In 2015 an assortment of control valves were implemented in the Murdoch University Instrumentation and Control Laboratory and in the Pilot Plant. This project is a result of this proposed implementation and is important to gain a proper understanding of the valves' usage; behaviour; and to confirm the new valves are an improvement on any valves they may be replacing.

This project aimed to compare and analyse the operability and performance of the Baumann 24000S with Fisher 3660 Positioner and the existing Badger Meter Research Control Valves within the Instrumentation and Control Laboratory. The operability and performance was analysed by investigating the valves' usage; functionality; hysteresis; valve type and sizing; dead band; and dead time.

The first test checked if one valve opening resulted in two flow rates for different directions of the stem movement (otherwise known as hysteresis). Eliminating hysteresis is important as it signifies that the valve is less susceptible to variations caused by friction and other forces, resulting in a single flow rate for each valve opening.

The valve type, sizing and usage was analysed with the flow coefficient and characteristic curves. The flow coefficient indicates a valve's maximum flow capacity, whereas the characteristic curve shows the flow behaviour with change in valve opening; this should be as linear as possible. The type and size of a valve is important in order to optimise a process. A valve that is too small will not allow sufficient fluid to pass; whereas a valve that is too big will cause most of the process gain to come from the valve and not the controller [1].

Dead band is the range the valve opening can change in both directions without change in the flow being observed; this is a result of backlash and friction. The smaller the dead band the better the valve's ability is to respond to minor changes.

Dead time allows the evaluation of the valve's response time, in order to compare the speed of the valves.

In comparing the Research Valve results to the Baumann 24000S results, the Baumann 24000S had no visible hysteresis; it had the strongest linear relationship; it had a small dead band of 0.5% and a quicker dead time. Based on these findings it is determined that the Baumann 24000S surpasses the performance of the Research Valve; therefore it is advised that the Baumann 24000S with Fisher 3660 positioner is a suitable replacement for the Badger Meter Research Valve.


OBJECTIVE
To examine how a new model of consumer-directed care changes the way that consumers with disabilities meet their personal care needs and, in turn, affects their well-being.

STUDY SETTING
Eligible Medicaid beneficiaries in Arkansas, Florida, and New Jersey volunteered to participate in the demonstration and were randomly assigned to receive an allowance and direct their own Medicaid supportive services as Cash and Counseling consumers (the treatment group) or to rely on Medicaid services as usual (the control group). The demonstration included elderly and non-elderly adults in all three states and children in Florida.

DATA SOURCES
Telephone interviews administered 9 months after random assignment.

METHODS
Outcomes for the treatment and control group were compared, using regression analysis to control for consumers' baseline characteristics.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
Treatment group members were more likely to receive paid care, had greater satisfaction with their care, and had fewer unmet needs than control group members in nearly every state and age group. However, among the elderly in Florida, Cash and Counseling had little effect on these outcomes because so few treatment group members actually received the allowance. Within each state and age group, consumers were not more susceptible to adverse health outcomes or injuries under Cash and Counseling.

CONCLUSIONS
Cash and Counseling substantially improves the lives of Medicaid beneficiaries of all ages if consumers actually receive the allowance that the program offers.


Parallel programming has become essential for writing scalable programs on general hardware. Conceptually, every parallel program consists of workers, which implement primary units of sequential computation, and protocols, which implement the rules of interaction that workers must abide by. As programmers have been writing sequential code for decades, programming workers poses no new fundamental challenges. What is new---and notoriously difficult---is programming of protocols. In this thesis, I study an approach to protocol programming where programmers implement their workers in an existing general-purpose language (GPL), while they implement their protocols in a complementary domain-specific language (DSL). DSLs for protocols enable programmers to express interaction among workers at a higher level of abstraction than the level of abstraction supported by today's GPLs, thereby addressing a number of protocol programming issues with today's GPLs. In particular, in this thesis, I develop a DSL for protocols based on a theory of formal automata and their languages. The specific automata that I consider, called constraint automata, have transition labels with a richer structure than alphabet symbols in classical automata theory. Exactly these richer transition labels make constraint automata suitable for modeling protocols.


Overview: Behavioural economics (BE) provides a perspective to better understand and predict the decision-making mechanism of individuals. In the last decades, numerous literature discussed the application of BE in various subjects from both theoretical and practical aspects. There is also an increasing trend for the governments to incorporate the BE approach into the policy-making process.To date, however, research on the role of BE in energy policy are mainly at the academic level. Some critical researchers argue that BE needs to establish its reliability before generalising the laboratory results to policy initiatives.This paper will take a closer look at the influence BE has had on both residential energy efficiency and policy-making, and provide an estimation of further research orientations.Methods: This research will provide a panorama of the literature in BE with an application of the energy efficiency issue, collect examples that integrate BE approach in the making of policy to promote residential energy efficiency worldwide, summarise the generalised principles, tools and models, and accordingly, discuss the future opportunities, challenges and limitations.Results: Research of BE has been widespread in recent years, especially in developed countries, with respect to policy-making. In the field of residential energy efficiency, well-designed BE policies can contribute by providing countermeasures towards, or even taking advantage of individuals' irrational behaviour and prevalent cognitive biases, and influence residences' behaviour patterns of energy usage. However, interest in research will not automatically translate into actual action steps. More empirical research and rigorous experiments should be carried out to realise the implementation of BE policy.Conclusions: This research highlights the potential of BE to improve the residential energy efficiency. The insights from BE can help policymakers to design effective differentiated policy interventions through the understanding and prediction of consumer behaviour, especially phenomena that neoclassical economics failed to explain, to better achieve the energy efficiency goals. Given the current overall trend and vast scope, the issue of BE is likely to continue and deserves a further attention.


Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is defined as a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviors that an individual perpetuates physically, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, economically, and/or sexually against his or her intimate partner (World Health Organization, 2013b). More than 1 in 3 women in the United States have experienced IPV at some point in their lifetime (The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2010 Summary Report, 2010). Further, more than a third of women who have been impacted by Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) develop PTSD (DeJonghe, Bogat, Levendosky, & Von Eye, 2008; Van der Kolk et al., 2014). Despite the high incidence of PTSD in women impacted by IPV, there seems to be a gap addressing the needs of this clinical population due to the ambiguity on the efficacy of current treatment interventions for PTSD. Serious limitations such as high drop out rates and nonresponse rates persist in studies of even well-established and heavily researched interventions such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), suggesting that these interventions may not be effective for all trauma survivors (Schottenbauer et al., 2008). In recent years, neuroscientists such as Porges (2001, 2003) have shed new light and understanding on trauma by suggesting that social behavior has a neurobiological basis. It may be that until traumatized individuals increase physiological awareness of their body, conventional trauma treatment approaches that are cognitively oriented may have limited effectiveness (Emerson, 2011; Scaer, 2005). Trauma-sensitive yoga (TSY), a structured body-oriented yoga practice, is one of the novel approaches specifically designed to help trauma survivors recover from trauma. Although research on TSY is in its infancy, several scholars have found evidence for its efficacy as an intervention for significantly reducing participants' PTSD symptoms (Dick, Niles, Street, DiMartino, & Mitchell, 2014; Mitchell et al., 2014; Van der Kolk et al., 2014). While this is useful information, these researchers have not yet considered how TSY facilitates trauma recovery beyond what is reflected in PTSD scores. However, identifying nuances in individual recovery is central to informing more tailored interventions specific to survivors' diverse trauma recovery needs (Dutton, 2009). To fill this gap in the extant literature, the purpose of this study was to study adult female IPV survivors' perceptions of trauma recovery as facilitated by TSY. In particular, the researcher sought to develop an in-depth and unique contextual understanding on five women's trauma recovery experiences using a collective case study research design. Findings from this study revealed individual and collective themes across cases that support the use of TSY to facilitate trauma recovery in multidimensional ways. Themes from the benefits of TSY on women's trauma recovery included (a) physiological benefits, (b) emotional benefits, (c) spiritual benefits, (d) cognitive benefits, (e) enhanced perception of self and others, (f) shift in perspective on time, (f) self-care, and (g) application of positive coping strategies. The findings indicate that TSY offers a versatile approach to meeting the diverse needs of women impacted by IPV-related trauma. Contrary to the proposition that TSY is suited for all complex trauma survivors, the findings also suggest that TSY classes may be contraindicated for certain complex trauma survivors.


Industry applications involving torque brushless dc motors require high efficiency over a large speed range. In order to achieve such specifications, flux weakening is necessary, which could lead to relative high electromagnetically induced vibrations and consequently to audible noises. Furthermore, in order to decrease cogging torque and to satisfy motor manufacturing constraints, concentric windings are usually considered. Such motor configurations lead to harmonics of the electromagnetic forces being the sources of mechanical vibrations. This paper focuses on the electromagnetic forces created in surface-mounted permanent magnet and internal permanent magnet motors for two concentric windings: one and two coil sides per slot. These forces are determined using both lumped magnetic scheme and two-dimensional finite-element (FE) simulations. Then, three-dimensional FE simulations enable to predict the mechanical modes and the acoustic radiated power. Finally, the authors propose a simple method to mitigate the magnetic forces and their variations. This method deals with skewing the stator. The skewing angle is optimized differently as in the usual case of decreasing the cogging torque. This method is really interesting for industry applications, because does not require any important change in the motor construction. The acoustic measurements confirm the analysis and the proposed improvement technique (stator skewing).


The electronic processes responsible for charge transport and electroluminescence in multilayered organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are very sensitive to the properties of the organic heterojunction. In particular, the height of the energy barrier affects the way in which electrons and holes meet at the heterojunction, the way in which the barrier is crossed, and the probability for photon creation. We investigate these aspects experimentally using a family of OLED devices in which different hole transporting materials are used in otherwise identical device architectures to vary the interfacial hole barrier over a wide energy range. We find that the quantum efficiency of the device is maximum for low-energy barriers and drops for high barrier values where a redshifted electroluminescence spectrum is observed. This shift is attributed to exciplex generation at the heterojunction. The contributions of exciton and exciplex annihilation in radiative and nonradiative channels to the charge flow within the ...


The study of partial differential equations plays a significant role in many fields including mathematics, physics, and engineering. A partial differential equation (PDE) relates the partial derivatives of a function of two or more independent variables together. The general linear second order partial differential equation with constant coefficient has the form aZx x + bZx y +cZy y +dZx +eZy + f Z = g(x, y). There are many methods of solving this type of PDE's such as finite elements, finite different and crank Nicolson depends on its classifications based on Z = b2-4ac. It is also well known that PDE is hyperbolic when -> 0, parabolic when - 0 and elliptic when-<0. In this research study, classification of the partial differential equation with constant coefficient is achieved by using Maple program. The classifications of variable coefficients of partial differential equations by Maple program are also given. The PDE's after the convolution has the form AZx x + BZx y + CZy y + DZx + EZy + F Z = G, where A, B and C are coefficients of the PDE's after the convolution. Further more the classification PDE's with convolution are addressed by using -1=B2-4AC. Similarities in the classification of PDE's before and after convolution were found. The solution of some important problems such as the wave equation is highly need of and occurs as one of three fundamental equations in mathematical physics that occurs in many branches of physics, applied mathematics, and engineering. In this research work, some problems of PDE's with constant coefficient are solved by double Laplace transforms method. The same problems of the PDE's are modified by some convolution function. The solutions of this new PDE's are obtained by double Laplace transform. Graphical comparisons indicated that the methods are the same. In the same way, the PDE's with variable coefficient are solved by double Laplace transforms methods. Then the same problem of the PDE's is modified by some convolution functions. The new PDE's are solved after convolution. However, graphical comparison made revealed that this two PDE's before and after convolution are the same.


Objectives Oxycodone is semi-synthetic opioid, oral and parenteral preparations have been widely used for acute and chronic pain. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and side effects of oxycodone and fentanyl in patient controlled analgesia (PCA) after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Methods A prospective, randomized, double-blind study was conducted. 81 patients were randomly divided into two groups; fentanyl (10 mcg fentanyl and 1.5 mg ketorolac) and oxycodone group (1 mg oxycodone and 1.5 mg ketorolac). After the operation, a blinded observer assessed pain using a numerical rating scale (NRS), infused PCA dose, side effects, sedation levels, and satisfaction. Results Cumulative PCA dose of oxycodone group at 48 h (31.4 ± 16.0 ml) was significantly less than that of fentanyl group (43.8 ± 23.1 ml, P = 0.009). Oxycodone group showed more nausea at 6 - 24 h after the operation (P = 0.001), but there was no difference in satisfaction score (P = 0.073). There were no significant differences in other side effects, sedation and NRS scores between two groups. Conclusion Oxycodone showed comparable effects for pain relief compared to fentanyl in spite of less cumulative PCA dose. Based on these results, we could conclude that oxycodone may be useful as an alternative to fentanyl for PCA after laparoscopic cholecystectomy.


From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Orange Prize-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, come twelve dazzling stories in which she turns her penetrating eye on the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Nigeria and the West. In 'A Private Experience,' a medical student hides from a violent riot with a poor Muslim woman whose dignity and faith force her to confront the realities and fears she's been pushing away. In 'Tomorrow Is Too Far,' a woman unlocks the devastating secret that surrounds her brother's death. The young mother at the center of 'Imitation' finds her comfortable life threatened when she learns that her husband back in Lagos has moved his mistress into their home. And the title story depicts the choking loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to an America that turns out to be nothing like the country she expected; though falling in love brings her desires nearly within reach, a death in her homeland forces her to re-examine them. Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow and longing, this collection is a resounding confirmation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's prodigious storytelling powers.


The proper expansion and contraction of hematopoietic cells requires tight regulation of cell death. BID, a "BH3-only" molecule, amplifies death receptor signals connecting the extrinsic to intrinsic pathways by triggering the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. Bid-deficient mice, as they age, spontaneously develop a myeloproliferative disorder, which progresses from myeloid hyperplasia to a fatal, clonal malignancy closely resembling chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). Thus, an apoptotic defect can result in myeloid leukemogenesis. Premalignant Bid-/- myeloid precursor cells are resistant to death receptor-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, a competitive reconstitution assay demonstrates that Bid-deficient long-term repopulating cells give rise to expanded myelomonocytic cells in vivo. Surprisingly, a single BH3-only molecule operating in the extrinsic death receptor pathway proved essential in vivo for physiologic cell death required to maintain myeloid homeostasis. Moreover, progression to CMML indicates that an upstream BH3-only molecule, BID, is required to suppress tumorigenesis.


Characterization of liquids, pastes, and melts is nowadays becoming increasingly important for industrial applications. The thermal conductivity of a heat-transfer paste is, for example, one of the crucial parameters for the application of the material, and characterization of polymers in the liquid range is important for the analysis and optimization of the production processes. A new container system has been developed allowing flash measurements to be carried out on liquids, pastes, and molten polymers. Technical details of the container and the data on processing techniques are presented. Reliability tests (on water) have also been carried out and the results are compared with literature values. Various application examples for liquids, pastes, and polymers, through the melt stage are reported.


This thesis focuses on the life and work of the marginalized British Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic homosexual Jewish painter Simeon Solomon (1840-1905) after 1873.This year was fundamental in the artist's professional and personal life, because it is the year that he was arrested for attempted sodomy charges in London.
The popular view that has been disseminated by the early historiography of Solomon, since before and after his death in 1905, has been to claim that, after this date, the artist led a life that was worthless, both personally and artistically. It has also asserted that this situation was self-inflicted, and that, despite the consistent efforts of his family and friends to return him to the conventions of Victorian middle-class life, he resisted, and that, this resistant was evidence of his 'deviancy'.
Indeed, for over sixty years, the overall effect of this early historiography has been to defame the character of Solomon and reduce his importance within the Aesthetic movement and the second wave of Pre-Raphaelitism. It has also had the effect of relegating the work that he produced after 1873 to either virtual obscurity or critical censure. In fact, it is only recently that a revival of interest in the artist has gained momentum, although the latter part of his life from 1873 has still remained under-researched and unrecorded.
Therefore, the function of this thesis is to re-evaluate Solomon's life after his arrest in 1873 and reveal what actually happened to the artist during the final thirty-three years of his life. It does this primarily through a unique study and examination of newly identified archival documents and information. By examining, in particular, the original nineteenth-century records that relate to his arrest in London, and those that record a virtually unknown arrest in Paris in 1874, and putting this in the context of nineteenth-century sodomy law and male homosexual society, it is possible to re-consider Solomon's previously misunderstood resistance to sexual and societal rehabilitation. It makes use of a new critical understanding, which now suggests the non-repentance of the previously seen tragic figure of the homosexual male in Victorian society, which was promoted in part by the Oscar Wilde trials of 1895. The study of the detail of Solomon's later life within this thesis will support these new ideas by promoting the suggestion of the artist as self-consciously queer and unapologetic.
In addition, this thesis includes, for the first time, a survey of Solomon's works produced after 1873, which help to provide an approximation of how active Solomon was artistically; suggest what kind of media he was using during certain periods; record who was continuing to buy Solomon's work at this time, and to make the images of Solomon's extant work available to future researchers. These extant images appear in Volume II of this thesis.


Canopy gap is the driving force of forest succession. Due to the uncontrollability, however, the influences of natural disturbances on gap formation and gap distribution pattern have been rarely understood in temperate secondary forest ecosystems. We monitored the gap formation and gap distribution pattern using high-resolution remote sensing images before and after two disturbances (wind/snowstorm in 2003 and flood in 2013). The results showed that after wind/snowstorm, the gap nearest neighbor index (GNNI) decreased, the vacant land area did not obviously change while the gap fraction and gaps density (especially medium size) increased. After the flood, GNNI decreased, the number of small gaps increased but larger gaps were in many cases extended to vacant land areas leading to a smaller total number of medium and large gaps but considerable increase in vacant land area. We also found that the gap densities increased with slope and altitude for wind/snowstorm-formed gaps, but they increased with increasing slope and decreasing altitude for flood-formed gaps. These results indicated that gaps were aggregated in steep slope and high altitude areas after wind/snowstorm, but in steep slope and low altitude areas after the flood. Medium gaps were mainly created by the wind/snowstorm due to the individual-level death of dominant tree with the continuous fall of surrounding trees. While, vacant lands were obviously created during the flood because of integral sweeping. Besides, smaller trees were easily damaged by runoff of flood, which induced small gaps. In summary, forest managers may pay more attention to use gaps to accelerate forest succession after wind/snowstorms and to restore vegetation in vacant lands after floods.


Annually, about 70% of the streams in the Changbai Mountains are frosted during November to April, with manifest seasonal freeze-thaw characters. By using monoculture and mixing leaf litters of Tilia amurensis, Acer mono and Quecus mongolica, this research attempted to disentangle the relationship between leaf litter decomposition and colonization of macroinvertebrates in the stream during early frost period. A 35-day investigation was carried out in a headwater stream of the Changbai Mountains. Nylon bags with two hole sizes (5 mm and 0.3 mm) were used to examine decomposition of the litters. The results showed that the mass losses were significantly different among the three kinds of leaf litters in monoculture, whose decomposition rates descended as A. mono, T. amurensis, and Q. mongolica, however, there existed no significant difference among the litter mixing. Mass losses in both mesh bags all showed little difference, except T. amurensis and the mixed litters. Litter mixing effects occurred in the coarse mesh bags with A. mono and Q. mongolica, but no mixture effects for others. Community structures of the macroinvertebrates colonizing in the litter bags differed with each other, but shredders' density had no significant difference among the three litters, and the mixing effects on shredders were poor. Our results implied that microbes play the major decomposers of leaf litters, and macroinvertebrates contribute little to the decomposition in the early frost period. Despite shredder's density is lower, they determine the mixing effects of litters. Macroinvertebrates are selective to food and habitats, however, due to the short term colonizing, and the influence of leaf litters on shredders is still unsure. Our results might contribute to understanding the cold season ecological processes and related management issues of headwater stream ecosystem.


Through explicit statements and an array of support programs, the military has demonstrated its deep commitment to military families. In addition, since the passage of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act in 2010, which permitted LGB servicemembers to serve openly, the military has clearly expressed its belief that sexual orientation is a 'nonissue' in the military. Given these facts, it would seem that the military would not seek to discriminate between military families based on sexual orientation.Yet the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) frustrates this logical outcome. DOMA prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and permits states to refuse to acknowledge same-sex marriages from other states. As a result, DOMA prevents the military from supporting all its military families, even as the military recognizes that family readiness improves military readiness and the efforts of military spouses benefit the military. In addition, inconsistent state laws on same-sex marriage create obstacles for LGB military families. Only once same-sex marriage is recognized nationwide will the military be able to make sexual orientation a true nonissue and realize its promise to support the families of all servicemembers. The military must, therefore, lead in the fight for marriage equality.This is the final version and also available through the Journal's website.


Sediment is an essential component of freshwater ecosystems; however anthropogenic activities can lead to elevated sediment delivery which can impact on the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of these ecosystems. Ultimately, this can result in a loss of ecosystem services worth more than $1.7 trillion per annum. As such it is important that sediment, which is one of the most commonly attributed causes of water quality impairment globally, is managed in order to minimise these impacts. The current EU environmental quality standard for sediment (monitored in the form of suspended solids) is 25 mg L1 for all environments. It is widely recognised that this standard is unsuitable and not ecologically relevant. Furthermore, it requires a substantial resource investment to monitor sediment in this form as part of national and international water resource legislation. In recognition of this the development of sediment-specific biomonitoring tools is receiving increasing attention. The Proportion of Sediment-Sensitive Invertebrates (PSI) index is one such tool that is designed to indicate levels of fine sediment (<2mm in size) deposition in streams. Despite having a sound biological basis, until now, the PSI index has only been tested against observed sediment data in two catchments in the UK; other published applications of the PSI index have relied on inferred sediment values when applying the index. In this paper, we report the results of a comprehensive analysis of the performance of the PSI index, through examining the relationships between PSI scores and observed sediment data (suspended and deposited sediments), collected from 835 reference condition temperate stream/river ecosystems. The results of this study show the PSI index is more strongly correlated with sediment metrics than any of the other biological indices tested, including Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP), Number of Taxa (N-Taxa), Average Score Per Taxon (ASPT), and Lotic Invertebrates for Flow Evaluation (LIFE). The strongest Spearman's rank correlation between PSI and any of the observed sediment data, was with the percentage of the substratum comprised of sand, silt and clay (rs = - 0.653, p <0.01). To put this into context, a study of 80 invertebrate-based indices that are used for the implementation of the WFD across Europe, found the median correlation coefficient to be 0.64 in relation to their respective stressor. Nevertheless, given the implications of incorrect assignment of ecological status of streams for both water and land managers, more efforts are needed to calibrate and improve the performance of biological indices to achieve robust models. We propose an approach to enhance the performance of the model for future applications using a more objective quantitative method of measuring deposited sediments.


This study analyzes the traffic generated on YouTube around television series. We selected a sample of 314 short YouTube videos about 21 Spanish TV series that premiered in 2013 by Spain's three most popular mainstream television networks (Telecinco, Antena 3, and La1). These videos, which together received more than 24 million views, were classified according to two key variables: the nature (official or nonofficial) of the YouTube channel on which they were located and the exclusivity of their content (already broadcast on TV or Web exclusive). The analysis allows us to characterize the strategies used by TV networks on YouTube and the activity of fans as well as their efforts in the construction of a transmedia narrative universe around TV series.


This thesis focuses on the general problem of integration and co-operation between business and IT organisations, and on the specific problem of co-ordinating the development process across stovepiped departments that do not collaborate cross-functionally. The purpose is to increase knowledge and understanding about public organisations' difficulties in meeting their customers' and the organisation's needs for electronic services. The thesis also presents a model showing the relationships between factors of importance for understanding public organisations' difficulties in implementing cross-functional or inter-departmental electronic services. The research is based on case studies of public and private organisations, and results show that public organisations attempting e-government will face large problems if they are unable to solve their internal stovepipe problems. On the other hand, they cannot expect the stovepipe problems to be solved without increasing customer orientation. Many private organisations have increased their speed in e-services, customer orientation and organisational changes, and have faced economic pressure early, while the public organisations are impeded by the role of law, complex goal structures, lack of collaboration and culture. But at the same time the public organisations are following a similar path to that of the private, and areas have been found where there are little differences (e.g. development processes and purchaser-contractor relationships). Furthermore, the thesis has identified a large potential in the use of enterprise architecture for improving co-operation between business and IT organisations and in the purchaser-contractor relations. An architecture is an important prerequisite for dealing with the growing complexity in describing an enterprise and its business, information, applications and technology.


Purpose - Using the weighted similarity coefficient (WSC) technique in the design of manufacturing facilities provides the system designer with a suitable method for the creation of efficient manufacturing cells. The formation of such well designed machine cells will then hopefully ensure that the achievable cost reduction benefits, in terms of lower operational costs incurred via the transfer of components between machines, are obtained by companies that wish to use cellular manufacturing in their approach to production operations. The aim of this paper is to outline and evaluate the application of a particular WSC equation to the formulation and design of cellular manufacturing systems. Design/methodology/approach - By using a pragmatic approach, the paper chronicles the design and development of a particular weighted similarity coefficient as a means of defining a possibly useful methodology for cell design in manufacturing systems. The technique outlined is subsequently evaluated for its generic nature, applicability and effectiveness via the use of previously published synthetic production data and a comparison with the results of several alternative approaches. Findings - The development of the proposed weighted similarity coefficient to manufacturing cellular design is outlined in the paper and the appropriateness of the technique is subsequently evaluated in order that the benefits obtainable by its use to a host organisation are highlighted. In addition, the results show how the approach can lead to useful improvements in cellular manufacturing performance if adopted by manufacturing system designers and implemented in their designs. Practical implications - The design, development and application of the WSC proposed and its use in manufacturing cellular design provides a simple yet highly effective approach to achieving useful improvements in production system performance through improved work-part transfer efficiency and associated cost savings. The paper offers practising manufacturing managers and engineers a technique whereby manufacturing cell productive efficiency and output can be improved whilst at the same time achieving a reduction in operational costs. Originality/value - The paper focuses on the proposed WSC technique which contributes to the existing knowledge base on production cell design and may also provide impetus, guidance, support and encouragement for designers to achieve improved output performance and reduced costs in their manufacturing system designs.


Live attenuated vaccines are used to combat tropical theileriosis in North Africa, the Middle East, India, and China. The attenuation process is empirical and occurs only after many months, sometimes years, of in vitro culture of virulent clinical isolates. During this extensive culturing, attenuated lines lose their vaccine potential. To circumvent this we engineered the rapid ablation of the host cell transcription factor c-Jun, and within only 3 weeks the line engineered for loss of c-Jun activation displayed in vitro correlates of attenuation such as loss of adhesion, reduced MMP9 gelatinase activity, and diminished capacity to traverse Matrigel. Specific ablation of a single infected host cell virulence trait (c-Jun) induced a complete failure of Theileria annulata–transformed macrophages to disseminate, whereas virulent macrophages disseminated to the kidneys, spleen, and lungs of Rag2/γC mice. Thus, in this heterologous mouse model loss of c-Jun expression led to ablation of dissemination of T. annulata–infected and transformed macrophages. The generation of Theileria-infected macrophages genetically engineered for ablation of a specific host cell virulence trait now makes possible experimental vaccination of calves to address how loss of macrophage dissemination impacts the disease pathology of tropical theileriosis.


Evolutionary selective forces, like predator satiation and pollination efficiency, are acknowledged to be major causes of masting (the variable, periodic and synchronic production of seeds in a population). However, a number of recent studies indicate that resources might also play an important role on shaping masting patterns. Dioecious masting species offer a privileged framework to study the role of resources on masting variation, since male and female plants often experience different reproductive costs and selective pressures. We followed masting and reproductive investment (RI) of the dioecious tree Juniperus thurifera in two populations along 10 years and studied the different response of males and females to experimentally increased water and nutrient availability in a third population. Juniperus thurifera females invested in reproduction three times more resources than males. Such disparity generated different resource-use strategies in male and female trees. Tree-ring growth and water use efficiency (WUE) confirmed that sexes differed in their resource investment temporal pattern, with males using current resources for reproduction and females using resources accumulated during longer periods. Watered and fertilized female trees presented significantly higher flowering reproductive investments than males and experienced an extraordinary mast-flowering event. However, seeding RI and mast seeding were not affected by the treatment. This suggests that although resource availability affects the reproductive output of this species, there are other major forces regulating masting on J. thurifera. During 10 years, J. thurifera male and female trees presented high and low flowering years more or less synchronously. However, not all mast flowering episodes resulted in mast seeding, leading to masting uncoupling between flowering and seeding. Since flowering costs represent only 1% of females' total reproductive investments, masting uncoupling could be a beneficial bet-hedging strategy to maximize reproductive output in spite of unpredictable catastrophic events.


In Conservatives Against Capitalism, Peter Kolozi, an associate professor with the Department of Social Sciences at the City University of New York, discusses the long tradition of skepticism about—and sometimes outright hostility to—capitalism among important strains of American conservative thought. Kolozi takes a chronological approach focusing on key thinkers representative of the prevailing conservative school of thought in each of six periods: John C. Calhoun, James Henry Hammond, and George Fitzhugh representing the antebellum defenders of slavery; Brook Adams and Theodore Roosevelt of the Progressive Era; the Southern Agrarians; post-war traditionalists such as Russell Kirk and Robert Nisbet; Reagan-Bush era neoconservatives; and paleoconservatives such as Patrick Buchanan and Samuel Francis.


Background and Purpose: Some uncertainty persists regarding the reproducibility of the recommended core set of performance-based tests, as well as common muscle function tests, when applied in individuals with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). The purpose of this study was to investigate the intrarater reliability and agreement of the recommended core set of performance-based tests and common muscle function tests in KOA. Methods: Participants (N=40) with radiographic and/or symptomatic KOA were evaluated twice with a 3-day interval between test sessions using the following tests: Leg extensor (LE) maximal muscle power measured in a Nottingham Power Rig; knee extensor (KE) peak isometric strength measured with a handheld dynamometer; 40-m walk test; 30-second chair-stand test; and 9-step stair climb test. Reliability was assessed using a 2-way, mixed-effects, single-measures model (3,1), absolute agreement-type intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Agreement was assessed using 95% limits of agreement (LOA) and LOA relative to the mean score from test and retest (LOA-%). Results: Reliability for all tests was very high (ICC ≥ 0.97). LOA (LOA-%) was ±32.3 watt (W) (±22%) for LE power; ±22.7 N·m (±24%) for KE strength; ±0.2 m/s (±10%) for 40-m walk test; ±2.4 repetitions (±14%) for 30-second chair-stand test; and ±2 second (±20%) for stair climb test. A potential participant learning effect was found for all 3 performance-based tests, indicated by the significantly better scores at retest. Discussion: The very high reliability found for the performance-based tests supports findings from previous studies and confirms discriminate reliability of these tests on a group level. Also, very high reliability estimates were demonstrated for both muscle function tests. This study also provided estimates of agreement for both performance-based and muscle function tests, which are important to consider when using these tests on an individual level in clinical practice. Conclusion: When using these tests to monitor changes over time in the clinic, depending on the test, improvements of less than 10% to 24% could be a result of measurement error alone and therefore may not be considered an actual improvement after treatment.


Yams have been at the centre of key archaeological and anthropological debates, particularly as a starchy staple food. While yams have many features of relevance to both hunter-gatherer and agricultural lives, there is considerable geographic, ecological and social variability in their use and cultural significance. In the spirit of celebrating Beth Gott's historically and ecologically grounded approach to ethnobotanical research, we review the Australian biogeography of Dioscorea as well as the ethnography of yam use by Aboriginal people. Three themes emerge from this review of the literature: 1) geographic variability of yam species across the continent has important consequences for the scale and intensity of Aboriginal collection and landscape transformation, 2) gender, particularly the role of women as harvesters, figures as an important cultural dimension in yam biology, and 3) landscape knowledge, connection to country and memory are significant factors contributing to food supply and regulation. Yams have been at the centre of key archaeological and anthropological debates, particularly as a starchy staple food. While yams have many features of relevance to both hunter-gatherer and agricultural lives, there is considerable geographic, ecological and social variability in their use and cultural significance. In the spirit of celebrating Beth Gott's historically and ecologically grounded approach to ethnobotanical research, we review the Australian biogeography of Dioscorea as well as the ethnography of yam use by Aboriginal people. Three themes emerge from this review of the literature: 1) geographic variability of yam species across the continent has important consequences for the scale and intensity of Aboriginal collection and landscape transformation, 2) gender, particularly the role of women as harvesters, figures as an important cultural dimension in yam biology, and 3) landscape knowledge, connection to country and memory are significant factors contributing to food supply and regulation.


This paper focuses on the growing trends in the processor speed of mobile devices, which has already touched 2GHz and the huge internal and external memory available in the form of Micro SD cards, with supportable communication technology like 3 Generation Mobile Telephony. The mobile devices shall be out casting the Personal Computers in the coming decade as they are becoming sophisticated general purpose computers . In this paper application development of an executable Application package has been done on a mobile device (Nokia E71), on Symbian 3.0 Real Time Operating System, thereby developed Bluetooth and Camera functions of the said mobile device by means of python programming language for S60 platform.


The development of systems able to retrieve and characterise the state of humans is important for many applications and fields of study. In particular, as a display of attention and interest, gaze is a fundamental cue in understanding people activities, behaviors, intentions, state of mind and personality. Moreover, gaze plays a major role in the communication process, like for showing attention to the speaker, indicating who is addressed or averting gaze to keep the floor. Therefore, many applications within the fields of human-human, human-robot and human-computer interaction could benefit from gaze sensing. However, despite significant advances during more than three decades of research, current gaze estimation technologies can not address the conditions often required within these fields, such as remote sensing, unconstrained user movements and minimum user calibration. Furthermore, to reduce cost, it is preferable to rely on consumer sensors, but this usually leads to low resolution and low contrast images that current techniques can hardly cope with. In this thesis we investigate the problem of automatic gaze estimation under head pose variations, low resolution sensing and different levels of user calibration, including the uncalibrated case. We propose to build a non-intrusive gaze estimation system based on remote consumer RGB-D sensors. In this context, we propose algorithmic solutions which overcome many of the limitations of previous systems. We thus address the main aspects of this problem: 3D head pose tracking, 3D gaze estimation, and gaze based application modeling. First, we develop an accurate model-based 3D head pose tracking system which adapts to the participant without requiring explicit actions. Second, to achieve a head pose invariant gaze estimation, we propose a method to correct the eye image appearance variations due to head pose. We then investigate on two different methodologies to infer the 3D gaze direction. The first one builds upon machine learning regression techniques. In this context, we propose strategies to improve their generalization, in particular, to handle different people. The second methodology is a new paradigm we propose and call geometric generative gaze estimation. This novel approach combines the benefits of geometric eye modeling (normally restricted to high resolution images due to the difficulty of feature extraction) with a stochastic segmentation process (adapted to low-resolution) within a Bayesian model allowing the decoupling of user specific geometry and session specific appearance parameters, along with the introduction of priors, which are appropriate for adaptation relying on small amounts of data. The aforementioned gaze estimation methods are validated through extensive experiments in a comprehensive database which we collected and made publicly available. Finally, we study the problem of automatic gaze coding in natural dyadic and group human interactions. The system builds upon the thesis contributions to handle unconstrained head movements and the lack of user calibration. It further exploits the 3D tracking of participants and their gaze to conduct a 3D geometric analysis within a multi-camera setup. Experiments on real and natural interactions demonstrate the system is highly accuracy. Overall, the methods developed in this dissertation are suitable for many applications, involving large diversity in terms of setup configuration, user calibration and mobility.


ABSTRACT Most countries are concerned about the image they project in international markets. They have adopted and implemented differentiation strategies in order to stimulate tourism and economic investment. In the case of Colombia's reputation, it has been built on unplanned positioning, interests and views of a few opinion leaders, political and economic instability and transformations in the productive sector. This paper outlines, using a Bayesian variable selection approach, the perception of foreign visitors and prospects on Colombia's country image, and proposes a methodological framework for unvailing those driving factors. Findings of this research demonstrate that countries may be seen positively from the point of view of visitors while prospects may have a negative image of them. The results validate the hypothesis that the symbolic elements associated with a country's image, in this case with Colombia's image, should be included in the communication activities of a country branding strategy.


Massive glacier thinning in the Alps during the past 20 years is documented by direct mass balance measurements on nine regularly observed glaciers. How representative this limited sample of glaciers is for the entire Alps, however, remained uncertain. The near‐global digital terrain model from the SRTM enables a closer analysis of this question, which is of fundamental importance to assess overall glacier volume change. Here we present elevation changes from 1985 to 1999 for about 1050 glaciers in the Swiss Alps. The analysis reveals extreme thickness losses (>80 m) for flat/low‐lying glacier tongues and a strong overall surface lowering. The mean cumulative mass balance of the nine glaciers with direct measurements (−10.8 m w.e.) agrees well with the mean change of the entire region from DEM differencing (−11 m w.e.) and can thus be considered to be representative. Mean thickness change of individual glaciers is correlated with their size, elevation, and exposure to solar irradiation. This implies that mass losses of large glaciers can be underestimated when they are directly inferred from values measured at much smaller glaciers.


Retroperitoneal fibrosis is idiopathic in two thirds of cases and is found most commonly as an isolated fibrotic plaque centered over the lower lumbar spine and entrapping one or both ureters. It has been postulated that the fibrosis in the idiopathic cases results from a hypersensitivity reaction to antigens leaking into the retroperitoneum from atheromatous plaques in the aorta or common iliac arteries. In the remaining one third of cases, causes include ergot-derivative drugs, retroperitoneal hemorrhage or urine extravasation, and a desmoplastic response to a variety of tumors. In up to 15% of cases, associated fibrotic processes are found elsewhere in the body. Although the disease is imaged best with CT or MR, neither of these techniques can be used to differentiate benign from malignant plaques. Histologically, the disease is characterized in its early stages by inflammatory cells and edema in a loose collagen network. The mature plaque is composed of dense fibrous tissue with minimal cellular infiltration. This progression is important as it influences MR signal characteristics.


In the United States, where government policies have resulted in extremely high incarceration rates, parental incarceration is a prevalent, distinct, and severe form of childhood disadvantage. Children who lose their parents to incarceration suffer unique harms, which are not addressed by current social insurance programs. In particular, an inmate's child suffers direct financial harm from losing financial and in-kind support, from diversion of household resources to the incarcerated inmate parent, and from deficits in future contributions due to the parent's ex-felon status. Children of incarcerated parents tend to already be poor, and these additional deprivations create severely negative consequences for their welfare. This Article proposes that the state should provide children with incarceration insurance: an upfront subsidy to the child whose parent goes to prison, to be repaid to the state by the incarcerated parent on a deferred basis in lieu of child support. The state should supply this social insurance program because of its interest and obligation in promoting child welfare and enforcing parental responsibility. The United States in particular has a strong obligation to the children who bear hidden costs of the government's choice to pursue an aggressive criminal punishment regime that disproportionately harms poor and minority children. This proposal is an innovative departure from the status quo, which does little to support children while allowing child support arrears to accrue against inmate parents. The proposal allows for a menu of implementation options that states can choose from to fit their own circumstances and needs. A baseline version of the proposal engages with the question of how to assign family responsibility, legal and philosophical inquiries about desert, and how to mitigate the impact of localized disadvantage on broader society. The resulting policy regime thus must support the basic motivations behind the proposal: to plug a resource gap and thus promote child welfare, especially for disadvantaged children, to maintain the bonds of parental obligation while incarceration forces physical removal, and to propel the state to neutralize the effects of its own role in driving up parental incarceration for disadvantaged children. Doing so will allow both the parent and the state to internalize some collateral costs of mass incarceration currently borne by innocent third parties.


A phylogenetic framework inferred from comparisons of small subunit ribosomal RNA sequences describes the evolutionary origin and early branching patterns of the kingdom Animalia. Maximum likelihood analyses show the animal lineage is monophyletic and includes choanoflagellates. Within the metazoan assemblage, the divergence of sponges is followed by the Ctenophora, the Cnidaria plus the placozoan Trichoplax adhaerens, and finally by an unresolved polychotomy of bilateral animal phyla. From these data, it was inferred that animals and fungi share a unique evolutionary history and that their last common ancestor was a flagellated protist similar to extant choanoflagellates.


The main objective of this work is to develop a numerical model to analyze heat transfer and condensation of a rising spherical bubble. The model included the bubble shrinkage during condensation, which can be utilized to analyze the bubble's total energy loss, raising velocity, and condensation rate of a single bubble compared to multiple bubbles with the same total thermal energy. The equations of motion, heat, and mass transfer were developed. The model results were verified with the bubble condensation experiment data in the literature, in which they exhibited a good agreement.
 For the validation, the model results were compared with bubble condensation experiment data in the literature, which showed a good agreement with the experimental results. The dynamic term of the model is developed using the force balance on a gravity-driven bubble, including hydrodynamic drag force and gravity/buoyancy force, which acting with and against the bubble's motion direction. For the thermal part of the model, a condensation correlation has been adapted to represent the Nusselt number as a function of Reynolds number (Re), Jakob number (Ja), and Prandtl number (Pr). A MATLAB code is developed in order to calculate the instantaneous velocity, the radius, and the mass loss of the vapor bubble in each time step. Moreover, the fundamental behavior for a single bubble and multiple bubbles was investigated in various initial conditions under the same total thermal energy. The effects of the initial bubble radius and the temperature difference between the liquid and vapor phases were analyzed for both scenarios in order to examine the condensation rate. It was found that the thermal behavior of the condensing bubble can be improved by forcing the bubble to collapse into sub bubbles, which will increase the total interfacial area and the rising velocity. Farther, due to generated sub bubbles, the resultant velocity increased the turbulency and the heat transfer rate accordingly. This study can lead to improve the heat transfer rate and allow for more intensive research to enhance the condensation rate.


Several 2-alkylquinolizinium-1-olates 9, i.e., heterobetaines, were prepared from ketone 11, the latter being readily available either from pyridine-2-carbaldehyde via a Grignard reaction, followed by oxidation with MnO2, or from 2-picolinic acid (= pyridine-2-carboxylic acid) via the corresponding Weinreb amide and subsequent Grignard reaction. Mesoionic heterobetaines such as quinolizinium derivatives have the potential to undergo cycloaddition reactions with double and triple bonds, e.g., 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions or Diels-Alder reactions. We here report on the scope and limitations of cycloaddition reactions of 2-alkylquinolizinium-1-olates 9 with electron-poor acetylene derivatives. As main products of the reaction, 5-oxopyrrolo[2,1,5-de]quinolizines (= '[2.3.3]cyclazin-5-ones') 19 were formed via a regioselective [2+3] cycloaddition, and cyclohexadienone derivatives, formed via a Diels-Alder reaction, were obtained as side products. The structures of 2-benzylquinolizinium-1-olate (9a) and two '[2.3.3]cyclazin-5-ones' 19i and 19l were established by X-ray crystallography.


Objective: This study was designed to analyse the urinary, serum and renal expression of miR-29a of patients diagnosed with IgAN, aiming to elucidate the effect of MMF upon the expression level of miR-29a in IgAN patients.
Methods: Thirty-three patients diagnosed with IgAN by biopsy were assigned in the IgAN group. Serum and urine sampling was collected from 15 healthy volunteers as healthy control group, normal renal tissue from the nephrectomy specimen of 15 patients with renal cell carcinoma in the control group. RTPCR was performed to compare miR-29a level between three groups and explore the effect of MMF on expression level of urinary and serum miR-29a.
Results: Compared with control group, the urinary, serum and renal expression of miR-29a in IgAN group were decreased (P<0.05). Urinary and serum expression of miR-29a inversely correlated with proteinuria (r=-0.322, P<0.05; r=-0.356, P<0.05), and glomerulosclerosis (r=-0.427, P<0.05; r=-0.517, P<0.05) in IgAN group. Urinary expression of miR-29a positively correlated with evaluated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) (r=0.328, P<0.05), inversely correlated with diastolic blood pressure (r=-0.421, P<0.05) in the IgAN group. Serum and intra-renal expression of miR-29a was positively correlated with urinary expression of miR-29a (r=0.713, P<0.05; r=0.322, P<0.05). The serum and urinary levels of miR-29a in the MMF group were significantly higher than those in the IgAN group (both P<0.05).
Conclusion: Urinary and serum miR-29a level were closely correlated with the progression of IgAN. MMF could up-regulate the serum and urinary levels of miR-29a in IgAN patients. Serum and urinary miR-29a probably serve as biological markers to reflect the effect of MMF treated with IgAN.


The discovery of the PS proteins, the complexities of their biochemistry and their potential involvement in signalling pathways and in apoptosis have galvanized research into AD. To date, the aspect of the functionality of the PSs most relevant to the pathology of AD is the effect of PS FAD mutants to increase the proportion of A beta 42 produced from cells. This, coupled to the observation that gamma-secretase cleavage is considerably reduced in neurons derived from PS-1 knockout mice, argues strongly that PS plays a very direct role in the proteolytic processing of APP.


[1] New melting experiments in the range of 0.1 MPa to 4.7 GPa provide the basis for calculations of polybaric crystallization which show that both a >300 km deep magma ocean (MO) enriched in refractory elements and a >600 km deep magma ocean with refractory element concentrations similar to the Earth's upper mantle produce sufficient amounts of differentiated, residual liquid, capable of crystallizing the troctolitic-noritic mineral assemblages that are prevalent in lunar ferroan anorthosites (LFA). However, the both oceans become saturated with augite after ∼20–30% crystallization of the plagioclase-saturated residuum and thereafter are no longer capable of producing noritic assemblages. A second set of melting experiments reveals the existence of a previously unrecognized equilibrium (augite + liquid = pigeonite + plagioclase) and a thermal minimum on the pigeonite + plagioclase liquidus surface at 0.6 GPa. These equilibria will produce melts of mafic cumulates with lower Wo content than those from which the cumulates originally formed in a postmagma ocean environment of overturning mafic cumulates. Melt thus formed and entrained in a buoyant segregation of plagioclase would then form diapiric masses that would crystallize troctolitic-noritic assemblages after intruding upward. Diapiric intrusions could also provide the local deformational environment needed to produce the apparently high (≥95%) plagioclase modes of the LFA. An unstable density profile in the cumulate pile following crystallization of most of the MO should provide the impetus for overturn and the heat for partially remelting mafic cumulates.


Humans learn much about their language while still in the womb. Prenatal exposure has been repeatedly shown to affect newborn infants' processing of the prosodic characteristics of native language speech. Little is known about whether and how prenatal exposure affects infants' perception of speech sound segments. Here we simulated prenatal learning of vowels in two virtual fetuses whose mothers spoke (slightly) different languages. The learners were two-layer neural networks and were each exposed to vowel tokens sampled from an existent five-vowel language (Spanish and Czech, respectively). The input acoustic properties approximated the speech signal that could possibly be heard in the intrauterine environment, and the learners' auditory system was relatively immature. Without supervision, the virtual fetuses came to warp the continuous acoustic signal into "proto-categories" that were specific to their linguistic environment. Both learners came to create two categorization patterns and did so in language-specific ways, primarily on the basis of the vowels' first-formant characteristics. Such prenatally formed proto-categories were not adult-like in that they entirely collapsed some of the nativelanguage contrasts. At the same time, the categories reflected features of the adult language in that they were languagespecific. These results can inspire future work on speech and language acquisition in real young humans.


Objectives Consultation duration has previously been shown to be associated with patient, practitioner and practice characteristics. However, previous studies were conducted outside the UK, considered only small numbers of general practitioner (GP) consultations or focused primarily on practitioner-level characteristics. We aimed to determine the patient-level and practice-level factors associated with duration of GP and nurse consultations in UK primary care. Design and setting Cross-sectional data were obtained from English general practices contributing to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) linked to data on patient deprivation and practice staffing, rurality and Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) achievement. Participants 218 304 patients, from 316 English general practices, consulting from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014. Analysis Multilevel mixed-effects models described the association between consultation duration and patient-level and practice-level factors (patient age, gender, smoking status, ethnic group, deprivation and practice rurality, number of full-time equivalent GPs/nurses, list size, consultation rate, quintile of overall QOF achievement and training status). Results Mean duration of face-to-face GP consultations was 9.24 min and 5.32 min for telephone consultations. Nurse face-to-face and telephone consultations lasted 9.70 and 5.73 min on average, respectively. Longer GP consultation duration was associated with female patient gender, practice training status and older patient age. Shorter duration was associated with higher deprivation and consultation rate. Longer nurse consultation duration was associated with male patient gender, older patient age and ever smoking; and shorter duration with higher consultation rate. Observed differences in duration were small (eg, GP consultations with female patients compared with male patients were 8 s longer on average). Conclusions Small observed differences in consultation duration indicate that patients are treated similarly regardless of background. Increased consultation duration may be beneficial for older or comorbid patients, but the benefits and costs of increased consultation duration require further study.


As distance education was beginning to grow at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the libraries garnered their own virtual room through the campus wide license for Blackboard Collaborate. Having a virtual room allows for the librarians to offer orientations, host workshops, have meetings, or even offer virtual office hours. Hosting online workshops not only allows us to teach distance students, but allows both students and staff on campus to participate and learn virtually from their desks and get comfortable with online meetings and training. As online learning continues to grow and budgets continue to shrink, less travel is possible for training both internally and externally - but online learning opens more opportunities for all.


Eight patients, 3 men and 5 women, aged between 24 and 40 years who had herpes zoster ophthalmicus HZO were seen in the Eye Department of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu between 1994 and 1997. One of the patients was already on treatment for active pulmonary tuberculosis at the time he was first seen. All had skin eruptions at different stages of development in the area of distribution of the first trigeminal nerve on the affected side of the face and head. Ocular examination revealed impaired vision in the affected eye between 6 12 and hand movement in all the patients. All had lid oedema while 5 had ptosis 3 partial and 2 complete . Various degrees of conjunctival injection were observed in all patients while 6 of them had corneal anaesthesia and keratitis. Uveal inflammation, present in all the patients varied from mild iritis in 4 individuals to severe iridocyclitis in the remaining 4. Pupils reacted to light sluggishly in 2 patients while they were dilated and fixed in 3 others. None had any associated abnormalities in the posterior segment. Six of the patients consented and were screened for human immunodeficiency virus HIV infection. Of these, 4, including the patient with pulmonary tuberculosis, tested seropositive while 2 were seronegative. All 8 were treated with topical acyclovir. This was combined with oral acyclovir in one of the patients. Follow up period was between 2 and 52 weeks. During this period skin eruptions and anterior segment signs improved in 5 patients while remaining stable in 3 others; post herpetic neuralgia persisted on the affected side in 4 patients. Patients who were HIV seropositive did not recover as quickly or to the same extent as the seronegative ones. It is concluded that HZO infection may indicate underlying HIV infection in young Africans as has been found in whites.


There are widespread perceptions and countless documented cases of tight-knit networks of politicians and businessmen colluding for allocating public procurement contracts in return for political party donations. In the absence of systematic evidence, neither the magnitude of the problem nor the effectiveness of policies curbing such corruption is well-understood. In order to advance our understanding of these phenomena, this paper tests whether political financing regulations can contribute to controlling corruption in public procurement. We utilize aggregated official micro-level data on almost 3 million contracts awarded across 29 European countries in 2009-2014 to measure the risk of high-level institutionalised corruption using novel proxy indicators. Legislation regulating political finances are directly measured by coding national laws in 2009-2014. In cross-country panel regression and difference-in-difference models, we find that introducing additional political financing restrictions does not have a measurable negative impact on public procurement corruption risks. In fact, the observed effect is positive in most models. The observed relationship remains the same for most constitutive components of political financing regulations. Several challenges remain for a conclusive judgement of political party financing regulations' effectiveness to curb corruption such as measuring implementation rather than legislation, allowing for longer lead-time for regulatory impact, or considering institutional inter-dependencies.


Objectives: The research is about exploring the possibilities of achieving non academic dreams of students by utilising their talents with the time they are ready to spend. Creating a Talent Management model is to create an individual identity for the Generation Z students. The study is conducted for the students, by the students, and about the students to achieve their dreams in a systematic way with their support groups. It is not only a diagnostic program but also an implementation program for the students who exemplify the culture that acts as a catalyst in the achievements. As a large population of college students are from Generation Z and mobile has became an integral part of their life. More than 1000 engineering students were selected by simple random sampling method and formed WhatsApp groups based on their career objectives. Method: We deployed a special model for talent management among students which focuses on Individual Consideration, Intellectual Stimulation, and Study Life Balance. We studied students' viewpoints regarding the educational use of WhatsApp groups in supporting their learning process. Finding: The proposed culture of success of Students' Talent Management (STM) involves Ethics, Sustainability, Diversity, Engagement, and Creativity. We observed the effectiveness of using WhatsApp as a tool to manage talents of students in Creating Student Superstars. Application: It is inevitable to design talent management project and to establish such system in order to give better experience in the study life of students. The proposed model is recommended to implement by establishing talent management departments in educational institutions.


The influence of three curing modes of a high-powered LED curing unit on temperature rise under 2-mm-thick dentin was investigated during the polymerization of resin composite samples of Admira, Filtek P60, Premise, Tetric Flow, Tetric Ceram, and Filtek Z250. Ninety standard specimens were prepared. The bonding agents and resin composites were cured with standard, pulse, or soft-start mode (n=5 for each curing mode). Temperature rise was measured using a type L thermocouple. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA and Tukey's test. Soft-start curing led to statistically higher temperature rises compared than the other two modes. The highest temperature rise was observed for Admira and Tetric Flow cured with soft-start mode. The lowest temperature rise was observed for Premise cured with pulse mode. However, temperature rise did not reach the critical value that can cause pulpal damage by virtue of a prominent safety feature of the high-powered LED LCU, which ensures that no excessive heat is produced by all the three curing modes.


Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) appear as small, circular, well defined hypointense lesions of a few mm in size on T2*-weighted gradient recalled echo (T2*-GRE) images and appear enhanced on susceptibility weighted images (SWI). Due to their small size, contrast variations and other mimics (e.g., blood vessels), CMBs are highly challenging to detect automatically. In large datasets (e.g., the UK Biobank dataset), exhaustively labelling CMBs manually is difficult and time consuming. Hence it would be useful to preselect candidate CMB subjects in order to focus on those for manual labelling, which is essential for training and testing automated CMB detection tools on these datasets. In this work, we aim to detect CMB candidate subjects from a larger dataset, UK Biobank, using a machine learning-based, computationally light pipeline. For our evaluation, we used 3 different datasets, with different intensity characteristics, acquired with different scanners. They include the UK Biobank dataset and two clinical datasets with different pathological conditions. We developed and evaluated our pipelines on different types of images, consisting of SWI or GRE images. We also used the UK Biobank dataset to compare our approach with alternative CMB preselection methods using non-imaging factors and/or imaging data. Finally, we evaluated the pipeline's generalisability across datasets. Our method provided subject-level detection accuracy > 80% on all the datasets (within-dataset results), and showed good generalisability across datasets, providing a consistent accuracy of over 80%, even when evaluated across different modalities.


This essay considers one of the more intriguing techno-events of this decade: the claim of the Irish technology company Steorn to have produced a perpetual motion device, the Orbo. Although its promised demo in July 2007 failed to produce a working device, events leading up to and beyond the failed demo offer a case study in what Galloway and Thacker define as an "exploit," "a resonant flaw designed to resist, threaten, and ultimately desert the dominant political diagram." Selecting its own jury to test and validate the Orbo, the company has resisted the normal scientific validation process. Enlisting the aid of an "outernet" workforce, Steorn has challenged traditional business models as well. Unfortunately, Orbo's failure has put a reverse spin on the Steorn Exploit and its viral marketing campaign, demonstrating that viruses not only spread but also mutate. Embarking on its own exploit, Steorn's on-line forum has morphed into a Webmind whose emergent properties recall Goertzel's psynet, "a self-organizing network of information-carrying agents." "Mobile agents," forum members create new links and provide each other feedback as they sort through the multiple drafts of Steorn's narrative. Scripted into this narrative, they must also do battle with other counter-exploitive elements such as Herr Doktor Mabuse, a nightmarish perversion of Steorn's original vision. Whether or not the forum endures depends paradoxically on the very spirit of contestation that drives its-and Steorn's-operations.


Pretty or Sweet The grocery-store tomato that looks beautiful but tastes like tart cardboard arises from selection processes favoring phenotypes that make commercial production more reliable. Significant in that selection process was a mutation that reduced the mottled color variations of unripe green tomatoes, leaving them a uniform, pale, green. Powell et al. (p. 1711) analyzed the molecular biology of the mutation. The uniform ripening mutation turns out to disable a transcription factor called Golden 2-like (GLK2). GLK2 expression increases the fruit's photosynthetic capacity, resulting in higher sugar content. Controlling when tomatoes turn from green to red requires knocking out the gene that adds flavor. Modern tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) varieties are bred for uniform ripening (u) light green fruit phenotypes to facilitate harvests of evenly ripened fruit. U encodes a Golden 2-like (GLK) transcription factor, SlGLK2, which determines chlorophyll accumulation and distribution in developing fruit. In tomato, two GLKs—SlGLK1 and SlGLK2—are expressed in leaves, but only SlGLK2 is expressed in fruit. Expressing GLKs increased the chlorophyll content of fruit, whereas SlGLK2 suppression recapitulated the u mutant phenotype. GLK overexpression enhanced fruit photosynthesis gene expression and chloroplast development, leading to elevated carbohydrates and carotenoids in ripe fruit. SlGLK2 influences photosynthesis in developing fruit, contributing to mature fruit characteristics and suggesting that selection of u inadvertently compromised ripe fruit quality in exchange for desirable production traits.


TO THE EDITOR: This letter reports on olanzapine augmentation of fluoxetine in six patients with body dysmorphic disorder. Body dysmorphic disorder is a relatively common and severe disorder whose pharmacotherapy has been only minimally studied (1). Body dysmorphic disorder appears to often respond to serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) (1–3), but most patients do not respond or respond only partially. Investigation of SRI augmentation strategies is therefore needed. Because 35%–50% of patients with body dysmorphic disorder are delusional (1), SRI augmentation with antipsychotics is of particular interest.

An institutional review board approved this study, and the subjects provided written informed consent. Six subjects (50% women, mean age=29.3 years, SD=11.9) were first treated with fluoxetine for ≥ 12 weeks (mean dose=70.0 mg/day, SD=11.0). Olanzapine was then added to fluoxetine (the fluoxetine dose was unchanged) if the fluoxetine response was inadequate (i.e., the subjects still met DSM-IV body dysmorphic disorder criteria, had a body dysmorphic disorder score ≥ 20 on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Modified for Body Dysmorphic Disorder (4), and were no more than minimally improved on the Clinical Global Impression scale [CGI]). Two subjects received olanzapine under double-blind conditions; four were treated openly with olanzapine after failing to respond to placebo. Exclusion criteria were standard for efficacy studies. The subjects took no other psychotropic medications. Olanzapine was begun at 2.5 mg/day, with an attempt to raise the dose to 15 mg/day over 8 weeks if it was tolerated.

With olanzapine treatment, body dysmorphic disorder symptoms on the CGI were minimally improved in two patients and unchanged in four. Olanzapine was received for a mean duration of 5.3 weeks (SD=3.1); the mean endpoint dose was 4.6 mg/day (SD=3.3). Two patients experienced fatigue, and three gained weight.

These results must be considered preliminary because of the small sample size. Nonetheless, they are consistent with the only placebo-controlled SRI augmentation study in body dysmorphic disorder, to my knowledge, in which a typical neuroleptic (pimozide) was not efficacious (5). In what is to my knowledge the only report of SRI augmentation with atypical antipsychotics in body dysmorphic disorder (a chart review study, reference 3), only two of nine subjects responded, although the effect size was large. In one case report (6), olanzapine monotherapy was efficacious. These somewhat mixed results underscore the need for further studies of atypical antipsychotics as augmentation agents and monotherapy. Because clinical experience suggests that atypical antipsychotics can be very helpful for associated anxiety and agitation, this also warrants investigation.


This scoping review provides an overview of the impact of growing up with a chronically ill family member on young adults (18–25 years old), and their specific needs. Young adults represent an important life stage involving a transition to adulthood, during which individuals' family situations can affect their future. We searched relevant studies following the guideline of Arskey and O'Mailley's methodological framework and the PRISMA statement guidelines for scoping reviews in PubMed, PsychInfo and reference lists to identify articles for inclusion. Studies from 2005 to 2020 were included in this review. Of the 12 studies, six qualitative studies, five quantitative studies and one mixed method study were included. Eight studies discussed the impact, including consequences at a physical and mental level, at their personal development and future perspectives, but also positive effects, such as being capable of organizing their lives. Four studies discussed the needs of young adult carers, including emotional needs, support needs with regard to stimulating autonomy (arising from internal conflicts) and developing their own identity, and the concerned attitude of involved professionals. An unambiguous definition of the target group and further well-designed research are needed to improve clarity about the role of support, so that future professionals can adequately address the needs and wishes of young adults who grow up with an ill family member.


The endangered hispid hare (Caprolagus hispidus Pearson 1839) has only been sighted in a few isolated pockets in the tropical grassland ecosystems of southern Asia. Knowledge of the current status and distribution of the species is limited. Historical samples, anecdotal sources, and sign surveys have suggested that the hispid hare could occur along the southern foothills of Bhutan. This is the first study to systematically assess its presence in the region. To optimize the detection of this elusive animal, camera traps were set up in the Royal Manas National Park (RMNP), Bhutan, spread over three different grassland areas. To maximize the probability of capturing images of the hispid hare, camera traps were randomly placed in batches in three different grassland areas chosen based on the preliminary sign survey. Camera trap exercise in Budunakhola grassland Over the survey period from March through May of 2015, 11 images of hispid hare were captured from a single camera trap station, confirming the presence of this poorly known species in RMNP. 1Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary, Department of Forest and Park Services, Bhutan *Corresponding authors email: email@example.com Furthermore, the confirmed presence of this endangered species suggests that sustainable management of this grassland habitat could be important for its future survival since the condition of grasslands has been waned over the years due to uncontrolled burning of grasslands, invasion of grassland by woody plants, and weed species.


We present measurements of the Type Ia supernova (SN) rate in galaxy clusters based on data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Survey. The cluster SN Ia rate is determined from 9 SN events in a set of 71 C4 clusters at z ⩽ 0.17 and 27 SN events in 492 maxBCG clusters at 0.1 ⩽ z ⩽ 0.3. We find values for the cluster SN Ia rate of (0.37+0.17+0.01−0.12−0.01) SNur h2 and (0.55+0.13+0.02−0.11−0.01) SNur h2 (SNux = 10−12L−1x☉ yr−1) in C4 and maxBCG clusters, respectively, where the quoted errors are statistical and systematic, respectively. The SN rate for early-type galaxies is found to be (0.31+0.18+0.01−0.12−0.01) SNur h2 and (0.49+0.15+0.02−0.11−0.01) SNur h2 in C4 and maxBCG clusters, respectively. The SN rate for the brightest cluster galaxies (BCG) is found to be (2.04+1.99+0.07−1.11−0.04) SNur h2 and (0.36+0.84+0.01−0.30−0.01) SNur h2 in C4 and maxBCG clusters, respectively. The ratio of the SN Ia rate in cluster early-type galaxies to that of the SN Ia rate in field early-type galaxies is 1.94+1.31+0.043−0.91−0.015 and 3.02+1.31+0.062−1.03−0.048, for C4 and maxBCG clusters, respectively. The SN rate in galaxy clusters as a function of redshift, which probes the late time SN Ia delay distribution, shows only weak dependence on redshift. Combining our current measurements with previous measurements, we fit the cluster SN Ia rate data to a linear function of redshift, and find rL= [(0.49+0.15−0.14)+(0.91+0.85−0.81) × z] SNuB h2. A comparison of the radial distribution of SNe in cluster to field early-type galaxies shows possible evidence for an enhancement of the SN rate in the cores of cluster early-type galaxies. With an observation of at most three hostless, intra-cluster SNe Ia, we estimate the fraction of cluster SNe that are hostless to be (9.4+8.3−5.1)%.


"No one knows ASP.NET like Fritz Onion. And no one knows .NET security like Keith Brown. Combine the two and what do you get? The most comprehensive and enlightening book on ASP.NET 2.0 industrywide. I'm sure you'll find the book you're holding was worth every penny."--Aaron Skonnard, member of technical staff and cofounder, Pluralsight"Essential ASP.NET 2.0 gets under the hood and dismantles the engine before your eyes. Fritz and Keith understand that we as developers need to understand how it works and this book does exactly that. Their explanation of the ASP.NET 2.0 page event sequence is worth the price of the book alone."--Shawn Wildermuth, Microsoft MVP (C#), "The ADO Guy""Essential ASP.NET 2.0 is an incredibly useful must-read for any developer.Many books drag you through theory and mindless detail, but this one actually sets up the problems you may encounter with ASP.NET 2.0 and rolls out the alternatives."--Patrick Hynds, Microsoft Regional Director and President, CriticalSites"This book is essential for any ASP.NET developer moving from version 1.x to 2.0. Onion and Brown not only cover the new features, but provide a wealth of insight and detail about how to use them effectively."--Ron Petrusha, author of Visual Basic 2005: The Complete Reference"Drawing on their deep technical knowledge and real-world experience, Fritz and Keith take the reader into some of the less explored and much improved areas of ASP.NET such as diagnostics and state management and performance. Readers will turn to this book over and over again."--John Timney, Microsoft MVP, Senior Web Services Consultant,British Telecom"Fritz and Keith, both established developers and writers in our industry, have succeeded again--enlightening us on the latest advancements found in ASP.NET 2.0. If you're new to ASP.NET or a seasoned veteran, you'll benefit tremendously from their overview, analysis, and sample code."--Joe "MSJoe" Flanigen"This book seeks not only to explain how to effectively build Web sites with ASP.NET, it also gives the reader an idea of how the process works. This insight is essential to creating applications that work with the infrastructure rather than fighting it."--Justin Burtch, Vice President, Newbrook SolutionsEssential ASP.NET 2.0 is the Microsoft developer's definitive reference for ASP.NET 2.0 programming. It covers all you need to know to build robust, well-designed Web applications with ASP.NET 2.0, Visual Studio 2005, and .NET 2.0. ASP.NET MVP Fritz Onion and Developer Security MVP Keith Brown draw on their unparalleled experience working with ASP.NET 2.0 and teaching it to professional developers. From data binding to security, UIs to performance, they demystify ASP.NET 2.0's most difficult areas, and introduce little-known techniques for leveraging it to the fullest.The perfect companion to his previous classic, Essential ASP.NET with Examples in C#, Essential ASP.NET 2.0 offers hundreds of new C# examples that illuminate today's best Web development practices. (Both C# and VB 2005 versions of all code examples can be downloaded from the companion Web site.)Topics explored in-depth include: Application architecture Code behind Master pages Themes and skins Navigation controls Data binding State management Security Web Parts Diagnostics Performance optimization Asynchronous tasks and pagesSimply put, if you want to design and build better ASP.NET 2.0 Web applications,Essential ASP.NET 2.0 delivers everything you need: insider's knowledge, proven best practices, and outstanding code samples.


ABSTRACT Urban infrastructures have traditionally been mono-functional: water, sewage, and electricity are notable examples. Embedded with digital technologies, urban infrastructures have the potential to communicate with one another and become multi-functional platforms that integrate data gathering and actuation cycles. In this paper, we focus on public lighting infrastructures. Despite the technological development of lights, including LED technology, streetlights have been primarily treated as a mono-functional infrastructure. Based on case studies, we discuss the potential of reimagining streetlight infrastructure, and advance some initial proposals that focus on sensing and actuation cycles, which could transform this pervasive infrastructure into a digital urban platform.


Blood parameter assessments of fish may be used as quick tools for diagnosing health status. The aim of this research was to undertake a comparative study of hematological and biochemical parameters of Italian and Turkish farmed rainbow trout Oncorhynchusmykiss(Walbaum, 1792) to establish baseline values in relation to different areas. Forty Italian trout (32.59±0.25 cm total length, 397.40±6.49 g weight) and forty Turkish trout (33.00±0.24 cm total length, 385.70±3.50 g weight) were examined. Statistical analysis (unpaired t-test) showed no significant differences in weight, length and condition factor between two farmed trout groups. Statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) were found in some hematological and biochemical parameters between Italian and Turkish farmed rainbow trout. Our findings shown that in Italian farmed rainbow trout Red blood cell (RBC), Hematocrit (Hct), Cholesterol and Total protein values were significantly lower than Turkish trout, instead Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentrations (MCHC), Glucose, Triglycerides and Serum albumin shown significantly higher values. No statistically significant differences were found for White blood cell (WBC) and hemoglobin (Hgb). The results of this study contribute to knowledge of the baseline of hematological and biochemical parameters of rainbow trout farmed in two different habitats suggesting that blood parameters could be an important value in monitoring environmental conditions on fish physiology and fish culture management.


Scholars cannot make law, just as little as lepidopterologists can 'make' butterflies. If they do so, they cease to be scholars and become legislators. This, however, is neither universally accepted nor can it stand as an unqualified statement. Even legal positivists realise that scholars appear to have a uniquely influential position in the 'process' of (international) law-making.There are two categorically different ways in which we can study the influence of scholars on international law-making: on the one hand, the factual or empirical influence of scholarship, palpable both in municipal and international contexts; on the other hand, there is the question of the specifically normativist view-point: how and where, if applicable, are legal scholars empowered by the law to contribute to the making of new law. Neither is better than the other and neither is more 'worthy', but neither should be admixed with the other.This chapter first deals with the standard entry-point of legal scholarship to questions of international law-making: Article 38(1)(d) of the ICJ Statute. Section 2 will elucidate the role that scholars play 'as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law'. It will, however, primarily show the various restrictions of that subparagraph, in terms of the restricted usefulness of a lex arbitri for elucidating the wider theoretical question beyond the Court's remit. Section 3 will discuss the sources (hierarchy) of law as the conceptual basis for the distinction between law-making and non-law making factors on a normativist account. It will also warn against the danger and show the problems that manifest themselves when different methods are admixed. Section 4 will turn to give a brief account of the sociological view on what factors influence international law-making, whether scholar-ship is part of that and what the restrictions are on such a view.


This paper provides a review of the macro-level evidence on the importance of electricity for economic development. We find that electricity access and use are strongly correlated with economic development, as theory suggests. Despite a large empirical literature, however, there are few methodologically strong studies that establish causal effects of either electricity use or electricity infrastructure on economic growth. The micro-level literature provides more convincing evidence of causal effects, although these appear not to be uniform in all locations. We present a number of country case studies that are suggestive of electrification playing an important role in broad-based development progress. The paper also identifies potential avenues for future research. High-quality macro-level evidence on the economic effects of electricity access and reliability would help policy-makers and aid agencies make decisions regarding investment priorities.


Abstract The maceral and biomarker characteristics of 4 sublithotypes of xylite-rich coal (SXCs), pale yellow, dark yellow, brown and black, originating from the Kolubara and Kostolac lignite basins were determined. Based on these results, differences in sources and changes of organic matter (OM) resulting in formation of 4 SXCs were established. Conifers (particularly Cupressaceae, Taxodiaceae and Pinacea) had a significant impact on the precursor OM of all SXCs. The contribution of gymnosperm vs. angiosperm vegetation decreased in order pale yellow SXC>dark yellow SXC>brown SXC>black SXC. The distribution of non-hopanoid triterpenoids indicates that change of SXC colour from yellow to black is associated with reduced input of angiosperm plants from the Betulacea family. Differences in hopane distribution, bitumen content, proportion of short-chain n-alkanes and degree of aromatization of di- and triterpenoids of pale yellow SXC are controlled by microbial communities which took part in the diagenetic alteration of OM. The content of total huminites increased from black to pale yellow SXC, whereas contents of total liptinite and inertinite macerals showed the opposite trend. SXCs differ according to textinite/ulminite ratio, which sharply decreased from pale yellow to black SXC, reflecting increase in gelification of woody tissue. Regarding the composition of liptinite macerals, the SXCs mostly differ according to resinite/liptodetrinite and resinite/suberinite ratios, which are higher in yellow than in brown and black SXC. This result along with values of TOC/N ratio and Carbon Preference Index indicate that the contribution of well preserved woody material, including lignin tissue vs. the impact of epicuticular waxes decreased from yellow to black SXC.


Aims: Climate-based indices exist for viticulture, particularly for modelling phenological events, but not for vine water status. In this work, climatic variables are linked to the temporal evolution of the water status of the vineMethods and Results: Within-season time-series of predawn leaf water potential from previous studies across 8 seasons in the south of France were collated. Meteorological data were also collected at each site. A stepwise linear regression model was developed to predict the mean predawn leaf water potential of a vineyard block at a given date from climatic variables and time. Variables selected were growing degree days, short-term humidity and temperature effects. Application of the stepwise model to an independent data set, collected at the other two research sites, produced a linear response but required a local calibration at each site.Conclusion: The analysis demonstrated that climatic variables can be used for predicting the temporal evolution of vine water stress in non-irrigated vineyards.Significance and impact of study: The modelling can assist with within-season crop management and future vineyard planning/development in non-irrigated regions. In irrigated vineyards the application is more restricted but it may be used to identify when to start irrigation.


Attorneys are often requested to assist with corporate restructures. A multitude of considerations then arise, specifically those linked to company law (including the necessary company secretarial work that would be required), contracts to be drafted and potentially considerations linked to the transfer of immovable property or share investments, to name but a few. One further important consideration is the tax consequences of the proposed transaction, which is, quite often, not the first consideration on the list of matters that needs to be dealt with. And rightly so, a transaction needs to make commercial sense and be legally feasible, before one should start thinking of its tax consequences. Unfortunately though, the mistake that is often made - and to clients' detriment - is that the tax consequences of a corporate restructure are regarded as being inevitable and that these cannot be mitigated. This, however, is not the case.


Ricardian theories of production often take the comparative advantage of locations in different industries to be uncorrelated. They are seen as the outcome of the realization of a random extreme value distribution. These theories do not take a stance regarding the counterfactual or implied comparative advantage if the country does not make the product. Here, we find that industries in countries and cities tend to have a relative size that is systematically correlated with that of other industries. Industries also tend to have a relative size that is systematically correlated with the size of the industry in similar countries and cities. We illustrate this using export data for a large set of countries and for city-level data for the US, Chile and India. These stylized facts can be rationalized using a Ricardian framework where comparative advantage is correlated across technologically related industries. More interestingly, the deviations between actual industry intensity and the implied intensity obtained from that of related industries or related locations tend to be highly predictive of future industry growth, especially at horizons of a decade or more. This result holds both at the intensive as well as the extensive margin, indicating that future comparative advantage is already implied in todays pattern of production.