extract] A derivative action is an action brought by a shareholder or director of a company in the name and on behalf of that company. Such an action is 'derivative' in the sense that the right to sue belongs not to the party actually bringing the action, but is 'derived' from that of the company. Its purpose is to achieve relief in situations where a wrong has been done to the company, rather than to its shareholders personally. Normally, the decision to take action on the company's behalf lies with the directors, as they generally have the responsibility of managing the company. However, in some cases it is necessary that the shareholders be given the right to commence action on the company's behalf, usually because some or all of the board are themselves responsible for the wrong that has been committed. This article discusses both the common law derivative action and the new statutory provision, including the application of sec 165 in the first cases to be brought since it was enacted. It seeks to answer the question: Has the New Zealand provision conferred any significant advantage on minority shareholders, in terms of their access to the courts and the remedies available to them, compared to the previous situation at common law and under existing statutory remedies, and should Australia follow New Zealand's lead and enact its own statutory derivative as is proposed?


Background: Termination of pregnancy for fetal abnormality (TFA) may have profound psychological consequences. Evidence suggests that women's experience of care influences the way they adjust to TFA. Yet caring for parents in these circumstances presents some challenges for health professionals, which may relate to their understanding of women's experience.

Objectives: This study examined health professionals' perceptions of women's coping with TFA. Data were compared with women's accounts of their coping processes to identify similarities and differences.

Methods: A qualitative study was conducted among health professionals in two fetal medicine units in England. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of professionals. Data were analysed using Thematic Analysis and compared with the results of a qualitative study of women's experience of coping with TFA.

Results: Health professionals' perceptions of women's coping with TFA covered six areas, also present in women's accounts: support, acknowledging the baby, problem-solving, avoidance, meaning making and another pregnancy. Health professionals also considered their role as information providers as essential in women's ability to cope with TFA, while women, generally placed more importance on health professionals' emotional support. Results also indicate a lack of insights into women's long-term coping processes, although midwives appeared more knowledgeable than fetal medicine consultants on this point.

Conclusion: Health professionals' perceptions of women's coping with TFA closely matched women's accounts suggesting a high level of understanding. However, the lack of insight into women's long-term coping processes has important clinical implications, as research suggests that coping with TFA is a long-term process.


Village shops have been largely overlooked in the recent literature on British retailing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which has sought to redefine the parameters and timing of retail transformation. While urban shops have been explored in detail, often in ways that highlight their role in a parallel transformation in consumption patterns, little attempt has been made to look inside village shops or examine the character and practices of rural retailers. This article addresses this lacuna and offers fresh insights into the shifting position of village shops in these broader economic, business, and social changes. Taking a long view of the period c. 1660–1860, it draws on a wide range of sources to examine the stock sold and the degree of specialization exhibited by village shops, and the changing trading practices of village shopkeepers, including the provision of credit, the pricing of goods, and marketing activities. In doing so, the article highlights both long-term continuities and important innovations of the type that also characterize urban shops, and argues that village shops, while central to rural social and economic networks, were also intimately bound into broader retail systems.


The developed urban models explain the location considering, among others, a variable of general accessibility, which definition and understanding are divergent and ambiguous. In this way we develop a first stage of investigation that raises a new dimension of accessibility (functional probability), that it is constructed with the population pattern of mobility (how the people move in the city). This dimension was compared with traditional measures of accessibility (distance, time), in its capacity to explain the spatial pattern of residential densities, in the metropolitan area of Santiago (Chile) and Barcelona (Spain). The functional probability ("disposition to travel"), in both cities, shows a statistical similarity in the purposes journey to shop and to study, but a dissimilarity in the journey to work purpose. These results are interesting in the sense that Barcelona and Santiago are structurally different. In this context, we develop a second stage of the investigation, based on the new paradigm of understanding the integration of the mobility (transport) in the social territorial system.
The newness of the investigation is the way (quantitative) to characterize and to visualize space-time operation of social systems in the city, understanding them not only by the mobility, but also by the space-time behavior of the stay of people in the different zones of the city, with different purposes.
The study applies a trip chain analysis (like the activity-based transportation model) over trip surveys for the metropolitan area of Barcelona (2001, 2006), and for Santiago (1991, 2001). The results are analyzed in a probabilistic dimension (aggregate) in space and time.
The first result of this second stage of the investigation is the dynamic density (variation in space and time) of the use of the city and the transport network, for different purposes, for the metropolitan area of Barcelona 2001.
The functional probability (mobility and activity) approach can be used as a measure of social equity in the use of time in the city.


It is known that the formation of surface ozone (O3) is chemically linked to the emissions of major precursor gases, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). This chemical interdependence is highly complex and gives rise to non-linear and coupled pollutant formation processes. In the present study, an attempt has been made to examine the governing photochemical processes of O3 formation in a rural site. For this purpose, measurements of O3 and selected meteorological parameters have been made at Joharapur (19.3 o N, 75.2 o E, 474 m above sea level), a tropical rural site in India since March 2002. The annual average diurnal variation of O3 shows that maximum O3 concentration is 29.9 ± 5.7 ppbv at noon and minimum 7.0 ± 3.4 ppbv in the morning with 1 σ standard deviation. The monthly average high (low) O3 44.7 ± 10.8 ppbv (15.0 ± 3.2 ppbv) at noon in April (July), due to possible increase in precursorgas concentrations by anthropogenic activity and the influence of meteorological parameters. Furthermore, O3 concentration has been observed as a function of season, which shows that the seasonal highest O3 concentration is 37.7 ± 8.7 ppbv at noon in premonsoon and lowest 17.4 ± 3.7 ppbv in monsoon season. The hourly averaged O3 concentration can exceed 70-80 ppbv in premonsoon and winter which is alarming attainment of air quality standard (80 ppbv) over the rural site in India.


The book begins with an overview of the phase diagrams of fluid mixtures (fluid = liquid, gas, or supercritical state), which can show an astonishing variety when elevated pressures are taken into account; phenomena like retrograde condensation (single and double) and azeotropy (normal and double) are discussed. It then gives an introduction into the relevant thermodynamic equations for fluid mixtures, including some that are rarely found in modern textbooks, and shows how they can they be used to compute phase diagrams and related properties. This chapter gives a consistent and axiomatic approach to fluid thermodynamics; it avoids using activity coefficients. Further chapters are dedicated to solid-fluid phase equilibria and global phase diagrams (systematic search for phase diagram classes). The appendix contains numerical algorithms needed for the computations. The book thus enables the reader to create or improve computer programs for the calculation of fluid phase diagrams. It introduces phase diagram classes, how to recognize them and identify their characteristic features. It presents rational nomenclature of binary fluid phase diagrams. It includes problems and solutions for self-testing, exercises or seminars.


We develop new evidence on the cumulative earnings losses associated with job displacement, drawing on longitudinal Social Security records from 1974 to 2008. In present-value terms, men lose an average of 1.4 years of predisplacement earnings if displaced in mass-layoff events that occur when the national unemployment rate is below 6 percent. They lose a staggering 2.8 years of predisplacement earnings if displaced when the unemployment rate exceeds 8 percent. These results reflect discounting at a 5 percent annual rate over 20 years after displacement. We also document large cyclical movements in the incidence of job loss and job displacement and present evidence on how worker anxieties about job loss, wage cuts, and job opportunities respond to contemporaneous economic conditions. Finally, we confront leading models of unemployment fluctuations with evidence on the present-value earnings losses associated with job displacement. The 1994 model of Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides, extended to include search on the job, generates present-value losses that are only one-fourth as large as observed losses. Moreover, present-value losses in the model vary little with aggregate conditions at the time of displacement, unlike the pattern in the data.


The mass spawning of corals, at an "inshore" reef in the central Great Barrier Reef Province, has consistently occurred during the week following the October full moon, in the past 4 years. One annual mass spawning period was observed when the full moon fell in the second half of October. In contrast, the mass spawning period was split, in 2 years when the full moon fell in the first half of October (two spawning periods separated by 1 lunar month). Three years of data, at an "offshore" reef at approximately the same latitude, confirm that the offshore mass spawning period occurs exactly one lunar month later than the "inshorel" spawning period.

In 1984, spawning during a mass spawning period was documented for 25 scleractinian species which had not been studied during previous spawning periods. The cumulative number of mass spawning species on the Great Barrier Reef now totals 133 (total nLlllber of species = 356). In comparison, other studies have found 14 species on the Great Barrier Reef which planulate or spawn only at other times of the year. The mode of release of reproductive products has been documented for 12 of the 15 Great Barrier Reef families. The Faviidae, Oculinidae, Mussidae, and Pectiniidae so far contain only mass spawning species. The Acroporidae is by far the largest family, and of species studied to date, 88% spawn during a mass spawning period. It is therefore likely that the majority of corals on the Great Barrier Reef participate in the annual mass spawning phenomenon.

A preliminary analysis of reproductive rhythms of mass spawning corals is presented. Lunar and diel light cycles have been identified as zeitgebers for spawning synchrony. Variation in the number of synodic months between annual mass spawning periods indicates that an endogenous rhythm, if present, must interact with the lunar cycle. Such an interaction would maintain annual mass spawning periods within relatively constrained environmental limits, and result in reasonably precise seasonality of spawning.


Code generation in a compiler is commonly divided into several phases: instruction selection, scheduling, register allocation, spill code generation, and, in the case of clustered architectures, cluster assignment. These phases are interdependent; for instance, a decision in the instruction selection phase affects how an operation can be scheduled. We examine the effect of this separation of phases on the quality of the generated code. To study this we have formulated optimal methods for code generation with integer linear programming; first for acyclic code and then we extend this method to modulo scheduling of loops. In our experiments we compare optimal modulo scheduling, where all phases are integrated, to modulo scheduling where instruction selection and cluster assignment are done in a separate phase. The results show that, for an architecture with two clusters, the integrated method finds a better solution than the non-integrated method for 39% of the instances. Our algorithm for modulo scheduling iteratively considers schedules with increasing number of schedule slots. A problem with such an iterative method is that if the initiation interval is not equal to the lower bound there is no way to determine whether the found solution is optimal or not. We have proven that for a class of architectures that we call transfer free, we can set an upper bound on the schedule length. I.e., we can prove when a found modulo schedule with initiation interval larger than the lower bound is optimal. Another code generation problem that we study is how to optimize the usage of the address generation unit in simple processors that have very limited addressing modes. In this problem the subtasks are: scheduling, address register assignment and stack layout. Also for this problem we compare the results of integrated methods to the results of non-integrated methods, and we find that integration is beneficial when there are only a few (1 or 2) address registers available.


This thesis reports an investigation of the formation of zeolite scales in the industrial
extraction of alumina from bauxite ore. These materials have been characterised by
powder x-ray and neutron diffraction, infra-red spectroscopy, scanning electron
microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis.
Samples of zeolite scale were removed from both low temperature (c.a. 135°C) and
high temperature (c.a. 220°C) Bayer plants and analysed. At low temperature the
scale crystallises predominantly as natrodavyne with minority phases of sodalite and
cancrinite whilst at high temperature the cancrinite phase is exclusively formed.
Although a variety of different anions are present in both the scale and the liquor in
small amounts (e.g sulphate, hydroxide, vanadate, and oxalate) the majority anions,
with apparently controlling influence, are the carbonate and hydroxide anions.
Laboratory experiments using the representative anions in Bayer liquor (hydroxide,
carbonate, oxalate, sulphate and chloride) as a function of temperature (90° - 225°C)
and anion concentration (10-3
- lO-IM) were performed using hydrothermal methods.
Sulphate formed cancrinite at all temperatures and concentrations and sodalite was
consistently formed for both oxalate and chloride anions. However, both temperature
and concentration were critical in the case of carbonate where sodalite and
intermediate phase dominated at low temperatures and concentrations but at high
temperature and concentration, the cancrinite structure was exclusively formed.
Experiments with sodium hydroxide liquors of different concentrations and standing
times have shown that the cancrinite structure only forms after standing, where carbon
dioxide is readily absorbed from the air, indicating a pure hydroxycancrinite is
unlikely to form. In the absence of standing time, hydroxysodalite is formed at all
temperatures and all concentrations.
The addition of concentrations of lime used extensively to remove carbonate from
Bayer liquor between 0.013 M and O.13M was also investigated. At high
concentrations the addition oflime results in no zeolite scale being formed.


In a world where racial tensions and racial and ethnic inequality seem to be increasing, it is instructive to look back over the decade of the 1990s to examine what academic researchers have had to say about the global nature of race, racism, and racial inequality. Almost every country with a multiethnic population faces these problems. This collection of essays provides an eclectic but accessible mix of readings on perspectives from such countries as Australia, Russia, France, Chile, West Africa, India, and the United States. Emphasis is placed on positive strategies to help reduce or eliminate economic inequality. The implications for the demise of affirmative action programs are also discussed. Pre-dating the United Nation's World Conference on Racism, the readings anticipate many of the recommendations and insights that have now come to be the core of international strategies. This collection will prove valuable to all those concerned with ending racism and achieving racial and ethnic economic equality.


BACKGROUND
Induction of labour is a common intervention in obstetric practice. Traditionally, in most hospitals induction of labour with medication starts early in the morning, with the start of the working day for the day shift. In human and animal studies spontaneous onset of labour is proven to have a circadian rhythm with a preference for start of labour in the evening. Moreover, when spontaneous labour starts in the evening, the total duration of labour and delivery shortens and fewer obstetric interventions are needed. Based on these observations one might assume that starting induction of labour in the evening, in harmony with the circadian rhythm of natural birth, is more beneficial for both mother and child.

OBJECTIVES
To assess whether induction of labour starting in the evening, coinciding with the endogenous circadian rhythm, improves the outcome of labour compared with induction of labour starting in the early morning, organised to coincide with office hours.

SEARCH METHODS
We contacted the Trials Search Co-ordinator to search the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's Trials Register (28 February 2012). In addition, we searched MEDLINE (1966 to 16 February 2012) and EMBASE (1980 to 16 February 2012).

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included all published and unpublished randomised controlled trials. We excluded trials that employed quasi-random methods of treatment allocation.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors independently assessed trials for inclusion and risk of bias. Two review authors independently extracted data. Data were checked for accuracy. Where necessary, we contacted study authors for additional information.

MAIN RESULTS
The search resulted in 2693 articles that we screened on title and abstract for eligibility.Thirteen studies were selected for full text assessment. We included three randomised trials involving 1150 women. Two trials compared the administration of prostaglandins in the morning versus the evening in women with an unfavourable cervix, and one trial compared induction of labour in the morning versus the evening in women with a favourable cervix and/or ruptured membranes with intravenous oxytocin. Because of the different mechanism, we have reported results for these two comparisons separately.In the two trials comparing prostaglandins in the morning versus the evening there were few clinically significant differences between study groups for maternal or neonatal outcomes. One study reported a statistically significant preference by women to start induction of labour with prostaglandins in the morning.In the trial examining induction of labour with intravenous oxytocin, the number of neonatal admissions was statistically significantly increased in the group of women that started induction in the morning. This finding was unexpected, and while the trial authors offered some possible explanations for this, it is important that any future trials examine neonatal outcomes.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Taking into account women's preferences that favoured administration of prostaglandins in the morning, we conclude that caregivers should preferably consider administering prostaglandins in the morning.There is no strong evidence that induction of labour with intravenous oxytocin in the evening is more or less effective than induction in the morning. Consideration may be given to start induction of labour with oxytocin in the evening when indicated.


Objectives: To compare the efficacy and complication rates of two different techniques for inferior alveolar nerve blocks (IANB). Study Design: A randomized, triple-blind clinical trial comprising 109 patients who required lower third molar removal was performed. In the control group, all patients received an IANB using the conventional Halsted technique, whereas in the experimental group, a modified technique using a more inferior injection point was performed. Results: A total of 100 patients were randomized. The modified technique group showed a significantly higher onset time in the lower lip and chin area, and was frequently associated to a lingual electric discharge sensation. Three failures were recorded, 2 of them in the experimental group. No relevant local or systemic complications were registered. Conclusions: Both IANB techniques used in this trial are suitable for lower third molar removal. However, performing an inferior alveolar nerve block in a more inferior position (modified technique) extends the onset time, does not seem to reduce the risk of intravascular injections and might increase the risk of lingual nerve injuries. Key words:Dental anesthesia, inferior alveolar nerve block, lidocaine, third molar, intravascular injection.


Prestigious structures began using thin natural stone panels as wall cladding to give them historic character in the late 1960s. Easier fabrication methods increased stone production and enabled larger, thinner panels that were lightweight. Unfortunately, engineering and testing did not keep pace. Inadequate initial evaluation of material durability and panel strength resulted in varying degrees of distress developing in some claddings. Because early stone cladding was installed with little structural analysis, current evaluation should predict capability by checking characteristics initial engineering likely ignored. Comprehending all characteristics that affect the integrity of thin stone cladding must be the objective of a responsible maintenance program. The program must evolve with each evaluation's findings to adapt to the specifics of that building and its changes over time. Maintaining the safety of a building's skin is essential to extending the service life of the whole structure. Verifying safety requires more than a cursory visual check for exposed elements to find them before they fall. In the past, stone cladding was completely removed from too many structures that experienced distress. Some evaluations misunderstood or misdiagnosed affect of distress on integrity. They failed to investigate some characteristics, or did not relate others, yielding an incomplete assessment. Adding evaluation of characteristics common to traditional structural assessment to a cladding program adds rigor and objectivity, avoiding misdiagnosis and unjustified expense. In rare cases, remove-and-replace-all may still be required, but only if gross problems exist with support. However, in most cases, an appropriate program will not only identify the parts creating the highest risk, but the program can prescribe selective replacement instead of complete recladding as a long-term remedy.


The aim of this article is to present a novel quaternion based control scheme for the attitude control problem of a quadrotor and experimentally evaluate its performance. A quaternion is a hyper complex number of rank 4 that can be utilized to avoid the inherent geometrical singularity when representing rigid body dynamics with Euler angles or the complexity of having coupled differential equations with the Direction Cosine Matrix (DCM). In the presented approach the novel contributions consist of: a) the quadrotor's attitude model and b) the proposed non-linear Proportional squared (P2) control algorithm, which have been proposed and experimentally evaluated fully in the quaternion space, without any transformations nor calculations in the Euler angle nor the DCM spaces. The established control scheme is combined with a quaternion based Madwick Complementary filter for estimating the attitude quadrotor's responses. Multiple experimental results, including the case where external disturbances are acting on the quadrotor, are being presented for proving the efficiency and the robustness of the proposed novel quaternion based controller.


In recent years the notion that religious and cultural practices should be accommodated even at the cost of relinquishing the protection of women's rights has been gaining prominence and many abuses of women's rights have been dismissed as justified and inevitable. In this article I argue that the accommodation of religious and cultural practices that discriminate against women is misguided and unjust. While religious and cultural practices can no longer serve as justification for discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity and religion they still serve as the most prevalent justification for sex discrimination. The article analyzes this discrepancy, as well as the differences that exist between women as a group and racial, ethnic and religious groups, in order to develop a better understanding of the causes for the persistence of sex discrimination. The article shows that deficiencies in liberal theory and practice, as well as a misunderstanding of the nature of the oppression of women and of women's reaction to it, are responsible for the continued acceptance of religious and cultural practices that discriminate against women. A lack of understanding of the structural, political, sociological and psychological factors - which contribute to the creation and the maintenance of discrimination against women, and which are delineated in the article - serves to obscure the insidious nature of sex discrimination due to religious and cultural practices and facilitate its continuation.


The earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 tipped the country into a state of socioeconomic despair from which it will be difficult to escape without a fresh start, made not only by its own political and economic elites, but also by the international community. Making a fresh start will require an honest assessment of Haiti's predicament and a bold vision of its future prospects. By this, lessons can usefully be drawn from the experiences of countries emerging from a period of conflict. From this perspective, Haiti needs to move beyond the neoliberal consensus which has dominated policy since the overthrow of the Duvalier regime and adopt a more integrated policy approach to creating jobs, boosting economic security, diversifying economic activity and repairing a dangerously frayed social contract. Such an approach critically depends on establishing a developmental state with an inclusive national agenda that can move Haiti out of an initial and unavoidable state of aid dependence to effective mobilization of domestic resources. For the international community, the Marshall Plan offers useful lessons in forging a more effective development partnership to support such a state-building exercise and the efforts at recovery and rebuilding.

Policy Implications

•
 State building is an integral part of development policy in countries adjusting to large external shocks.

•
 It is a mistake to privilege a set of predetermined policy instruments to be used to manage the adjustment to external shocks, regardless of actual circumstances.

•
 Mobilizing domestic resources is key to sustainable long-term growth and development, including in countries recovering from crisis.

•
 Distributional issues are an integral part of successful strategies to improve domestic resource mobilization.

•
 Avoiding dual public sectors is essential for effective state building in countries receiving large aid inflows.

•
 The Marshall Plan continues to hold lessons for how the international community should behave towards countries recovering from large shocks and crises.


Na3La9O3(BO3)8 (NLBO) single crystals with size up to 35 × 20 × 15 mm3 have been grown by the top-seeded solution growth (TSSG) method. The phase-matching (PM) conditions and the effective nonlinear coefficients were fully calculated for third-harmonic generation (THG) at different wavelengths. The THG experiments for NLBO crystals were performed for the first time. A 355 nm UV light output of 1.9 mW was successfully obtained under a picosecond Nd:YAG laser. Through the calculations of effective nonlinear coefficients, we believe that the output power and conversion efficiency will further increase if the high optical quality NLBO samples can be utilized.


Millions of people have fled from conflicts and persecution in all parts of the Northeast African country of Sudan, and many thousands more have been enslaved as human spoils of war. Here, in their own words, men and women recount life before their displacement and the reasons for their flight, and provide insight on the major stations of the "refugee railroads" -- the desert camps of Khartoum, the underground communities of Cairo, the humanitarian metropolis of Kakuma refugee camp, and the still-growing internally displaced persons camps in Darfur. Included are stories of escapes from the wars in Darfur and South Sudan, from political and religious persecution, and from abduction by paramilitary groups.


This study investigates the accuracy of an online Precise Point Positioning (PPP) service operated by the Geodetic Survey Division of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), Canadian Spatial Reference System (CSRS)-PPP, by using single/dual-frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) data collected by dual-frequency geodetic-grade and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) board type single-frequency GPS receivers. In this work, a kinematic test was carried out in Halic Bay (Golden Horn), Istanbul, Turkey, to assess the performance of the PPP method in a dynamic environment. Based on this study, it can be concluded that the coordinates estimated from the online CSRS-PPP service have a potential of about metre-level accuracy by processing single frequency data collected by an OEM receiver and about a decimetre to a few centimetres level accuracy by processing dual frequency data collected by a geodetic-grade receiver. In general, results show that the PPP technique has become a significant alternative to the conventional relative (differential) positioning techniques (i.e., Differential GPS (DGPS), Real-time Kinematic (RTK)). The technique does not suffer from the drawbacks of the DGPS technique and has potential to provide the same position accuracy without the requirement for a reference station. Consequently, it has been concluded that the PPP technique may be effectively used in marine applications due to its ease of use and provision of high accuracy, as well as being able to offer reduced field operational costs.


Urban green infrastructure provides ecosystem services that are essential to human wellbeing. A dearth of national-scale assessments in the Global South has precluded the ability to explore how political regimes, such as the forced racial segregation in South Africa during and after Apartheid, have influenced the extent of and access to green infrastructure over time. We investigate whether there are disparities in green infrastructure distributions across race and income geographies in urban South Africa. Using open-source satellite imagery and geographic information, along with national census statistics, we find that public and private green infrastructure is more abundant, accessible, greener and more treed in high-income relative to low-income areas, and in areas where previously advantaged racial groups (i.e. White citizens) reside. Areas with White residents report 6-fold higher income, have 11.7% greater tree cover, 8.9% higher vegetation greenness and live 700 m closer to a public park than areas with predominantly Black African, Indian, and Coloured residents. The inequity in neighborhood greenness levels has been maintained (for Indian and Coloured areas) and further entrenched (for Black African areas) since the end of Apartheid in 1994 across the country. We also find that these spatial inequities are mirrored in both private (gardens) and public (street verges, parks, green belts) spaces, hinting at the failure of governance structures to plan for and implement urban greening initiatives. By leveraging openaccess satellite data and methods presented here, there is scope for civil society to monitor urban green infrastructure over time and thereby hold governments accountable to addressing environmental justice imperatives in the future. Interact with the data here: green-apartheid.zsv.co.za.


Regardless of recent concerns and the horrific results of disasters on vulnerable populations in the USA, the use of standardised emergency command and control structures in Long-Term Care (LTC) settings has not become common. It is especially true in the American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) population, a unique group in that tribes are sovereign nations within the USA or a 'nation within a nation'. This paper examines (1) the LTC issues in the AN population, (2) the need to address emergency preparedness and disaster management in the AN culture and (3) culturally specific characteristics that must be addressed to allow the preparation and protection of these elders. We must never forget the respect that should be shown to other cultures in preparing for, responding to and recovering from emergencies and disasters. There has been a great deal of work in other nations to consider how both modern cultures and indigenous peoples can benefit from each other in these respects. This paper reports work in an ongoing project that will ultimately identify specific interventions to be used in the AN population as we continue efforts to address the issues of vulnerable and underserved groups in our nation.


A novel palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of organoindium compounds with vinyl and aryl triflates or iodides is described. The reaction proceeds for alkyl-, vinyl-, alkynyl-, and arylindium compounds in excellent yields and high chemoselectivity without any excess of the organometallic. Remarkably, indium organometallics transfer efficiently the three organic groups attached to the metal.


Extracted from text ... REVIEW
Southern African Journal of Anaesthesia & Analgesia - February 2004 15
Complications associated with regional
anaesthesia for Caesarean section
Complications of Regional Anaesthesia for CS
The three categories of RA currently employed for CS are:
1. Spinal (subarachnoid),
2. Epidural, and
3. Combined Spinal-Epidural (CSE) anaesthesia.
In the public sector most Caesarian Sections are performed
using SA. In this setting, epidural anaesthesia for labour is
infrequently used, so relatively few epidurals are extended for
CS.
Both maternal and fetal complications may occur as a consequence
of the use of RA. These may develop during administration
of the RA, ..


Background and Purpose— In national guidelines, absolute long-term risk of myocardial infarction (MI) or coronary death determines target low-density lipoprotein levels, but stroke patients are not explicitly addressed. We determined the absolute 5-year risk of cardiovascular outcomes and their predictors after first ischemic stroke in a multiethnic cohort. Methods— A population-based cohort of first ischemic stroke patients ≥40 years old was prospectively followed annually for recurrent stroke, MI and cause-specific mortality. Kaplan-Meier 5-year risks for MI or vascular death (primary outcome), and other cardiovascular events, were calculated. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios and 95% CI for predictors of cardiovascular outcomes. Results— Mean age (n=655) was 69.7±12.7 years; 55.4% of participants were women, and 51.3% Hispanic. The 5-year risk of MI or vascular death was 17.4% (95% CI, 14.2% to 20.6%). Independent historical predictors of MI or vascular death were age >70 years (hazard ratio 1.62, 1.07 to 2.44), history of coronary artery disease (hazard ratio 1.76, 1.13 to 2.74), and atrial fibrillation (hazard ratio 1.76, 1.05 to 2.94). In the lowest risk group, those ≤70 years old without coronary artery disease, 5-year risk of MI or vascular death was 9.7%. Conclusions— The absolute risk of MI or vascular death after ischemic stroke, even in those without high-risk features, approximates levels used by national organizations to designate groups of patients at high risk of vascular events. The comparability of levels of absolute risk among stroke and cardiac patients may have treatment implications.


It is often supposed that the lower educational performance of ethnic minority students is due to language difficulties. The linguistically divided school systems in Estonia and Latvia enable us to investigate the academic performance of minority children who study in their native language. I explore how mathematical performance is related with individual social background, achievement motives, and school context in such educational systems. I use the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 data to analyse the mathematical performance of Russian-speaking and native Estonian or Latvian students. The results of a multilevel analysis indicate that the linguistically divided school systems in Estonia and Latvia have different outcomes. In Latvia, results show that minority students experience no significant disadvantages irrespective of whether they attend Russian or Latvian schools. In Estonia, my results indicate that students who attend Russian schools have a lower performance than other students. This is partly explained by the socio-economic composition of Russian schools, indicating that children undergo difficulties due to their parental disadvantages. Additional reasons might be related to learning environments in these schools. However, Russian-speaking students in Estonian schools also seem to lag behind majority students. Thus, the opportunity to study in their native language might have only a minor influence on their educational achievement, while the school or learning context seem to be the decisive factors.


The urgency of language documentation requires, as Krauss (1992:10) concludes, that "we must do some serious rethinking of our priorities." In the past, linguists in SIL International have seen the priority as the traditional products of descriptive linguistics, namely, a grammar, a lexicon, and a corpus of interlinear texts. But we have been challenged by Himmelmann (1998) to see the distinction between language documentation (as compiling and commenting on primary recordings of speech events) and language description (as embodying the secondary results of analyzing the primary data and making generalizations). We've been further challenged by Woodbury (2003:45) who proposes that one could start the documentation process with purely oral techniques like producing "running UN style translations" and, instead of transcribing everything, "starting with hard-to-hear tapes and asking elders to 'respeak' them to a second tape slowly so that anyone with training in hearing the language can make the transcription if they wish." This presentation describes a method of language documentation being developed by a team at SIL International, and the results of my efforts to field test it in Africa. It is an approach we call BOLD, for Basic Oral Language Documentation. Since the majority of languages that need documentation have neither an orthography nor a literate community, the method focuses on oral data gathering. A great advantage of this approach is that it allows language community members to participate fully in the language documentation process with only minimal training. The methodology's name derives from the process of enabling native speakers to use digital audio to both compile and comment on the corpus of speech events. The process is one of re-recording the original recordings piece-by-piece while inserting oral annotations into the resulting recording. The annotations are of three types: (a) "oral transcription" with phrase-by-phrase re-iteration in careful speech, (b) "oral translation" with the insertion of clause-level translations in a language of wider communication (LWC), and (c) "oral commentary" with the insertion of explanatory comments – from members of the language community itself – in an LWC. The paper also discusses the unexpected pitfalls encountered during the implementation of this technique and how they were overcome or dealt with. In addition, areas for further development of the method will be discussed. References Himmelmann, Nikolaus. 1998. Documentary and descriptive linguistics. Linguistics 36:165–191. Krauss, Michael. 1992. The world's languages in crisis. Language 68(1):4-10. Woodbury, Anthony C. 2003. Defining language documentation. In Peter K. Austin (ed.), Language Documentation and Description 1:35-51. London: SOAS.


Introduction: Based on data from the largest studies of dry eye to date – the Women's Health Study (WHS) and the Physicians' Health Study (PHS) – and other studies, it has been estimated that about 3.23 million women and 1.68 million men, for a total of 4.91 million Americans aged ≥ 50 years, have dry eye. Tens of millions more have less severe symptoms and probably a more episodic manifestation of the disease that is notable only during contact with some adverse contributing factor(s), such as low humidity or contact lens wear. Dry eye disease is a common yet frequently under-recognized public health problem whose etiology and management challenge clinicians and researchers involved in this field. Areas covered: Advances in the understanding of the disease have been made over the past 10 years in areas of epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical manifestation, and possible therapy. Historical aspects and recent information in relation to the use of artificial tear substitutes and anti-inflammatory agents in dry eye disease, including topical cyclosporin and corticosteroids, autologous serum, tetracyclines and systemic immunosuppressants, are covered in this review. The reader will gain insight into the recent views on the pharmacological menu of treatments for dry eyes following the recommendations of the 2007 International Dry Eye Workshop. Expert opinion: Dry eye is a visually disabling disease, the treatment of which needs tailoring according to the type and severity of dry eye disease.


Advancements in communication technology have given rise to the evolution of a new electronic form of word-of-mouth – Viral marketing communication (VMC). VMC is a form of marketing tactic which encourages individuals to spread a marketing message to others by means of the internet. Currently, VMC is still considered to be at a premature phase of development, therefore information about its behavior and magnitude has yet to be clearly set upon and determined. In addition, limited research has been done on consumer perception and response to such marketing techniques. The objective of this thesis is to explore consumer receptivity, perception and behavioral response to this relatively new marketing strategy. With the use of a structured questionnaire conducted with 236 respondents and in-depth interviews conducted with 15 consumers, we analyzed their response and perception with regards to five different platforms on which viral marketing can take place on the internet, namely 1) E-mail, 2) Video, 3) Blog, 4) Social networks and 5) Forums. Employing a pluralistic approach as our research methodology, both the quantitative and qualitative results worked hand in hand in the analysis of our hypotheses and provided valuable findings regarding the way consumers view and react towards traditional word-of-mouth and VMC. Our main findings showed that 1) VMC helps to raise consumer awareness but does not significantly impact their purchasing decisions, 2) Consumers attach different trust levels to the five platforms of which forums have the highest trust and credibility level, 3) Consumers do not view VMC as spam messages, 4) Consumers are more receptive to VMC which market services compared to products, 5) Negative VMC has a stronger influence on consumers than positive VMC and 6) Monetary incentive is not the strongest motivator in influencing consumers to actively spread messages. With this study, we hope to provide new insights on VMC as a marketing tool from a consumer standpoint and serve as a first step for future research on how VMC can successfully reach out, connect with and influence consumers.


Joint source-channel coding (JSCC) has been acknowledged to have superior performance over separate source-channel coding in terms of coding efficiency, delay and complexity. In the first part of this thesis, we study a hybrid digital-analog (HDA) JSCC system to transmit a memoryless Gaussian source over a memoryless Gaussian channel under bandwidth compression. Information-theoretic upper bounds on the asymptotically optimal mean squared error distortion of the system are obtained. An allocation scheme for distributing the channel input power between the analog and the digital signals is derived for the HDA system with mismatched channel conditions. A lowcomplexity and low-delay version of the system is next designed and implemented. We then propose an image communication application demonstrating the effectiveness of HDA coding. In the second part of this thesis, we consider problems in information hiding. We begin by considering a single-user joint compression and private watermarking (JCPW) problem. For memoryless Gaussian sources and memoryless Gaussian attacks, an exponential upper bound on the probability of error in decoding the watermark is derived. Numerical examples show that the error exponent is positive over a (large) subset of the entire achievable region derived by Karakos and Papamarcou (2003). We then extend the JCPW problem to a multi-user setting. Two encoders independently embed two secret information messages into two correlated host sources subject to a pair of tolerable distortion levels. The (compressed) outputs are subject to multiple access attacks. The tradeoff between the achievable watermarking rates and the compression rates is studied for discrete memoryless host sources and discrete memoryless multiple access channels. We derive an inner bound and an outer bound with singleletter characterization for the achievable compression and watermarking rate region. We next consider a problem where two correlated sources are separately embedded into a common host source. A single-letter sufficient condition is established under which the sources can be successfully embedded into the host source under multiple access attacks. Finally, we investigate a public two-user information hiding problem under multiple access attacks. Inner and outer bounds for the embedding capacity region are obtained with single-letter characterization.


Recent claims that online platforms have secured permanent monopolies, protected by barriers to entry from network effects and stockpiles of data, and should be the focus of intense antitrust and regulatory scrutiny, are inconsistent with the economics, technology, and history of online competition. Online platforms face dynamic competition as a result of: disruptive innovation that provides opportunities for entry; competition from online platforms that have secured a toehold in one area but compete across multiple areas; the fragility of category leadership resulting from the fact that network effects are reversible and entry costs are low; and the prevalence of ad-supported models which result in seemingly disparate firms competing for consumer attention and advertiser dollars. The last two decades of online platform competition demonstrate that category leaders are often toppled, unexpectedly, through some combination of technological change, business model innovations, and cross-platform rivalry. The palpable threat of displacement prevents online platforms from taking their customers for granted. The history of online platform competition also provides empirical refutation of the proposition that data on users protects platform leaders from competition or puts an insurmountable obstacle before entrants. All this points to online platforms facing sleepless nights since any online platform that tries the quiet life of monopoly risks catastrophe.


The Internet of Things (IoT) interconnects physical objects including sensors, vehicles, and buildings into a virtual circumstance, resulting in the increasing integration of Cyber-physical objects. The Fog computing paradigm extends both computation and storage services in Cloud computing environment to the network edge. Typically, IoT services comprise of a set of software components running over different locations connected through datacenter or wireless sensor networks. It is significantly important and cost-effective to orchestrate and deploy a group of microservices onto Fog appliances such as edge devices or Cloud servers for the formation of such IoT services. In this chapter, we discuss the challenges of realizing Fog orchestration for IoT services, and present a software-defined orchestration architecture and simulation solutions to intelligently compose and orchestrate thousands of heterogeneous Fog appliances. The resource provisioning, component placement and runtime QoS control in the orchestration procedure can harness workload dynamicity, network uncertainty and security demands whilst considering different applications' requirement and appliances' capabilities. Our practical experiences show that the proposed parallelized orchestrator can reduce the execution time by 50% with at least 30% higher orchestration quality. We believe that our solution plays an important role in the current Fog ecosystem.


Purpose: Green tea has been shown to exhibit cancer-preventive activities in preclinical studies. Its consumption has been associated with decreased risk of certain types of cancers in humans. The oral bioavailability of the major green tea constituents, green tea catechins, is low, resulting in systemic catechin levels in humans many fold less than the effective concentrations determined in in vitro systems. We conducted this clinical study to test the hypothesis that the oral bioavailability of green tea catechins can be enhanced when consumed in the absence of food. Experimental Designs: Thirty healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to one of the following doses of Polyphenon E (a decaffeinated and defined green tea catechin mixture): 400, 800, or 1,200 mg, based on the epigallocatechin gallate content (10 subjects per dose group). After an overnight fast, study participants took a single dose of Polyphenon E with or without a light breakfast, which consisted of one or two 4-oz muffins and a glass of water. Following a 1-week wash-out period, subjects were crossed over to take the same dose of Polyphenon E under the opposite fasting/fed condition. Tea catechin concentrations in plasma and urine samples collected after dosing were determined by high-pressure liquid chromatography analysis. Results: Consistent with previous reports, epigallocatechin gallate and epicatechin gallate were present in plasma mostly as the free form, whereas epicatechin and epigallocatechin were mostly present as the glucuronide and sulfate conjugates. There was >3.5-fold increase in the average maximum plasma concentration of free epigallocatechin gallate when Polyphenon E was taken in the fasting condition than when taken with food. The dosing condition led to a similar change in plasma-free epigallocatechin and epicatechin gallate levels. Taking Polyphenon E in the fasting state did not have a significant effect on the plasma levels of total (free and conjugated) epigallocatechin, but resulted in lower plasma levels of total epicatechin. Urinary epigallocatechin gallate and epicatechin gallate levels were very low or undetectable following Polyphenon E administration with either dosing condition. Taking Polyphenon E under the fasting state resulted in a significant decrease in the urinary recovery of total epigallocatechin and epicatechin. Polyphenon E administered as a single dose over the dose range studied was generally well-tolerated by the study participants. Mild and transient nausea was noted in some of the study participants and was seen most often at the highest study agent dose (1,200 mg epigallocatechin gallate) and in the fasting condition. Conclusions: We conclude that greater oral bioavailability of free catechins can be achieved by taking the Polyphenon E capsules on an empty stomach after an overnight fast. Polyphenon E up to a dose that contains 800 mg epigallocatechin gallate is well-tolerated when taken under the fasting condition. This dosing condition is also expected to optimize the biological effects of tea catechins.


Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a continuous nondestructive evaluation system
used for both damage prognosis and diagnosis of civil structures. Acoustic emission (AE)
technique is defined as a passive SHM method that enables the detection of any possible
damage. AE technique has been exploited for condition assessment and long-term
monitoring of civil infrastructure systems. AE sensors are sensitive to the micro-cracking
stage of damage, therefore showed a great potential for early detection of different forms
of deteriorations in reinforced concrete (RC) structures. The rate of deterioration in RC
structures greatly increases due to reinforcing steel corrosion embedded in concrete.
Corrosion results in both expansion and mass loss of steel, thus causing concrete cover
cracking and delamination. Moreover, corrosion causes reduction of bond between
concrete and steel, which reduces the overall strength of RC structures. The objectives of
this research were to: a) utilize AE monitoring for early corrosion detection and concrete
cover/steel damage quantification of small-scale RC specimens, b) evaluate and localize
corrosion activity using distributed AE sensors in full-scale RC beams, c) attain an early
detection of loss of bond between corroded steel and concrete at different corrosion
levels, d) identify and assess bond degradation of corroded/un-corroded bars in both
small- and full-scale RC beams, and e) develop relationships between the collected AE
data and variable levels of corrosion, corrosion-induced cover crack growth, and bond
deterioration in RC structures.
Four extensive experimental investigations have been conducted both on small- and fullscale
RC elements to accomplish these aforementioned research objectives. AE monitoring was implemented in these studies on RC elements including a total of 30
prisms, 114 pull-out samples, and 10 beam anchorage specimens under accelerated
corrosion, direct pull-out, and four-point load tests, respectively. The analysis of AE data
obtained from these tests was performed and compared to the results of half-cell
potentials (HCP) standard tests, visual detection of corrosion-induced cracks, crack width
measurements, and overall bond behaviour of all tested pull-out samples/beams. The
results showed that the analysis of AE signal parameters acquired during corrosion tests
enabled the detection of both corrosion and cover crack onset earlier than HCP readings
and prior to any visible cracking in both small- and full-scale RC beams, regardless of
cover thickness or sensor location. Analyzing the AE signals attained from the pull-out
tests permitted the characterization of two early stages of bond degradation (micro- and
macro-cracking) in both corroded and un-corroded specimens at all values of bar
diameter, corrosion level, cover thickness, and embedded length. The AE analysis also
allowed an early identification of three stages of bond damage in full-scale corroded/uncorroded
RC beams namely; first crack, initial slip, and anchorage cracking, before their
visual observation, irrespective of corrosion level, embedded length, or sensor location.
The results of AE intensity analysis on AE signal strength data were exploited to develop
damage classification charts to assess the extent of corrosion damage as well as to
categorize different stages of bond deterioration in corroded/un-corroded small- and fullscale
RC samples.


This volume contains a collection of papers presented at the international conference IPM 20--Combinatorics 2009, which was held at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences in Tehran, Iran, May 15-21, 2009. The conference celebrated IPM's 20th anniversary and was dedicated to Reza Khosrovshahi, one of the founders of IPM and the director of its School of Mathematics from 1996 to 2007, on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The conference attracted an international group of distinguished researchers from many different parts of combinatorics and graph theory, including permutations, designs, graph minors, graph coloring, graph eigenvalues, distance regular graphs and association schemes, hypergraphs, and arrangements.|This volume contains a collection of papers presented at the international conference IPM 20--Combinatorics 2009, which was held at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences in Tehran, Iran, May 15-21, 2009. The conference celebrated IPM's 20th anniversary and was dedicated to Reza Khosrovshahi, one of the founders of IPM and the director of its School of Mathematics from 1996 to 2007, on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The conference attracted an international group of distinguished researchers from many different parts of combinatorics and graph theory, including permutations, designs, graph minors, graph coloring, graph eigenvalues, distance regular graphs and association schemes, hypergraphs, and arrangements.


A highly accurate, fully analytic solution for the continuous wave and the probe wave in Brillouin amplification, in lossless optical fibers, is given. It is experimentally confirmed that the reported analytic solution can account for spectral distortion and pump depletion in the parameter space that is relevant to Brillouin fiber sensor applications, as well as applications in photonic logic. The analytic solutions are valid characterizations of Brillouin amplification in both the low and high nonlinearity regime, for short fiber lengths.


Subduction systems are inherently three-dimensional, with significant along-strike variations in the timing and style of deformation and magmatism. Geodynamic models used to explain such variations and associated trench curvature typically invoke mantle flow or along-strike variations in the properties of the subducting lithosphere, ignoring the role of the overriding plate. Here we use analogue experiments to investigate the dynamics of diachronous backarc basin opening. In the models, horizontal tension increases in the upper plate due to progressive subduction of negatively buoyant oceanic lithosphere. The magmatic arc lithosphere eventually fails and backarc opening occurs via rollback of the forearc block. Arc failure initiates near the model edge and propagates diachronously along strike, producing an arcuate plate boundary. The experiments demonstrate that the trench rollback rate is limited by the propagation rate of arc failure. Conversely, slab rollback generates additional horizontal tension in the adjacent magmatic arc lithosphere, which drives along-strike propagation of arc failure. Feedback between the rates of trench rollback and arc failure propagation eventually leads to a steady state, which dictates the geometry of the backarc basin in map view. In the experiment reported here, the force and rate balance leads to a backarc basin with an ellipticity of ∼1.7, which matches the shape of the West Mariana basin (Pacific Ocean).


A theoretical investigation into density, pressure, and temperature distributions in magneto-optical traps is presented. After a brief overview of the forces that arise from reradiation and absorption, a condition that the absorptive force be conservative is used to show that, if the temperature is uniform throughout the trap, any density solutions to the force equations will not be physical. Further, consistent density solutions are unlikely to exist at all. In contrast, with a varying temperature reasonable solutions are demonstrated, with some restrictions. Doppler forces involved in ring-shaped trap structures are used to calculate orbit radii in racetrack geometry traps, and corrections to the present discrepancy between theoretical and experimental studies are discussed in the context of reradiation and diffusion.


Last year we presented at these meetings a very brief report on the derivation and characteristics of an attenuated strain of Japanese B encephalitis (JBE) virus. This will be briefly summarized before presenting new work, including human trials.
From Okayama Culex tritaeniorhynchus pool 541 (abbreviated OCT-541), known to contain JBE virus, we reisolated the virus directly in hamster kidney tissue culture (HKC), passed it serially in heavy inoculum by decreasing temperature steps, finally at 24°C. Then three serial plaque selections were made for particles of lowest mouse neurovirulence. Several pools grown at 24°C from this line proved to have exceedingly low neurovirulence for all laboratory animals by essentially all routes of inoculation, including more limited trials in monkeys and Mexican burros. Failure to develop antibody or immunity by almost all animals, except those inoculated intracerebrally with tremendous amounts of virus, suggested that this was too "cold" a strain and was essentially incapable of multiplying at the normal temperature of these animals.


Ambidexterity broadly refers to an organization's ability to pursue two disparate things at the same time. Ambidextrous firms are capable of exploiting existing competencies as well as exploring new opportunities with equal dexterity. Capacity to pursue both exploitative and exploratory orientation depends on combinations of contradictory organizational characteristics such as decentralizat ion, formalization, and connectedness. This study aims to explain organizational ambidexterity and organizational factors that are antecedents of ambidexterity in a theoretical way and to examine the impacts of these factors on organizationa l ambidexterity empirically. Data was obtained from private corporations operating in Kayseri (Turkey). Regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between organizational ambidexterity and contradictory organizational characteristics, and to test the research hypothesis. The results of regression analysis provide support for hypothesis.


Objective Clinical data comparing diagnostic strategies in the management of Helicobacter pylori-associated diseases are limited. Invasive and noninvasive diagnostic tests for detecting H. pylori infection are used in the clinical care of patients with dyspeptic symptoms. Modelling studies might help to identify the most cost-effective strategies. The objective of the study is to assess the cost-effectiveness of a 'test-and-treat' strategy with the urea breath test (UBT) compared with other strategies, in managing patients with H. pylori-associated dyspepsia and preventing peptic ulcer in the UK. Design Cost-effectiveness models compared four strategies: 'test-and-treat' with either UBT or faecal antigen test (FAT), 'endoscopy-based strategy' and 'symptomatic treatment'. A probabilistic cost-effectiveness analysis was performed using a simulation model in order to identify probabilities and costs associated with relief of dyspepsia symptoms (over a 4-week time horizon) and with prevention of peptic ulcers (over a 10-year time horizon). Clinical and cost inputs to the model were derived from routine medical practice in the UK. Results For relief of dyspepsia symptoms, 'test-and-treat' strategies with either UBT (€526/success) and FAT (€518/success) were the most cost-effective strategies compared with 'endoscopy-based strategy' (€1317/success) and 'symptomatic treatment' (€1 029/success). For the prevention of peptic ulcers, 'test-and-treat' strategies with either UBT (€208/ulcer avoided/year) or FAT (€191/ulcer avoided/year) were the most cost-effective strategies compared with 'endoscopy-based strategy' (€717/ulcer avoided/year) and 'symptomatic treatment' (€651/ulcer avoided/year) (1 EUR=0,871487 GBP at the time of the study). Conclusion 'Test-and-treat' strategies with either UBT or FAT are the most cost-effective medical approaches for the management of H. pylori-associated dyspepsia and the prevention of peptic ulcer in the UK. A 'test-and-treat' strategy with UBT has comparable cost-effectiveness outcomes to the current standard of care using FAT in the UK.


This paper is about the properties of Markov-switching rational expectations (MSRE) models. We present a simple monetary policy model that switches between two regimes with known transition probabilities. The first regime, treated in isolation, has a unique determinate rational expectations equilibrium, and the second contains a set of indeterminate sunspot equilibria. We show that the Markov switching model, which randomizes between these two regimes, may contain a continuum of indeterminate equilibria. We provide examples of stationary sunspot equilibria and bounded sunspot equilibria, which exist even when the MSRE model satisfies a generalized Taylor principle. Our result suggests that it may be more difficult to rule out nonfundamental equilibria in MRSE models than in the single-regime case where the Taylor principle is known to guarantee local uniqueness. JEL classification: E5


The 1624 Tumult of Mexico in Perspective proves that, despite the various conflicts underlying the disturbances in New Spain between circa 1620 and 1650, there was no intention to do away with the authority of the king.


Motivated by the need for fast computations demanded by wireless sensor networks, the new F-Lipschitz optimization theory is introduced for a novel class of optimization problems. These problems are defined by simple qualifying properties specified in terms of increasing objective function and contractive constraints. It is shown that feasible F-Lipschitz problems have always a unique optimal solution that satisfies the constraints at equality. The solution is obtained quickly by asynchronous algorithms of certified convergence. F-Lipschitz optimization can be applied to both centralized and distributed optimization. Compared to traditional Lagrangian methods, which often converge linearly, the convergence time of centralized F-Lipschitz problems is at least superlinear. Distributed F-Lipschitz algorithms converge fast, as opposed to traditional Lagrangian decomposition and parallelization methods, which generally converge slowly and at the price of many message passings. In both cases, the computational complexity is much lower than traditional Lagrangian methods. Examples of application of the new optimization method are given for distributed detection and radio power control in wireless sensor networks. The drawback of the F-Lipschitz optimization is that it might be difficult to check the qualifying properties. For more general optimization problems, it is suggested that it is convenient to have conditions ensuring that the solution satisfies the constraints at equality.


This volume explores the topic of Classics and Communism in Theatre, offering a foretaste of a book to be published by the end of the year. It begins with a case study from regions beyond Soviet Europe, to give prominence to the research less frequently treated by scholars studying communism.


Abstract. A dust storm of fearful proportions hit Phoenix in the early evening hours of 5 July 2011. This storm, an American haboob, was predicted hours in advance because numerical, land–atmosphere modeling, computing power and remote sensing of dust events have improved greatly over the past decade. High-resolution numerical models are required for accurate simulation of the small scales of the haboob process, with high velocity surface winds produced by strong convection and severe downbursts. Dust productive areas in this region consist mainly of agricultural fields, with soil surfaces disturbed by plowing and tracks of land in the high Sonoran Desert laid barren by ongoing draught. Model simulation of the 5 July 2011 dust storm uses the coupled atmospheric-dust model NMME–DREAM (Non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model on E grid, Janjic et al., 2001; Dust REgional Atmospheric Model, Nickovic et al., 2001; Perez et al., 2006) with 4 km horizontal resolution. A mask of the potentially dust productive regions is obtained from the land cover and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The scope of this paper is validation of the dust model performance, and not use of the model as a tool to investigate mechanisms related to the storm. Results demonstrate the potential technical capacity and availability of the relevant data to build an operational system for dust storm forecasting as a part of a warning system. Model results are compared with radar and other satellite-based images and surface meteorological and PM10 observations. The atmospheric model successfully hindcasted the position of the front in space and time, with about 1 h late arrival in Phoenix. The dust model predicted the rapid uptake of dust and high values of dust concentration in the ensuing storm. South of Phoenix, over the closest source regions (~25 km), the model PM10 surface dust concentration reached ~2500 μg m−3, but underestimated the values measured by the PM10 stations within the city. Model results are also validated by the MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD), employing deep blue (DB) algorithms for aerosol loadings. Model validation included Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), equipped with the lidar instrument, to disclose the vertical structure of dust aerosols as well as aerosol subtypes. Promising results encourage further research and application of high-resolution modeling and satellite-based remote sensing to warn of approaching severe dust events and reduce risks for safety and health.


This study proposes a novel anomaly detection approach focusing on structural components which do not have a baseline model and with complex boundary conditions that cannot be built into a finite element or a digital twin model. The approach uses only sensor collected compressed response distribution data to detect and localize changes in boundary conditions under extreme loading events. The developed methods use unsupervised anomaly detection networks combined with novel data compression algorithms. The deep network collects training data from real direct measured responses of the structural system over time to build a model and then computes the reconstruction errors and identifies anomalies. A simplified gusset plate under variable clamped-clamped boundary conditions is used in this study as preliminary proof-of-concept. In this work, anomalies are induced by changing the connection conditions (boundary conditions) of the gusset plate (e.g. bolts loosening). This study improved the deep learning network performance by incorporating mechanics-based loss functions into the network, fed with experimental data obtained from the distributed sensors installed on the structural element. Results show that the mechanics-based modified loss function significantly improves the identification and localization abilities of boundary condition anomalies and eliminates undesired factors and false predictions.


In a novel approach to disaster resilience that embodies a multidisciplinary problem solving process in determining the value of damaged property, a framework has been developed for determining the economic value of damages to property due to contamination from human-caused oil spill disaster in the Niger Delta. The framework will result in a reduction of the recovery process of affected communities following an oil spill as they know in advance what will be done and result in standardisation of the valuation process. it will enable the polluter to know the cost of their malfeasance and provide the property owners with the economic value of their polluted property to enable them to continue their livelihood. Professional valuers and property owners are very dissatisfied with the current practice without a standard framework and oil company operators hardly realise the economic cost of disasters imposed on the communities. Reviewing the theory and practice of economic value and ecosystem valuation, a mixed-methodology was employed using questionnaires and expert interviews to ascertain how contaminated wetland property is valued, the professionals involved and their respective roles. The proposed framework will provide a systematic process leading to the determination of the economic value of damages due to contamination of wetlands property.


In security-typed programming languages, types statically enforce noninterference between potentially conspiring values, such as the arguments and results of functions. But to adopt static security types, like other advanced type disciplines, programmers face a steep wholesale transition, often forcing them to refactor working code just to satisfy their type checker. To provide a gentler path to security typing that supports safe and stylish but hard-to-verify programming idioms, researchers have designed languages that blend static and dynamic checking of security types. Unfortunately, most of the resulting languages only support static, type-based reasoning about noninterference if a program is entirely statically secured. This limitation substantially weakens the benefits that dynamic enforcement brings to static security typing. Additionally, current proposals are focused on languages with explicit casts and therefore do not fulfill the vision of gradual typing, according to which the boundaries between static and dynamic checking only arise from the (im)precision of type annotations and are transparently mediated by implicit checks. In this article, we present GSLRef, a gradual security-typed higher-order language with references. As a gradual language, GSLRef supports the range of static-to-dynamic security checking exclusively driven by type annotations, without resorting to explicit casts. Additionally, GSLRef lets programmers use types to reason statically about termination-insensitive noninterference in all programs, even those that enforce security dynamically. We prove that GSLRef satisfies all but one of Siek et al.'s criteria for gradually-typed languages, which ensure that programs can seamlessly transition between simple typing and security typing. A notable exception regards the dynamic gradual guarantee, which some specific programs must violate if they are to satisfy noninterference; it remains an open question whether such a language could fully satisfy the dynamic gradual guarantee. To realize this design, we were led to draw a sharp distinction between syntactic type safety and semantic type soundness, each of which constrains the design of the gradual language.


This paper explores the notion of trust in bilingual documents. A heuristic is presented, examining various levels of decision-making carried out by the producer and designer of a bilingual document that will influence the perception of trust on the reader's part. The seven interrelated considerations are (1) producer (2) script (3) reader (4) context (5) genre (6) content (7) production. Although some of these decisions are purely strategic and invisible to the reader, this paper argues that they can always be inferred in a bilingual document's graphic presentation. Decisions on graphic presentation work across all seven levels of consideration, establishing the status relationship between two languages as well as providing cues for readers to access a document's rhetorical structure in myriad ways. Examples of Chinese–English bilingual documents from Hong Kong are used to illustrate the discussions. The heuristic aims to promote further discussions and research on bilingual document design issues as well as to guide practice.


We introduce a framework that enables an agent to autonomously learn its own symbolic representation of a low-level, continuous environment. Propositional symbols are formalized as names for probability distributions, providing a natural means of dealing with uncertain representations and probabilistic plans. We determine the symbols that are sufficient for computing the probability with which a plan will succeed, and demonstrate the acquisition of a symbolic representation in a computer game domain.


The 2019 European elections are characterised by many novelties and paradoxes: for the first time they have acquired a high political salience, also thanks to the cleavage between nationalist and pro-EU parties. And there is a wider public debate than in the past. However, not all political parties are presenting their Spitzenkandidaten and few have taken a clear position with regards to the struggle between the Parliament and the European Council on which institution really decides the next Commission President. Pro-European and nationalists are much divided and often some forces in one camp have paradoxical positions on some specific issues.


A production study is presented that investigates the effects of word order and information structural context on the prosodic realization of declarative sentences in Hindi. Previous work on Hindi intonation has shown that: (i) non-final content words bear rising pitch accents (Moore 1965, Dyrud 2001, Nair 1999); (ii) focused constituents show greater pitch excursion and longer duration and that post-focal material undergoes pitch range reduction (Moore 1965, Harnsberger 1994, Harnsberger and Judge 1996); and (iii) focused constituents may be followed by a phrase break (Moore 1965). By means of a controlled experiment, we investigated the effect of focus in relation to word order variation using 1200 utterances produced by 20 speakers. Fundamental frequency (F0) and duration of constituents were measured in Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) and Object-Subject-Verb (OSV) sentences in different information structural conditions (wide focus, subject focus and object focus). The analyses indicate that (i) regardless of word order and focus, the constituents are in a strict downstep relationship; (ii) focus is mainly characterized by post-focal pitch range reduction rather than pitch raising of the element in focus; (iii) given expressions that occur pre-focally appear to undergo no reduction; (iv) pitch excursion and duration of the constituents is higher in OSV compared to SOV sentences. A phonological analysis suggests that focus affects pitch scaling and that word order influences prosodic phrasing of the constituents. Journal of South Asian Linguistics


We present the first method for reasoning about temporal logic properties of higher-order, infinite-data programs. By distinguishing between the finite traces and infinite traces in the specification, we obtain rules that permit us to reason about the temporal behavior of program parts via a type-and-effect system, which is then able to compose these facts together to prove the overall target property of the program. The type system alone is strong enough to derive many temporal safety properties using refinement types and temporal effects. We also show how existing techniques can be used as oracles to provide liveness information (e.g. termination) about program parts and that the type-and-effect system can combine this information with temporal safety information to derive nontrivial temporal properties. Our work has application toward verification of higher-order software, as well as modular strategies for procedural programs.


Background: It was noticed by the authors that the patients attending the Pediatrics Department were being breastfed for a longer duration than the recommended two years by the World Health Organization (WHO). This study was undertaken to see the exact duration of breastfeeding of the children who were being treated at the hospital. Method: This was a prospective study carried out from April 2010 to March 2011 in 500 children who were treated at Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal. Other demographic features such as the mother's age, occupation, education, ethnicity and child's sex were also some of the factors which were studied to see if these factors influenced the duration of breastfeeding. Results: Our study revealed that the median age of breastfeeding among the children studied was 43 months. Out of the 500 mothers who were interviewed 159 of them breastfed their child beyond the age of 60 months (5 years). In addition, we did not find any statistically significant gender discrimination with regards to the breastfeeding duration. Conclusion: This study shows that the studied population has been breastfed for longer duration than the recommended guideline stipulated by the WHO. The duration of breastfeeding seen in this study is higher than shown in previous studies. Keywords : Breastfeeding; extended breastfeeding; socio-demographic DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njms.v1i1.5793 Nepal Journal of Medical Sciences. 2012; 1(1): 27-30


This research is focused on the concept of self-leadership, and the way its influence over career successful mature Singaporean adults has resulted in their pursuit of a first tertiary qualification.

Singapore's historical past includes being a British Crown colony, being ruled by the Japanese during the Second World War, being merged to form what is Malaysia today and finally, becoming an independent country for the last five decades. This post-colonial setting has become the basis of my research.

Framed in post-colonial theory, this thesis was inspired by Chen's (2010) work, Asia as Method and is guided by his argument about seeking cultural and psychological identities for formerly colonised people. This theoretical frame has outlined my thinking and it is through this lens that I analysed the data.

Through a qualitative approach, this research was able to attain in-depth understandings of how a culturally varied concept like self-leadership is understood and interpreted by mature Singaporeans. What does the self-leadership concept mean to them and how it is being defined? Within an interpretive framwork, this research generated five csse studies which were based on semi-structured interviews and artefact analysis. A total of four stands bring together aspects of self-leadership in Singapore: the importance of leading and motivating, an emphasis on goal striving, narratives about the search for the self, and the idea of self-leadership in uniquely Singapore, supported by cultural insights on the self-leadership questionnaire. New findings on the construct self-leadership emerged as a result of this study in which eight Singapore-centric self-leadership qualities were identified through the interpretation of the data.

The study integrates the literature of four related topics, namely culture and education from a Singaporean perspective, the concept of self-leadership, self and identity and adult learning, thus providing a fresh perspective on self-leadership. Second, the research confirms the importance of the cultural context when self-leadership is examined in Singapore and contributes a new cultural perspective in the research of self-leadership.

This thesis therefore argues that the self-leadership theory as proposed by Western authors be re-framed to suit discussion in an Asian and in particular, a Singaporean context. This thesis also argues that the self-leadership concept need not be limited to or explained exclusively by a Western outlook. This study proposes that self-leadership qualities articulated directly or indirectly by the participants through their interpretation of the concept under a Singapore cultural context can be used in the reframing of self-leaderrship dimensions. This process involves adding categories to a self-leadership questionnaire or RSLQ (Houghton & Neck, 2002) in order to support the development of a Singaporean specific cultural extension to the RSLQ.


Food security in developing countries is threatened by crop pests and ectoparasites in livestock. Strategies for their management still rely on synthetic pesticides which are not always effective and the active ingredients persist in the environment with negative consequences for beneficial arthropods, farmers and consumers, hence necessitating research on sustainable alternatives. Botanical insecticides are increasingly relevant, typically having lower impacts on users, consumers and the environment. One example is the southern African shrub the Blue bush-berry, Maerua edulis. Recent work reported effective pest control using this plant species against cattle ticks, storage beetles and vegetable pests. However, little is known about the chemistry underlying activity and this is essential to optimize its use. Here, we identified two novel plant chemical structures, the E and Z isomers of cinnamoyl-4-aminobutylguanidine along with the E and Z isomers of 4-hydroxycinnamoyl-4-aminobutylguanidine in the leaves of M. edulis. We isolated these compounds from the leaves and elucidated their chemical structures using various spectroscopic techniques including High Resolution Mass Spectrometry and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. We also identified a further 11 closely related structures of which 6 are tentatively reported here for the first time. Stachydrine and 3-hydroxystachydrine were also identified in the leaf extract, and occurred at very high concentrations; up to 2% w/w of dry leaves. We tested these two compounds, along with the 4 main cinnamoylamides and the crude M. edulis leaf extract against the cowpea bruchid Callosobruchus maculatus at concentrations equivalent to those present in extracts used by smallholder farmers. Mortality of insects exposed to crude plant extracts after 72 h was significantly higher than the untreated control although still lower than for insects exposed to rotenone, the positive control. The two new compounds and stachydrine showed similar activity to the crude extracts suggesting that these compounds explained the activity of the extract. After 6 days, the mortality of insects exposed to crude extracts and isolated compounds was similar to that recorded with the positive control. The stachydrine fraction and the E and Z isomers of cinnamoyl-4-aminobutylguanidine also inhibited oviposition activity in fecund female beetles. Our data show that methanol extracts of M. edulis were toxic to C. maculatus and inhibited oviposition even at 0.1% w/v so these foliar chemicals may explain the activity of the plant material. We also synthesized the amides which facilitated structural elucidation, produced adequate quantities for testing and demonstrated the potential for commercial synthesis.


In the spring and summer of 2014, both before and after Ferguson, four police officer–involved shootings of unarmed Latino men occurred in the often criminalized and mostly Mexican enclave of East Salinas, California. These deaths at the hands of state agents created significant triggers for many locals—knee-jerk reactions to present stimuli in relation to difficult and diffuse past experiences—generating unprecedented, and sometimes unacknowledged, affective and ethical responses among those who have long abided countless unresolved gang-related deaths in the city. The official downplaying of the deaths as something that "never happens here" stood in contrast to resident responses that stressed the ongoing, if less overt, occurrence of state disregard. Such disparity, as registered in many East Salinans' triggers, indicates the relative eventfulness of state violence that is both slow and ongoing, in addition to occasionally spectacular, in criminalized communities in late liberal America. As a concept imported from psychology in the general mainstreaming of discourses of trauma, triggers are conceptualized here instead as socially generated and ethically generative, a way of marking and making time and transforming the systematic exhaustion of criminalized life into a political resource. Tracing these temporal tripwires ethnographically in East Salinas, in light of a local social project of healing, illuminates the affective and ethical impetus to both political engagement and disengagement in persistently criminalized communities of color as they encounter police homicides and state violence, refracting the proliferating project of making lives matter.


Like diversity and unity, communitarianism and multiculturalism are often thought to be at odds, oxymoronic concepts invoked to achieve different ends. The criticisms of multiculturalism are familiar enough--it will serve to "disunite" the nation and water down the curriculum of schools and universities. The criticisms of communitarianism, while less widely known, are stated with just as much vehemence--a focus on community-oriented policy or curriculum will "provincialize" the policy arena or the curriculum of the academy. According to their respective critics, in one instance we expand the human gaze too widely, in the other, too narrowly. This essay will attempt a kind of synthesis between two academic movements that at first glance appear to be at odds, focusing on the role each plays, or could play, in the creation and improvement of democratic processes. The twentieth-century drive for civil rights in the United States, for affirmative action and other policies designed to end a wide variety of discriminatory practices, was not invoked under the rubric of "multiculturalism." That term entered the vocabulary of most Americans during the 1960s as a way to talk about educational reform. In fact, multiculturalism as an academic movement has been tightly connected to education, public education in particular, though contributions to it have come from virtually all corners of the academy and all corners of the globe. This has meant great visibility for the movement, for Americans are deeply concerned about what is taught in the nation's schools and universities: witness the maelstrom over the essay of University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, or the heavy reprisals for professors who express their belief that the U. S. itself may have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Opponents of multiculturalism have published widely successful books with titles that leave little doubt about the author's antimulticultural stand. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., for instance, condemned multiculturalism in his 1991 book, The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society. Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus, also published in 1991, was an equally successful attack on multicultural studies. Alvin Schmidt's The Menace of Multiculturalism: Trojan Horse in America (1997) is an even more pointed attack. And one can find numerous websites sponsored by conservative political and religious groups, all attacking multiculturalism either as anti-American, anti-Christian, or both. By contrast, communitarianism enjoys much less name recognition, much less popularity, and therefore much less organized opposition. This may be due in part to the fact that the targets of this movement have been primarily the economic market and the bureaucratic state, with the realm of education receiving only scant attention from major communitarian theorists. The essential thrust of their argument is that decisions made in current political and economic arenas are devoid of any attention to human community and the result has been deterioration in America's social fabric. While scholars have written about what economic policy would look like if it were made with the understanding that community is valuable, or how our government might function if it cared about community, few have had much to say about how communitarian theory might influence the policies and practices of K-12 or university education. We will have something to say about this, however. We should note here, too, that we will focus more on communitarianism than multiculturalism, due to our assumption that there is greater familiarity with the latter amongst the educational research community. Our approach to making communitarian thought accessible to a broad spectrum of educators will be to provide a brief historical survey that identifies the probable antecedents to communitarianism. Following this, we will lay out an abbreviated account of the development of multicultural theory and then focus on a few of the problems associated with modern life and what the communitarian and multicultural responses to these problems might mean for contemporary society. …


The hospitality industry serves millions of people globally and is a multibillion-dollar industry with a significant growth expectation in the upcoming years. The Spanish tourism industry is one of the most developed sectors of the nation, being one of the main contributors to the country's GDP. On a world wide scale, and specifically in the European context, there is a rising awareness for firms' actions to be responsible towards the environment and the community in which they operate. Based on "triple bottom line" guidelines, companies' mission in such a context is achieving competitive advantage by means of a business model considering three key aspects: people, profit, and planet. Considering the hospitality industry's characteristics, it becomes essential to fulfill these new requirements to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. This exploratory study will outline which are the best practices of two main Spanish hotel corporations: NH Hotels and Melia Hotels International. By pointing out actions undertaken by the most important firms of the sector, they can serve as an example and be replicated by other firms, thus increasing sustainability practices, improving understanding of triple bottom line, minimizing negative social as well as environmental footprint, and enhancing positive firms' impacts in their operating contexts. DOI: 10.18870/hlrc.v2i4.85


The treatment of pituitary adenomas following medical management has historically involved surgical excision or stereotactic radiosurgery, with the two modalities often utilized collectively. However, there have been only a limited number of reports on the use of fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) for the treatment of pituitary adenomas. To enhance the existing knowledge regarding the safety and efficacy of this treatment modality, we describe our initial experience with FSRT for residual pituitary adenomas following microsurgical resection. From 1999 to 2005, 14 patients (7F, 7M) with residual pituitary adenomas (7 nonsecretory, 2 growth hormone secreting, 2 prolactin secreting, 2 thyrotropin secreting, 1 adrenocorticotropic hormone secreting) underwent FSRT. All patients were planned using the Radionics X-Knife 3D planning system, and received a median dose of 50.4 Gy in daily 1.8 Gy fractions administered to the 90% prescription isodose line. Treatments were delivered stereotactically using a dedicated Varian 6/100 linear accelerator, with immobilization achieved with the Gill-Thomas-Cosman relocatable head frame. Mean tumor size was 3.6 cm (median, 3.2 cm), and mean patient age was 44.6 years (median, 47 years). The mean dosages to the optic chiasm and brainstem were 0.159 and 0.040 Gy (median, 0.163 and 0.031 Gy) per fraction. All patients were evaluated with visual field testing and pre- and postgadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging at a minimum of one year follow-up (median, 22.5 months; mean, 27.8 months). Following FSRT, local control (defined as absence of tumor progression) was achieved in all fourteen patients. Three patients developed hypopituitarism (average, 30 months after treatment), with no patient experiencing visual changes or acute complications following FSRT. These results demonstrate the efficacy and safety of FSRT for achieving long-term local tumor control for pituitary adenomas, further validating this technique as an appropriate treatment modality for residual adenomas following microsurgery.


As data collection technologies are advancing and memory storage costs are declining, volumes of data collected have soared. Scientists and investigators are collecting all possible data in fear of missing out on important information. With the merge of the data collection trend, researchers were studying data mining and analysis to find the most efficient way to data mine. There are various valuable data mining techniques that can be found in literature such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Neural Networks (ANN), and Formal Methods (Grammars) [7]. Grammars are a very valuable in analyzing structured data and describing them in a condense matter. However, not many have used it for data mining even though it has many benefits [1]. In this research we present an approach to data mine big data. First, a grammar is inferred to build a structural model that describes the data. Then, on the next phase, a probabilistic context-free grammar is inferred and a model for a more complex structures. Given an input sequence, the model parses and generates the probability of that data sequence being part of the class based on its structural characteristics. Grammatical concatenation is utilized in case of existing sub-structures within the class's structural description. The model then accepts, or rejects, the input as part of the data's class by comparing the probability to a pre-set threshold. Finally, this is applied on a heterogeneous large data set by inferring multiple grammars. After building grammatical model for each class, the algorithm parse multiple points in the large set. It then classifies these data into smaller sets where they share similar structural characteristics using probabilistic grammar. If more than one class accepts the data point, it is associated to the highest ranking class. Biological data, DNAs and Proteins, were used for experimentation in this research.