There is a growing consensus worldwide that human economies and human well-being rely on ecosystem services. The Economics of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity [TEEB], a global initiative launched in 2007 as a response to a proposal by the G8 ministers, have suggested a five-step approach to improved stewardship of ecosystem services. Applying these steps as a basis, the objective of this thesis is to pinpoint what incentives are needed for various actors in society to incorporate the value of ecosystem services in their decision-making. The purpose is to investigate if current incentives are triggering actors sufficiently so they recognize the true value of nature. If the current incentives does not fulfill their purpose, what are the obstacles, and how can one ensure that society recognizes the value? The focus of the analysis is put on policy makers and various governing bodies. The importance of individuals and private actors will also be investigated, as they are all significant in the process of incorporating the true value of nature and ensuring sustainable development. Qualitative method is applied to investigate the perceptions and experiences of experts working in various fields within sustainable development and environmental economics. Interviews with four selected respondents is conducted. The analysis of the responses may supplement or expand our understanding of incentive theory. The study discovers that the opinions on ecosystem services valuation differ. Some respondents believe it to be more widespread than others, while some believe small-scale implementation is the way to go rather that large-scale. Several agree that incentives for policy-makers encourage short-term thinking, which is not always a good match when dealing with complex issues such as environmental degradation. Suggestions are made to certain areas as to where obstacles can be met and overcome, such as increasing transparency, challenging misconceptions and seizing windows of opportunity.


Although we are used to thinking that criminal defendants receive more procedural protections than civil defendants do, this notion turns out to be incorrect when it comes to appellate review of civil defamation verdicts versus criminal convictions for false statements, where the key issue is the defendant's knowledge of the falsity in question. The civil defendant gets the benefit of what the Supreme Court calls "independent appellate review" of the existence of actual malice in a defamation case, which is to say an aggressive standard exhibiting little to no deference toward the factfinder's determination. The criminal defendant, on the other hand, is saddled with a standard of review that is highly deferential toward the factfinder; the criminal defendant must show that no reasonable jury could have found that he knew the statement to be false. A person who is sued successfully for slander and convicted of making a false statement for the same utterance to a federal agent could therefore find himself in the odd situation of winning the appeal in the civil case and losing it in the criminal case, simply because in the former instance, the appellate court could more freely reject the jury's knowledge of falsity finding, whereas in the latter instance, the appellate court would be essentially bound to the jury's determination. In this Article, I ask whether the same duty of independent appellate review of the knowledge of falsity should apply in criminal cases that involve false statements. Answering that question requires an examination of the First Amendment principles underlying the actual malice rule and the independent appellate review doctrine to see if the same concerns arise in the criminal context. Ultimately, I conclude that in at least some instances, First Amendment values call for extending the independent appellate review doctrine to criminal cases.


The emerging field of learning-augmented online algorithms uses ML techniques to predict future input parameters and thereby improve the performance of online algorithms. Since these parameters are, in general, real-valued functions, a natural approach is to use regression techniques to make these predictions. We introduce this approach in this paper, and explore it in the context of a general online search framework that captures classic problems like (generalized) ski rental, bin packing, minimum makespan scheduling, etc. We show nearly tight bounds on the sample complexity of this regression problem, and extend our results to the agnostic setting. From a technical standpoint, we show that the key is to incorporate online optimization benchmarks in the design of the loss function for the regression problem, thereby diverging from the use of off-the-shelf regression tools with standard bounds on statistical error.


The present paper examines the efficiency and revenue effects of several alternative tax treatments of two earner families using estimates of the compensated elasticities of the labor supply of married women based on the experience with the 1986 tax rate reductions. The analysis of alternatives is based on the NBER TAXSIM model which has been modified to incorporate separate estimates of the earnings of spouses. The marginal tax rates explicitly incorporate the Social Security payroll taxes net of the present actuarial value of future retirement benefits. Three general conclusions emerge in this paper. First, the existing high marginal tax rates on married women cause big eadweight losses that can be reduced by alternative tax rules that lower marginal tax rates. Second, the behavioral responses to the lower marginal tax rates induce additional tax payments that offset large fractions of the 'static' revenue losses. Third, there are substantial differences in cost- effectiveness among these options, i.e. in the revenue cost per dollar of reduced deadweight loss. Several of the options are sufficiently cost- effective that they could probably be combined with other ways of raising revenue to produce a net reduction in the deadweight loss of the tax system as a whole. We are aware, however, that the current framework is very restrictive in three ways. It ignores the response of the primary earner to any change in tax rates on spousal income. It defines the labor supply response narrowly in terms of participation and hours, excluding other dimensions of labor supply. Taxes affect not only the labor supply of men and women but also change taxable income through changes in excluded income and deductions. These changes in taxable income are the key variable for influencing tax revenue and the deadweight loss of alternative tax rules.


The stories of Turkey and Argentina need to be viewed from three different perspectives to better understand the causes and trajectory of the crises experienced by the two countries: 1.The long term development path. 2.The major economic imbalances behind the crises 3.The actions of the policy makers before, during and after the crises. This article focuses on the first point, long term development, and attempts to link it to the other two. Main conclusions are that 1. economic stability in the medium term is dependent on the maintenance of the two major resource flow balances of a country the fiscal position and the current account position, 2. a credible and rational mechanism must be in place to manage the resource allocation question and 3. when it is time to "pay the bill", delays only increase the damage.


How much deference — or what kind — should courts give to longstanding agency interpretations of statutes? Surprisingly, courts and scholars lack a coherent answer to this question. Legal scholars long have assumed that longstanding agency statutory interpretations are treated with heightened deference on judicial review, and federal courts sometimes have made statements suggesting that this is the case. But in practice, federal court review of longstanding agency interpretations — at both the Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court levels — turns out to be surprisingly erratic. Reviewing courts sometimes note the longevity of an agency's statutory interpretation as a plus factor in their deference analysis, but at other times completely ignore or dismiss an agency interpretation's longevity. Moreover, judicial rhetoric about the relevance of longevity in the review of agency statutory interpretations is inconsistent from case to case. What makes this doctrinal incoherence particularly remarkable is that courts usually care much more about the predictability of statutory interpretations and about upsetting settled institutional practices. In fact, in two analogous contexts — judicial interpretations of statutes and historical executive branch practice in the constitutional arena — courts accord strong precedential effect, or a presumption of correctness, to established legal constructions. This Article provides the first detailed study of federal court treatment of longstanding agency statutory interpretations — illuminating doctrinal inconsistencies and examining longevity-related factors that both favor and disfavor deference. The Article also compares federal courts' chaotic treatment of longstanding agency statutory interpretations with the precedential effect that courts give to longstanding judicial interpretations of statutes and the historical "gloss" effect that courts give to past executive practice in constitutional interpretation. Ultimately, the Article argues that longstanding agency interpretations of statutes are at least as deserving of heightened judicial deference and that, at a minimum, federal courts' disparate treatment of such interpretations — without acknowledging or justifying the distinction — is troubling. The Article advocates that longstanding agency interpretations should be entitled to precedential effect by reviewing courts and outlines how such an approach might work.


Context.—Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a longstanding chronic active inflammatory process in the bowel with increased risk for the development of colorectal carcinoma. Several molecular events involved in chronic active inflammatory processes contribute to multistage progression of human cancer development, including reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, aberrant arachidonic acid metabolites and cytokines/growth factors, and immune dysfunction. These molecular events in IBD lead to genetic abnormality and promote aberrant cell proliferation, which further lead to epithelial changes encompassing a broad spectrum from inflammation-induced hyperplasia to dysplasia. Objective.—To review the (1) epidemiologic and molecular pathogenesis of the risk for colorectal cancer in IBD, (2) morphologic characterization, biomarker(s), and classification of dysplastic lesions, and (3) clinical management of dysplastic lesions arising in IBD. Data Sources.—The different IBD-related dysplastic lesions are illustrated by using morphology in conjunction with molecular pathways, and the ''field cancerization'' theory and its potential significance are discussed with a review of the literature. Conclusions.—Patients with IBD are at increased risk of developing colorectal cancer. The risk of developing carcinoma is related to the extent/duration/activity of the patient's disease. There is no consensus regarding the extent of carcinoma risk associated with IBD; however, all would agree that patients with IBD represent a group at significant risk for developing carcinoma and as such, warrant adequate surveillance and prevention. With better screening modalities and detection/characterization of dysplastic lesions, IBD-associated serrated lesions, and ''field cancerization,'' we will improve our understanding of and approach to risk stratification. (Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2013;137:338–350; doi: 10.5858/ arpa.2012-0086-RA)


By Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)

A comment by John Birtwhistle

'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night' is the title and refrain of a well known poem by Dylan Thomas.1 Of course it rhymes with the poem's other refrain: 'Rage, rage against the dying of the light.' For copyright reasons we cannot reprint the whole poem, but it is very familiar and is easily found online or in anthologies. It is considered here because it is one of those poems that often come to mind when a person is dying, and it is frequently read at funerals.

The poem was written when Thomas' own father was dying. With its command of the strict poetic form known as 'villanelle,' the poem meets the need that even the most secular of us have for a high formal rhetoric at such moments: words of beauty, hope and courage. Thomas had achieved this kind of eloquence once before, with his poem 'And death shall have no dominion.' What is distinctive about 'Do Not Go Gentle…' …


Abstract The ASJP project aims at establishing relationships between languages on the basis of the Swadesh word list. For this purpose, lists have been collected and phonologically transcribed for almost 3,500 languages. Using a method based on the algorithm proposed by Levenshtein (Cybernetics and Control Theory 10: 707–710, 1966), a custom-made computer program calculates the distances between all pairs of languages in the database. Standard software is used to express the relationships between languages graphically. The current article compares the results of our lexicon-based approach with the results of a similar exercise that takes the typological variables contained in the WALS database as a point of departure. We establish that the latter approach leads to even better results than the lexicon-based one. The best result in terms of correspondence with some well-established genetic and areal classifications, however, is attained when the lexical and typological methods are combined, especially if we select both the most stable Swadesh items and the most stable WALS variables.


Traditional approaches to building intelligent information systems employ an ontology to define a representational structure for the data and information of interest within the target domain of the system. At runtime, the ontology provides a constrained template for the creation of the individual objects and relationships that together define the state of the system at a given point in time. The ontology also provides a vocabulary for expressing domain knowledge typically in the form of rules (declarative knowledge) or methods (procedural knowledge). The system utilizes the encoded knowledge, often in conjunction user input, to progress the state of the system towards the specific goals indicated by the users. While this approach has been very successful, it has some drawbacks. Regardless of the implementation paradigm the knowledge is essentially buried in the code and therefore inaccessible to most domain experts. The knowledge also tends to be very domain specific and is not extensible at runtime. This paper describes a variation on the traditional approach that employs an explicit knowledge level within the ontology to mitigate the identified drawbacks.


Introduction Elective implant removal following healed extremity fractures remains controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the reasons and outcomes of implant removal after uneventful healing of limb fractures. Materials and methods This is a prospective single-centre observational cohort study. Patients who sustained upper or lower extremity fractures that were fixed and healed uneventfully were included in the study when they elected to remove the implants. Patients were followed for six months post-operatively. Outcomes were assessed with patient satisfaction, symptoms resolution, and complications. Results A total of 43 patients were recruited from October 2016 to March 2019. Thirty-six patients (37 implants) were symptomatic. Pain and prominence were the most common complaints, present in 59.5% and 33.3% of patients, respectively. Cold weather pain was also not uncommon (19.0%). Pain improved in 91.3% of the patients who complained of pain. The 94.6% symptomatic patients had at least partial resolution of pre-operative symptoms. All the patients who completed follow-up were satisfied with the procedure. In two patients, there were broken and retained screws intra-operatively. Post-operative complication rate was 23.8%, although no major complications occurred. Conclusions Implant removal after uneventful healing of extremity fractures is a safe procedure that conferred a predictable relief of symptoms and satisfactory outcomes in most.


What is already known about this topic? Limited evidence exists regarding the relationship between pregnancy loss and female-specific cancers within the Chinese population from prospective cohort studies. What is added by this report? Terminations were associated with a 13% lower risk of endometrial cancer, whereas stillbirths were related to an 18% higher risk of cervical cancer. Rural residents with a history of pregnancy loss experienced a 19% and 38% increased risk of breast and cervical cancers, respectively, compared to their urban counterparts. Moreover, a positive graded relationship between live births and pregnancy loss on cervical cancer was observed. What are the implications for public health practice? This study has significant implications for identifying women at an increased risk for breast and genital cancers and contributes to the development of effective public health strategies for female cancer prevention. Future research on reproductive history, particularly in rural areas, should be given priority in efforts to improve female cancer screening and early detection.


We provide a set of new models of three different processes by which political parties nominate candidates for a general election: nominations by party leaders, nominations by a vote of party members, and nominations by a spending competition among potential candidates. We show that more extreme outcomes can emerge from spending competition than from nominations by votes or by party leaders, and that non-median outcomes can result via any of these processes. When voters (and potential nominees) are free to switch political parties, then median outcomes ensue when nominations are decided by a vote but not when nominations are decided by spending competition.


Dementia is understood as a clinical syndrome characterized by impairment in memory impairment along with cognitive deficits in other domains. Over the years, understanding about the causes of dementias has improved. Broadly, dementias can be classified as irreversible degenerative dementias and reversible dementias. Alzheimer′s disease is the prototype of degenerative dementias and is characterized by the accumulation of beta-amyloid protein (called as amyloid plaques) outside the neurons and accumulation of tau protein (called tau tangles) inside the neurons. Vascular dementias are characterized by cerebrovascular insults which lead to pathological brain changes that impair cognition. The pathological hallmark of Lewy body dementia is the presence of α-synuclein neuronal inclusions, also known as Lewy bodies, accompanied by neuronal loss. Frontotemporal dementias are characterized by abnormal deposits of the microtubule-associated protein tau, the trans-activation response TAR DNA-binding protein with molecular weight 43 kDa (TDP-43), and the fused in sarcoma protein. Reversible dementias are characterized by the primary illness and may not present with characteristic brain deposits as seen with many degenerative dementias.


Cells and Robots is an outcome of the multidisciplinary research extending over Biology, Robotics and Hybrid Systems Theory. It is inspired by modeling reactive behavior of the immune system cell population, where each cell is considered as an independent agent. In our modeling approach, there is no difference if the cells are naturally or artificially created agents, such as robots. This appears even more evident when we introduce a case study concerning a large-size robotic population scenario. Under this scenario, we also formulate the optimal control of maximizing the probability of robotic presence in a given region and discuss the application of the Minimum Principle for partial differential equations to this problem. Simultaneous consideration of cell and robotic populations is of mutual benefit for Biology and Robotics, as well as for the general understanding of multi-agent system dynamics. The text of this monograph is based on the PhD thesis of the first author. The work was a runner-up for the fifth edition of the Georges Giralt Award for the best European PhD thesis in Robotics, annually awarded by the European Robotics Research Network (EURON).


The IIS (insulin/IGF (insulin-like growth factor) signalling) cascade has an important role in regulating normal development and physiology, as evidenced by its effects in a host of major human diseases including cancer, Type 2 diabetes and neurodegeneration. Recently, it has become clear that multiple types of local nutrient-sensing mechanisms have an impact on cellular insulin-sensitivity through the downstream kinase TOR (target of rapamycin). In vivo analysis in flies has surprisingly highlighted PATs (proton-assisted amino acid transporters) as having a uniquely potent role in regulating IIS/TOR activity and growth, potentially via a novel signalling mechanism. Other molecules such as the heterodimeric amino acid transporter, CD98, which provides the principal route for cellular uptake of leucine, an amino acid implicated in regulating TOR, also appear to have important effects. As our understanding of how nutrient sensing has an impact on IIS/TOR increases, novel targets to modulate aberrant IIS in disease are likely to emerge, which could complement current strategies designed to block kinases in this pathway.


1. Adipocyte-derived leptin is postulated to represent the afferent hormonal signal to the hypothalamus in a feedback mechanism that regulates fat mass. In this proposed feedback mechanism, increased fat mass leads to an elevated plasma leptin level that eventually induces a decrease in appetite and an increase in energy expenditure, and vice versa. 2. As anorexia and hypermetabolism play a role in the development of cancer cachexia, we investigated the hypothesis that underlying abnormalities in the leptin feedback mechanism (in particular relatively high plasma leptin levels or, on the other hand, a hypothalamic insensitivity to a fall in leptin levels) might be involved. For this purpose, total plasma leptin, body composition (fat mass and fat-free mass), appetite and resting energy expenditure were assessed in 21 male lung-cancer patients. 3. Total leptin was detectable in six patients and non-detectable in 15. In comparison with the latter, the patients with detectable leptin were characterized by a trend towards less weight loss (3.4% compared with 11.0%, P = 0.07), as being less underweight (body mass index 23.8 kg/m2 compared with 19.4 kg/m2, P = 0.004) and by a higher fat mass (21.4 kg compared with 9.7 kg, P = 0.001). Significant between-group differences in appetite and resting energy expenditure were lacking. 4. Based on these findings, we conclude that in cancer the afferent part of the leptin feedback mechanism functions normally and that, in particular, elevated leptin levels are not involved in the development of cachexia. Since the absence of plasma leptin was not associated with an increased appetite and decreased energy expenditure, disturbances in the hypothalamic part of the feedback mechanism are hypothesized.


Marketing is winning the customers mind and being able to serve the needs of the customer. It is about understanding what consumers want and providing it more conveniently. Marketing deals with identifying and meeting human needs and social needs. One of the smallest definitions of marketing is "meeting needs profitably." The consumer market may be defined as the market for product and services that are purchased by individuals as a household for their consumption. Soft drinks are a typical consumer product, acquired by an individual, primarily to quench their thirst and also for refreshment. Different kinds of soft drinks are available in the market, and more or less the ingredients of all soft drinks are almost the same. There is an excellent competition at the demand of soft drinks, and many companies are hard hitting in the market with their product with several brand names.
 The Indian soft drinks market is large and unable to control as India has all types of natural seasons, and different locations have different cultures. The northern parts of the country are quite cold during the winter season and the south, on the contrary, has high levels of humidity which is when the consumer requires some chilled drinks that can satisfy his or her thirsts and provide energy to sustain.
 The demand for soft drinks has been increasing rapidly due to changing climatic conditions, liking for fast food, and changing the culture. It includes all types of non-alcoholic, carbonated, and flavored beverages. These artificially sweetened drinks are available in different flavors, sizes, and packages.
 In olden days, the production took place on a smaller scale where the producer himself took the responsibility of disposing the goods to the consumers. Later, due to the increase in business and with further expansions, the majority of producers did not sell their products directly to consumers. It was the task of a retailer to create a link between the producer and the end user.
 In this competitive world, the producer has to decide through which way the goods are to be marketed to the customers. The company also encouraged the concept of network marketing with several middlemen into the sales force to arrange and, distribute the products to the consumer. To create business and expand the horizon of the company's products, the retailers were chosen, and several motivational training and promotional programs were introduced to support the sales of the organization. Furthermore, it also gave adequate market coverage and satisfied the buyer's requirement.


The design and master plan of the new Shofuso Visitor Center address the topic of new construction in historic settings beyond the existing academic focus on contextualism and style. Considering the low rate of visitation and organizational growth that has put many house museums in a vulnerable state, I believe scholars should extend their judgment pass physical attributes and also assess how new constructions can reinforce the vitality of these sites. By letting both management concerns and place values guide the design, the new building will make the site more meaningful as well as ensure sustainable expansion. Based on the value-based conservation model, the best way to create a successful historic site is to enhance the interpretation of its core values and mission in a way that is relevant to the present day audience and stakeholders. While Shofuso is valued for its authentic Japanese house and garden experience, there are two gaps in the current interpretation of Shofuso. The first is its role in the development of modern western architecture as a major exhibit at the MoMA. The new visitor center design can bridge this gap by exhibiting Shofuso's relevance to modernism, emphasizing on the four major characteristics that inspired Modernism: flexible room arrangements, strong indoor and outdoor connection, ornamental structural system, and skeleton frame construction. This way, visitors can perceive how the Japanese house has influenced modern buildings around them. The second is the narrative of the Japanese house as a legacy of the 1976 Centennial Exposition, which gets addressed through the reestablishment of an old road as a gateway and the proposal for a temporary pavilion installation.


For any unsatisfiable CNF formula we give an exponential lower bound on the size of resolution refutations of a propositional statement that the formula has a resolution refutation. We describe three applications. (1) An open question in [2] asks whether a certain natural propositional encoding of the above statement is hard for Resolution. We answer by giving an exponential size lower bound. (2) We show exponential resolution size lower bounds for reflection principles, thereby improving a result in [1]. (3) We provide new examples of CNFs that exponentially separate Res(2) from Resolution (an exponential separation of these two proof systems was originally proved in [10]). 2012 ACM Subject Classification Theory of computation → Proof complexity


The intrinsic electronic properties of donor (D) and acceptor (A) materials in coupling with morphological features dictate the output in organic solar cells (OSCs). New physical properties of intimate eutectic mixing are used in nonfullerene‐acceptor‐based D–A1–A2 ternary blends to fine‐tune the bulk heterojunction thin film morphology as well as their electronic properties. With enhanced thin film crystallinity and improved carrier transport, a significant JSC amplification is achieved due to the formation of eutectic fibrillar lamellae and reduced defects state density. Material wise, aligned cascading energy levels with much larger driving force, and suppressed recombination channels confirm efficient charge transfer and transport, enabling an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.84%. These results reveal the importance of utilizing specific material interactions to control the crystalline habit in blended films to form a well‐suited morphology in guiding superior performances, which is of high demand in the next episode of OSC fabrication toward 20% PCE.


Poly A containing RNA isolated from embryonic chick calvaria was transferred from 6% formaldehyde 0.75% agarose gels to diazobenzyloxymethyl paper and the paper then hybridized to either nick translated pro alpha 1 collagen cDNA clones, pCg1 or pCg54, or to the nick translated pro alpha 2 collagen cDNA clone, pCg45. From the mobilities of the bands hybridizing most strongly to each, pro alpha 2 collagen mRNA was shown to be slightly larger than pro alpha 1 mRNA; they are 5100 and 4900 nucleotides long respectively. pCg54 also hybridized weakly to two bands of lower mobility, corresponding to RNAs 6.4 and 5.6 kb long. Neither pCg54 nor pCg45 hybridized to type II procollagen mRNA in poly A containing RNA isolated from embryonic chick sterna.


More than 50% of the global population already lives in urban settlements which are projected to absorb almost all the global population growth to 2050, amounting to some additional three billion people. Over the next decades the increase in rural population in many developing countries will be overshadowed by population flows to cities. Rural populations globally are expected to peak at a level of 3.5 billion people by around 2020 and decline thereafter. Given the robust trends toward a convergence of much of the developing world to levels of urbanization already found in the developed world, the energy and sustainability challenges of equitable access to clean-energy services, of energy security, and of environmental compatibility at local through global scales cannot be addressed without explicit consideration of urban energy systems and their specific sustainability challenges and opportunities. Energy-wise, the world is already predominantly urban. It is estimated that between 60–80% of final energy use globally is urban. Hereby various urban elements play significant role in urban energy consumption rate. Knowing these key drivers and providing appropriate strategies may be an important action toward a more efficient urban future. Considering the aforementioned challenges, acquiring a comprehensive view on key drivers and therefore comprehensive urban energy efficiency strategies is the fundamental aim of the present research. Based on this aim, a wide literature review on global urban energy issues is done to provide comprehensive knowledge of the most important urban energy key drivers. In the next step, a comprehensive urban energy efficiency strategies is delivered in different urban dimensions.


Some of Lactobacillus species isolated from breast milk are known to have antimicrobial activities, including against Escherichia coli. The aims of this study were to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of Lactobacillus species isolated from breast milk against enteropathogenic Escherichia coli strain K1.1 and the effectiveness of the Lactobacillus isolates to prevent diarrhea on rats (Sprague Dawley). The infective dose of E. coli K1.1 to induce diarrhea without causing death were also determined. Based on the antimicrobial activity there were three isolates of Lactobacillus that exhibited good inhibition againts E. coli K1.1, i.e. Lactobacillus rhamnosus R14, L. rhamnosus R23, and L. rhamnosus B16. Determination of E. coli infective dose showed that 10 8 CFU of E. coli K1.1 was sufficient to induce diarrhea on rat without causing death. The number of diarrhea rats and severity level in group treated with L. rhamnosus were lower than groups untreated with the Lactobacilli. This study showed that the three L. rhamnosus isolated from breast milk were able to prevent diarrhea due to infection of E. coli K1.1 when the Lactobacillus was regularly introduced prior to infection. L. rhamnosus R23 showed the best capabilities of preventing diarrhea in rats as compared to two other isolates of Lactobacillus. The incidence of diarrhea correlated with the number of lactobacilli in the feces. However when the period of diarrhea ceased, there were no difference in total lactobacilli and E. coli in the caecum, colon and feces between rats treated with L. rhamnosus and the control. This finding revealed the L. rhamnosus isolated from breast milk were potential for prevention of diarrhea when consumed regularly.


The sympathetic control of motor activity in the stomach of the dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula and its pharmacology was studied in freshly killed animals with the abdominal viscera superfused in situ with elasmobranch Ringer by recording gastric pressure and by quantitative analysis of video-tape recordings of the activity. Little spontaneous activity was seen in the stomach, although in two animals retrograde contractions occurred in the spiral intestine. The effects of electrical stimulation of the splanchnic (sympathetic) nerves varied markedly with frequency. At 4 Hz after a latency of about 1 min there was a slight increase in the overall level of contractile activity in both cardiac and pyloric regions of the stomach, which persisted throughout the stimulation period (5-7 min). At 16 Hz a contraction was visible in the pyloric region within 10 s of the start of stimulation. Over the next 30 s this contraction proceeded cranially becoming more powerful as it swept into the cardiac region. This contraction returned the contents of the pyloric stomach to the cardiac stomach past the valve-like junction between them. This contraction continued into the cardiac stomach and in some animals propelled the contents into the oesophagus. About 2 min after the start of stimulation there followed a series of contractions in both gastric regions, predominantly in the circular muscle. In the cardiac region these contractions occurred alternately in the proximal and distal regions. Occasionally a large contraction passed a bolus of material from the cardiac to the pyloric region. No movements or pressure changes were observed in the stomach after stimulation of the vagus, although contractions were readily induced in the oesophagus. It is proposed that the initial large retrograde contraction provides a mechanism by which the animal can vomit indigestible or accidentally ingested material. In contrast the later motor patterns suggest that this type of activity is involved in more normal digestive functions of mixing food with gastric secretions, trituration and gastric emptying. Evidence is presented which implicates 5-hydroxytryptamine as a principal neurotransmitter involved in the genesis of the retrograde contraction by the splanchnic nerve.


BACKGROUND: Aggression can have a wide range of damaging consequences for both perpetrators and victims. Theoretical and empirical studies into problems of aggression increasingly show the importance of social and cognitive factors in aggressive behaviour. Such research has commonly been approached through the framework of the Social-Information Processing (SIP) model. SIP explains social behaviours by the sequence of cognitive processes that occur between encountering a social stimulus and enacting a response to it. Crucially, it is apparent that particular processing styles, such as the way in which people interpret others' behaviour, play important roles in aggression. However, while SIP has long been used to explain aggression in the non-disabled population, it is only in more recent years that this approach has been applied to people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). This is important because a significant minority of people with IDs demonstrate frequent aggressive behaviour. Although several studies have already indicated that particular cognitive processing tendencies and aptitudes contribute to aggression in adults with ID, no research has considered younger people in the transition to adulthood. To this end, the present thesis sought to investigate the possible influences of certain psychosocial factors on this group of young people with mild to moderate IDs.

OBJECTIVES: To identify which specific factors to investigate, a systematic review was conducted of existing research into SIP and aggression with people who have IDs. On the basis of these findings, the thesis examined 1) the social interactions that typically elicit anger, 2) experiences of parental aggression 3) ability to discern affect from dynamic social cues and 4) beliefs about the consequences of aggressive and submissive behaviour. With the review also stressing the importance of examining aggression at specific developmental stages, the studies focused on individuals in the transition from adolescence to adulthood (between 16 and 20 years). Although this stage is thought to be important in the development of cognitive factors associated with aggression, there is little or no research in this area with young adults with IDs.

METHODS: The thesis comprised four distinct research studies. Each adopted a group-comparison design, comparing aggressive and non-aggressive young people with IDs. To evaluate the extent to which findings were specific to people with IDs, additional comparisons were conducted between aggressive and non-aggressive individuals without IDs. For Study 1, 26 young adults with IDs and 20 non-disabled young adults completed a semi-structured interview about a recent experience of interpersonal conflict. Participants were asked to describe their beliefs and feelings about the event and their subsequent response. Studies 2, 3 and 4 used data from a second phase of data collection involving 46 young people with and 48 people without IDs. Study 2 used a task in which participants were asked to rank different types of social conflict in order of provocativeness. The author developed these scenarios to reflect the experiences of conflict reported by participants in Study 1. Participants also indicated how recently they had encountered each type of scenario. Study 3 used motion-capture stimuli of people walking in different emotional states to examine whether groups differed in how they encode dynamic social cues. Study 4 used provocative vignettes to examine whether aggressive young people with IDs expect different outcomes from aggressive and submissive responses to such scenarios.

RESULTS: Study 1 found that participants with IDs were more likely to encounter conflict with strangers or peers outside their friendship group. They were also more likely to describe incidents of aggression and to characterise people with whom they were in conflict globally as "bad" and to perceive their actions as being personally directed at them. Study 2 did not suggest that experiences of being victimised by peers were more common for people with IDs, but did show that aggressive individuals were more likely to encounter incidents of physical aggression from peers. Parental conflict was the most recently encountered, but was perceived to be the least provocative form of conflict for all groups. In Study 3, no group differences were found in accuracy or response tendencies for the emotion recognition task. Aggressive and non-aggressive participants with IDs in Study 4 did not predict different outcomes form aggression and submission. However, the aggressive participants without IDs predicted more positive outcomes from aggression and more negative outcomes for submission. While aggressive participants with IDs were more likely to give aggressive responses, they were just as likely as the non-aggressive group to respond actively (assertively or aggressively) rather than passively.

CONCLUSION: The findings of this thesis, viewed from the perspective of the SIP model, suggest that there are key cognitive and contextual differences between individuals who show frequent aggression, both with and without IDs. Although, somewhat surprisingly, emotion recognition skills did not appear to be associated with a tendency toward aggressive behaviour, the non-ID aggressive and non-aggressive groups differed in their anticipated outcomes for aggressive and submissive behaviour. The context in which conflict occurred also appeared to differ between those young people with and without IDs. However, the absence of some predicted findings from these studies may be related to methodological shortcomings; these possible limitations are considered, and directions for future work are suggested. Applications for clinical practice and policy are also discussed and recommendations for future research are given.


Since the days of Eleanor Roosevelt, pollsters have surveyed the public about first ladies, although such opinion taking has mainly occurred when the first lady has done or said something out of keeping with her traditional, supportive, behind-the- scenes role. More recently, pollsters have turned their attention to would-be first ladies, reflecting the increasingly visible roles of spouses on the campaign trail. The wives of candidates now make hundreds of appearances during the presidential campaign and receive intense media attention in both news outlets and entertainment-oriented venues (MacManus and Quecan 2008; Stokes 2005). They are significant surrogates for the presidential candidates on the campaign trail (Burrell 2001). Thus, the public has many opportunities to learn about and develop views on the candidates' spouses. In light of their greater prominence in the campaign process, how has the public reacted to the spouses who have campaigned on their husbands' behalf? This study analyzes public opinion data on presidential candidate spouses from 1992, when Hillary Clinton's words and involvement in her husband's campaign generated much commentary and polling, through 2008, when Michelle Obama stimulated similar attention. The survey data are used to assess and compare the public's opinions about potential presidential wives, including Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Dole, Laura Bush, Tipper Gore, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Cindy McCain, and Michelle Obama. By comparing attitudes over the last five presidential cycles, we are able to identify key areas of stability and change in Americans' attitudes toward these significant actors on the presidential campaign trail who are mired in gendered perspectives. Additionally, we use the survey data to explore how attitudes differ across key demographics, including sex, partisanship, and age. Finally, we explore whether attitudes about presidential candidate spouses have an independent impact on the favorability ratings of the candidates. This research provides insight into public attitudes about would-be first ladies, an issue to which political scientists have paid minimal attention. Despite this lack of scholarly inquiry, we believe that it merits more extensive analysis for several important reasons. First, studies have shown that would-be first ladies play a significant role in shaping affect toward presidential candidates as well as the choices of voters (Burrell 2001; Mughan and Burden 1995, 1998). Thus, understanding the public's attitudes toward candidate spouses enriches our understanding of campaigns and elections. Second, the candidates' spouses are in many ways running for the position of first lady, a position that has the potential for considerable power (Han 2007; O'Connor, Nye, and Van Assendelft 1996), as well as conflicting expectations (Borrelli 2001; Burrell 2001; Stokes 2005). In fact, pollsters regularly ask voters, if they were able to cast a separate ballot for first lady, whom would they vote for and what role should she take on in the White House? This study provides insights into the public's expectations for this unique position in our political system. Exploring public attitudes about potential first ladies also provides an intriguing window into contemporary gender politics and changing cultural values in American society. The Role and Impact of Presidential Candidates' Wives Although some candidate wives acted as surrogates for their husbands prior to the 1990s, (1) many view the 1992 election as a break with the past in terms of the importance and visibility of would-be first ladies (Burrell 2001; Mughan and Burden 1995). During the 1992 general election, not only did Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton take on unusually active roles in their husbands' campaigns, but also their contrasting life choices--traditional homemaker versus "modern" working woman--became a major issue in the campaign (Mughan and Burden 1995, 137-38; Templin 1999). …


Objectives:

Stroke is the most significant cause of disability in older adults and has a dramatic psychosocial impact on stroke survivors. Narrative therapy (NT) views people as 'the experts' in their own lives, assuming people have many skills, abilities, beliefs, and values that will assist them in life. NT is used to externalize the dominant problem-saturated experiences and open diverse possibilities for reconstruction of identity in ways that are powerfully connected with their meaning and purpose of life.

Method:

A double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) was used. A sample (N=192) of stroke survivors was randomly assigned to intervention (NT) or treatment as usual (TAU) psycho-education groups.

Results: Survivors in the NT group showed significant improvements in the various outcome measures: stroke knowledge, mastery, self-esteem, hope, meaning in life, and life satisfaction. Most improvements were sustained 4 months post intervention. The TAU group failed to show similar improvements across most measures. The NT participants experienced significantly decreased depression, and improved self-esteem, mastery, hope, meaning in life and life satisfaction scores, sustained 4 months post intervention. No adverse reaction was recorded in any of the cases mentioned at all study sites.

Conclusion: Results suggest that NT as a meaning-making intervention could be a viable option for stroke survivors to facilitate their recovery.


Introduction: Bleeding is the most frequent complication in patients receiving veno-arterial or veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).1,2 Recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) has been used in these patients with conflicting results. We describe our experience in pediatric patients on ECMO who received rFVIIa for refractory bleeding in whom conventional management was not successful. This conventional management to stop the bleeding included adjustment of anticoagulation medications, substitution of clotting factors and platelets, and exclusion of surgical cause of bleeding.3–6Methods: We reviewed the medical records of all the patients who underwent ECMO in our PICU from January 1999 to July 2014 and received rFVIIa for refractory bleeding. Clinical characteristics, demographics, type of congenital heart disease, surgical correction, bleeding, thrombotic complications, mortality, and rFVIIa dose were documented. Being based on retrospective hospital data, this study is exempt from IRB approval. Results: A total of 123 patients underwent ECMO in our unit since 1999, and five of them received rFVIIa for persistent refractory bleeding during veno-arterial ECMO. All of them had corrective cardiac surgery for congenital defects before installation of ECMO. Bleeding dramatically decreased in four patients (Figure 1), without a major thrombotic event. In one patient, bleeding remained significant and he developed left pulmonary artery thrombosis confirmed by cardiac catheterization, and this patient died. Four patients survived at 48-h after withdrawal from ECMO.Figure 1. Rate of bleeding in the 3 h prior to the dose of rFVIIa and the 3 h after the dose of rFVIIa. Conclusions: rFVIIa use for refractory bleeding in patients on ECMO was efficacious in four out of five patients in stopping bleeding without major thrombotic events. While the use of rFVIIa seems effective, indications for its use, modalities of administration, and precautions to be taken need to be better defined.


Many previous studies have focused on youth soccer player
injuries without body component analysis compared to non-athletes. Only a few
studies which have investigated body components of youth soccer players, and
studies that look at electrical characteristics used by rheobase and
chronaxie as well as body components are even scarcer. Therefore, we feel that
there is a need for a study investigating objective clinical analysis of the body components (body structure
and body composition) and electrical characteristics of both youth soccer
players and non-athletes. Sixty subjects participated in our study, comprising
of thirty youth soccer players and thirty non-athletes. The Inbody 520 was used
to measure and analyze body composition and the Duo 500 was employed to measure
electrical characteristics. It was observed that the soccer players showed
markedly lower total impedance compared to the non-athletes. In both legs, it
was particularly noted that there were significant differences between the
right and left sides. The soccer players showed a higher skeletal muscle mass
and lean/ideal lean × 100%
compared to the non-athletes. Furthermore, the soccer players had a lower rheobase
and higher chronaxie. A comparison of the genders showed a similar pattern. In
this study, we were able to separate the differences in body components and
electrical characteristics between the subject groups using a systemic approach.
Future studies on diverse types of athletes would contribute further to the development of clinical
physiotherapy and sports rehabilitation.


Mental Health Recovery is emerging as a central philosophy in every institution providing mental health services across the world. However, in order to implement effective and efficient programs and policies that focus on recovery, it is important to understand how recovery happens. This understanding involves more than outcomes monitoring; it requires that the indicators be used in a way that will increase our understanding and do not lead us in unexpected directions. Therefore, it is important that mental health stakeholders recognize the impact that outcomes monitoring can have on programs and be aware of their unwanted influence. In this paper we describe the measurement tools, methodological techniques (quantitative and qualitative), and outcome reporting systems currently used at the Mental Health Center of Denver  in the United States, that are helping us to investigate critical research questions about what drives recovery. The article concludes by discussing how we are using the information we have gathered to develop programs and policies that help people recover, as well as use resources more efficiently.


Neutralizing antibodies against equine herpesvirus 1 were measured in serum and cerebrospinal fluid of 16 horses and ponies from a closed herd both before and after vaccination with modified live equine herpesvirus 1. These titers were also measured in 22 neurologically normal and 15 neurologically abnormal horses at a teaching hospital. Animals from the closed herd had prevaccination serum titers up to 1:8 and postvaccination serum titers up to 1:128. Horses from the teaching hospital had serum titers up to 1:64. Cerebrospinal fluid titers were not detected in the vaccinated horses or the neurologically normal horses but a low titer (1:8) was noted in one neurologically abnormal horse. This titer probably resulted from hemorrhage into the cerebrospinal fluid following trauma.


PURPOSE Limited research exists examining the principles of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) and improved outcomes. We examined whether PCMH principles (personal physician, physician-directed team, whole-person orientation, coordination of care, quality and safety, and enhanced access) are associated with receipt of preventive services. METHODS We undertook cross-sectional analyses using baseline patient and practice member surveys and chart audits from a quality improvement trial in 24 primary care offices. Association of PCMH principles with preventive services (receipt of cancer screening, lipid screening, influenza vaccination, and behavioral counseling) was examined using hierarchical linear modeling. RESULTS Higher global PCMH scores were associated with receipt of preventive services (β=2.3; P <.001). Positive associations were found with principles of personal physician (β=3.7; P <.001), in particular, continuity with the same physician (β=4.4; P = .002) and number of visits within 2 years (15% higher for patients with 13 or more visits; P <.001); and whole-person orientation (β=5.6; P <.001), particularly, having a well-visit within 5 years (β=12.3; P <.001) and being treated for chronic diseases (6% higher if more than 3 chronic diseases; P = .002). Having referral systems to link patients to community programs for preventive counseling (β = 8.0; P <.001) and use of clinical decision-support tools (β = 5.0; P = .04) were also associated with receipt of preventive services. CONCLUSIONS Relationship-centered aspects of PCMH are more highly correlated with preventive services delivery in community primary care practices than are information technology capabilities. Demonstration projects and tools that measure PCMH principles should have greater emphasis on these key primary care attributes.


OBJECTIVES--To study the age of the start of the fall (critical age) in fecundity; the probability of a pregnancy leading to a healthy baby taking into account the age of the woman; and, combining these results, to determine the age dependent probability of getting a healthy baby. DESIGN--Cohort study of all women who had entered a donor insemination programme. SETTING--Two fertility clinics serving a large part of The Netherlands. SUBJECTS--Of 1637 women attending for artificial insemination 751 fulfilled the selection criteria, being married to an azoospermic husband and nulliparous and never having received donor insemination before. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--The number of cycles before pregnancy (a positive pregnancy test result) or stopping treatment; and result of the pregnancy (successful outcome). RESULTS--Of the 751 women, 555 became pregnant and 461 had healthy babies. The fall in fecundity was estimated to start at around 31 years (critical age); after 12 cycles the probability of pregnancy in a woman aged greater than 31 was 0.54 compared with 0.74 in a woman aged 20.31. After 24 cycles this difference had decreased (probability of conception 0.75 in women greater than 31 and 0.85 in women 20.31). The probability of having a healthy baby also decreased--by 3.5% a year after the age of 30. Combining both these age effects, the chance of a woman aged 35 having a healthy baby was about half that of a woman aged 25. CONCLUSION--After the age of 31 the probability of conception falls rapidly, but this can be partly compensated for by continuing insemination for more cycles. In addition, the probability of an adverse pregnancy outcome starts to increase at about the same age.


Abstract Olfactory cues, both orthonasal (when we inhale) and retronasal (when we swallow/breathe out from the back of the nose), play a crucial role in the experience, and enjoyment, of food and drink. However, the design of product packaging glassware, and even plateware has typically not been optimized to deliver the ideal orthonasal hit. This review highlights a number of recent attempts by packaging manufacturers to improve the orthonasal experience for the consumer. The various ways in which modernist chefs, molecular mixologists, culinary artists, and designers have been playing with the delivery of both foreground and background aromas and scents in order to complement the dishes and drinks they serve is also examined. Finally, I highlight some of the ways that technology may be used to deliver food aromas in the future, and stress the need for more research in order to determine whether enhanced olfactory design (e.g. in scent-enabled cutlery and packaging) may one day be used to help nudge consumers toward healthier eating behaviours. The important distinction between natural and synthetic (or better said, between perceived natural vs. perceived synthetic) aromas is also discussed, as this will likely play an important role in determining the future uptake of such innovative olfactory delivery solutions.


Automated pedestrian detection, counting and tracking has received significant attention from the computer vision community of late. Many of the person detection techniques described so far in the literature work well in controlled environments, such as laboratory settings with a small number of people. This allows various assumptions to be made that simplify this complex problem. The performance of these techniques, however, tends to deteriorate when presented with unconstrained environments where pedestrian appearances, numbers, orientations, movements, occlusions and lighting conditions violate these convenient assumptions. Recently, 3D stereo information has been proposed as a technique to overcome some of these issues and to guide pedestrian detection. This thesis presents such an approach, whereby after obtaining robust 3D information via a novel disparity estimation technique, pedestrian detection is performed via a 3D point clustering process within a region-growing framework. This clustering process avoids using hard thresholds by using bio-metrically inspired constraints and a number of plan view statistics. This pedestrian detection technique requires no external training and is able to robustly handle challenging real-world unconstrained environments from various camera positions and orientations. In addition, this thesis presents a continuous detect-and-track approach, with additional kinematic constraints and explicit occlusion analysis, to obtain robust temporal tracking of pedestrians over
time. These approaches are experimentally validated using challenging datasets consisting of both synthetic data and real-world sequences gathered from a number of environments. In each case, the techniques are evaluated using both 2D and 3D groundtruth methodologies.


Nowadays, transition-metal adatoms and dimers with giant magnetic anisotropy have attracted much attention due to their potential applications in data storage, spintronics and quantum computations. Using density-functional calculations, we investigated the magnetic anisotropy of the rare-earth adatoms and dimers adsorbed by graphene oxide. Our calculations reveal that the adatoms of Tm, Er and Sm possess giant magnetic anisotropy, typically larger than 40 meV. When the dimers of (Tm,Er,Sm)-Ir are adsorbed onto graphene oxide, the magnetic anisotropy even exceeds 200 meV. The magnetic anisotropy can be tuned by the external electric field as well as the environment.


Medicare as a Secondary Payer (MSP) legislation requires employer-sponsored health insurance to be a primary payer for Medicare-eligible workers at firms with 20 or more employees. While the legislation was developed to better target Medicare services to individuals without access to employer-sponsored insurance, MSP creates a significant implicit tax on working beyond age 65. This implicit tax is approximately 15-20 percent at age 65 and increases to 45-70 percent by age 80. Eliminating this implicit tax by making Medicare a primary payer for all Medicare-eligible individuals could significantly increase lifetime labor supply due to the high labor supply elasticities of older workers. The extra income tax receipts from such a policy would likely offset a large percentage of the estimated costs of making Medicare a primary payer.


Patients in intensive care units require rest and sleep to recuperate, but might suffer from sleep deprivation due to ongoing unit activities. The study aimed to identify and describe the factors contributing to sleep deprivation in one multi-disciplinary intensive care unit (MDICU) in a private hospital in South Africa. Quantitative, descriptive research was conducted to identify factors contributing to sleep deprivation in the research setting, and to make recommendations to enhance these patients' abilities to sleep. Structured interviews were conducted with 34 adult non-ventilated patients who had spent at least one night in the MDICU and who gave informed consent. Out of the 34 interviewed patients 70.6% (n=24) indicated that they suffered from sleep deprivation in the MDICU. The five major factors contributing to sleep deprivation in a MDICU were, (1) not knowing nurses' names, noise caused by alarms, (2) stress, (3) inability to understand medical terms, and (3) blood pressure cuffs that restricted patients' movements and smelled badly. Patients' abilities to sleep were enhanced by reassuring nurses whose names they knew and with whom they could communicate. By attending to the identified five major factors, patients' abilities to sleep in a MDICU could be enhanced enabling patients to recuperate faster. The implementation of such measures need not incur financial costs for the MDICU concerned.


In today's fast-paced world, finding refuge from our busy lives is one of the most significant requirements for home. This refuge takes the form of rooms for rest, spaces for interacting with family and friends, as well as outdoor spaces. Urban Sanctuary showcases outstanding contemporary houses from Australia and New Zealand situated in urban contexts that explore and demonstrate inventive ways of living with the outdoors. Taking the form of vertical gardens, micro-green spaces, rooftop gardens, courtyards, borrowed landscapes and reworked traditional gardens, these projects reveal how a home can interact with garden spaces - in whatever form they might take.


A long-term illness is an occurrence that changes one's life and generates a need to learn how to live with it. This article is based on an empirical study of interviews on people living with different long-term illnesses. The results have shown that the learning process is a complex phenomenon interwoven with life as a whole. The essential meaning of learning to live with long-term illness concerns a movement toward a change of understanding of access to the world. In this movement, in which everyday lives as well as relationships with oneself and others are affected, a continual renegotiation is needed. Texts from existential/lifeworld philosopher, Heidegger and Gadamer, have been used to get a greater understanding of the empirical results. These texts have been analysed with particular focus on learning turning points and the importance of reflection. The results are highlighted under the following themes: Pursuit of balance-the aim of learning, The tense grip-the resistance to learning, To live more really-the possibilities of the learning, Distancing-the how of the learning, and The tense of the learning-the whole of the learning. In those learning turning points are present. Knowledge from this study has been used to make a didactic model designed to give caregivers a tool to support patients' learning. The didactic model is called: The challenge to take charge of life with a long-term illness.


This book presents a provocative new interpretation of Beyond Good and Evil, arguably Nietzsche's most important work. The problem is that it appears to express merely a loosely connected set of often questionable opinions. Can Nietzsche really be an important philosopher if this is his most important book? Maudemarie Clark and David Dudrick address this question with a close reading that emphasizes how Nietzsche writes. They argue that the first part of Beyond Good and Evil presents coherent and interconnected arguments for subtle and well-thought-out positions on traditional issues. Nietzsche's infamous doctrine of the will to power turns out to be a compelling account of the structure and origin of the human soul. And although he rejects some aspects of traditional philosophy, Nietzsche's aim is to show how philosophy's traditional aspirations to seek both the true and the good can be fulfilled. Beyond Good and Evil turns out to be a major work of philosophy and Nietzsche's masterpiece.


Books and articles highlighting intractable debt, poverty and development abound in both the academic and popular literature. This addition to the debate is both timely and interesting as it subsumes the economic debate to the broader social, political, environmental and institutional context of debt in developing countries. Debt-for-Development Exchanges: History and New Applications is intended for a wide audience including: academics from a range of disciplines (including accounting and finance); non-Government organisations (NGOs); civil society groups; and, both debtor and creditor governments and public sector organisations.


The current field of cancer treatment is undergoing a revolution. The influx of novel therapies derived from basic research on the immune system has shifted the landscape of modern medicine. Immunotherapy seeks to use the body's own immune system as a medium to terminate neoplastic cells. This is performed by manipulating the immune system into either targeting cancer antigens or breaking down barriers towards T cell infiltration. The former mechanism uses CAR-T cells as an instrument to target specific cancer neo-antigens. CAR-T cells begin as T cells derived from a patient's immune system. These cells are removed from the body and engineered to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) through a process of viral transduction. This CAR allows the T cell to recognize and bind to a specific antigen of interest. In most cases, the antigen is present on cancer cells. The T cells, now expressing the CAR receptor, are transplanted back into the body of the patient and proceed to target cancer cells. This therapy has been used in hematological malignancies to great effect. Applying CAR-T cells to solid tumors is an ongoing process, but has been difficult to establish due to the immunosuppressive aspects of the tumor microenvironment. As such, combining CAR-T cells with traditional anticancer therapies has been proven to be efficacious in treating patients with solid tumors. In general, immunosuppression is a large problem in the treatment of v cancer. Cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment express receptors that downregulate tumor-targeting actions of the immune system. The discovery of the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) allowed researchers to create novel antibodies that inhibit immunosuppression. PD1 located on T cells, binds to PDL1 on cancer and stromal cells. This interaction induces exhaustion and anergy in infiltrating T cells, thereby prevent T cells from targeting cancer cells. As such, the newly approved checkpoint blockade antibodies, Nivolumab and Pembrolizumab, block this interaction and allow T cells to carry out their targeting function. CAR-T cells and checkpoint blockade have both seen immense success in clinical trials and are currently being used the clinic. Nonetheless, development of these therapies for different types of cancers is an ongoing process and one that will require immense effort on behalf of the medical and pharmaceutical establishment .


Abstract Introduction: The aim of this work was to assess the situation of people with moderate intellectual disability (MID), considering the legal, political, economic, social and technological determinants (PEST factors). Materials and methods: This work consisted of an in-depth legal analysis based on the Community Action Board (CAB) model, which is a part of the Rapid Policy Assessment and Response (RPAR) methodology. Having analyzed the PEST factors, as part of the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), the CAB identified the strengths and weaknesses of the situations of persons with MID. Results: The following deficiencies were identified in the provisioning of legal and political assistance to persons with MID: disability definitions were incompatible with international law, lack of legal provisions comprehensively regulating the situation of persons with intellectual disability (ID), two-instance disability evaluation system, lack of sufficient coordination of state bodies, lack of supervision over decisions on the need for special education, poor employment opportunities after completing education. Optimal conditions for education in a special school have a positive impact on the situation of persons with MID, but their lack in a public school setting proves to have adverse effects. The most important forms of support include: places of daily stay, sheltered employment, supported employment on the open labor market, protected flats, support from an assistant. Conclusions: 1. The deficiencies in legal and political regulations in Poland make it difficult or impossible for persons with MID to receive adequate assistance. 2. Investing in special schools and ensuring their formal cooperation with public schools offers adequate education to persons with MID. 3. Poor access to special forms of support for people with MID causes their social exclusion.


A collection of twenty-eight brilliant and strange stories, inspired by Japanese folk tales and written by renowned Western expatriate Lafcadio Hearn Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was one of the nineteenth century's best-known writers, his name celebrated alongside those of Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson. Born in Greece and raised in Ireland, Hearn was a true prodigy and world traveler. He worked as a reporter in Cincinnati, New Orleans, and the West Indies before heading to Japan in 1890 on a commission from Harper's. There, he married a Japanese woman from a samurai family, changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo, and became a Japanese subject. An avid collector of traditional Japanese tales, legends, and myths, Hearn taught literature and wrote his own tales for both Japanese and Western audiences. Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn brings together twenty-eight of Hearn's strangest and most entertaining stories in one elegant volume. Hearn's tales span a variety of genres. Many are fantastical ghost stories, such as "The Corpse-Rider," in which a man foils the attempts of his former wife's ghost to haunt him. Some are love stories in which the beloved is not what she appears to be: in "The Story of Aoyagi," a young samurai narrowly escapes the wrath of his lord for marrying without permission, only to discover that his wife is the spirit of a willow tree. Throughout this collection, Hearn's reverence for Japan shines through, and his stories provide insights into the country's artistic and cultural heritage. With an introduction by Andrei Codrescu discussing Hearn's life and work, as well as a foreword by Jack Zipes, Japanese Tales of Lafcadio Hearn provides a unique window into one writer's multicultural literary journey.


A study on the combined effect of calcium nitrate and fluorescent
Pseudomonads on bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum on
tomato was carried out in the greenhouse and field. Greenhouse studies
showed that application of calcium nitrate solution at 0.1 % and 0.5% on
tomato seedlings prior to transplanting gave significant increase (p<0.01)
on the fresh and dry weight of the treated seedlings compared to the 1%
treatment and the non-treated control. Application of 0.5% calcium nitrate
solution prior to transplanting, complemented with application of granular
calcium nitrate after transplanting gave significant reduction (p<0.01) on
bacterial wilt incidence on tomato seedlings planted in soil artificially
infested with R. solanacearum at approximately 106 cfu/g oven-dry soil.
Four strains of antagonistic Pseudomonads, that inhibited the growth of
R. solanacearum on dual-culture plates, were tested individually in biopriming
(approximately 1 X 108 cfu/ml in 1.5% methylcellulose) on their effects towards seed germination and biomass of the treated tomato
seedlings. Pseudomonas putida strains KTS26 and AC1 individually gave
significant (p<0.01) increase on germination (%) compared to when
seeds were coated with methylcellulose only. Fresh weight of 30-days-old
seedlings was significantly increased (p<0.01) by bio-priming with
combination of KTS26 and AC1 , and with KTS26 alone. However, dry
weight of seedlings was not affected by the treatments.
G reenhouse studies were conducted to evaluate the combined effects of
seed bio-priming with Pseudomonas pufida strains KTS26 and AC1 ,
either individually or in combination; application of calcium nitrate, at
regular intervals, prior to and after transplanting; and application of
Stonier's medium (half-strength) in controlling bacterial wilt on MT11 up to
6 weeks after transplanting. All combination of treatments significantly
(p0.01) reduced the disease, compared to the non-treated control.
However, no significant difference was observed between the treatments.


The issue of identifying and managing stakeholders has been largely explored by international literature and articles focusing on private sector organizations (Christopher et al., 2002; Rutterford et al., 2006), and the importance of this issue is also gradually increasing in public sector organizations (Maassen, 2000; Wit and Verhoeven, 2000; Peters, 1996; Kettle, 2002). However, less extensive research efforts have been observed in the application and analysis of stakeholder theory in public universities. Stakeholder recognition and management as well as the measurement and subsequent evaluation of their impact on quality service delivery are important in terms of effective management (Mitchell et al., 1997), strategic decision making and rational planning (Bryson, 2004), and by consistency in the application of the principles of Total Quality Management. Identifying and understanding the stakeholders related to an organization and the influence they have on the organization are crucial for managers and policy makers. The purpose of the present research is to explore the specific gap in the literature, that is, to understand the nature, needs and expectations of stakeholders, the satisfaction of which is a sufficient and necessary condition for the effective delivery of quality services at a University. In this context, the study focused on identifying stakeholders of a University as well as the degree of influence they have on providing quality educational services but also on the dropout rate of students, using case studies from two Greek Universities. Specifically, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences has been selected as a foundation based on traditional, life-long teaching, and the Hellenic Open University, focusing on its undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In this way, a comparison is made of the quality criteria as perceived by the stakeholders of the two Universities with a different approach and philosophy of providing educational services.


The stabilizing effect of placing a normal metal layer adjacent to a thermomagnetically unstable superconducting film is investigated. By solving the coupled Maxwell and heat transfer equations numerically it is shown that the metal, via inductive braking of the rapidly propagating flux avalanches, strongly reduces their impact. It is found that with increasing thickness and/or electrical conductivity of the metal layer, the number of avalanche events increases, while the amount of flux involved in each avalanche is strongly reduced, resulting in an overall more stable thermomagnetic system. The numerical results provide detailed insight into the braking process, and explain both previous dc magnetometry measurements and new magneto-optical imaging results obtained for a superconducting NbN film coated with a Cu-layer.


This dissertation addresses the topic of manufacturing network strategies, with a particular focus on the plant perspective. Research on manufacturing networks aims at contributing decision support on how to set up and how to coordinate factories that act in a global setting. Manufacturing networks are networks consisting of wholly owned plant, as opposed to supply chains management where also plants belonging to other organisations are considered. Research on the role of the plant in manufacturing networks can help to gain insights in how the network works and how to achieve network-related competitive advantages. Over the last two decades there has been a trend in increased globalisation and when companies expand beyond their home markets there is a leap in complexity that needs to be handled. A survey of Swedish plants shows that a large majority of medium and large sized plants are part in some kind of manufacturing network, making research on such networks highly relevant. The overall objective of this dissertation is to investigate how factories fit into the network in terms of roles, strategic autonomy and market configurations. Much research has either focused on networks as a whole, often assuming similar or identical plants, or the focus has been on plant internal decision. This research addresses the borderland between plant and network. This dissertation addresses two research objectives. The first is to investigate the relationship between networks and plants roles with particular focus on Swedish based networks and plants and the second is to test and further develop the theory on plant roles. The empirical data that was used in the dissertation was the product of a mail survey and a case study at a manufacturer of heat exchangers. The survey was sent to 563 Swedish factories and included information on competitive priorities, processes, plant roles, performance, suppliers, risk as well as general product and company information. Using focus groups, the case company was followed from the start of the project in January 2006. Following the case company during five years gave the opportunity to study networks in transformation. The research contributed to several insights to the area of plant roles and manufacturing networks as well as to practitioners in manufacturing. Internal and external suppliers are handled differently in terms of selection criteria, which indicates different roles in the network. Detailed exploration of individual site competences has lead to an improved model based on competence themes and links between the plant level and the network level have been established. Additionally we contribute to the manufacturing strategy process area by investigating and suggesting a model for strategic decision autonomy in manufacturing networks. The results are aimed at providing guidance for decision making in manufacturing networks as well as providing an improved foundation for further research in the area.


OBJECTIVES
To analyze a cohort of patients with Enterococcus sp. bacteraemia.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Retrospective and observational study of a cohort of non-pediatric in-patients with Enterococcus spp. bacteraemia (June 2007-September 2009). Data collection from clinical records was done according to a standard protocol. We analyzed epidemiological, clinical and microbiological data. Treatment with glycopeptides in non allergic patients or in case of betalactam susceptibility (ampicillin) was considered "optimizable".

RESULTS
Three were 106 cases of bacteraemia (2.2/1000 admitted patients; 84% E. faecalis); 83% had an underlying condition; 88% nosocomial or health related cases. Urinary infection was present in 20% and primary bacteraemia in 47%. High level resistance to gentamicin (HLRG) was present in 60%; there was no vancomycin or linezolid resistance. Most frequent empiric treatments were penicillin-betalactamase inhibitor (25%) and glycopeptides (22%). Most frequent definitive treatment was glycopeptides (34%), being "optimized" 21% and 44% of empiric and definitive treatments, respectively. Mortality was 23% (related, 14%). In the multivariate analysis, risk factors associated with HLRG were nosocomial acquired infection (OR 6.083; 95CI% 1.428-25.915) and no-abdominal origin (OR 6.006; 95CI%1.398-25.805). In multivariate analysis, independent risk factors for mortality were: Pitt > 3 (OR 14.405; 95CI%2.236-92.808) and active empiric treatment (OR 8.849; 95CI% 1.101-71.429). Incidence in previous cohort was similar but HLRG rate has increased.

CONCLUSIONS
Risk factors associated with HLRG were nosocomial acquired infection and no-abdominal origin. Risk factors for mortality were initial clinical severity and having received active empiric treatment. HLRG rate has increased.


Comparing
experimental results on the shear capacity of steel fiber-reinforced concrete
(SFRC) beams without mild steel stirrups, to the ones predicted by current
design equations and other available formulations, still shows significant
differences. In this paper we propose the use of artificial intelligence to estimate
the shear capacity of these members. A database of 430 test results reported in
the literature is used to develop an artificial neural network-based formula that
predicts the shear capacity of SFRC beams without shear reinforcement. The
proposed model yields maximum and mean relative errors of 0.0% for the 430 data
points, which represents a better prediction (mean Vtest / VANN = 1.00 with a coefficient of
variation of 1× 10-15) than the existing expressions, where the best
model yields a mean value of Vtest /
Vpred = 1.01 and a coefficient of variation of 27%.


Indonesians appear content with local public education, despite independent concerns about quality in the international context. Over 85 percent of respondents from the recent Governance and Decentralization Survey claim to be at least somewhat satisfied with primary school education. This study argues that the generally high levels of reported satisfaction are probably exaggerated because of courtesy bias, low expectations, and optimistic predispositions. Survey responses are best thought of as indicative of relative, and not absolute, levels of satisfaction. The empirical examination shows that objective measures of service quality and governance conditions are both significant determinants of the probability that households are satisfied with local public education. The significance of governance holds regardless of whether pertinent variables are assumed to be exogenous or whether they are specified as endogenously determined, although the endogenous specification performs much better, in general. The evidence suggests a cautious approach toward the use and interpretation of score card initiatives, which attempt to employ citizen satisfaction as a close proxy for actual quality of services, in nonrandom samples, and without controlling for other factors. In addition, the results provide a novel rationale for improving the local governance environment. Copyright (c) 2009 Copyright the Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc..


The influence of spherical aberration on axial imaging of confocal reflection microscopy is investigated. In particular, the effects of lens aperture size and of the first three orders of spherical aberration are inspected. It is shown both theoretically and experimentally that the aberrated axial response can be improved by slightly reducing the lens aperture size. The experimental results concerning the effect of the tube length on the axial response and the aberration compensation are also given.


We present a new type of augmented mechanical keyboard, capable of sensing rich and expressive motion gestures performed both on and directly above the device. Our hardware comprises of low-resolution matrix of infrared (IR) proximity sensors interspersed between the keys of a regular mechanical keyboard. This results in coarse but high frame-rate motion data. We extend a machine learning algorithm, traditionally used for static classification only, to robustly support dynamic, temporal gestures. We propose the use of motion signatures a technique that utilizes pairs of motion history images and a random forest based classifier to robustly recognize a large set of motion gestures on and directly above the keyboard. Our technique achieves a mean per-frame classification accuracy of 75.6% in leave-one-subject-out and 89.9% in half-test/half-training cross-validation. We detail our hardware and gesture recognition algorithm, provide performance and accuracy numbers, and demonstrate a large set of gestures designed to be performed with our device. We conclude with qualitative feedback from users, discussion of limitations and areas for future work.


Allenes have been efficiently prepared by the reaction of propargylic esters (benzoates, acetates, carbonates) with triorganoindium compounds (R 3 In) under palladium catalysis, via an 5 N 2' rearrangement. The reaction proceeds smoothly at room temperature with a variety of aryl-, alkenyl-, and alkynylindium reagents. The yields obtained are high and the regioselectivity is complete both in the case of terminal and nonterminal propargylic esters.


Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is increasingly used in the assessment of pulmonary diseases in children. However, reference values for cellular and non-cellular constituents of BAL fluid in children are lacking. We have studied the differential cytology of BAL fluid in 48 children aged 3-16 years (mean age +/- SD 7.9 +/- 3.5 yrs) undergoing elective surgery for nonpulmonary illnesses. A flexible bronchoscope (Pentax 3.5 or 4.9 mm) was wedged in the middle lobe or one of its segments. BAL was performed with 3x1 ml-kg-1 body weight of normal saline warmed to body temperature. The first sample was studied separately; subsequent samples were pooled for analysis. The mean recovery was 58 +/- 15%. Significantly more granulocytes and less lymphocytes were found in the first, as compared to the pooled, sample. Total cell counts were highly variable and ranged from 0.5-57.1 x 10(4) ml-1. Macrophages were the predominant cell type, with a mean percentage of 81.2 +/- 12.7%. The relative proportion of lymphocytes was higher than that reported in most studies of adult volunteers (16.1 +/- 2.4%). No age dependency was observed for either cell type. The mean percentage of granulocytes was 2.5 +/- 3.3%. Absolute granulocyte counts were significantly higher in children under 8 yrs of age. This study provides the first reference data on BAL differential cytology in children without pulmonary disease and will be the basis for future investigations of BAL in paediatric lung diseases.


We undertook a comprehensive evaluation of 23 gridded (quasi-)global (sub-)daily precipitation ( P ) datasets for the period 2000–2016. Thirteen non-gauge-corrected P datasets were evaluated using daily P gauge observations from 76 086 gauges worldwide. Another ten gauge-corrected datasets were evaluated using hydrological modeling, by calibrating the conceptual model HBV against streamflow records for each of 9053 small to medium-sized ( 2 ) catchments worldwide, and comparing the resulting performance. Marked differences in spatio-temporal patterns and accuracy were found among the datasets. Among the uncorrected P datasets, the satellite- and reanalysis-based MSWEP-ng V1.2 and V2.0 datasets generally showed the best temporal correlations with the gauge observations, followed by the reanalyses (ERA-Interim, JRA-55, and NCEP-CFSR) and the the satellite- and reanalysis-based CHIRP V2.0 dataset, the estimates based primarily on passive microwave remote sensing of rainfall (CMORPH V1.0, GSMaP V5/6, and TMPA 3B42RT V7) or near-surface soil moisture (SM2RAIN-ASCAT), and finally, estimates based primarily on thermal infrared imagery (GridSat V1.0, PERSIANN, and PERSIANN-CCS). Two of the three reanalyses (ERA-Interim and JRA-55) unexpectedly obtained lower trend errors than the satellite datasets. Among the corrected P datasets, the ones directly incorporating daily gauge data (CPC Unified and MSWEP V1.2 and V2.0) generally provided the best calibration scores, although the good performance of the fully gaugebased CPC Unified is unlikely to translate to sparsely or ungauged regions. Next best results were obtained with P estimates directly incorporating temporally coarser gauge data (CHIRPS V2.0, GPCP-1DD V1.2, TMPA 3B42 V7, and WFDEI-CRU), which in turn outperformed those indirectly incorporating gauge data through other multi-source datasets (PERSIANN-CDR V1R1 and PGF). Our results highlight large differences in estimation accuracy, and hence, the importance of P dataset selection in both research and operational applications. The good performance of MSWEP emphasizes that careful data merging can exploit the complementary strengths of gauge-, satellite- and reanalysis-based P estimates.


This study investigates and compares the use of discourse markers (DMs) by native speakers and learners of English based on a corpus of adolescent intercultural exchange students. Thestudy employs a discourse analytical approach, in whichFung and Carter's (2007)multi-category framework is appliedwith a view to examiningDMs used bya group of Taiwanese and British adolescentsin an intercultural setting.The analytical frameworkcontains four main functional categories: Interpersonal, referential, structural and cognitive DMs. Each DM was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively in order to identifythe functions it serves in its original contextandtofurther reveal the different uses of DMs between Taiwanese and British participants. The findings demonstrate that the DMs used by both groups of participants serve the fourcentral functions,andin particularTaiwanese participants display a significant use of interpersonal (e.g., yeah, oh) and structural DMs (e.g., so, okay), while British participants have a significantly higher usage of referential (e.g., coz/because, and) and cognitive DMs (e.g., like, well). The results of this study have direct pedagogical implications that can enhance the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL)to better prepare learners for real life communication scenarios.


A congenitally dysfunctional form of prothrombin, Prothrombin Himi, shows reduced fibrinogen clotting activity, although it retains full hydrolytic activity toward synthetic substrates. To elucidate the structural abnormality of the variant prothrombin, we first performed genetic analysis of dysprothrombin. Polymerase chain reaction amplification of the exons 8 through 14 of the proband and her family members' prothrombin genes, which code the thrombin moiety, followed by single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis, identified two variant conformers in exon 10 specific to this family. One variant allele detected in the father was inherited by the proband and one of her sisters, and the other detected in the mother was also inherited by them. This result indicates that the proband has two different base pair changes in the gene. Sequencing showed two novel point mutations in the proband's gene. One is a T to C transition at position 8751, resulting in the substitution of threonine for methionine at codon 337 (Thrombin Himi I). The other is a G to A transition at 8904, resulting in the substitution of histidine for arginine at codon 388 (Thrombin Himi II). By sequencing analysis of her parents, it was determined that Thrombin Himi I was inherited from the father and Thrombin Himi II from the mother. These results confirm that Prothrombin Himi is compound heterozygous for two dysfunctional prothrombin molecules.


Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate changes that occurred during the late postevaporitic stage of the Mediterranean Basin in the Messinian foreland domain of the Adriatic region offer a new perspective on the relationship between orbital forcing and climate response. The magnetic susceptibility record of the Fonte dei Pulcini A section (Maiella Mountains, Italy) allows us to orbitally tune the record between 5.394 and 5.336 Ma and to temporally constrain the paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate changes evidenced by quantitative paleontological (palynomorphs, ostracods, and calcareous nannofossils), stable isotope (δ 18 O and δ 13 C), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses. The base of the Fonte dei Pulcini A section is characterized by Paratethyan ostracods and dinocysts, which point to the late Messinian Lago-Mare biofacies ( Loxocorniculina djafarovi zone) of the Mediterranean Messinian stratigraphy. From paleontological and geochemical (δ 18 O) analyses, there is no evidence of a marine incursion in the Fonte dei Pulcini A section. The major changes in terms of paleodepth, paleosalinity, evaporation versus precipitation, aridity versus humidity, and reworking processes occurred in the upper part of the Fonte dei Pulcini A section, during the last Messinian insolation cycle (i-cycle 511/512), which is characterized by high-amplitude oscillations. In contrast, the lower part of the Fonte dei Pulcini A section, which was deposited during relatively low-amplitude insolation cycles, is characterized by more stable environmental conditions. Comparing summer insolation with the paleoenvironmental changes at the Fonte dei Pulcini A section, we identify delays of several thousands of years between orbital forcing and climate response.


Acute non-specific low back pain, usually a result of muscle strains and ligament sprains from lifting, exercising or moving unexpectedly, is commonly encountered in primary care. At any given time, approximately one in five adults will report low back pain. Although non-specific low back pain is usually self-limiting and improves with time, there is an array of treatment options to facilitate this process and to minimise potential suffering, disability and absenteeism from work. This article will provide a review of such treatment options.


In this study, two different carbon fillers: carbon black (CB) and graphite nanoplatelets (GNP) are studied as conductive fillers for the preparation of conductive polypropylene (PP) nanocomposites. In order to obtain a homogenous dispersion of GNP, GNP/PP composites were prepared by two different methods: solid state mixing (SSM) and traditional melt mixing (MM). The result shows that MM is more efficient in the dispersion of GNP particles compared to SSM method. PP nanocomposites containing only one conductive filler and two fillers were prepared at different filler concentrations. Based on the analysis of electrical and rheological properties of the prepared nanocomposites, it shows that a hybridized composite with equal amounts of GNP and CB has favorable processing properties. Conductive fibers with a core/sheath structure were produced on a bicomponent melt spinning line. The core materials of these fibers are the hybridized GNP/CB/PP nanocomposite and the sheath is pure polyamide. It was found that GNPs were separated during melt and cold drawing which results in the decrease of conductivity. However, the conductivity could partly be restored by the heat treatment.


Understanding large‐scale phytoplankton dynamics requires accurate, multi‐decadal measurements of abundance and distribution. Since 1890, marine phytoplankton abundance has been assessed using a diverse range of sensors and observational platforms, and inter‐calibrating these data have been challenging. Consequently, syntheses of historical phytoplankton data have been rarely attempted, and the need for accurate, long‐term assessments of phytoplankton abundance and distribution is commonly acknowledged. Here, we derive quantitative indices of phytoplankton abundance from measurements of upper ocean transparency and color‐calibrated with direct measurements of surface chlorophyll. The strong correlation and linear scaling of the predicted data enabled the construction of a comprehensive, globally intercalibrated chlorophyll time series from 1890 to 2010. The calibrated chlorophyll data reproduced the well‐established spatial features of phytoplankton surface biomass and were strongly correlated with chlorophyll concentration derived from two independent remote sensing platforms discontinuously available since 1978. These results suggest that with careful statistical treatment it is possible to generate a globally integrated chlorophyll time series extending 120 years into the past. This database, which is available in the web appendices of this paper, may enable new insights in the areas of climate science, biogeochemical cycling, and marine ecosystem structure and functioning over the past century.