This paper examines how the country-breadth of tariff protection can affect the technology adoption decisions of both domestic import-competing and foreign exporting firms. The analysis is novel in that shows how firm-level technology adoption changes under tariffs of different country-breadth. I show that a country-specific tariff like an antidumping duty induces both domestic import-competing firms and foreign exporting firms to adopt a new technology earlier than they would under free trade. In contrast, a broadly-applied tariff like a safeguard can accelerate technology adoption by a domestic import-competing firm, but will slow-down technology adoption by foreign exporting firms. Because safeguard tariffs can delay the foreign firm's adoption of new technology, the worldwide welfare costs associated with using them may be larger than is generally believed.


This article describes some facts about financial inequality in the United States that a good theory of inequality must be able to explain. These include the facts that labor earnings, income, and wealth are all unequally distributed among U.S. households, but the distributions are significantly different. Wealth is much more concentrated than the other two. Wealth is positively correlated with earnings and income, but not strongly. The movement of households up and down the economic scale is greater when measured by income than by earnings or wealth. Differences across the three variables remain when the data are disaggregated by age, employment status, educational level, and marital status of the heads of U.S. households. Each of these classifications also has significant differences across households. All the facts are based on data taken from the 1992 Survey of Consumer Finances and the 1984‐85 and 1989‐90 Panel Study of Income Dynamics.


A starting point for contributing to the greater good is to examine and interrogate existing knowledge organization practices that do harm, whether that harm is intentional or accidental, or an inherent and unavoidable evil. As part of the transition movement, the authors propose to inventory the manifestations and implications of the production of suffering by knowledge organization systems through constructing a taxonomy of harm. Theoretical underpinnings guide ontological commitment, as well as the recognition of the problem of harm in knowledge organization systems. The taxonomy of harm will be organized around three main questions: what happens?, who participates?, and who is affected and how? The aim is to heighten awareness of the violence that classifications and naming practices carry, to unearth some of the social conditions and motivations that contribute to and are reinforced by knowledge organization systems, and to advocate for intentional and ethical knowledge organization practices to achieve a minimal level of harm.


Abstract This article describes noninvasive acute and long-term management of the respiratory muscle paralysis of high spinal cord injury (SCI). This includes full-setting, continuous ventilatory support by noninvasive intermittent positive pressure ventilation (NIV) to support inspiratory muscles and mechanically assisted coughing (MAC) to support inspiratory and expiratory muscles. The NIV and MAC can also be used to extubate or decannulate 'unweanable' patients with SCI, to prevent intercurrent respiratory tract infections from developing into pneumonia and acute respiratory failure (ARF), and to eliminate tracheostomy and resort to costly electrophrenic/diaphragm pacing (EPP/DP) for most ventilator users, while permitting glossopharyngeal breathing (GPB) for security in the event of ventilator failure.


This book provides an overview of the TSE framework and current TSE research as related to survey design, data collection, estimation, and analysis. It recognizes that survey data affects many public policy and business decisions and thus focuses on the framework for understanding and improving survey data quality. The book also addresses issues with data quality in official statistics and in social, opinion, and market research as these fields continue to evolve, leading to larger and messier data sets. This perspective challenges survey organizations to find ways to collect and process data more efficiently without sacrificing quality. The volume consists of the most up-to-date research and reporting from over 70 contributors representing the best academics and researchers from a range of fields. The chapters are broken out into five main sections: The Concept of TSE and the TSE Paradigm, Implications for Survey Design, Data Collection and Data Processing Applications, Evaluation and Improvement, and Estimation and Analysis. Each chapter introduces and examines multiple error sources, such as sampling error, measurement error, and nonresponse error, which often offer the greatest risks to data quality, while also encouraging readers not to lose sight of the less commonly studied error sources, such as coverage error, processing error, and specification error. The book also notes the relationships between errors and the ways in which efforts to reduce one type can increase another, resulting in an estimate with larger total error.


In an increasingly connected world, there are ever more opportunities for online collaboration. As the potential for more collaborators grows, so does the complexity of such communications. Problem solving, already a difficult task when performed by just one person, can grow more and more complicated. However, there is great potential for generation of more ideas and parallelization of work. How can we harness this potential while minimizing user frustration inherent in a large-scale project?
I present CoSolve, an online collaborative problem-solving environment that helps users engage in problem-posing and problem-solving. CoSolve uses the state-space model of problem-solving to present a tree-based visualization of a solution space to users. Users can then collaborate to generate, explore and annotate the state-space tree as they engage in the problem-solving process. CoSolve also allows users to formulate their own problems through a unique, scaffolded problem-posing interface.
I evaluated CoSolve by conducting user studies to analyze how users engage in online collaborative problem-solving. I also examined case studies of users posing their own problems on CoSolve to study patterns of problem-posing behavior. To test how a system such as Cosolve can encourage users' collaborative behavior, I built a collaborative user roles system and evaluated its performance in a user study. Finally, I conclude this dissertation with observations and recommendations for the design of tree-based, collaborative problem-solving systems.


This thesis examines the Summa de anima of a thirteenth-century writer, Jean de la
Rochelle (1190/1200-1245), a philosopher and theologian of the Franciscan Order.
The importance of the text lies in the fact that it was written at the very early stages of
the changes that took place as a consequence of the new Greek and Arabic sources
becoming available at this time. Of particular interest in this regard is Jean's precise
exposition of his sources, in particular his study of the powers of the soul according to
the Pseudo-Augustine, John Damascene and Avicenna. It can be seen, however, that
despite the connections made between A vicenna and Augustine, a tension emerges,
one which was to become much more pronounced when the works of Aristotle,
particularly his De anima, were made available to the medieval schoolmen.
The question of the unity of body and soul was not 'the' question for a
theologian of Jean's generation. The challenge facing our author was how to
distinguish the intellective soul from the composite body in order to argue for the
immortality of the soul. The new physiological understanding of man, coming from
the Greek-Arab sources, simply had to be confronted and taken into consideration.
This was, at least, a turning towards the complex philosophical question of how
sensing did not only involve having physical sensations but that our nlental states
were also affected by the experience. While Jean brings out the difference between
sensations according to actions, objects, and organs of the body, the connection
between sensations and physiological states was not, at this speceific time, the
problem for Jean and his contemporaries. Jean's Summa, however, does provide the
ground for the mind-body problem in later thinkers, in particular, Thomas Aquinas.
The study includes an Appendix of Latin text with the English translation of
selected passages from Jean's Summa.


The sea ice minimum of September 2007 is well represented in a 50-year simulation using the Los Alamos Sea Ice Model, CICE, in spite of the fact that only 4 atmospheric forcing fields vary interannually in the model simulation—all other atmospheric and oceanic forcing data are monthly-mean climatologies. Simulation results confirm prior conclusions that an anomalous pressure pattern, ice-ocean albedo feedback effects on sea surface temperature, and the long-term sea ice thinning trend are primarily responsible for the sea ice minimum of 2007. In addition, the simulation indicates that cloudiness, precipitation, and other forcing quantities were of secondary importance. Here we explore the importance of applied atmospheric and oceanic surface forcing for the 2007 sea ice minimum event, along with a group of model parameterizations that control the surface radiation budget in sea ice (melt ponds). Of the oceanic forcing fields applied, only the sea surface temperature requires interannual variability for simulating the 2007 event. Interannual variations of temperature and humidity play a role in the radiation balance applied at the snow and ice surface, and they both have the potential to significantly affect the ice edge. However, humidity (exclusive of clouds) is far less influential on ice volume than is air temperature. The inclusion of albedo changes due to melt ponding is also crucial for determining the radiation forcing experienced by the ice. We compare the effects of four different pond parameterizations now available in CICE for the September 2007 case, and find that while details may differ, they all are able to represent the 2007 event. Feedback strength associated with the radiation balance differs among the pond simulations, presenting a key topic for future study.


Ab s t r Ac t Background: "ST-T changes in the ECG!!" These words are enough to get the emergency doctor to spring into action. These changes can be diffuse and/or non-specific but we should rule out all emergent and urgent causes before shifting the patient to the specialist. To err on the side of dangerous etiology is the dictum. Introduction: Out of all emergency department (ED) patients with undifferentiated chest pain, 7% will have ECG findings consistent with acute ischemia or infarction, and 6–10% of those in whom cardiac markers are ordered will have initially positive results. Of all patients with the possible acute coronary syndrome (ACS), 5–15% ultimately prove to have ACS.1 Shortness of breath with chest pain mostly has a cardiac origin in the presence of dynamic ECG changes. We had managed a patient with rapidly evolving ECG changes, chest pain, palpitations, and grade III–IV dyspnea. In the chaotic environment of a busy ED, the most probable diagnosis here will be ACS. Comorbid conditions like diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and prior coronary artery disease (CAD) are commonly enquired. However, other long-standing illnesses like myasthenia gravis (MG), as in our patient can be easily missed if a patient is not forthcoming with history. We experienced a similar confusion when in the cacophony of chest pain, dyspnea, and T wave inversions with bundle branch blocks, ACS protocol was initiated and a simple diagnosis was missed. The significance of the alternating bundle branch block (ABBB) will be presented to the readers.


Background Acute ischemic stroke is common and disabling, but there remains a paucity of acute treatment options and available treatment (thrombolysis) is underutilized. Advanced brain imaging, designed to identify viable hypoperfused tissue (penumbra), could target treatment to a wider population. Existing magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography-based technologies are not widely used pending validation in ongoing clinical trials. T2* oxygen challenge magnetic resonance imaging, by providing a more direct readout of tissue viability, has the potential to identify more patients likely to benefit from thrombolysis – irrespective of time from stroke onset – and patients within and beyond the 4·5 h thrombolysis treatment window who are unlikely to benefit and are at an increased risk of hemorrhage. Aims This study employs serial multimodal imaging and voxel-based analysis to develop optimal data processing for T2* oxygen challenge penumbra assessment. Tissue in the ischemic hemisphere is compartmentalized into penumbra, ischemic core, or normal using T2* oxygen challenge (single threshold) or T2* oxygen challenge plus cerebral blood flow (dual threshold) data. Penumbra defined by perfusion imaging/apparent diffusion coefficient mismatch (dual threshold) is included for comparison. Methods Permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion was induced in male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 6) prior to serial multimodal imaging: T2* oxygen challenge, diffusion-weighted and perfusion imaging (cerebral blood flow using arterial spin labeling). Results Across the different methods evaluated, T2* oxygen challenge combined with perfusion imaging most closely predicted 24 h infarct volume. Penumbra volume declined from one to four-hours post-stroke: mean ± SD, 77 ± 44 to 49 ± 37 mm3 (single T2* oxygen challenge-based threshold); 55 ± 41 to 37 ± 12 mm3 (dual T2* oxygen challenge/cerebral blood flow); 84 ± 64 to 42 ± 18 mm3 (dual cerebral blood flow/apparent diffusion coefficient), as ischemic core grew: 155 ± 37 to 211 ± 36 mm3 (single apparent diffusion coefficient threshold); 178 ± 56 to 205 ± 33 mm3 (dual T2* oxygen challenge/cerebral blood flow); 139 ± 30 to 168 ± 38 mm3 (dual cerebral blood flow/apparent diffusion coefficient). There was evidence of further lesion growth beyond four-hours (T2-defined edema-corrected infarct, 231 ± 19 mm3). Conclusions In conclusion, T2* oxygen challenge combined with perfusion imaging has advantages over alternative magnetic resonance imaging techniques for penumbra detection by providing serial assessment of available penumbra based on tissue viability.


Abstract The elderly are often untreated or undertreated for pain. Barriers to effective management include challenges to proper assessment of pain; underreporting by patients; atypical manifestations of pain in the elderly; a need for increased appreciation of the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes of aging; and misconceptions about tolerance and addiction to opioids. Physicians can provide appropriate analgesia in geriatric patients by understanding different types of pain (nociceptive and neuropathic), and correctly using nonopioid, opioid, and adjuvant medications. Opioids have become more widely accepted for treating older adults who have persistent pain, but such use requires physicians have an understanding of prevention and management of side effects, opioid titration and withdrawal, and careful monitoring. Placebo use is unwarranted and unethical. Nonpharmacologic approaches to pain management are essential and include osteopathic manipulative treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, exercise, and spiritual interventions. The holistic and interdisciplinary approach of osteopathic medicine offers an approach that can optimize effective pain management in older adults.


Physical frailty and sarcopenia (PF&S) share multisystem derangements, including variations in circulating amino acids and chronic low-grade inflammation. Gut microbiota balances inflammatory responses in several conditions and according to nutritional status. Therefore, an altered gut-muscle crosstalk has been hypothesized in PF&S. We analyzed the gut microbial taxa, systemic inflammation, and metabolic characteristics of older adults with and without PF&S. An innovative multi-marker analytical approach was applied to explore the classification performance of potential biomarkers for PF&S. Thirty-five community dwellers aged 70+, 18 with PF&S, and 17 nonPF&S controls were enrolled. Sequential and Orthogonalized Covariance Selection (SO-CovSel), a multi-platform regression method developed to handle highly correlated variables, was applied. The SO-CovSel model with the best prediction ability using the smallest number of variables was built using seven mediators. The model correctly classified 91.7% participants with PF&S and 87.5% nonPF&S controls. Compared with the latter group, PF&S participants showed higher serum concentrations of aspartic acid, lower circulating levels of concentrations of threonine and macrophage inflammatory protein 1α, increased abundance of Oscillospira and Ruminococcus microbial taxa, and decreased abundance of Barnesiellaceae and Christensenellaceae. Future investigations are warranted to determine whether these biomediators are involved in PF&S pathophysiology and may, therefore, provide new targets for interventions.


The network of experimental forests and ranges within the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture has unique attributes for research, demonstration, and technology transfer. Public forest lands experience a slower rate of ownership change than private forest lands, and this provides greater stability for long-term research studies and demonstrations over time. Experimental forests provide an ideal way to view, test, and display new technologies and tactics for different silvicultural practices. Few experimental forests in the South embody these attributes more than the Crossett Experimental Forest in Ashley County, AR. It was established in 1934 from a donation of 1,680 acres of land by the Crossett Lumber Company to the Southern Forest Experiment Station. The mission was to study new silvicultural practices to restore and manage second-growth loblolly and shortleaf pine stands, and to share that knowledge with forest managers and landowners throughout the South. This approach has been unusually effective at Crossett Experimental Forest, where U.S. Forest Service researchers have published more than 1,000 articles on forest management and silviculture, and hosted more than 45,000 foresters, students, landowners, and university staff in tours of its renowned demonstrations and research studies.


Drifting invertebrates from small headwater streams are a food subsidy for fishes and other downstream consumers in larger streams. This subsidy can become especially important for stream fishes during summer due to high metabolic demand caused by elevated water temperatures. The source length in small streams contributing these drifting invertebrates to fish bearing habitat has not been established. We conducted an experiment to determine if summer drift delivered by headwater streams to larger channels is influenced by contributions originating more than 100 m upstream. We conducted this experiment on tributaries of the Calapooia River, Oregon, USA. We blocked drift with 250 μm mesh nets in three streams 100 m upstream of our sample nets continuously for 48 d. We also sampled five streams without blocking nets. Four 24 h samples of drift were collected prior to the placement of blocking nets and every two weeks afterwards at each stream. Overall mean abundance and mean biomass of drift did not differ between blocked and unblocked streams for any sampling period. There was a temporal trend at all sites of declining invertebrate abundance and biomass. We found no treatment effect for any of the most common insect orders or for the 16 genera that comprised at least 1% of the total organisms captured. The majority of invertebrate drift is of local origin in headwater streams during summer baseflow.


Smartphones today store large amounts of data that can be confidential, private or sensitive. To protect such data, all mobile OSs have a phone lock mechanism, a mechanism that requires user authentication in order to access applications or data on the phone, while also allowing to keep data-at-rest encrypted with encryption key dependent on the authentication secret. Recently Apple has introduced Touch ID feature that allows to use a fingerprint-based authentication to unlock an iPhone. The intuition behind such technology was that its usability would motivate users to use stronger passwords for locking their devices without sacrificing usability substantially. To this date, it is not clear, however, if users take an advantage of Touch ID technology and if they, indeed, employ stronger authentication secrets. It is the main objective and the contribution of this work to fill this knowledge gap. In order to answer this question we conducted three user studies (a) an in-person survey with 90 subjects, (b) an interview study with 21 participants, and (c) an online survey with 374 subjects. Overall we found that users do not take an advantage of Touch ID and use weak authentication secrets, mainly PIN-codes, similarly to those users who do not have Touch ID sensor on their devices. To our surprise, we found that more than 30% of subjects in each group did not know that they could use alphanumeric passwords instead of four digits PIN-codes. Others stated that they adopted PIN-codes due to better usability in comparison to passwords. Most of the subjects agreed that Touch ID, indeed, offers usability benefits such as convenience, speed and ease of use. Finally, we found that there is a disconnect between users desires for security that their passcodes have to offer and the reality. In particular, only 12% of participants correctly estimated the security PIN-codes provide while the rest had unjustified expectations.


In an era of energy crisis, biomass-based bioenergy research has attracted the attention of R&D managers and policy makers around the world. This study explores the structural and dynamic patterns of biomass-based bioenergy research. We measure the profile of biomass research on both macro scales (nations) and meso level (institutions) in an international context. We find that biomass publications are intensively distributed in developed regions and some emerging economies. The U.S. leads in this emerging field as evidenced by research quantity, impact, and international collaboration links. China is developing rapidly in this domain in terms of publication volume and collaborative links but suffers from low research visibility. The study also finds strong interactions are taking place both within macro-disciplines and between macro-disciplines. Research limitations are presented.


According to relevance theory (Sperber and Wilson 1986; Blakemore 1991) some cases of communication depend on the hearer recognising that a particular speech act, for example admitting, betting or promising, is being performed. These are 'communicated' acts. Other cases of communication do not depend on the hearer recognising that a particular speech act, for example predicting, warning or permitting, is being performed. These are 'non-communicated' acts. In the case of non-communicated acts communication is successful so long as the hearer recovers adequate contextual effects without having to recognise the speaker's intentions. Against this view, I will argue that each of the speech acts considered to be non-communicated in the relevance theory literature fall into one of two categories. The speech acts in one category contribute to the strength of associated assumptions, and those in the other convey socially relevant information. I will argue that according to relevance theory both types of speech act must be recognised and that they are in fact communicated. If relevance theory is to be internally consistent, therefore, the distinction between communicated and non-communicated speech acts must be abandoned.


Os(ii) complexes are particularly interesting for triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) upconversion, due to the strong direct S0→ T1 photoexcitation, as in this way, energy loss is minimized and large anti-Stokes shift can be achieved for TTA upconversion. However, Os(bpy)3 has an intrinsic short T1 state lifetime (56 ns), which is detrimental for the intermolecular triplet-triplet energy transfer (TTET), one of the crucial steps in TTA upconversion. In order to prolong the triplet state lifetime, we prepared an Os(ii) tris(bpy) complex with a Bodipy moiety attached, so that an extended T1 state lifetime is achieved by excited state electronic configuration mixing or triplet state equilibrium between the coordination center-localized state (3MLCT state) and Bodipy ligand-localized state (3IL state). With steady-state and time-resolved transient absorption/emission spectroscopy, we proved that the 3MLCT is slightly above the 3IL state (by 0.05 eV), and the triplet state lifetime was prolonged by 31-fold (from 56 ns to 1.73 μs). The TTA upconversion quantum yield was increased by 4-fold as compared to that of the unsubstituted Os(ii) complex.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://rsc.li/journals-terms-of-use


As has been stated, bacteria are able to sense a wide range of environmental stimuli through a variety of receptors and to integrate the different signals to produce a balanced response that maintains them or directs them to an optimum environment for growth. In addition, these simple, neuron-less organisms can adapt to the current concentration or strength of stimuli, i.e. they have a memory of the past. Although different species show responses to different chemicals or stimuli, depending on their niche, a consistent pattern is starting to emerge that links environmental sensing and transcriptional control to the chemosensing system, either directly, as in R. sphaeroides and the PTS system, or indirectly, as in the MCP-dependent system. This suggests a common evolutionary pathway from transcriptional activators to dedicated sensory systems. Currently the majority of detailed investigations into bacterial behavior have been carried out on single stimuli under laboratory conditions using well-fed cells. Only limited analysis, using a range of rhizosphere and pathogenic species, has been carried out on the role of behavioral responses in the wild. While laboratory studies are needed to provide the backbone for eventual in vivo investigations, we should remember the responses of whole cells to changes in their environment under laboratory conditions are essentially artificial compared to the natural environment of most species. Once the basic system is understood, it will be possible to investigate the role of these responses in vivo, under competitive, growth-limiting conditions with multiple gradients.


Much has been written about the side effects of automation in complex safety-critical domains, such as air traffic management, aviation, nuclear power generation, and healthcare. Here, human factors and safety researchers have long acknowledged that the potential of automation to increase cost-effectiveness, quality of service and safety, is accompanied by undesired side effects or issues in human automation interaction (HAI). Such HAI issues may introduce the potential for increased confusion, uncertainty, and frustration amongst sharp end operators, i.e. the users of automation. These conditions may result in operators to refuse to use the automation, in impaired ability of operators to control the hazardous processes for which they are responsible, and in new, unintended paths to safety failure.

The present thesis develops a qualitative framework of the organisational precursors to HAI issues (OPHAII) that can be found in safety-critical domains. Organisational precursors denote those organisational and managerial conditions that, although distant in time and space from the operational environment, may actually influence the quality of HAI found there. Such precursors have been extensively investigated by organisational safety (OS) scholars in relation to the occurrence of accidents and disasters—although not HAI issues. Thus, the framework's development is motivated by the intent to explore the theoretical gap lying at the intersection between the OS area and the current perspectives on the problem—the human computer interaction (HCI) and the system lifecycle ones. While considering HAI issues as a design problem or a failure in human factors integration and/or safety assurance respectively, both perspectives, in fact, ignore, the organisational roots of the problem.

The OPHAII framework was incrementally developed based on three qualitative studies: two successive, historical, case studies coupled with a third corroboratory expert study. The first two studies explored the organisational precursors to a known HAI issue: the nuisance alert problem relative to an automated alarm system from the air traffic management domain. In particular, the first case study investigated retrospectively the organisational response to the nuisance alert problem in the context of the alarm's implementation and improvement in the US between 1977 and 2006. The second case study has a more contemporary focus, and examined at the organisational response to the same problem within two European Air Navigation Service Providers between 1990 and 2010. The first two studies produced a preliminary version of the framework. The third study corroborated and refined this version by subjecting it to the criticism from a panel of 11 subject matter experts.

The resulting framework identifies three classes of organisational precursors: (i) the organisational assumptions driving automation adoption and improvement; (2) the availability of specific organisational capabilities for handling HAI issues; and (3) the control of implementation quality at the boundary between the service provider and the software manufacturer. These precursors advance current understanding of the organisational factors involved in the (successful and problematic) handling of HAI issues within safety-critical service provider organisations. Its dimensions support the view that HAI issues can be seen as and organisational phenomenon—an organisational problem that can be the target of analysis and improvements complementary to those identified by the HCI and the system lifecycle perspectives.


The European countryside has undergone a deep transformation. The 'national farm' put in place in the post-war period has given way to a 'differentiated countryside', which alludes to the ever growing diversity, dynamics and complexity of the contemporary countryside emerging from as a double rural restructuring process of de-assembling and re-assembling. The de-assembling process concerns with the shattering of the national agricultural based structures of the post-war period countryside, while the construction of hybrid networks (material and immaterial, human and non human, rural and non-rural, local and non-local) is the process through which rural territories are being re-assembled. Indeed, the countryside socio-economic structures encased within strong nation-states has been displaced by heterogeneous constellations of networks. Rural territories are increasingly moving along distinct and diverse development trajectories and these trajectories are driven by a differing constellations of networks now to be found in the new rural spaces. Therefore, instead of thinking of rural places as areas with boundaries around, they can be imagined as articulated moments in networks of social relations and understandings, they can be imagined as rural webs: 'meeting place' of hybrid networks. Introducing the theoretical category of "rural web" and adopting the rural web category to the analysis of the experience of Lunigiana – a rural territory located in the extreme north of Tuscany (Italy) – the author aims at explaining the new trajectories of development of the emerging contemporary differentiated-networked rurality.


Managing a portfolio to a risk model can tilt the portfolio toward weaknesses of the model. As a result, the optimized portfolio acquires downside exposure to uncertainty in the model itself, what we call "second order risk." We propose a risk measure that accounts for this bias. Studies of real portfolios, in asset-by-asset and factor model contexts, demonstrate that second order risk contributes significantly to realized volatility, and that the proposed measure accurately forecasts the out-of-sample behavior of optimized portfolios.


In the Valley of Elah offers a model by which we might begin to articulate the humanity of the caricatured agents of war by blurring the line between hero and villain. This film offers a case study in how discourse might humanize strategically with a goal of peace building in mind, making the case for war more difficult and promoting greater tolerance for humanity. Specifically, in Elah, the form of the "present referent" serves as a visual technique which functions to reveal the "humanity" of a specific character, in this case the "warrior hero." In this way, these "referents" are re-attached to the main character of the film, presenting a referent of family, history, and narrative. Just as the "absent referent" keeps something from being seen as having been someone, Elah asks its audience to view this "other" not as an abstract object, but as an individual human character.


Monoclonal antibodies of high affinity (approximately 10(9) M-1) for sperm whale myoglobin were studied to pinpoint the antigenic determinants with which they interact. None of 6 different monoclonal antibodies tested reacted with any of the 3 CNBr cleavage fragments which encompass the whole sequence of myoglobin, an indication that they react with determinants present only on the native structure. To identify these sites, we compared the affinities of each antibody for a series of 14 mammalian myoglobins of known sequence and similar tertiary structure. Correlation of sequence differences with relative affinities allowed us, thus far, to identify critical antigenic residues recognized by 3 of the antibodies. Two of these antibodies recognize groups of residues which are far apart in primary structure but close together in the 3-dimensional structure of the native myoglobin molecule, i.e. topographic determinants. The third antibody distinguishes 140 Lys leads to Asn plus, probably, surface residues nearby. These determinants differ from previously reported antigenic sites on sperm whale myoglobin both in that they are topographic, rather than sequential, and in that almost all the critical residues recognized by these antibodies are outside the previously reported sites. Monoclonal antibodies are sensitive to subtle changes, e.g. Glu leads to Asp, in the antigenic site.


Face anti-spoofing (FAS) plays a vital role in face recognition systems. Most state-of-the-art FAS methods 1) rely on stacked convolutions and expert-designed network, which is weak in describing detailed fine-grained information and easily being ineffective when the environment varies (e.g., different illumination), and 2) prefer to use long sequence as input to extract dynamic features, making them difficult to deploy into scenarios which need quick response. Here we propose a novel frame level FAS method based on Central Difference Convolution (CDC), which is able to capture intrinsic detailed patterns via aggregating both intensity and gradient information. A network built with CDC, called the Central Difference Convolutional Network (CDCN), is able to provide more robust modeling capacity than its counterpart built with vanilla convolution. Furthermore, over a specifically designed CDC search space, Neural Architecture Search (NAS) is utilized to discover a more powerful network structure (CDCN++), which can be assembled with Multiscale Attention Fusion Module (MAFM) for further boosting performance. Comprehensive experiments are performed on six benchmark datasets to show that 1) the proposed method not only achieves superior performance on intra-dataset testing (especially 0.2% ACER in Protocol-1 of OULU-NPU dataset), 2) it also generalizes well on cross-dataset testing (particularly 6.5% HTER from CASIA-MFSD to Replay-Attack datasets). The codes are available at https://github.com/ZitongYu/CDCN.


One of female MZ twins presented with muscular dystrophy. Physical examination, creatine phosphokinase levels, and muscle biopsy were consistent with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). However, because of her sex she was diagnosed as having limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. With cDNA probes to the DMD gene, a gene deletion was detected in the twins and their mother. The de novo mutation which arose in the mother was shown by novel junction fragments generated by HindIII, PstI, or TaqI when probed with cDNA8. Additional evidence of a large gene deletion was given by novel SfiI junction fragments detected by probes p20, J-Bir, and J-66 on pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Immunoblot analysis of muscle from the affected twin showed dystrophin of normal size but of reduced amount. Immunofluorescent visualization of dystrophin revealed foci of dystrophin-positive fibers adjacent to foci of dystrophin-negative fibers. These data indicate that the affected twin is a manifesting carrier of an abnormal DMD gene, her myopathy being a direct result of underexpression of dystrophin. Cytogenetic analysis revealed normal karyotypes, eliminating the possibility of a translocation affecting DMD gene function. Both linkage analysis and DNA fingerprint analysis revealed that each twin has two different X chromosomes, eliminating the possibility of uniparental disomy as a mechanism for DMD expression. On the basis of methylation differences of the paternal and maternal X chromosomes in these MZ twins, we propose uneven lyonization (X chromosome inactivation) as the underlying mechanism for disease expression in the affected female.


Federated Learning (FL) is a machine learning setting where many devices collaboratively train a machine learning model while keeping the training data decentralized. In most of the current training schemes the central model is refined by averaging the parameters of the server model and the updated parameters from the client side. However, directly averaging model parameters is only possible if all models have the same structure and size, which could be a restrictive constraint in many scenarios.
In this work we investigate more powerful and more flexible aggregation schemes for FL. Specifically, we propose ensemble distillation for model fusion, i.e. training the central classifier through unlabeled data on the outputs of the models from the clients. This knowledge distillation technique mitigates privacy risk and cost to the same extent as the baseline FL algorithms, but allows flexible aggregation over heterogeneous client models that can differ e.g. in size, numerical precision or structure. We show in extensive empirical experiments on various CV/NLP datasets (CIFAR-10/100, ImageNet, AG News, SST2) and settings (heterogeneous models/data) that the server model can be trained much faster, requiring fewer communication rounds than any existing FL technique so far.


Adaptive actors must be able to use probabilities as decision weights. In a computerized multi-attribute task, the authors examined the decisions of children (5–6 years, n = 44; 9–10 y., n = 39) and adults (21–22 y., n = 31) in an environment that fosters the application of a weighted-additive strategy that uses probabilities as weights (WADD: choose option with highest sum of probability-value products). Applying a Bayesian outcome-based strategy classification procedure from adult research, we identified the utilization of WADD and several other strategies (lexicographic, equal weight, naïve Bayes, guessing, and saturated model) on the individual level. As expected based on theory, the prevalence of WADD-users in adults was high. In contrast, no preschoolers could be classified as users of probability-sensitive strategies. Nearly one-third of third-graders used probability-sensitive strategies.


Orientation: This article explores employees' subjective experiences of employment equity (EE) within South African organisational contexts, adding diverse and in-depth insights to the post-apartheid EE discourse.Research purpose: The purpose is to hear the voices of employees of different social-cultural, racial and gender backgrounds on the experiences of EE in contemporary South African organisations.Motivation for the study: Research suggests that South African organisations are pressurised to redress past racial inequality. Understanding employees' subjective experiences of EE adds value to the debate and provides the reader with an in-depth contemporary image of EE in post-apartheid South African organisations.Research approach/design and method: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach, within the qualitative interpretive paradigm, yielded in-depth, rich and detailed descriptions of employees' experiences of EE in both the private and public sectors of the South African workplace.Main findings: Findings show five themes that are associated with experiences of EE within South African organisations. This study highlights differences of experiences regarding EE plans and processes based on racial background, gender and age, as well as on historical socio-cultural and racial classifications of being a member of advantaged and disadvantaged groups. The following findings are highlighted: the insight into the experiences of EE from the perspectives of the 'born-frees' (the differences in experiences of different age groups of employees) and the experienced discrimination of black male and female employees regarding race and the experiences of gender-based discrimination being described by black and white male employees.Practical/managerial implications: Findings show the focus of experiences of EE, the conflicting issues and what South African organisations need to focus on in terms of human resources management (HRM) and the development of employee relations across racial and gender divides. It shows which topics need to be addressed in employee development and training programmes to manage diversity constructively and effectively.Contribution/value-add: The findings can be used by human resources managers to: (1) monitor the progress towards EE competently and vigorously, (2) create awareness and communication within individuals, organisations and society regarding EE, (3) create best practices in order to benefit from EE (members of all racial, gender, cultural groups), (4) create a discourse on humanistic and reflexive HRM, and(5) implement consulting, training and development programmes in organisations that are strategically, sustainably and long-term orientated.


Although software-defined networking (SDN) brings numerous benefits by decoupling the control plane from the data plane, there is a contradictory relationship between SDN and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. On one hand, the capabilities of SDN make it easy to detect and to react to DDoS attacks. On the other hand, the separation of the control plane from the data plane of SDN introduces new attacks. Consequently, SDN itself may be a target of DDoS attacks. In this paper, we first discuss the new trends and characteristics of DDoS attacks in cloud computing environments. We show that SDN brings us a new chance to defeat DDoS attacks in cloud computing environments, and we summarize good features of SDN in defeating DDoS attacks. Then we review the studies about launching DDoS attacks on SDN and the methods against DDoS attacks in SDN. In addition, we discuss a number of challenges that need to be addressed to mitigate DDoS attached in SDN with cloud computing. This work can help understand how to make full use of SDN's advantages to defeat DDoS attacks in cloud computing environments and how to prevent SDN itself from becoming a victim of DDoS Attacks.


Using the Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) data that combines the multi‐spectral Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud and aerosol products with the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) top of atmosphere broadband radiative fluxes, we first provide observational estimates of the instantaneous cloud‐free shortwave aerosol radiative forcing (SWARF) over the global oceans. Different from our previous research, we corrected for both the sample biases and the diurnal cycle of SWARF and the cloud‐free diurnally averaged SWARF is −5.3 ± 1.7 Wm−2, a value that is consistent with previous studies. Furthermore, we partition the CERES shortwave flux as a function of MODIS aerosol optical thickness and the fraction of fine mode aerosol to the total aerosol optical depth (η). Since η is related to particle size and is a good surrogate for aerosol type, we present strategies for estimating the radiative forcing of anthropogenic aerosols from MODIS and CERES measurements that is important for quantifying the climate forcing of aerosols.


The rising pressure for simultaneously improving performance and reducing power is driving more diversity into all aspects of computing devices. An algorithm that is well-matched to the target hardware can run multiple times faster and more energy efficiently than one that is not. The problem is complicated by the fact that a program's input also affects the appropriate choice of algorithm. As a result, software developers have been faced with the challenge of determining the appropriate algorithm for each potential combination of target device and data. This paper presents DySel, a novel runtime system for automating such determination for kernel-based data parallel programming models such as OpenCL, CUDA, OpenACC, and C++AMP. These programming models cover many applications that demand high performance in mobile, cloud and high-performance computing. DySel systematically deploys candidate kernels on a small portion of the actual data to determine which achieves the best performance for the hardware-data combination. The test-deployment, referred to as micro-profiling, contributes to the final execution result and incurs less than 8% of overhead in the worst observed case when compared to an oracle. We show four major use cases where DySel provides significantly more consistent performance without tedious effort from the developer.


Well over 90 percent of all criminal cases in the United States that are resolved are resolved by plea bargaining and not by trial. This means that how plea bargaining works impacts nearly every criminal defendant. However, there are few restrictions to protect defendants in the negotiating process. One serious problem is that prosecutors regularly use hard bargaining tactics such as exploding offers, threats to add enhancements, take-it-or-leave-it offers, and threats to seek the death penalty. These hard bargaining tactics contribute to the often highly coercive atmosphere of plea bargaining that can lead innocent defendants to plead guilty. Pressure to plead guilty can also lead defendants to fail to litigate issues, such as search and seizure motions. Finally, the coercive atmosphere in plea bargaining can lead defendants to accept bad deals as they try to avoid potentially much higher sentences after trial.
This article argues that the U.S. Supreme Court should limit prosecutorial hard bargaining tactics in plea negotiations to better protect defendants' right to counsel. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Lafler v. Cooper and Missouri v. Frye, held that there is a constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel in plea bargaining. This article argues that Lafler and Frye demand that the Court restrict prosecutorial hard bargaining behavior that interferes with defense lawyers' ability to do their jobs and thereby deprives defendants of their constitutional right to counsel. Other areas of law, notably labor law, prohibit hard bargaining. Under the National Labor Relations Act, unions and companies are required to bargain in good faith. Courts have held that some types of hard bargaining act to undermine the representation role of the union and are, therefore, a violation of the duty to bargain in good faith. This article will suggest that one way to argue the Supreme Court should limit prosecutorial hard bargaining is that allowing unrestricted prosecutorial hard bargaining undermines the representation of counsel and thereby prevents effective assistance of counsel in plea bargaining. This article also gives specific examples of what kinds of prosecutorial hard bargaining tactics should be restricted to better protect defendants' constitutional rights in the plea bargaining process.


Contrary to what is frequently imagined by many monolingual Americans, maintaining a non-English language in the United States is an extraordinarily difficult task. In the case of Latinos, in spite of the continuing arrival of new, Spanish-speaking immigrants, the shift toward English is unmistakable. Among Latino professionals, the shift is extremely rapid and appears to take place by the second generation (Valdes, Fishman et al. 2006).
 If Fishman (1991) is correct about the importance of intergenerational transmission for minority language maintenance, Spanish will only be maintained in the United States if parents commit to speaking Spanish at home with their children; however, the development of high-level, literacy-related proficiencies in Spanish, cannot be brought about by parents alone. This development will require the direct involvement of educational institutions. Unfortunately, the American educational system – in its present configuration – has not been designed to involve itself in the maintenance and development of non-majority languages.
 This paper examines the ongoing journey of two sisters (now 10 and 13 years old) who have developed their English/Spanish bilingualism primarily through American schools. It presents data on the characteristics of both their Spanish and their English language development and on their evolving sense of identity as Latinas. It also presents information about the school contexts in which the girls developed their bilingualism, the challenges faced by these schools in providing instruction in a minority language, and the dilemmas facing other Latino families in maintaining Spanish for another generation.


Few published studies have thoroughly treated the history of European planning practices in the overseas colonial territories. This is especially true regarding the African continent in general and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Interest in the indigenous response to the formal organization of the colonial settlement has only been manifest in the last few decades. In addition, French and British colonial policies and practices in West Africa, particularly with regard to town planning, have rarely been analyzed together within the same intellectual framework. This work is concerned with the perception and realization of residential segregation in two major colonial capitals in West Africa: British Lagos and French Dakar. The history and the form of residential segregation in Lagos, a chief port and an administrative and commercial centre, and in Dakar, the capital of the AOF (Afrique Occidentale Francaise) Federation, are traced from the establishment of the official colonial rule in the mid-nineteenth century to the inter-war period. The focus on residential segregation as a crucial aspect of colonial urban planning directly relates to colonial discourses, municipal politics and indigenous conceptions. Rather than a schematic and somewhat simplified model of segregation, comparative aspects are stressed here, offering a more diversified view of this phenomenon. Urban policies also served purposes other than mere separation of various ethnic groups, and a more complex definition of segregationist schemes is needed, referring to conceptual and actual nuances of spatial divisions and hierarchisation.


This paper aims at highlighting some existing experiences and practices in the Italian context regarding the recognition of learning through work experiences and work-based learning as a response to the global labor market requirements, the youth unemployment and the NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) phenomenon. One of the most significant and recent practices of learning through work regards the validation of competences acquired during the civil service (in the Youth Guarantee 1 program) within the national system of competences certification. A work-based experience , on the side of the education-training system, is the school-work alternation. The complexity of the national system and legal framework evidences that the process is quite articulated as it involves many stakeholders and different qualifications. Reforms and innovations enhance practices intended to improve the high unemployment level and to increase inclusion and integration of disadvantaged groups. Keywords : learning through work, work-based learning, nonformal and informal learning.


Chinese overseas investment is a new, and growing phenomenon. In the last decade, there have been exponential increases in how much direct investment is flowing from China, particularly into the resource sector. As the eurozone crisis has deepened since 2008, there has been continuing talk by political and business leaders of investment in Europe being a key target for Chinese companies. And yet, the amounts invested so far come to less than 5 percent of China's global overseas foreign direct investment (FDI) total. In the crucial determinants of Chinese FDI, the EU ranks low. There is therefore a good structural reason why, despite the ambitious talk of the Chinese coming to invest more in vital sectors in the EU, this is not happening at the moment and is not likely to happen until China develops into a middle income, more developed economy.


For many students of global governance who explore the myriad institutions, rules, norms, and coordinating arrangements that transcend individual states and societies, what really marks the contemporary era is not the absence of such governance but its "astonishing diversity." In addition to "long-standing universal-membership bodies," such as the United Nations, writes Stewart Patrick, "there are various regional institutions, multilateral alliances and security groups, standing consultative mechanisms, self-selecting clubs, ad hoc coalitions, issue-specific arrangements, transnational professional networks, technical standard-setting bodies, global action networks, and more." The proliferation and diversification of governance mechanisms—yielding a jumble of formal and informal arrangements—has supplanted the simpler image of state representatives gathering at official assemblies. Many scholars believe this pluralism opens important new avenues for tackling a growing array of complex transnational problems, particularly at a time when the responsiveness of traditional multilateral institutions is being called into question.


The Semantic Web was introduced in 1999 as a method of interrelating information to help computers derive conclusions based on the links between data. With the rising popularity of Social Networks though, unconnected pieces of information have only chaotically increased instead of becoming parts of well-organised Taxonomies. In this paper, we suggest a system which will take advantage of the Social Web and put it to work so that it will operate under the common cause of categorising old and new data into an unlimited Semantic Ontology. This ontology will be created gradually and ever-changing, like a versatile encyclopaedia of information compiled from interconnected data. With the addition of a 3D Web interface on top of the ontology management mechanisms, the entire experience will become more user friendly, providing graphical presentation of all opinions and interpretations in a clear and comparable manner.


Using a no-arbitrage condition we develop a nonparametric technique to extract the risk-neutral distribution of both asset returns and instantaneous volatilities from plain vanilla option prices. Our technique extends existing approaches that lead to risk-neutral return distributions only. In order to estimate the risk-neutral volatility distribution, we do not need to that derivatives on volatility are traded. More generally, as our method yields a nonparametric estimate of the joint risk-neutral return/volatility distribution, we can also estimate conditional distributions of returns given future volatility levels. This opens the possibility to answer several important questions on risk-neutral volatility distributions and, thus, volatility risk premiums. Using S&P-500 data, we confirm negative volatility risk premiums and a right-shift in the future volatility distribution for higher initial volatility levels, but find additionally positive risk-neutral volatility skewness. Moreover, volatility skewness is more pronounced in low volatility periods. This is consistent with a large aversion towards unexpected positive volatility shocks. With respect to the risk-neutral return distribution, we confirm overall negative skewness, but find that conditionally on decreasing volatility levels, the negative return skewness disappears. Concerning the risk-neutral dependence between return and volatility, we confirm that this dependence is negative. Compared to parametric models, we find that risk-neutral volatility of volatility is much smaller than predicted by the popular Heston (1993) model. This indicates the necessity of a jump component in the risk-neutral return process. Furthermore, the risk-neutral volatility of volatility cannot be described by a single diffusion risk-neutral volatility process.


A combined chemical x-ray fluorescence method is described for determining rare-earth elements in small amounts of complex rare-earth minerals. These elements yield a complex x-ray spectrum in which many of the analytical emission Lα lines of a given element coincide with the Lβ and/or Lγ lines of a lighter rare-earth element several atomic numbers removed. The proposed analytical scheme corrects for these interferences. Sixteen elements consisting of the lanthanides, yttrium, and scandium can be determined on as little as a 1-mg portion of the separated oxides. The oxides are dissolved in 1 ml of dilute acid, absorbed onto cellulose powder and pressed into a pellet for x-ray excitation. Chemically analyzed geologic standards are not required for calibration.


Purpose Inherited retinal diseases affect the L-, M-, S-cones and rods in distinct ways, which calls for new methods that enable quantification of photoreceptor-specific functions. We tested the feasibility of using the silent substitution paradigm to estimate photoreceptor-driven temporal contrast sensitivity (tCS) functions in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. Methods The silent substitution paradigm is based on substitution of lights of different spectral composition; this offers considerable advantage over other stimulation techniques. We used a four-primary LED stimulator to create perifoveal annular stimuli (2° inner, 12° outer diameters) and used a triple silent substitution to probe photoreceptor-selective tCS. Measurements were performed in a heterogeneous cohort of 15 patients with retinitis pigmentosa and related to those in a control group of nine color-normal healthy observers. Age differences between groups were addressed with a model of age-related normal contrast sensitivity derived from measurements in 20 healthy observers aged between 23 and 83 years. Results The age-related loss of tCS amounted to 0.1 dB/year in healthy subjects across all photoreceptor subtypes. In patients, tCS was decreased for every photoreceptor subtype; however, S-cone- and rod-driven sensitivities were most strongly affected. Postreceptoral mechanisms were not affected. Conclusions This feasibility study provides evidence that the silent substitution technique enables the estimation of photoreceptor-selective tCS functions and can serve as an accurate biomarker of photoreceptor-specific contrast sensitivity loss in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. Translational Relevance We aim to develop tests of visual function for clinical trials of novel therapies for inherited retinal diseases from methods that can currently be used only in vision research labs.


This paper consternates on four types of lexical relations between English and Arabic, namely, synonymy, antonymy, homonymy and polysemy with regard to translation. Specifically, it aims to shed light on the role of translators in handling these lexical relations. Moreover, it tries to reveal how these relations are reflected both in Arabic and English and if they are causing obstacles while translating. A comparative and qualitative analysis is used to analyse the data gathered from different English and Arabic scholarly and academic texts. The study ends with the conclusion that translators have to pay extreme attention to these lexical relations while translating and exert much effort to come up with a valid translation that uncover the problems resulting from the congruence and ambiguity that such lexical relations impose.


Analysis of distribution, diversity and abundance of nonpalaeocope ostracods from the type Wenlock Series demonstrates that a major faunal change occurs around the Sheinwoodian-Homerian Stage boundary and that significant increases in faunal diversity occur at that boundary and in the late Whitwell Chronozone. Low abundance and low diversity in the late Sheinwoodian is interpreted to represent maximum water depth for the type Wenlock Series whereas the high diversity fauna of the late Homerian represents shallowest water conditions for this sequence. Many late Homerian species range into the Lower Elton Formation (early Ludlow) which suggests gradual ecostratigraphic change across the Wenlock-Ludlow boundary. Ancestor-descendant relationships for several lineages in the type Wenlock Series define lineage zones which essentially coincide with assemblage zones based on nonpalaeocope ostracods.


This paper presents an approach for compressing litho hotspot pattern library that complies with general purpose pattern matching engine (GPPME). This approach incorporates two techniques to achieve optimal pattern reduction. The first technique excludes polygons outside the optical diameter to reduce numerical noise related to a square ambit which artificially may affect a hotspot location. The second technique determines the common geometrical structures between patterns and inserts adaptive edge tolerance constraints for each individual pattern. The performance of the resulting compressed patterns is then compared to that of running the complete library of exact matches using an optimized exact pattern matching engine (OEPME). The results indicate that compression rates giving number of compressed patterns in the order of hundreds can achieve better performance than running an optimized exact pattern matcher for the whole library while maintaining the original quality of results.


Background— We sought to compare maximal left ventricular (LV) wall thickness (WT) measurements as obtained by routine clinical practice between echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and document causes of discrepancy. Methods and Results— One-hundred and ninety-five patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (median age, 52.8±15.1 years) who underwent echocardiography and CMR imaging within 6 months (median, 41 days; interquartile range, 16–97 days) were included. LVWT was assessed in parasternal long and short axis by 2-dimensional echocardiography and in short axis by CMR. By Bland–Altman plot, mean maximal LVWT difference between echocardiography and CMR was 0.5 mm (95% confidence interval, −6.9, 7.8) with equal distribution of discrepancy along the full range of LVWT. Ninety-seven patients (49.7%) were identified to have intermodal measurement discrepancies ≥10%. In 7 patients (7.2%), reported measurement by CMR was inaccurate because of interpretation error. In 90 patients (92.8%), echocardiography underestimated (n=32; 33.0%) or overestimated (n=58; 59.8%) maximal LVWT. Underestimation was because of focal LV hypertrophy (n=10; 10.3%) or poor acoustic windows (n=22; 22.7%) while overestimation resulted from inclusion of right ventricular myocardium (n=37; 38.1%), LV trabeculations (n=5; 5.2%), papillary muscle (n=3; 3.1%), and apical-septal bundle (n=1; 1.0%), as well as imaging plane obliquity (n=7; 12.5%). In 31 (15.9%) patients, measurement discrepancy occurred at diagnostic or prognostic cut-offs. Conclusions— Although maximal LVWT by echocardiography in general measured similar to CMR, discordance because of limitations in echocardiography technique was present in a significant subset of patients. As measurement of LVWT impacts diagnosis and sudden death management, CMR should be considered as part of routine evaluation of all patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.


In this work, four series of glass-ceramic coatings were developed and applied by using the dipping technique to cast iron sheets. The influence of different types of crystallization agents (Li2O, TiO2, ZrSiO4, and CaO.Al2O3.2SiO2) was investigated in relation to the mechanical features of the coatings. The resultant coating is characterized using X-ray diffraction analysis. The properties of micro-hardness and adhesion strength are evaluated using suitable standard tests. The X-ray analysis of resultant coatings showed the existence of some of crystalline phases formed depending on the type of the crystallization agent. The results also indicated that the coating properties were strongly dependent on composition and concentration of crystallization agent. Coating with feldspar gives the highest value of hardness and adhesion index. In general, properties of the resultant coatings were improved in all cases; this is related to the formation of a complicated network from crystalline phases.


The aim of this study was to appraise the extent to which the GRE General Test has the same construct validity for older test takers as it has for other examinees by comparing the interrelationships among the test items for subgroups of examinees defined by age. The items in the test were factor analyzed for three samples of examinees, 20-29 years old, 30-39 years old, and 40-49 years old. The same verbal, quantitative, and analytical ability factors were found in each sample, but the intercorrelations of the factors increased slightly, though consistently, with the age of the sample. These results suggest that the convergent validity of the test is similar across these age groups, but the discriminant validity is somewhat different for the older examinees. It was also found, in each sample, that the items in the analytical measure had a substantial amount of specific variance and that the analytical ability factor was highly correlated with the other factors, implying that these items have relatively little in common with each other and overlap excessively with verbal and quantitative ability.


Background The continued existence of undernutrition, associated with a steady increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, necessitates identification of factors contributing to this double burden of disease, in order for effective treatment and prevention programmes to be planned. Aim To determine the nutritional status of 13–15-year-old children in Bloemfontein and its association with socioeconomic factors. Setting Bloemfontein, Free State Province, South Africa (2006). Methods This was a cross-sectional analytical study. Randomly selected children (n = 415) completed structured questionnaires on socioeconomic status. The children's weight and height were measured and body mass index-for-age and height-for-age z-scores were computed according to World Health Organization growth standards in order to determine the prevalence of underweight, overweight, obesity and stunting. Waist circumference was measured to classify the children as having a high or very high risk for metabolic disease. Results Of the 415 children who consented to participate in the study, 14.9% were wasted and 3.4% were severely wasted. Only 6% of the children were overweight/obese. Significantly more boys (23.0%) were wasted than girls (10%) and severe stunting was also significantly higher in boys than in girls (10.3% and 4.2%, respectively). Children whose parents had graduate occupations were significantly more overweight/obese than those with parents working in skilled occupations. Stunting was significantly higher in low (31.4%) and medium (30.4%) socioeconomic groups compared to the high socioeconomic group (18.1%). Conclusion A coexistence of underweight and overweight was found and gender and parental occupation were identified as being predictors of nutritional status.


Despite seemingly open immigration policies and rights-based reforms, the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries recently engaged in international and domestic policies to better control immigration. This article unpacks the realpolitik of mass immigration conducted by the Gulf states by showing how they use retaliatory and coercive migration diplomacies as well as migrant rightswashing on the international scene to shape immigration flows. At the domestic level, Gulf governments' reforms seek to police labour market segmentation and institutionalise a regime of "differential exclusion" that officialises intersectional discriminations across nationalities and class. Drawing upon sources in English and Arabic, as well as interviews with public officials, businessmen, and migrants in the region over a decade (2006-2017), this article describes how states and nonstate actors, including businessmen, migrant networks, and brokers, operate policies and practices of control.
I first find that a recent sovereign turn has transformed migration politics in the Gulf. I show that contingent state policies and reforms in the past decades more accurately account for migration governance processes than oil prices and market dynamics, the nature of political regimes, or the rentier structures of Gulf polities. This study thus fills a gap in migration research on the Global South that usually focuses on emigration countries and diaspora policies and underestimates the role of immigration policies.
Secondly, I find that migration policies have become more discriminatory across migrant categories in the GCC, as other studies have shown for OECD countries. Such findings lead us to discuss the global relevance of illiberal practices and policies and introduce the hypothesis of a global convergence in illiberal migration governance.


Kyasanur forest disease (KFD) is a biphasic tick-borne disease which occurs during the post-monsoon season. The patient may visit the hospital in either of the phases, and it is essential to differentiate between the two phases as the management considerations in both phases are different. This is a retrospective review of patients diagnosed with KFD who were treated by the Infectious Disease Department between September 2019 and May 2020. A total of 14 cases (16 admissions) were diagnosed during the study period by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay. Of these, nine cases came to our hospital during the first phase and seven (including two-readmissions) came to our hospital during the second phase. The manifestations in the first phase included high-grade fever (100%), myalgia (67%), conjunctival suffusion (33%), palatal eruptions (78%), gastrointestinal manifestations (67%), leucopenia (100%), thrombocytopenia (89%), elevated transaminases (89%), elevated creatine phosphokinase (100%) and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) (100%). Manifestations in the second phase were fever (57%), headache (100%), blurring of vision (29%), neck signs (71%), leukocytosis (71%), thrombocytopenia (14%), elevated transaminases (40%) and APTT (20%). The clinical symptomatology and laboratory manifestations are different in each of the two phases and can be easily identified by primary care physicians.


In earlier studies we found that human serum, but not serum from multiple other species, inactivated and lysed oncornaviruses from a number of diverse sources in the apparent absence of antibody. A detailed analysis of the role of the human complement (C) system in mediating this lytic process indicates that human C1q interacts directly, in the absence of immunoglobulin, with oncornaviruses. Binding of C1 via C1q in this manner leads to activation of C1r, C1s, and thus of the classical C pathway. Integrity of the classical pathway is an absolute requirement for lysis although activation of the alternative pathway considerably amplifies the amount of lysis obtained, possibly through involvement of the C3b-dependent feedback mechanism. Activation of C is accompanied by deposition of C components on the viral surface and lysis on completion of the C reaction sequence. Thus in this system, the C1q subunit of C1 subserves a specific recognition function normally associated with antibody. This ability of human serum to inactivate oncornaviruses may represent a natural defense mechanism operative in vivo which deters expression of intact oncornaviruses in human malignancies.


Quantitative finance has become these last years a extraordinary field of research and interest as well from an academic point of view as for practical applications. At the same time, pension issue is clearly a major economical and financial topic for the next decades in the context of the well-known longevity risk. Surprisingly few books are devoted to application of modern stochastic calculus to pension analysis. The aim of this book is to fill this gap and to show how recent methods of stochastic finance can be useful for to the risk management of pension funds. Methods of optimal control will be especially developed and applied to fundamental problems such as the optimal asset allocation of the fund or the cost spreading of a pension scheme. In these various problems, financial as well as demographic risks will be addressed and modelled.


Background: Haemoglobin concentration provides information about the status of anaemia in thepopulation. Haemoglobin estimation is the routine and frequently performed screening haematological test of laboratory services. The Type of methods used and sites of collection of blood samples has found to make differences in haemoglobin concentration. The methods used in routine measurement are needed to be adjusted to obtain comparability with the haemiglobincyanide method. So the present study was undertaken with a objective to test the reliability of Sahli's method in estimation of haemoglobin concentration and standardizing it in district hospital laboratory of Dhule in Maharashtra. Material & Methodology: Haemoglobin concentration (gm/dl) in blood is compared in 173 apparently healthy medical college students within 18 to 23 years age. Results from Sahli's method were compared to Haemiglobincyanide (HiCN) method within capillary and venous blood of same subjects. Results: Sahli's method has lower values than Haemiglobincyanide method with mean difference of 0.62gms/dl(95%CI; 0.51 to 0.73, p


This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on ratification and to provide policy-makers with an assessment of the options before them. Before proceeding to outline those options this paper sets out four key assumptions upon which the arguments made are based. It also outlines the importance of securing a clarification of the constitutional position via a Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Lisbon Treaty and the desirability of finding EU agreement on the right of all 27 member states to permanent representation on the European Commission.


In this work, we present the kinetically-controlled enzymatic synthesis of novel glycosyl-(meth)acrylamide monomers using β-glucosidase. Cellobiose served as the glycosyl donor in the enzyme catalyzed transglycosylation reaction and hydroxyl-alkyl (meth)acrylamides as the glycosyl acceptor. After optimization, we were able to increase the glycomonomer yield up to 68% by changing the glycosyl donor to p-nitrophenyl β-D-glucopyranoside and adding BMIMPF6 as cosolvent. The structure of the glycomonomers was confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and mass spectrometry experiments. Aqueous RAFT polymerization of the glycomonomers was successfully performed resulting in glycopolymers with molecular weights up to 30 kg mol−1 and relatively low polydispersity indices (PDI's < 1.30). Free radical polymerization of the glycomonomers was executed as well with the obtained glycopolymers resulting in higher molecular weights and PDI's than the glycopolymers prepared by RAFT polymerization. Thermal properties of the synthesized glycopolymers were investigated via differential scanning calorimetry.


The primary purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of epistemic responsibility in the practice of book-length literary journalism. Literary journalism offers a powerful alternative to mainstream journalism. Its narrative mode and storytelling techniques open possibilities of representation often closed by traditional reporting practices. Subsequently, literary journalists have attracted criticism for unorthodox modes of representation and attendant "truth claims" in many texts. In this thesis I draw on the work of epistemologist Lorraine Code to highlight the tension between the branches of ethics and epistemology, and argue that holding them apart for the purposes of explication yields important insights into the practice of literary journalism. I argue that criticism of literary journalism has at times conflated ethical and epistemic concerns, resulting in censure of the practitioner on primarily moral grounds. While such a critique is often valid, I propose that it can mislabel problematic cognitive processes as moral deficiencies.  A re-examination of significant controversies raised by literary journalism shows disputed areas stemming from epistemic "blind spots". These "blind spots" are often characterised as ethical lapses, but I argue that framing criticism in this way inhibits progress in sound practice. Recurring controversies over works by practitioners such as Janet Malcolm and Australia's Helen Garner bear this out. I also offer close readings of three works of contemporary US literary journalism through their paratextual frames. The limits of transparency are demonstrated here, including the fact that disclosure can hide more than it illuminates. Code's "epistemic responsibilist" approach is subsequently presented as an important addition to literary journalism scholarship, as it offers a sound foundation for reflexive practice—for both writers and critics. Using this approach, I offer critical readings of the "truth claims" in three contemporary US texts: Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family (2003), Dave Cullen's Columbine (2009) and Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010).  A secondary aim of this thesis is to characterise contemporary Australian book-length literary journalism. Using Code's concept of an "epistemic community", I propose that the nature of national discourse influences the voice of the Australian literary journalist, as revealed by anxiety over representation in the texts under analysis. These texts highlight the pressures of subjectivity on truth, which results in a destabilisation of "truth claims". In comparison with the US practitioners analysed, their three Australian counterparts analysed place less emphasis on disclosure transparency, and rely more heavily upon self-presentation as seekers, rather than discoverers, of knowledge and truth. I further maintain that these three texts represent a dominant national function of book-length literary journalism. Issues of national identity are bound up in the relationship between the land and its people, and are evident in the work of Margaret Simons, Chloe Hooper and Anna Krien, three of Australia's most notable literary journalists. Through the lens of a civic dispute, each of these practitioners join one of the most pressing cultural issues in contemporary national discourse, that is, to explore what it means to be "Australian".


The dramatic drop in DNA sequencing costs has created many opportunities for novel biological research. These opportunities largely rest upon the ability to effectively compare newly obtained and previously known sequences. This is commonly done with BLAST, yet using BLAST directly on new datasets requires substantial technical skills or helpful colleagues. Furthermore, graphical interfaces for BLAST are challenging to install and largely mimic underlying computational processes rather than work patterns of researchers. We combined a user-centric design philosophy with sustainable software development approaches to create Sequenceserver (http://sequenceserver.com), a modern graphical user interface for BLAST. Sequenceserver substantially increases the efficiency of researchers working with sequence data. This is due to innovations at three levels. First, our software can be installed and used on custom datasets extremely rapidly for personal and shared applications. Second, based on analysis of user input and simple algorithms, Sequenceserver reduces the amount of decisions the user must make, provides interactive visual feedback, and prevents common potential errors that would otherwise cause erroneous results. Finally, Sequenceserver provides multiple highly visual and text-based output options that mirror the requirements and work patterns of researchers. Together, these features greatly facilitate BLAST analysis and interpretation and thus substantially enhance researcher productivity.


Although it is widely accepted that accurate modeling of wave energy converters is essential for effective and reliable design, it is often challenging to define an accurate model which is also fast enough to investigate the design space or to perform extensive sensitivity analysis. In fact, the required accuracy is usually brought by the inclusion of nonlinearities, which are often time-consuming to compute. This paper provides a computationally efficient meshless nonlinear Froude–Krylov model, including nonlinear kinematics and an integral formulation of drag forces in six degrees of freedom, which computes almost in real-time. Moreover, a mooring system model with three lines is included, with each line comprising of an anchor, a jumper, and a clump weight. The mathematical model is used to investigate the highly-nonlinear phenomenon of parametric resonance, which has particularly detrimental effects on the energy conversion performance of the spar-buoy oscillating water column (OWC) device. Furthermore, the sensitivity on changes to jumper and clump-weight masses are discussed. It is found that mean drift and peak loads increase with decreasing line pre-tension, eventually leading to a reduction of the operational region. On the other hand, the line pre-tension does not affect power production efficiency, nor is it able to avoid or significantly limit the severity of parametric instability.


Background and Purpose- NT-proBNP (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide) is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation and a marker of cardiac function used in the detection of heart failure. Given the link between cardiac dysfunction and stroke, NT-proBNP is a candidate marker of stroke risk. Our aim was to evaluate the association of NT-proBNP with stroke and to determine the predictive value beyond a panel of established risk factors. Methods- Based on the Biomarkers for Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Europe-Consortium, we analyzed data of 58 173 participants (50% men; mean age 52 y) free of stroke from 6 community-based cohorts. NT-proBNP measurements were performed in the central Biomarkers for Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Europe laboratory. The outcomes considered were total stroke and subtypes of stroke (ischemic/hemorrhagic). Results- During a median follow-up time of 7.9 years, we observed 1550 stroke events (1176 ischemic). Increasing quarters of the NT-proBNP distribution were associated with increasing risk of stroke ( P for trend <0.0001; multivariable Cox regression analysis adjusted for risk factors and cardiac diseases). Individuals in the highest NT-proBNP quarter (NT-proBNP >82.2 pg/mL) had 2-fold (95% CI, 75%-151%) greater risk of stroke than individuals in the lowest quarter (NT-proBNP <20.4 pg/mL). The association remained unchanged when adjusted for interim coronary events during follow-up, and though it was somewhat heterogeneous across cohorts, it was highly homogenous according to cardiovascular risk profile or subtypes of stroke. The addition of NT-proBNP to a reference model increased the C-index discrimination measure by 0.006 ( P=0.0005), yielded a categorical net reclassification improvement of 2.0% in events and 1.4% in nonevents and an integrated discrimination improvement of 0.007. Conclusions- In European individuals free of stroke, levels of NT-proBNP are positively associated with risk of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, independently from several other risk factors and conditions. The addition of NT-proBNP to variables of established risk scores improves prediction of stroke, with a medium effect size.


In 2011, France enacted a Corporate Board Quota to establish a forty percent floor for either sex on corporate boards. Existing literature presumes that women will change the way firms function and that their presence in upper management will improve both governance and financial returns. To assess the potential impact of the quota, we interviewed twenty-four current and former corporate board members. Our analysis of these interviews generates two findings. First our results indicate that, at least in the view of board members, the sex quota has had an impact on the process of board decision making, but adding women has not affected the substance of decision-making. Second, our findings suggest for the first time that adding women to a board may well have a substantive impact on decision making, not because of the sex of newly added member but because they more likely to be outsiders. French participants reported that newly added female members affected substantive decision making because they were more likely to be foreign, to be expert in a wider range of areas, and to be drawn from non-elite networks than their male counterparts.


In many cases, the information spread in an online network may not always be truthful or correct; such information corresponds to rumors. In recent years, signed networks have become increasingly popular because of their ability to represent diverse relationships such as friends, enemies, trust, and distrust. Signed networks are ideal for information flow in a network with varying beliefs (trust or distrust) about facts. In this paper, we will study the problem of influence analysis and diffusion models in signed networks and investigate the problem of rumor initiator detection, given the state of the network at a given moment in time. Conventional information diffusion models for unsigned networks cannot be applied to signed networks directly, and we show that the rumor initiator detection problem is NP-hard. We propose a new information diffusion model, referred to as asyMmetric Flipping Cascade (MFC), to model the propagation of information in signed networks. Based on MFC, a novel framework, Rumor Initiator Detector (RID), is introduced to determine the potential number and the identity of the rumor initiators from the state of the network at a given time. Extensive experiments conducted on real-world signed networks demonstrate that MFC works very well in modeling information diffusion in signed networks and RID can significantly outperform other comparison methods in identifying rumor initiators.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between interaction and audience anxiety levels and Internet addiction of adults. The research was performed in the survey model as a descriptive study. A total of 384 adults with different ages living in a Central Anatolian city constituted the sample of the study. Data were collected through the Interaction and Audience Anxiety Scale (α=.91) and Internet Addiction Scale (α=.86). The mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test, and Pearson correlation coefficient were employed in analyzing the data (p < .05). The following results were obtained: Both the interaction anxiety and audience anxiety levels of adults were low. The levels among adults in the ages of 20-29 were significantly higher than the levels among adults in other age-groups. The levels of interaction anxiety and audience anxiety in the student group were significantly higher than other occupational groups. Gender did not differentiate interaction and audience anxiety levels of adults. There was also a positive and significant correlation between the levels of anxiety and Internet addiction.


Cooperative systems are being widely investigated and error probability expressions for various network configurations have been obtained. Even though analytical models are accurate, they often lack tractability and do not shed much light on the interplay between channel conditions, network parameters and transceiver characteristics. This paper exploits a recently introduced technique, which uses signal-to-noise ratios to characterise the modulation and coding scheme of transceivers for Rayleigh fading channels. Based on this technique, which allows decoupling of error probability analysis and radio specifications, we derive conditions on the adopted transmission scheme to ensure that cooperation improves the outage probability of each user in decode-and-forward networks with statistically similar or dissimilar uplink channels.


A numerical framework based on the finite-difference time-domain method is proposed for the rigorous study of electro-optically tunable terahertz devices based on liquid crystals. The formulation accounts for both the liquid-crystal full-tensor anisotropy and the dispersion of its complex refractive indices, which is described via modified Lorentzian terms. Experimentally characterized liquid-crystalline materials in the terahertz spectrum are fitted and modeled in benchmark examples, directly compared with reference analytical or semi-analytical solutions. In addition, the efficiency of broadband time-domain modeling of the proposed technique is also demonstrated by accurately reproducing time-domain spectroscopy measurements.


Since ages the Indians have the knowledge of using Kasisa (hydrous ferrous sulphate/ green vitriol) in different modalities. Kasisa is commonly placed under Uparasa group of drugs and is widely used in therapeutics of Ayurveda. Brihatrayi (Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita and Ashtanga Hridaya) is the first known Ayurveda literature that introduced its medicinal utilities, and later on Rasashastra (the iatrochemistry of Ayurveda) treatises comprehensively described its complete mineralogical profile, sources, distribution, varieties, Shodhana (purification and detoxification), Marana (calcinations cycles), Satvapatana (metal extraction), pharmacodynamic properties, actions, therapeutic indications, posology, adjuvants, and formulations in a systemic manner. Scattered information exploring therapeutic potential of Kasisa is accessible and there is need to assemble it. Therefore, an effort is made to assemble the scattered information in prehistoric texts, Brihatrayi , Nighantu , Rasashastra and other Ayurvedic treatises along with modern evidences highlighting the role of Kasisa in therapeutics. Citations relevant to topic were screened.


There has been significant interest and progress recently in algorithms that solve regression problems involving tall and thin matrices in input sparsity time. Given a n * d matrix where n ≥ d, these algorithms find an approximation with fewer rows, allowing one to solve a poly(d) sized problem instead. In practice, the best performances are often obtained by invoking these routines in an iterative fashion. We show these iterative methods can be adapted to give theoretical guarantees comparable to and better than the current state of the art. Our approaches are based on computing the importances of the rows, known as leverage scores, in an iterative manner. We show that alternating between computing a short matrix estimate and finding more accurate approximate leverage scores leads to a series of geometrically smaller instances. This gives an algorithm whose runtime is input sparsity plus an overhead comparable to the cost of solving a regression problem on the smaller approximation. Our results build upon the close connection between randomized matrix algorithms, iterative methods, and graph sparsification.


Author(s): Borgman, Christine L. | Abstract: In a few short decades, the practices of scholarship have been transformed by the use of digital resources, tools, and services. Some shifts are obvious, such as seeking, reading, and publishing research online, often to the exclusion of print. Other shifts are subtle, such as data being viewed as research products to be disseminated. Research objects are more atomized, yet aggregated in new ways. Digital technologies offer opportunities to innovate in scholarly practice, collaboration, and communication. Innovation in digital libraries is necessary to advance digital scholarship. The talk will present a set of challenges for 21st century research and practice drawn from Prof. Borgman's forthcoming book, tentatively titled Big Data, Little Data, noData. Video of the keynote available here: http://vimeo.com/groups/tpdl2013keynotes/videos/76254614 (Part One) and http://vimeo.com/groups/tpdl2013keynotes/videos/76330899 (Part Two) More information available at: http://www.tpdl2013.info/keynotes.php and #tpdl2013


Purpose: The aim of the research was to analyse and evaluate logistic processes implemented in the food supply chain in the military system in peace conditions and to propose possibilities for improving these processes. Design/Approach: The research was conducted using qualitative methods. As part of the research procedure, process analysis was carried out using the method of modelling logistics processes in the food supply chain implemented in a selected object of study (a military university from Poland). To analyse and evaluate the examined processes they have been presented in the form of graphical maps developed using the iGrafx software. Findings: The results of the study indicate that innovative solutions (technological and organisational) have a significant impact on the efficiency of the food supply chain. It is necessary to support logistic processes with traceability and RFID technology as well as adaptation to EU requirements in the field of short supply chains and building partnerships under civil-military cooperation. Practical Implications: The results can be used to improve the operation of the food supply chain for military units in peacetime by improving logistics processes using innovative methods of traceability to identify and track the flows of goods (food). Conducted analyses have significant practical implications for the design of new or modernising agility supply chains in military units in peacetime. Originality/Value: Due to the importance of these issues for the effective implementation of logistics processes in the military system, it is necessary to understand and promote the aspect of improving the food supply chain in a scientific and practical dimension. The specificity of the system of military supply chains, high level of rigidity and multi-faceted risk analysis limits the possibility of using common solutions on the civil market.


Particle-based variational inference methods (ParVIs) have gained attention in the Bayesian inference literature, for their capacity to yield flexible and accurate approximations. We explore ParVIs from the perspective of Wasserstein gradient flows, and make both theoretical and practical contributions. We unify various finite-particle approximations that existing ParVIs use, and recognize that the approximation is essentially a compulsory smoothing treatment, in either of two equivalent forms. This novel understanding reveals the assumptions and relations of existing ParVIs, and also inspires new ParVIs. We propose an acceleration framework and a principled bandwidth-selection method for general ParVIs; these are based on the developed theory and leverage the geometry of the Wasserstein space. Experimental results show the improved convergence by the acceleration framework and enhanced sample accuracy by the bandwidth-selection method.


ABSTRACTSemiconductors mediated by rare earth metals (REMs) have attracted attention with regard to the degradation of pollutants. In order to enhance the visible response of TiO2, La-doped TiO2 (La-TO) photocatalysts with visible-light-driven capacity for NO removal were successfully synthesized in this study via a facile sol-gel method followed by calcination. A series of La-TiO2 samples with differing weight ratios were evaluated for their photocatalytic performances. It was found that 3% La integrated with TiO2 (in mass ratio) could enhance the removal efficiency of NO (up to 32%) under solar light, which is more than twice that seen with pure TiO2. The resulting products were characterized by a series of techniques, such as XRD, FTIR, UV-vis DRS, BET and (photo)electrochemical analysis. The results indicated that La-doped TiO2 can harvest visible light due to the relatively narrow band gap (from 2.98 to 2.75 eV). More importantly, La dopant improved electron-hole separation and suppressed charge carrier recombination, due to the synergistic effect. Furthermore, La-doped TiO2 increased the photo-oxidation efficiency of the transformation from NO to NO3–, owing to inhibition of the production of intermediate NO2 (0.02%). To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first time that La-doped TiO2 has been used to eliminate NO (at the ppb level) in the atmosphere. This study provides a facile and controllable route to fabricate La-TO photocatalyst for NO abatement with high selectivity of NO2 under visible light.