. For the latter, this volume provides a fundamental picture of the human being according to the anthroposophical understanding of the world.


Polyelectrolytes such as PAA and its salts are widely used, but are notoriously difficult to characterize due to their polyelectrolyte properties and broad molecular mass distributions. In this paper, we report on a new PAA analysis by combining asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation and an advanced SAXS technique using an acoustic levitator to minimize background scattering. The proof-of-principle is demonstrated with a mixture of three standard PAAs with different molecular masses. Detailed information on the PAA fractions is available on radii of gyration, polymer contour lengths, and coil conformation. Our method is expected to be applicable for a wide range of watersoluble synthetic and natural polymers and ideal for


The approach proposed in this paper is to develop a methodology for controlling an optimized power chain structure of electric vehicles. This method is suitable for permanent magnet axial flux synchronous motors and for IGBT converters. Two IGBT converter structures are selected, a structure with six IGBTs and the other with three IGBTs. The choice of these two structures is to reduce the cost of the power chain by reducing the number of IGBT and simplified the electronics control system. Reducing the number of IGBTs also leads to increased autonomy since the energy lost by conduction and switching will be reduced by a factor of 2. These two structures require a comparative design and control study to validate the choice for a joint reduction of cost and energy consumed. The overall design of the power chain is implemented in the simulation environment Matlab


This paper proposes, for the first time, an integrated optical isolator independent of light polarization. A Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with two nonreciprocal phase shifters, one for transverse electric (TE) modes and another one for transverse magnetic (TM) modes can be adjusted so that it blocks the fundamental modes of the waveguides constituting the interferometer propagating in one direction and is transparent for the modes propagating in the opposite direction. If the interferometer branch waveguides are in single mode regime, the performance of the device will not depend on the polarization of incoming light. The nonreciprocal phase shifters can be realized on structures with magnetization tangential to the propagation direction. Three geometries of nonreciprocal phase shifters are discussed and tolerances are estimated.


The increasing prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and limitations in existing treatment options have led parents to seek out treatments such as sound-based training programs. Recent studies have sought to integrate neuroimaging techniques with sound-based interventions in ASD. Given the increasing popularity of these interventions and the paucity of existing research into sound-based therapies, there is significant interest in elucidating the mechanisms by which these therapies impact atypical auditory processing, as well as in the design and refinement of intervention techniques. This paper aims to review the extant literature addressing atypical auditory processing within the ASD population and current sound-based interventions in the context of behavioral, neuroimaging, and neurophysiological domains. The evidence for its effectiveness as an early intervention tool in the treatment of ASD is discussed and suggestions for future directions are offered.


In recent years, the Internet has emerged as a powerful educational and information tool. With the increasing impact of information technology on higher education, all those concerned with higher education today are attempting to grasp how information technology could help in modernizing the process of teaching, research, and learning. In this context, Internet has emerged as a formidable social and cultural institution of global proportions facilitating access to a wealth of information on the web for the academic society to support their academic and research activities. The study is aimed at analyzing the Internet use and its impact among the faculty members of self financing engineering colleges of Salem district. The growing Internet and emerging network technologies have been revolutionizing society by making information available to the people in a new way. Use of Internet is increasing day by day as it is time saving, more informative and less expensive. Results of the present study show that 2-3 hours of access to Internet is quite common among the civil and mechanical engineering faculties. Study reveals that civil engineering faculty respondents take the first position with respect to their overall purpose of gathering e-resources, mechanical engineering faculty respondents the second, electrical engineering faculty the third, computer science engineering faculty the fourth and chemical engineering faculty the last.


Objectives: An aim of this research was to gain prevalence rates of emotional abuse (EA) and emotional neglect (EN) in a community based adolescent sample. This exploratory research also attempted to determine the impact of EA, EN and a combination of the two (emotional maltreatment; EM) on adolescent's emotion regulation (ER). The impact of temperament, gender and age was also considered, along with the adolescent's subsequent quality of life ratings. Method: A total of 540 adolescents (mean age 14 years) were recruited through their secondary schools, and completed the following questionnaires: the EN and EA subtests of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein & Fink, 1994); the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire – Short Form (EATQ – SF; Ellis & Rothbart, 1999); the Basic Emotions Scale (BES; Power, 2006); the Regulation of Emotions Questionnaire (REQ; Phillips & Power, 2007) and the Kid Screen -10 item Health Questionnaire for Children and Young People (Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2005). Results: Prevalence rates of EA and EN were reported. Differences were detected between EA and EN in terms of how they affect experiences of basic emotions and how they impact on ER, even after controlling for temperament. Only EA was associated with aggression, whereas both EA and EN were associated with depressive mood and reduced quality of life. Conclusions: EA and EN are different maltreatment experiences which have different detrimental effects on the individual, therefore requiring different interventions.


As a result of the increase in accessibility of computational resources and the increase in the power of the computers during the last two decades, designers are able to create computer models to simulate the behavior of a complex products. To address global competitiveness, companies are forced to optimize their designs and products. Optimizing the design needs several runs of computationally expensive simulation models. Therefore, using metamodels as an efficient and sufficiently accurate approximate of the simulation model is necessary. Radial basis functions (RBF) is one of the several metamodeling methods that can be found in the literature. The established approach is to add a bias to RBF in order to obtain a robust performance. The a poste-riori bias is considered to be unknown at the beginning and it is defined by imposing extra orthogonality constraints. In this thesis, a new approach in constructing RBF with the bias to be set a priori by using the normal equation is proposed. The performance of the suggested approach is compared to the classic RBF with a posteriori bias. Another comprehensive comparison study by including several modeling criteria, such as problem dimension, sampling technique and size of samples is conducted. The studies demonstrate that the suggested approach with a priori bias is in general as good as the performance of RBF with a pos-teriori bias. Using the a priori RBF, it is clear that the global response is modeled with the bias and that the details are captured with radial basis functions. Multi-objective optimization and the approaches used in solving such problems are briefly described in this thesis. One of the methods that proved to be efficient in solving multi-objective optimization problems (MOOP) is the strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA2). Multi-objective optimization of a disc brake system of a heavy truck by using SPEA2 and RBF with a priori bias is performed. As a result, the possibility to reduce the weight of the system without extensive compromise in other objectives is found. Multi-objective optimization of material model parameters of an adhesive layer with the aim of improving the results of a previous study is implemented. The result of the original study is improved and a clear insight into the nature of the problem is revealed.


The present article looks how intimate liaisons between Dutch women and Balinese men are intertwined in complex and sometimes paradoxical ways in regard to class position, gender ideologies and immigration policy in the contemporary Netherlands. Central to this analysis is a dialogue between Dutch women, their Balinese partners and popular discourse about Dutch women who marry 'the other men'. I examine how citizenship regulations that play a significant role in interfamilial relations of interdependency form complex gender dynamics, and how Dutch women's rhetoric about the emancipation of Dutch women and desire for a companionate marriage tend to collide with the practices of everyday life. I argue that gender ideologies in these cross-cultural liaisons are conceptualised and reconceptualised in relation to 'gender imaginings'. I suggest that the ideals of companionate marriage, favoured by Dutch women, are linked directly to ideals of modernity and individualism, in which particular scripts of gender relations are used to differentiate progressive individuals from those who are not.


A nonlocal observation operator has been developed to assimilate GPS radio occultation (RO) refractivity with WRF 3DVAR. For simplicity, in the past GPS RO refractivity was often assimilated using a local observation operator with the assumption that the GPS RO observation was representative of a model local point. Such an operator did not take into account the effects of horizontal inhomogeneity on the derived GPS RO refractivity. In order to more accurately model the observables, Sokolovskiy et al. (2005a) developed a nonlocal observation operator; which would take into account the effects of horizontal inhomogeneity on GPS RO measurements. This nonlocal observation operator calculates the integrated amount of the model refractivity along the ray paths centered at the perigee points. For comparative purposes, the nonlocal observation operator can be simplified by limiting the length of integration near the RO point. This is called the "local operator variant", which is equivalent to the original local operator except that the original one is performed with fixed tangent points at observation levels. For computational efficiency, assimilation using both the nonlocal operator and local operator variant now is performed with smear tangent points at the mean height of each model vertical level. In this study, the statistics of observation errors using both local and nonlocal operators were estimated based on WRF simulations. The observation errors produced by the nonlocal operator are about two times smaller than those generated by the local operator and in agreement with Sokolovskiy et al. (2005b). Each of the three operators is used to assimilate GPS RO refractivity soundings from the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission using the WRF 3DVAR system. The WRF model then is applied to simulate Typhoons Kaemi (July 2006) which struck Taiwan with significant torrential rainfall. The analysis increments produced by the nonlocal operator and local operator variant are quite similar in horizontal and vertical distributions; whereas, the former is slightly stretched along the ray's direction, as a result of the longer integration length. The simulated typhoon tracks prior to landfall are quite similar for the three operators. Both the nonlocal operator and local operator variant improve the detoured track after landfall as predicted by the local operator. The nonlocal operator outperforms the two local operators in rainfall prediction at later times. The performances of the nonlocal operator in general are promising and can replace the local operator at no marked cost of computational efficiency.


ABSTRACT. Genetic variation in ecophysiological and survival responses to drought was studied in 2 northern Arizona native grass species, Koeleria macrantha (Ledeb.) Schult, (prairie Junegrass) and Elymus elymoides (Raf.) Swezey. ssp. elymoides (squirreltail). Low- and high-elevation populations of each species were compared in a greenhouse common garden experiment that included simulated drought. Leaf gas-exchange characteristics were significantly affected by simulated drought and often by population elevation, but gas-exchange responses to drought were similar for high- and low-elevation populations. Compared to high-elevation populations, low-elevation populations of both species had higher net photosynthetic rate and predawn water potential, and for E. elymoides had higher stomatal conductance. Leaf-level water-use efficiency did not differ between populations for either species. Populations also differed significantly in leaf morphological characteristics related to water use. Compared to high-elevation populations, low-elevation populations of both species had smaller leaves. Low-elevation populations of both species survived aboveground longer than high-elevation populations during drought, with a larger difference in K. macrantha than in E. elymoides. These results suggest strong selection for drought adaptation and water use along an elevational and water-availability gradient in native grasses.


BACKGROUND
Foods from the Rosaceae botanical family have been increasingly reported as causes of allergic reaction. Patients frequently have positive skin tests or radioallergosorbent test results for multiple members of this botanical family.

OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to investigate the clinical cross-reactivity assessed by double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge (DBPCFC) of Rosaceae foods (apricot, almond, plum, strawberry, apple, peach, and pear).

METHODS
Thirty-four consecutive adult patients complaining of adverse reactions to Rosaceae were included in the study. Skin prick tests and CAP System (FEIA) were performed with Rosaceae foods in all patients. Clinical reactivity to Rosaceae was systematically evaluated by open food challenges (OFCs), unless there was a convincing history of a recent severe anaphylaxis. Positive reactions on OFCs were subsequently evaluated by DBPCFCs.

RESULTS
Twenty-six and 24 patients had positive skin prick tests and CAP FEIA with Rosaceae, respectively; from these 88% and 100% had positive tests with >/=2. No evidence of clinical reactivity was found in 66% percent of positive skin prick tests and 63% of positive specific IgE determinations to fruits. A total of 226 food challenges (including OFC and DBPCFC) were performed in the 28 patients with positive skin prick tests or CAP System FEIA. Of 182 initial OFCs carried out, 26 (14%) reactions were confirmed by DBPCFCs. Overall, 40 reactions were considered positive in 22 patients with positive skin tests or CAP FEIA. Thirty-eight reactions had been previously reported, the remaining two were detected by systematic challenges. Most reactions were caused by peach (22 patients), apple (6), and apricot (5). Ten patients (46%) were clinically allergic to peach and other Rosaceae.

CONCLUSION
Positive skin test and CAP System FEIA should not be taken as the only guide for multi-species dietary restrictions. Nevertheless, the potential clinical allergy to other Rosaceae should not be neglected. If the reported reaction is confirmed, current tolerance to other Rosaceae should be precisely established unless there has been ingestion without symptoms after the reaction.


Many previous studies have indicated that the attachment pattern developed during infancy shapes the adult attachment style, which in turn affects responses to stress and help-seeking behaviors. It may be relevant within clinical contexts to have easy-to-administer and rapid tools aimed to investigate attachment dimensions. The current study presents the Italian adaptation of the Brief Modified Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR-M16) – a self-reported measure of the attachment-style dimensions with reference to close others – and assesses its factorial structure. The questionnaire was administered to cancer outpatients. The number of factors to be extracted was calculated via parallel analysis. Subsequently, an exploratory factor analysis was run to calculate the first-order factor structure, which was compared to the original one via Procrustes rotation and Tucker's coefficient. Finally, a second-order factor structure was calculated by factor analyzing the first-order factor scores. The Italian adaptation of the ECR-M16 is characterized by a first-order factor structure comprising four factors, like the original. The degree of similarity between the two ranges between fair and dissimilar. The second-order factor structure comprises two higher order dimensions, like in the original study. Although partially similar, the two second-order factor structures show relevant differences. A clinically oriented discussion centered on the similarities and differences between the two factor structures is provided, along with indications for future studies.


Even with the advent of hardware-accelerated ray tracing in modern GPUs, only a small number of rays can be traced at each pixel in real-time applications. This presents a significant challenge for path tracing, even when augmented with state-of-the art denoising algorithms. While the recently-developed ReSTIR algorithm [BWP∗20] enables high-quality renderings of scenes with millions of light sources using just a few shadow rays at each pixel, there remains a need for effective algorithms to sample indirect illumination. We introduce an effective path sampling algorithm for indirect lighting that is suitable to highly parallel GPU architectures. Building on the screen-space spatio-temporal resampling principles of ReSTIR, our approach resamples multi-bounce indirect lighting paths obtained by path tracing. Doing so allows sharing information about important paths that contribute to lighting both across time and pixels in the image. The resulting algorithm achieves a substantial error reduction compared to path tracing: at a single sample per pixel every frame, our algorithm achieves MSE improvements ranging from 9.3× to 166× in our test scenes. In conjunction with a denoiser, it leads to high-quality path traced global illumination at real-time frame rates on modern GPUs. CCS Concepts • Computing methodologies → Rendering; Ray tracing;


Abstract Based on the experimental data of total, nonelastic, elastic cross sections and elastic-scattering angular distributions for n + 58Ni reactions, a set of neutron optical model potential parameters is obtained in the region of incident neutron energy from 0.8 to 150 MeV. Then the reaction cross sections, angular distributions, energy spectra, gamma-ray production cross sections, and gamma-ray production energy spectra are calculated and evaluated by optical model, distorted wave Born approximation theory, Hauser-Feshbach theory, exciton model, and cascade mechanism inside nuclear. The results are compared with existing experimental data and other evaluated data from ENDF/B-VI and in agreement with each other within the uncertainties of these evaluations and measurements. Finally, the covariances for the important neutron cross sections are estimated using the SPC code based on the available experimental data.


This paper investigates the day of the week effect in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) General Index over a ten year period divided into two subperiods: 1995-2000 and 2001-2004. Five major indices are also considered: Banking, Insurance, and Miscellaneous for the first subperiod, and FTSE-20 and FTSE-40 for the second subperiod. Using a conditional variance framework, which extends previous work on the Greek stock market, we test for possible existence of day of the week variation in both return and volatility equations. When using the GARCH (1,1) specification only for the return equation and the Modified-GARCH (1,1) specification for both the return and volatility equations, findings indicate that the day of the week effect is present for the examined indices of the emerging ASE over the period 1995-2000. However, this stock market anomaly seems to loose its strength and significance in the ASE over the period 2001-2004, which might be due to the Greek entry to the Euro-Zone and the market upgrade to the developed.


Assessments of Singapore's history invariably revolve around Sir Stamford Raffles' arrival in 1819. Before this date – we've been told – "nothing very much appears to have happened in Singapore". Pre-1819 Singapore was a sleepy, historically insignificant fishing village, little more than the "occasional resort of pirates". This ambitious book, co-written by four of Singapore's foremost historians, offers an assertive re-evaluation of that view, firmly situating Singapore's starting point seven hundred years ago. Drawing on a multi-disciplinary range of archival, textual and cartographical records, as well as the latest archaeological discoveries, the authors cast a singular historical trajectory for Singapore over the past seven centuries, animating its history like never before. Written in a compelling and accessible manner, and richly illustrated with more than 200 artefacts, photographs, maps, art works and ephemera, this volume builds upon the foundations of an earlier book, Singapore: A 700-Year History. Extensively rewritten to incorporate ground-breaking research findings, Seven Hundred Years: A History of Singapore widens the historical lens and offers a vital new perspective on the story of Singapore.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the immunologic response to insulin lispro with that to regular human insulin, thereby assuring its safety for use in women with gestational diabetes, and to verify that it is effective.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
We compared the metabolic and immunologic effects of insulin lispro and regular human insulin in 42 women >18 years of age diagnosed with gestational diabetes by oral glucose tolerance testing at 14-32 weeks of gestation. Patients were randomized to receive regular human insulin or insulin lispro before consuming a test meal. Serum insulin, blood glucose, and C-peptide concentrations were measured. Throughout the remainder of gestation, patients received premeal insulin lispro or regular human insulin combined with basal insulin and performed blood glucose self-monitoring before and after each meal. Insulin antibodies and HbA1c were determined at enrollment and 6 weeks later. In addition, 10 patients received continuous intravenous insulin (4 lispro, 6 regular human insulin) and dextrose infusions intrapartum to assess placental insulin transfer.

RESULTS
Anti-insulin antibody levels were similar in the two groups. Insulin lispro was not detectable in the cord blood. During a meal test, areas under the curve for glucose, insulin, and C-peptide were significantly lower in the lispro group. Mean fasting and postprandial glucose concentrations and end point HbA1c were similar in the two groups. The lispro group demonstrated fewer hypoglycemic episodes (symptoms and blood glucose concentrations <55 mg/dl). No fetal or neonatal abnormalities were noted in either treatment group.

CONCLUSIONS
Insulin lispro may be considered a treatment option for women with gestational diabetes.


The "Boston Globe" calls Frederick Buechner "one of our finest writers." "USA Today" says he's "one of our most original storytellers." Now this acclaimed author gives us his most beguiling novel yet--a magical tale of love, betrayal, and redemption inspired by Shakespeare's "The Tempest." On wealthy Plantation Island in South Florida, an old man waits, Kenzie Maxwell is a writer, a raconteur, a rascal, an altruist, a mystic--a charismatic figure who enjoys life with his rich third wife but muses daily on the sins of his past. Two decades ago, Kenzie had to leave New York because of a scandal. He'd been a volunteer at a runawat shelter, and he'd fallen in love with a seventeen-year-old girl--a girl who died while giving birth to Kenzie's daughter. His older brother, Dalton, a lawyer and board member at the shelter, decided to quell the rumors by releasing Kenzie's note of apology to the press. Kenzie's reputation--and the girl's--were destroyed. He has never forgiven his brother. Now it's the eve of Kenzie's seventieth birthday, and a storm is brewing. His beloved daughter, Bree--the child of the scandal--is coming down from New York for his birthday party. But his brother Dalton is coming down, too, to do some legal work for the island's ill-tempered matriarch. Aided and abetted by Dalton's happy-go-lucky stepson, a loutish gardener, a New Age windsurfer, a bumbling bishop, and a bona fide tempest, Kenzie must somehow contrive to reconcile with his brother--and make peace with his past. Infused with humanity, and informed by faith. "The Storm" is Frederick Buechner's most captivating novel since "Godric" --a richly satisfying contemporary story of fragmented familiesand love's many mysteries that will move you, make you laugh, and fill you with wonder.


Value at Risk (VaR) has become a benchmark methodology among investors and banks for measuring market risk. Commercially available modelling packages can be both expensive and inflexible, thereby restricting their use by academic researchers and teachers. Using nonparametric methodology, this paper provides a step-bystep teaching study on how to use Excel to construct a VaR spreadsheet for an individual asset as well as for a portfolio. This can benefit financial modelling teachers by providing them with a readily useable teaching study on how to model VaR, as well as benefit researchers by showing them how to construct an inexpensive and flexible VaR model.


Environmental education has been widely promoted in Hong Kong schools since the 1990s. Teachers have a crucial role in educating students to be well-informed, environmentally aware and responsible green citizens. The environmental literacy and tendencies of teachers are seen as having far-reaching influences on the development of environmental education in Hong Kong. This paper aims to elucidate teachers' competence in implementing environmental education in schools through their narrative dialogues regarding their engagement in classroom practice and thinking about environmental education. The teachers were selected from a pool of teacher respondents categorized according to their scores for environmental knowledge, attitude and behaviour in a territory-wide survey of Hong Kong primary school teachers. Follow-up interviews with three teachers of varying levels were conducted to explicate their personal stories, focusing on how the teachers' knowledge–attitude–behaviour associations influence their implementation of environmental education in schools. The teachers' experiences and perspectives behind their stories provide crucial, specific baseline information, informing the development of more relevant teacher education programmes in environmental education, and subsequently, enhancing environmental education in schools.


The use of single-use systems is becoming increasingly common in the biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. These systems are manufactured from polymers such as polyethylene (PE) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA). For their future applications, these devices are sterilized by γ-irradiation with a dose between 25 and 45kGy. C. Artandi and W.V. Winklei determined that 25kGy is the dose to be at 40% above the minimum needed to kill the most resistant microorganisms. The purpose of this study is to understand what happens on the surface of polymers after γ-sterilization. Optical spectroscopy are of great interest for chemical analysis and are used to obtain information on the composition of materials, such as polymers. The Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy provides information on the fundamental vibrations of the molecules using an excitation in the visible. The surface of films is analyzed after being sterilized with different radiation doses and after a natural ageing of few months to check their composition and stability by FTIR spectroscopy. As the number of data is important, the use of chemometric methods, like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and AComDim (ANOVA Common Dimensions), has many advantages, such as identification of shift and intensity modification, detection and highlighting of the influential factors and interactions between several elements (γ-doses, aging, and film batches). i Guide to Irradiation and Sterilization Validation of Single-Use Bioprocess Systems, Bioprocess International, may 2008, p12.


Using the competency-based test instrument developed for Education Watch 2000 this study made a comparison of learning achievement of two types of primary schools viz., government primary schools (GPS) and BRAC primary schools (BPS). Sixty schools from rural Bangladesh equally distributed by type was randomly chosen for the study. Number of students under test was 600 from BPS and 581 from GPS. Education Watch data of 2000 and other datasets on BPS on the same issue were used to see the improvement in performance over time. The analyses reveal that the overall performance of BPS was slightly better than that of GPS. The gap between BPS and GPS narrowed down from 2000 to 2006. There is still scope for both the sub-systems to improve in achievement of more competencies by the students including gender equity. Students were well in the test items assessing knowledge but they were found weak in those items requiring 'understanding level' of skills. Scope to improve 'understanding level' of skills of the students cannot be ignored.


We report a case of human tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in which the TBE virus was isolated from the biting tick. Viral growth and sequence were characterized and compared with those of a reference strain. Virus isolation from ticks from patients with TBE may offer a new approach for studies of epidemiology and pathogenicity.


Seasonal diets, seasonal microbiota Among the Hadza of western Tanzania, a few hundred people still live in small groups as hunter-gatherers, reliant solely on the wild environment for food. Smits et al. found that the microbiota of these people reflects the seasonal availability of different types of food (see the Perspective by Peddada). Between seasons, striking differences were observed in their gut microbial communities, with some taxa apparently disappearing, only to reappear when the seasons turned. Further comparison of the Hadza microbiota with that of diverse urbanized peoples revealed distinctly different patterns of microbial community composition. Science, this issue p. 802; see also p. 754 The composition of microbes in the guts of the Hadza hunter-gatherers undergoes an annual cyclic reconfiguration. Although humans have cospeciated with their gut-resident microbes, it is difficult to infer features of our ancestral microbiome. Here, we examine the microbiome profile of 350 stool samples collected longitudinally for more than a year from the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania. The data reveal annual cyclic reconfiguration of the microbiome, in which some taxa become undetectable only to reappear in a subsequent season. Comparison of the Hadza data set with data collected from 18 populations in 16 countries with varying lifestyles reveals that gut community membership corresponds to modernization: Notably, the taxa within the Hadza that are the most seasonally volatile similarly differentiate industrialized and traditional populations. These data indicate that some dynamic lineages of microbes have decreased in prevalence and abundance in modernized populations.


Article is devoted to problems of purchase of the electric power in the wholesale market for the industry of Russia. Authors considered the mechanism of pricing and various combinations between the prices of the market for days forward and the prices of the balancing market. Favorable and adverse ratios between the prices of the balancing market and submitted plans for power consumption are revealed. The urgency of forecasting of the industrial power consumption, allowing providing a sustainable development not only power supply systems and the power companies, but also region economy as a whole is proved. Recommendations about improvement of forecasting of the power consumption, based on the account not only the factors defining requirement for the electric power, but also factors considering tendencies of the balancing market are offered. As methods of forecasting sharing of methods of the regression analysis and method of expert evaluations is offered. Results of research will allow to increase accuracy of forecasting and to reduce financial losses not only at level of the concrete enterprises, but also at region level as a whole.


Effective learning of user preferences is critical to easing user burden in various types of matching problems. Equally important is active query selection to further reduce the amount of preference information users must provide. We address the problem of active learning of user preferences for matching problems, introducing a novel method for determining probabilistic matchings, and developing several new active learning strategies that are sensitive to the specific matching objective. Experiments with real-world data sets spanning diverse domains demonstrate that matching-sensitive active learning outperforms standard techniques.


Identifying and understanding why traits make species vulnerable to changing climatic conditions remain central problems in evolutionary and applied ecology. We used spring snow cover duration as a proxy for phenological timing of wetland ecosystems, and examined how snow cover duration during spring and during the entire snow season affected population dynamics of duck species breeding in the western boreal forest of North America, 1973–2007. We predicted that population level responses would differ among duck species, such that late‐nesting species with reduced flexibility in their timing of breeding, i.e. scaup (Aythya spp.) and scoter (Melanitta spp.), would be more strongly affected by changing snow cover conditions relative to species better able to adjust timing of breeding to seasonal phenology, i.e. mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and American wigeon (Anas americana). Population growth rates of scaup and scoter were positively linked to spring snow cover duration; after accounting for effects of density dependence, larger populations resulted after springs with long snow cover duration than after springs with short snow cover duration. In contrast, population growth rates of mallard and wigeon were either negatively or only weakly associated with snow cover duration. Duck population models were then incorporated with snow cover duration derived from climate model simulations under the A2 emission scenario, and these predictions suggested that late‐nesting duck species will experience the most severe population declines. Results are consistent with a hypothesis that the gradual climatic warming observed in the western boreal forest of North America has contributed to and may continue to exacerbate population declines of scaup and scoter.


This paper aims at designing an online energy management strategy (EMS) for a multi-stack fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle (FCHEV) to enhance the fuel economy as well as the fuel cell stacks (FCSs) lifetime. In this respect, a two-layer strategy is proposed to share the power among four FCSs and a battery pack. The first layer (local to each FCS) is held solely responsible for constantly determining the real maximum power and efficiency of each stack since the operating conditions variation and ageing noticeably influence stacks' performance. This layer is composed of a FCS semi-empirical model and a Kalman filter. The utilized filter updates the FCS model parameters to compensate for the FCSs' performance drifts. The second layer (global management) is held accountable for splitting the power among components. This layer uses two inputs per each FCS, updated maximum power and efficiency, as well as the battery state of charge (SOC) and powertrain demanded power to perform the power sharing. The proposed EMS, called adaptive state machine strategy, employs the first two inputs to sort the FCSs out and the other inputs to do the power allocation. The ultimate results of the suggested strategy are compared with two commonly used power sharing methods, namely Daisy Chain and Equal Distribution. The results of the suggested EMS indicate promising improvement in the overall performance of the system. The performance validation is conducted on a developed test bench by means of hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) technique.


Many online games for children adopt elements of narrative to encourage users to embark on and complete learning activities. One such game, described by its designers as an 'artedventure', is Leonardo's Workshop (Sanford Ink Corporation 1998–2009a). In it users travel back in time to Leonardo da Vinci's workshop guided by Carmine Chameleon, a fictional character knowledgeable in art history and theory, in order to discover who has destroyed the artist's legacy by leaving objects that do not belong to the Renaissance in his workshop.Adopting Systemic Functional Theory as the analytical framework, this chapter examines how the features that define narrative as a type of western-culture story genre (Martin and Plum 1997) are distributed multimodally and hypertextually in this hypermedia game. Specifically, by applying to the analysis of the game the systemic functional notions of 'genre' and 'macro-genre' (Martin, 1986, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2002; Martin and Rose, 2008), Djonov's (2005, in press) framework for analysing logico-semantic relations in hypermedia, Appraisal Theory (Martin and White 2005) and Stenglin's (2004, 2007, 2008a, 2008b, 2009a, 2009b, in press a, in press b) concepts of Binding and Bonding as resources for creating security and fostering affiliation in 3D and hypermedia spaces, we aim to evaluate the potential of narrative to encourage and support players' learning in Leonardo's Workshop .


Water is the most important liquid on the earth, yet the physics behind many properties of water is still poorly understood. Particular interesting are the condensed phases of water: ice and liquid water, that both possess anomalous properties. In this thesis, I focus on using different methods, including force fields as well as DFT calculations, to predict several key properties of proton-disordered ice Ih and liquid water.
The focus of my study of ice Ih is on its comparable dielectric constant e_s with liquid water, which directly results from its proton-disorder nature. Predictions of the dielectric constant of ice Ih from pairwise additive force fields fall appreciably below than the experimental values, with significant improvement being achieved by polarizable force fields. I examined the performance of different force fields, and confirmed that the polarizable AMOEBA models with three polarizable sites per molecule outperform polarizable models such as DC97 with a single polarizable site.
Since it is difficult to resolve the subtle energetic difference of different proton ordering arrangements in ice Ih with force fields, I studied the energetics of ice Ih, from DFT calculations using the BLYP functional as well as several dispersion-corrected BLYP functionals. As shown in my study, the dispersion-corrected functionals not only give better energy predictions but also get better lattice parameters and equilibrium volumes for the optimized ice Ih unit cells.
I also predicted the structural as well as dynamical properties of liquid water from ab initio molecular dynamics simulations with several dispersion-corrected BLYP functionals. The results of calculations all confirmed that including dispersion corrections in functionals is essential to get faster water rotational dynamics and a "softer" structure of liquid water.
Finally I parametrized a two-channel dispersion-corrected atom-centered pseudopotential (DCACP2) based on the BLYP functional to correct for the long-range dispersion force for three rare gas elements: helium, neon and argon. By fitting the interaction energy of three homonuclear dimers against CCSD(T) calculations, the resulting DCACP2-BLYP method performs significantly better than the one-channel DCACP approach for the two-body binding energies of the dimers. I also explore the factor responsible for the success of DCACP2 method.


This paper considers the problem of testing whether there exists a non‐negative solution to a possibly under‐determined system of linear equations with known coefficients. This hypothesis testing problem arises naturally in a number of settings, including random coefficient, treatment effect, and discrete choice models, as well as a class of linear programming problems. As a first contribution, we obtain a novel geometric characterization of the null hypothesis in terms of identified parameters satisfying an infinite set of inequality restrictions. Using this characterization, we devise a test that requires solving only linear programs for its implementation, and thus remains computationally feasible in the high‐dimensional applications that motivate our analysis. The asymptotic size of the proposed test is shown to equal at most the nominal level uniformly over a large class of distributions that permits the number of linear equations to grow with the sample size.


Image content authentication is to verify the integrity of the images, i.e. to check if the image has undergone any tampering since it was created. Digital watermarking has become a promising technique for image content authentication because of its outstanding performance and capability of tampering detection. However, many challenges for watermarking techniques for image authentication still remain unsolved or need to be improved, such as tamper localization accuracy, image quality, security, synthetic image protection, and so on. In this thesis, we propose different solutions for the content authentication of natural image and synthetic images respectively, improving the tamper localization accuracy and the watermarked image quality. In addition, we develop new watermarking schemes with region of interest masking to tackle the problem of high image fidelity requirement in special applications. First, we propose a watermarking technique for natural image authentication. By introducing the random permutation strategy in the wavelet domain, the proposed watermarking technique significantly improves the resolution of tampering detection with lower watermark payload. Due to less watermarks being embedded, the image quality is therefore improved. Furthermore, thanks to the random wavelet coefficient grouping, the scheme is intrinsically secure to local attacks. Also, scalable sensitivity of tampering detection is enabled in the authentication process by presetting the noise filter size. Second, we study the unique characteristics of synthetic images and develop a novel watermarking scheme for synthetic image authentication. The proposed watermarking algorithm is fully compatible with the characteristics of synthetic images. With less pixels modified, the authentication system can still achieve pixel-wise tamper localization resolution. Moreover, we propose a new embedding strategy, which enables the capability of recovering the altered image content of the authentication system. Hence, not only can the authenticator localize the tampered area but also it is able to recover the removed content and identify the forged parts. In addition, in order to tackle the high image fidelity requirement in some special applications, we propose a framework for ROI-supporting watermarking systems, which can be applied to different watermark embedding schemes. Based on the framework, we present the non-ubiquitous watermarking schemes with ROI masking for natural images and synthetic images respectively. Unlike the common holistic watermarking schemes, the ROI-based schemes do not embed the watermark ubiquitously over the whole image but avoiding modifying the content of the specified important regions. Although there is no watermark embedded inside these regions, their integrity is still well protected as well as other image parts. The same tamper detection resolution is achieved both inside and outside the specified ROI regions.


Received: June 2015, Accepted: August 2015 Background: In the refractory brick manufacturing industry, because of the high risks associated with the level of dust in the factory environment and thermal stress, a precise identification of industrial hazards is required as a part of safety analysis. The aim of this study was to introduce a preventive approach to risk identification and assessment in the refractory brick production line. Materials and Methods: In this paper, methods such as observation of factory operations, process analysis through the factory diagrams, and interviews with employees were used. In addition, the risk levels of the factory were investigated using the risk matrix. Results: The results of the study showed 97 deviations from the main process with various causes and consequences. None of the deviations were in the unacceptable category with 3.09% falling in the undesirable category, 3.09% in the acceptable but in need of revision category, and 92.78% in the acceptable category. Conclusions: The results showed that 40.2% of the risks were caused by human errors. The installation of a secondary control valve in the transfer route of the glue vapors to the workplace, an alternative pressure control system, a secondary ventilation system, several fans near the furnace (redundancy), and a real-time phenol monitor are recommended. Moreover, regular analysis of safety, health, and environmental risks are some of the recommendations proposed to reduce the identified risk level.


The pattern of birth weight is described among births recorded in rural maternity homes in coastal areas of Udupi taluk in South Kanara district in Karnataka state, India. Literacy of the study area was 78.5%, and female literacy was 73.0%. The mean age at marriage was 21.4 years. Over 90% of mothers received some prenatal care. Contraceptive prevalence was 43%. The study area had six rural maternity homes that each served a population of about 10,000 people. The homes were well equipped with trained nurse-midwives, medical rooms, and equipment, and were connected by roads and telephones with Kasturba Hospital. High risk cases were transported by air to Kasturba Hospital. Birth weight was recorded with a UNICEF infant lever balance scale within one hour of delivery. Between July 1985 and June 1988, 4498 singleton live births were recorded: 2308 (51.3%) boys and 2190 (48.7%) girls. 80% weighed between 2500 and 3400 g. 13.3% were low birth weight of under 2500 g, and 0.4% were very low birth weight of under 1500 g. The mean birth weight was 2823 g: 2850 g for boys and 2765.4 for girls. The mean birth weight increased with maternal age; it also increased with increased parity and increased gestation age. The lowest birth weight of 2767.7 g occurred among first births; the highest of 2897.6 g was among births to women with multiple births. 91.3% were born between 37-40 weeks, and 7.5% were preterm. There were statistically significant differences in the mean birth weights by gender. 9.1% of births were to teenagers, and 69% of mothers were 20-29 years old. 30% of births were first births, and 51% were second and third births. The small family norm appeared to be accepted by this study population.


Inertial-navigation system (INS) and global position system (GPS) technologies have been widely applied in many positioning and navigation applications. INS determines the position and the attitude of a moving vehicle in real time by processing the measurements of three-axis gyroscopes and three-axis accelerometers mounted along three mutually orthogonal directions. GPS, on the other hand, provides the position and the velocity through the processing of the code and the carrier signals of at least four satellites. Each system has its own unique characteristics and limitations. Therefore, the integration of the two systems offers several advantages and overcomes each of their drawbacks. The integration of INS and GPS is usually implemented utilizing the Kalman filter, which represents one of the best solutions for INS/GPS integration. However, the Kalman filter performs adequately only under certain predefined dynamic models. Alternatively, this paper suggests an INS/GPS integration method based on artificial neural networks (ANN) to fuse uncompensated INS measurements and differential GPS (DGPS) measurements. The proposed method suggests two different architectures: the position update architecture (PUA) and the position and velocity PUA (PVUA). Both architectures were developed utilizing multilayer feed-forward neural networks with a conjugate gradient training algorithm


This study examines the impact of media exposure and reasons for media engagement from a media-user perspective on the level of trust in the government, the economy and the future in Kuwait during the 2008 international financial crisis. The study revealed that respondents used media for reasons of future prediction, general knowledge, solution seeking, advice seeking and crisis impact. Hierarchal regression analyses indicate that trust in the media positively predicted all criterion variables. The use of media to estimate the Crisis Impact predicts trust in the economy. Newspaper use predicts faith in the economy and the future and surfing the internet only predicts trust in the economy. General exposure to the media negatively predicts trust in the economy and the future. The study discusses the power of the communicator-centred and audience-centred approaches in predicting attitudes and beliefs during times of crises.


When lesbian couples start families, one woman often begins with all the legal entitlements of parenthood, either by giving birth or by virtue of adopting a child, while the other woman has no legal rights. She is a non-legal parent. Absent legal rights she suffers many critical disadvantages. Second-parent adoptions have been developed to allow lesbians to create families with two-legal parents. They have been widely hailed as a solution to the problem of the non-legal parent. This article argues, however, that for many women they may actually make matters worse. Because some women can use second-parent adoptions, women who do not use them will be at a greater disadvantage. And the community of women who do not use second-parent adoptions may be marked by class, race and other circumstances of disadvantage. As such, second-parent adoptions must be viewed critically rather than as an uncomplicated good.


Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have recently been in the limelight for its potential role in disease diagnostics and therapeutics. Even before these medical applications can be realized, there is a need to address issues like opsonization, phagocytosis by macrophages and sequestration to liver and spleen for eventual elimination from the body. We believe coating CNT with biocompatible and opsonin resistant moieties will not only help CNT in traversing the blood stream to reach the target organ, but also improve biodistribution tremendously. We set out to achieve this by firstly identifying a new compound, mAmp, which is a fluorescent derivative of the antibiotic, Ampicillin. Besides possessing a varied plethora of properties that complements CNTs already superlative traits, mAmp also affords opsonin resistance to CNT. We wanted to test and compare the four categories of opsonin repellants that we employed: synthetic – Polyethylene glycol (PEG), semisynthetic – mAmp, seminatural – Dextran sulfate (DSS) and natural – Protein A (PrA) + Factor H (FH). We developed novel strategies to conjugate these moieties to CNT and in the process also implemented attachment of Antibodies, specific recognition moieties, to these hybrids to make them ready for precision targeting downstream. Of the four materials used, DSS posed considerable difficulties in achieving a pure DSS-CNT hybrid mainly due to its size and lack of defined purification strategies to separate polysaccharides in a mixture. We responded to this challenge by devising a simple lectin based affinity chromatography system that employs CNT as the support material. As proof of principle we tested the four hybrids on Staphylococcus aureus, in their ability to evade the bacterium in the absence of specific antibody and ability to specifically attach to the bacterium in its presence. We then tested the particles on human macrophages in the presence of opsonins, C3b and IgG. It was henceforth proved that coating CNT with the opsonin resistant moieties provided excellent immunity versus macrophages and considerable stealth character to CNTs. This dissertation is approved for Recommendation to the Graduate Council Dissertation Director: _______________________________________ Dr. Jin-Woo Kim


The human visual system is able to rapidly and accurately infer the material properties of objects and surfaces in the world. Yet an inverse optics approach—estimating the bi-directional reflectance distribution function of a surface, given its geometry and environment, and relating this to the optical properties of materials—is both intractable and computationally unaffordable. Rather, previous studies have found that the visual system may exploit low-level spatio-chromatic statistics as heuristics for material judgment. Here, we present results from psychophysics and modelling that supports the use of image statistics heuristics in the judgement of metallicity—the quality of appearance that suggests an object is made from metal. Using computer graphics, we generated stimuli that varied along two physical dimensions: the smoothness of a metal object, and the evenness of its transparent coating. This allowed for the manipulation of low-level image statistics, whilst ensuring that each stimulus was a naturalistic, physically plausible image. A conjoint-measurement task decoupled the contributions of these dimensions to the perception of metallicity. Low-level image features, as represented in the activations of oriented linear filters at different spatial scales, were found to correlate with the dimensions of the stimulus space, and decision-making models using these activations replicated observer performance in judging metal smoothness, coating bumpiness, and metallicity. Importantly, the performance of these models did not deteriorate when objects were rotated within their simulated scene, with corresponding changes in image properties. We therefore conclude that low-level image features may provide reliable cues for the robust perception of metallicity.


This symposium contribution considers five recurring themes in the application of tort law to new technologies. First, the initial batch of cases presented to courts may be atypical of later lawsuits that implicate the innovation, yet relate rules with surprising persistence. Second, these cases may be identified, and resolved, by reference to analogies that rely on similarities in form, and which do not wear well over time. Third, it may be difficult to isolate the unreasonable risks generated by an innovation from the benefits it is perceived to offer. Fourth, potential claims by early adopters of the technology may be more difficult to identify and recover upon than those that arise later, once the technology develops a mainstream audience. Fifth, and finally, uncertainty among potential plaintiffs (and their counsel) regarding the existence of a cause of action and the likelihood of recovery may beget a dearth of claims that involve an innovation for a significant period of time after its initial appearance. In introducing and explaining these themes, this article considers the initial application of tort law to technologies such as automobiles, airplanes, radio and television, and Tasers.


This Article evaluates the likely consequences of restrictions on secret settlements. Both the defendant and an early claimant - a claimant who discovers that he or she has a claim before other claimants do - have a strong incentive to maintain secrecy, and they have a variety of means by which they might do so. First, in many cases, a claimant can circumvent restrictions adopted by a single state or federal court by filing suit in a state or court without such restrictions. Second, parties might circumvent secret settlement restrictions adopted by a single state by choosing another state's law to govern the settlement. Third, parties could avoid restrictions on secret settlements in court by settling before the claimant files suit. Finally, many parties could accomplish much the same result as a secret settlement by use of predispute or postdispute arbitration agreements, taking advantage of the privacy of the arbitration process. Indeed, restrictions on secret settlements not only may be ineffective, but in fact may be counterproductive. To the extent the restrictions encourage parties to settle before the claimant files suit or to choose arbitration instead of litigation, they may reduce rather than expand the amount of information available to the public about the dispute. Currently, if the secret settlement occurs after the claimant files suit, the factual allegations in the complaint are a matter of public record for some period of time (at least until the settlement occurs). If secret settlements are prohibited, and the settlement takes place outside of court or the case goes to arbitration, even that information is lost. Thus, rather than increasing the information available to the public about alleged hazards to public health and safety, restrictions on secret settlements may have the unintended consequence of doing exactly the opposite.


This paper extends the scholarship on gender and scientific authorship by exploring women's involvement in editorial decision-making. Prior to 1945, women scientists could submit their work to the journals of the Royal Society, but they were excluded from all editorial and evaluation roles: such gate-keeping roles were reserved for Fellows of the Society. We draw upon the Society's archive to examine the experiences of female authors, referees, and communicators in the period after women were admitted to the Fellowship. We investigate the involvement of women in both anonymous roles (e.g. as referees), and in publicly visible positions of editorial responsibility (e.g. as communicators, and committee chairs). We reveal that women were better represented in both types of roles in the 1950s than in the 1970s and 1980s. These findings are pertinent to current debates about bias in the peer-review system, and the gendering of academic reward and recognition structures.


Fabrication of a photodetector consists of the conjugated polymer "MEH-PPV"- poly (2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenlenevinylene) and MEH-PPV:MWCNT nanocomposite thin film. The volume ratio investigated was 0.75:0.25. MEH-PPV was dissolved in chloroform solvent and doped with MWCNTs. The spin coating method was used to achieve a facile and low cost photodetector. The absorption spectrum decreases by adding the CNTs. The PL spectrum detected recombination curve results by doping the polymer with CNTs, and AFM measurement showed an increase of roughness average from (0.168 to 2.43nm) of "MEH-PPV" and "MEH-PPV:CNTs", respectively. The doping ratio 0.25, which has a higher photoresponsivity, was evaluated at 1.70 A/W and 2.14 A/W of the UV and Vis. wavelength range. Time-dependent photocurrent analysis showed that the higher sensitivity was 176.56 % at 350nm and 290.99% at 500 nm of the "MEH-PPV:MWCNTs" thin films, while I-V characteristics showed a rectifying behavior.


Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano began his career with exceptional design work on fan-favorite anime such as Gatchaman/G-Force and Time Bokan and popular graphic novels "Sandman: The Dream Hunters "and "Wolverine & Elektra: The Redeemer, "but it wasn't until he turned his attention to the medium of printmaking that his artistic genius began to flower. Drawing from influences as diverse as Art Nouveau and Art Deco traditions, American comics, Japanese ukiyo-e, and traditional fantasy illustration, Amano's prints capture a breathtaking world -- sometimes whimsical, sometimes luxurious, and sometimes terrifying. "Amano: The Complete Prints" showcases hundreds of these captivating works, comprising an impressive, comprehensive look at one of the art world's visionary talents. Art scholar and critic Unno Hiroshi contributes an insightful message on Amano, the genesis of this style, and his place in the panoply of art history. Also included is a brief timeline noting the high points of the artist's career.


We devise a scheme to characterize tunneling of an excess electron shared by a pair of tunnel-coupled dangling bonds on a silicon surface -- effectively a two-level system. Theoretical estimates show that the tunneling should be highly coherent but too fast to be measured by any conventional techniques. Our approach is instead to measure the time-averaged charge distribution of our dangling-bond pair by a capacitively coupled atomic-force-microscope tip in the presence of both a surface-parallel electrostatic potential bias between the two dangling bonds and a tunable midinfrared laser capable of inducing Rabi oscillations in the system. With a nonresonant laser, the time-averaged charge distribution in the dangling-bond pair is asymmetric as imposed by the bias. However, as the laser becomes resonant with the coherent electron tunneling in the biased pair the theory predicts that the time-averaged charge distribution becomes symmetric. This resonant symmetry effect should not only reveal the tunneling rate, but also the nature and rate of decoherence of single-electron dynamics in our system.


This Article examines the federal government's community engagement efforts with American Muslim communities as part of a larger infrastructure for policing radicalization and countering violent extremism (CVE). While the federal government presents community engagement as a softer alternative to policing, community engagement is integrated into a larger policing apparatus, making the reality far more coercive. Community engagement efforts are staged within the greater context of radicalization discourse, counterradicalization and CVE programs. Radicalization theory posits that increased religiosity and politicization in Muslims provokes an increased threat of terrorism. Government counterradicalization programs aim, therefore, to monitor and influence the political and religious cultures of Muslim communities so as to prevent radicalization, bringing tremendous scrutiny to bear on these communities. The federal government situates its national security community engagement efforts within the history of community policing in the ordinary criminal context. Community engagement and community policing are celebrated as forms of policing that emphasize communication and collaboration with marginalized communities and serve ideals of inclusion and democratic participation. In both contexts, however, efforts at police-community communication and collaboration are warped by law enforcement's commitments to preventive theories of crime control, narrowing the space for the inclusion of and democratic contestation by the subject communities. Broken windows theory and radicalization theory invest local social and cultural norms an outsized role in the origination of criminal activity, creating a rationale for the policing of everyday life. In linking noncriminal activity to the potential for crime, both theories reinforce a punitive lens through which police interact with communities, further marginalizing communities on the grounds of their racial and religious difference. In putting community engagement in conversation with community policing, this Article's central insight is as straightforward as it might be surprising: Community engagement in the national security context shares some of the problems of community policing in the ordinary criminal context. Community engagement efforts increase the presence of law enforcement in already overpoliced communities, and exacerbate intracommunity inequalities. Rather than enhance participation, community engagement may simply provide opportunities for select members of Muslim communities to approve preexisting law enforcement commitments — and create an additional source of pressure on Muslim communities to perform their Americanness — without meaningful openings for Muslim communities to communicate, collaborate, and contest the relationship, its modalities, and its outputs.


Abstract The influence of wax inhibitor molecular weight on wax crystallization was investigated in three steps: (1) Wax inhibitor fractionation via stepwise precipitation or ultrasonic disintegration, (2) characterization of inhibitor and sub-fractions in terms of molecular weight distribution, hydrodynamic radius, and precipitation from pure solvent, and (3) inhibitor effect on wax appearance temperature (WAT), waxy gelling, and wax crystal morphology. Stepwise precipitation yielded narrower molecular weight distributions, whereas ultrasonic disintegration reduced the average molecular weight and increase the polydispersity index. Changes in inhibitor molecular weight could improve as well as diminish WAT depression. Waxy gelation temperature showed similar trends, but overall effects were more pronounced. It was concluded the wax inhibitor molecular weight is a parameter that can be used to fine-tune additives to a particular waxy oil, but only after an effective PPD type has been identified. Graphical Abstract


Whether you're an adventurer who enjoys wild weather, a traveller seeking climate details for Madagascar or Mumbai, or simply curious about those charts on the evening news, "The Rough Guide to Weather" is precisely what you need - from world climates and weather science to tips on how to read the sky and make sense of a forecast. Illustrated throughout with photographs and climate charts and useful links to hundreds of Internet resources for every continent, this guide is will help you stay a head of the storm.


H5N1 causes high mortality in domestic poultry. It is the causative agent of H5N1 flu and is the world's largest current pandemic threat. Haemagglutinin (HA) is a surface glycoprotein of the virus which facilitates viral attachment to target cell and its entry. HA frequently accumulates mutation to escape immune response of host. In this study, conserved amino acid sequences in HA2 subunit of H5N1 HA protein of both clade 2.2 and 2.3 were identified and the conserved sequence was further analyzed in silico for its antigenic index, hydrophilicity and surface probability. Six peptides showing potential antigenicity were selected and synthesized. Reactivity of the peptides were analysed by indirect ELISA using antisera against different subtypes of avian influenza. Five out of the six peptides showed reactivity. Thus, five epitopes in the conserved region of HA2 subunit of H5 could be identified which can detect positive serum against avian influenza.


Development in infrastructure limits the communication gap, speedy travel and low cost tariff barriers as well other drivers of globalization have made overseas markets easier to get small firms and gave more opportunities to SME´s internationalize. The market entry mode choice or selections have strong effect the success or failure of the company. For instance an insufficient or wrong entry mode selection can decrease opportunities and limit important choice for the firm and could lead to high financial loss as well as lose control on overseas market. The purpose of research study is to provide a deep and better understanding of the factors those effecting SME´s selection of market entry mode. Research question how can the influence of internal and external factors on the selection of market entry mode. A frame of reference led to the building of summary which in turn became the basis for data collection. Two qualitative case studies for Pakistani SME´s namely socks knitter Pakistan and RK International were undertaken. The main findings shows the clear link between the theories claim to be internal and external factors influencing market entry mode choice between SME´s.


Cobalt oxide (Co 3O4) nanoparticles were successfully prepared by thermal decomposition of cobalt hydroxide synthesized from cobalt acetate, ammonium hydroxide and 10% glycerol. The cobalt oxide nanoparticles calcined at 450 °C were characterized by using XRD. The XRD confirms the crystallinity and crystal structure of the sample. It also shows that the diffraction peak are broadened which reveals the narrow size distribution of the cobalt oxide nanoparticles. In addition, the average grain size, lattice parameter values also calculated using XRD. The FT-IR analysis confirms the functional group presents in the cobalt oxide nanoparticles. The SEM image of cobalt oxide nanoparticles shows the nanosized agglomerated particles. The electrochemical detection of nitrobenzene (NB) by cobalt oxide nanoparticles was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The result concludes that the cobalt oxide nanoparticles have higher activity for the detection of nitrobenzene.


As part of an increasing interest in a "Turn to Practice," HCI scholars have investigated the felt design complexities and ethical concerns in everyday technology practice, calling for practice-led research approaches. Given the ethical nature of technology design work, practitioners have to often negotiate and mediate their personal values, disciplinary notions of ethics, organizational policies and values, and societal impact of their design work. To tease apart and describe practitioner accounts of ethical aspects of their design work, I used three different approaches to investigate what practitioners from different professional roles communicate about and participate in (potentially) strengthening their ethical engagement in their everyday design work within and across role boundaries: survey, design of co-creation activities, and deployment/pilot of these co-creation activities. In the survey study, I identify and describe the differences in disciplinary values, responsibilities, commitments, and alignment in relation to ethics and social responsibility through captured data from 256 technology and design practitioners from a range of professional roles.As a part of the design phase of co-creation activities, I design, iterate, and prototype three co-creation activities (A: Tracing the Complexity; B: Dilemma Postcards; and C: Method Heuristics) and sequences of these activities to engage a range of different professional roles to communicate about their ethical action and (potentially) strengthen their ethical engagement in everyday design work. I define design vocabulary/Schemas: 1) A.E.I.O.YOU model to investigate the landscape of ethics in practice and 2) Classifiers to codify the activities and potential variants.As a part of the deployment phase of these designed co-creation activities, I piloted four sequences of these activities with twelve practitioners with three different professional roles per sequence, engaging in approx. 23 hours of facilitation, artifact creation, and conversation. I present the results of deployment of the co-creation sessions where practitioners articulated that the co-creation activities helped expand their ethical horizons through self-awareness, learn new approaches to ethics vocabulary, become (re-)aware of their current practice, and imagine trajectories of change in their practice. Practitioners also identified a preliminary set of ethics-related practices that could be better supported such as tools for performance, leadership support, ethics education, and resources for ethical decision making. Based on the results from these three approaches, I propose contributions to HCI and design audiences. For HCI researchers, practitioners, and educators, the survey results describe differences in professional notions and valence of ethics, framing the need for translation and transdisciplinary approach to ethics in a practice context. For design researchers, the designing of the co-creation activities is a methodological contribution where I propose and illustrate opportunities for creating novel ways to engage practitioners in co-creation work as a means of communicating their felt ethical concerns and practices. For co-creation researchers and professional ethicists, the engagement of practitioners in the co-creation reveal: 1) complexities to facilitate different disciplinary roles and design a space for ``representing'' a range of practitioners; and 2) gaps and potential synergies in supporting practitioners through practice-resonant ethics-focused methods.


Proceeding from a specification, one develops an abstract mathematical model of a system, or portion of a system. This model of a system is validated to insure that the specification is interpreted accurately and to explore different algorithms for implementing the system behavior. We use the words "portion of a system," because only rarely are systems designed wholly using a purely top-down approach. Commonly, the design approach is a mixture of top-down and bottom-up. But even in this mixed approach, top-down techniques are critical to the development of new, advanced system features and improving the performance of existing system components. An example of this style of design tools and environments is Ptolemy II. Ptolemy II is a high-level modeling tool created at UC-Berkeley. It supports heterogeneous and homogeneous modeling, simulation, and design of concurrent systems. High-level modeling of such embedded systems as digital electronics, hardware, and software can be effectively represented.
The bottom-up design approach exploits design reuse to achieve the productivity necessary to build complex systems. Historically, chip design companies have always reused designs in going from one product generation to another, but the efficiency of bottom-up design is enhanced by the use of IP (Intellectual Property) cores that a company can buy from an outside source. Design libraries are useful for system design and are an example of IP cores.
A sound methodology to translate Ptolemy models to SystemC models would have a very beneficial effect on the CAD/EDA industry. Ptolemy II is written in Java and its high-level designs, or abstract graph models, are represented as XML documents. Ptolemy's major emphasis is on the methodology for defining and producing embedded software together with the system in which it is embedded. SystemC is written in C++, and its industrial use is gaining momentum due to its ability to represent functionality, communication, software, and hardware at various levels of abstraction. SystemC produces synthesizable code. A methodology to convert Ptolemy models to synthesizable SystemC code would be the technical epitome of a hybrid between top-down and bottom-up design styles and methodologies. Such a methodology would enable system designers to obtain fast design exploration, efficient IP-reuse, and validation. Ptolemy has various components and models of computation. A model of computation dictates how components interact between other components. SystemC has its own models of computation and design libraries. XML and Perl are both powerful tools by themselves, and we use these tools in this research to create a sound methodology for translating Ptolemy models (high-level of abstraction) to synthesizable SystemC code (low-level of abstraction), i.e.: code which can serve as input to hardware tools.


Abstract This paper provides an overview of the challenges in learning a signed language as a second language, in particular for hearing parents with deaf children, and details an action research process that led to the design of a new curriculum for teaching Australian Sign Language (Auslan) to the families of deaf children. The curriculum was developed through research and consultation with various stakeholders. Implementation of the curriculum confirmed a lack of resources, leading to further research and the development of family-specific resources for teaching and learning Auslan. The process of development of these resources has potential application for other signed language teachers, researchers, teachers of the deaf and associated professionals who are working with families in their learning of a signed language. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Iron is a well-established mediator of virulence in several bacterial pathogens, yet little is known about the role of iron in infectious disease processes caused by obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens. In this study, the effect of iron limitation was examined for the sexually transmitted infectious agent Chlamydia trachomatis in an in vitro model of human genital infection using the intracellular iron-chelating reagent deferoxamine mesylate (Desferal). Iron restriction caused a significant reduction in infectivity of C. trachomatis elementary bodies (EB) harvested from Desferal-exposed polarized epithelial cells when compared to that of EB harvested from iron-sufficient control cell cultures. Replacement of the Desferal exposure medium with medium containing iron-saturated transferrin restored chlamydial infectivity, whereas replacement with growth medium alone had no effect. The following three prominent morphological features were observed by electron microscopic examination of chlamydia-infected cells exposed to Desferal: (i) inclusions containing chlamydiae greatly delayed in maturation, (ii) substantial blebbing within chlamydial inclusions, and (iii) electron-dense material surrounding inclusions. Protein analyses of highly purified EB by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that there were at least 19 candidate iron-repressible proteins in C. trachomatis and at least one protein which was iron inducible. One putative iron-repressible protein was confirmed by Western blot (immunoblot) analysis to be the chlamydial heat shock protein 60 (hsp60). The enhanced production of this antigen by chlamydiae as a result of iron limitation is of particular importance since there is a well-documented association between chlamydial hsp60 and destructive immunopathological sequelae in infected patients.


A molecule assisted hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanomaterials with L-lysine has been performed to understand the interaction between the biomolecule and the zinc oxide structures during synthesis. The molecule alters the growth kinetics during the formation of the nanomaterials in the hydrothermal reaction. This alters the size and shape of the materials as seen in the scanning electron microscope. X-ray diffraction results confirm the hexagonal Wurtzite structure that zinc oxide forms and indicates no other phases in the nanomaterial. The lattice parameters are not altered, but the atomic percentage of zinc to oxygen within the structure changes as analyzed by Topas crystallography software. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy both confirm a larger concentration of oxygen atoms on the surface. No other atoms are detected, indicating little contamination in the samples and no lysine is present after cleaning the samples. Raman spectroscopy indicates the enhancement of the A1(TO) mode in samples prepared with lysine. Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy indicates a decreased energy band gap and increased concentration of defect energy level states significantly enhancing its optical absorption characteristics. Photoluminescence spectroscopy displays a slight red shift in the defect energy state peak for zinc oxide. These results indicate the possibility of using lysine as a treatment to enhance zinc oxides ability to be used as a solar absorbing medium in solar energy applications.


The goal of the research presented here was to examine phenotypic plasticity exhibited by three morphotypes of the common Caribbean sponge Anthosigmella varians (Duchassaing & Michelotti). We were interested in examining the biotic (and, to a lesser extent, abiotic) factors responsible for branch production in this species. We also tested the hypothesis that the skeleton may serve an antipredator function in this sponge, focusing on vertebrate fish predators (i.e., angelfish) in this work. In transplant and caging experiments, unprotected forma varians replicates were immediately consumed by angelfish, while caged replicates persisted on the reef for several months. These findings support the hypothesis that predators (and not wave energy) restrict forma varians to lagoonal habitats. Branch production was not observed in A. varians forma incrustans when sponges were protected from predators or placed in predator-free, low-wave-energy environments. It is not clear from our work whether forma incrustans is capable of producing branches (i.e., whether branch production is a plastic trait in this morph). Additional field experiments demonstrated that A. varians forma varians increased spicule concentrations, compared to uninjured sponges, in response to artificial predation events, and A. varians forma rigida reduced spicule concentrations, compared to uncaged controls, when protected from predators. These findings indicate that spicule concentration is a plastic morphological trait that can be induced by damage, and that A. varians may be able to reduce spicule concentrations when environmental conditions change (e.g., in the absence of predators). The potential significance of inducible defenses and structural anti-predator defenses in sponges is discussed in relation to recent work on sponge chemical defenses.


Water intake with fixed height limits the application of selective withdrawal technology in a certain degree. This study proposes a technological idea to install baffles on water intake. Through the rotation of upper and lower baffle, poor water layer can be blocked. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model for the upper baffle on water intake is constructed. The results show that the baffle installed on the upper part of orifice can reduce the withdrawal layer thickness and flow on the upper part of orifice centre. Thereby, the withdrawal flow on lower part can be indirectly increased. While, baffle length and inclining angle are the important factors to influence the withdrawal layer thickness and flow distribution. Therefore, the adjusting range of selective withdrawal can be economically enhanced by installing baffles on water intake.


Allergy to penicillin is common and may result in life-threatening anaphylaxis. Many patients who have survived such episodes choose to wear bracelets identifying their allergies should they present unconscious to emergency departments and be unable to give an allergy history to the examining physicians. This case illustrates a novel and readily identifiable permanent record of allergy that prevented administration of penicillin to a known sensitive patient. CASE REPORT A 42 year old pedestrian was hit by a car and was admitted to the resuscitation room with a GCS of 3. He had suffered a suffered a period of hypoxia due to midface fractures, tongue lacerations and consequent airway compromise. His hypoxia was exacerbated by multiple rib fractures with flail segment and bilateral pulmonary contusions. He was intubated and ventilated to prevent secondary brain injury. His condition subsequently deteriorated due to a penicillin-sensitive streptococcal pneumonia and associated septicaemia. Whilst preparing to administer the first dose of antibiotics, the nursing staff noted the tattoo "Penicillin kills" on his right forearm (Figure 1). The penicillin was exchanged for alternative antibiotics. Three months later, after a period of neurological rehabilitation, he was discharged from hospital. He subsequently informed us that following a severe, lifethreatening anaphylactic reaction to penicillin a few years previously he had invested in the tattoo as a permanent and highly visible record of his allergy.


There is an ongoing drive among governments globally to modernise their public service delivery by means of ICT. Bahrain's government was no different when it implemented a national enterprise system to standardise work across the public sector. The purpose of this research is to investigate the work practices of public officials in Bahrain's government departments as they appropriated this standardised technology in their everyday work. The aim is to understand how a nationally imposed standardised technology can be worked out in practice despite that it could be argued that the conditions for its accomplishment do not actually fully exist. This study draws on an agential realist approach to sociomateriality (Barad, 2007; Orlikowski & Scott, 2008) in combination with Goffman's dramaturgical analysis (1959) to analyse the dynamic interactions that accomplish the 'standardisation' of the technology. The research follows an interpretive case study approach embedded within a qualitative research paradigm. The fieldwork was conducted on the premises of the public organisation that houses and manages the national enterprise system, as well as two government departments that constitute some of its user groups. The research methods involved a total of 64 unstructured interviews, many hours of participant observation sessions, and the reviewing of secondary documents— all conducted during three intermittent fieldwork phases. This thesis demonstrates that the standardised technology is accomplished through particular sociomaterial dramaturgical performances. These emergent performances can have performative implications for the sociomaterial participants involved, including the standardised technology itself. Thus, rather than being a passive technology artefact, the standardised technology occupies various dramaturgical roles in the provision of egovernment services. Moreover, this research shows and argues that rather than displacing the indigenous pre-modern practices of public administration in ministries, the standardised technology reconfigured these long-established local practices to be necessary for achieving egovernment services in Bahrain. Situated within the Information Systems literature, this research provides novel ways in re-conceptualising technologies of standardisation. For practitioners, this research presents insights into the nuanced practices of the implementation of standardised technology across public organisations in Bahrain, and similar environments.


One-dimensional spatial models have come to inform much theorizing and research on the U.S. Supreme Court. However, we argue that judicial preferences vary considerably across areas of the law, and that limitations in our ability to measure those preferences have constrained the set of questions scholars pursue. We introduce a new approach, which makes use of information about substantive similarity among cases, to estimate judicial preferences that vary across substantive legal issues and over time. We show that a model allowing preferences to vary over substantive issues as well as over time is a significantly better predictor of judicial behavior than one that only allows preferences to vary over time. We find that judicial preferences are not reducible to simple left-right ideology and, as a consequence, there is substantial variation in the identity of the median justice across areas of the law during all periods of the modern court. These results suggest a need to reconsider empirical and theoretical research that hinges on the existence of a single pivotal median justice.