TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW II. BACKGROUND: THE EVOLUTION OF REGULATION A. The Rise of the Regulation B. Stability of the Early Years C. Ideological and Intellectual Underpinnings of Deregulation. D. The Inklings and Promise of Results-Based Regulation III. RESULTS-BASED REGULATION: A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY POLICYMAKING IV. RESULTS-BASED REGULATORY POLICY: THE CASE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS V. CONCLUSIONS AND CAVEATS What these rules should be is the principal question in human affairs; but if we except a few of the most obvious cases, it is one of those which least progress has been made in resolving. (1) John Stuart Mill On Liberty, 1859 I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW During the second presidential debate of the 2008 election, then candidate Barack Obama opined, with respect to financial markets, that "[t]he problem is we still have a[n] archaic, 20th-century regulatory system for 21st-century ... markets." (2) While the focus on regulatory reform in financial markets has subsequently been pronounced, an important set of questions remain regarding the applicability of this phrase to other traditionally regulated industries such as telecommunications. In this paper, I explore this issue by focusing on lessons that may be learned from both the evolution of economic analysis and regulatory experiences during the past half-century. I find, inter alia, that while the trend toward deregulatory policies over the past half-century was nominally motivated by a push toward economic efficiency, policymakers were also attracted to deregulatory policies by deep-seated ideological desires to protect individual freedoms deemed to be infringed by regulation. (3) With the emergence of the 2008 financial crisis in the United States, that simple ideology has receded, giving way to another equally crude ideology that calls for more government regulation and controls. (4) This shift in ideological passions, however, is unlikely to provide proper guidance for any regulatory system that takes seriously the goal of promoting economic welfare. Aside from ideological predispositions as guideposts for regulatory policy, the question remains whether there is an alternative, fundamentally sound foundation for guiding regulatory and deregulatory policies. In that regard, careful reflection on the evolution of regulation since the early 1960s reveals a subtle but potentially substantive and meritorious basis for calibrating regulatory and deregulatory policymaking in the twenty-first century. In particular, when stripped of the ideological drivers, the most successful dimensions of regulatory and deregulatory policymaking in the past half-century can be seen as decidedly "results-based." (5) In this paper, I describe and document this set of more subtle regulatory developments and explain how they have provided for the soundest regulatory decisions over the past fifty years. Drawing on these developments, I then propose a set of principles that hold the potential to underlie a new results-based regulatory framework. Results-based regulation ("RBR") draws upon the most successful aspects of both regulatory and economic analysis over the past fifty years with the aim of establishing principles that can guide policymakers as they pursue regulatory and deregulatory policies in the twenty-first century. The potential for, and the urgency to establish, a twenty-first century results-based regulatory paradigm is significant. And, while the significance of a results-based regulatory framework is relevant to a wide swath of industries, it is particularly important in the case of the telecommunications industry. Specifically, the twentieth century regulatory infrastructure for telecommunications was designed for a monopoly, and while legislative reforms enacted in 1996 embraced competition, the regulatory infrastructure has remained fully entrenched. …


Drawing on the approach suggesting that the analysis of social media in relation to democracy should be provided within its own social context, we outline the social media activities adopted by the ruling populist political party in Turkey, namely, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), aimed at reinforcing its political ideology. We also unpack the 'political online trolling' as a manifestation of online practices driving the post-truth politics in Turkey. Following the Gezi protests, when social media and, in particular, Twitter gained trust and popularity as a news source due to severe censorship and polarization in the traditional mass media, the AKP adopted an aggressive strategy to attack and destroy all opposition as well as to manipulate public opinion through their political trolling activities. Employing the approach of digital ethnography and drawing on the archive of mass media outputs about the trolling events, we discuss how the ruling party has adopted online political trolling as a strategy, one that is deeply embedded in the political system, politicians and mainstream media. We also explain how trolling practices are facilitated by the coordinated work of these institutions to silence all critical opposing voices, in particular journalists and how they stifle public debate that is grounded in truth and evidence. We have also concluded that the chilling effects of political trolling lead to quitting social media, self-censorship and less participation in public debate of unprotected citizens who are the most vulnerable targets for the trolls. The trolls have targeted the dissent voices not only for criticizing the government publicly, but also to brand them as terrorists and traitors through increasingly polarizing and discriminating language based on nationalist and religious perspectives, which peaked in the aftermath of the 15 July coup attempt and the debates on the presidential regime. Far from condemnation of the trolling activities along with their polarizing and hateful rhetoric, the mainstream culture and public discourse seem to have been taken over by an increasing trolling subculture, which inhibits public debate, discredits the sources of truth, fosters fanaticism and encourages a hate discourse and violence, all of which are undermining democracy.


Title of dissertation: An Analytical Investigation of Flapping Wing Structures for Micro Air Vehicles Nicholas C. Rosenfeld Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor Norman M. Wereley Department of Aerospace Engineering An analytical model of flapping wing structures for bio-inspired micro air vehicles is presented in this dissertation. Bio-inspired micro air vehicles (MAVs) are based on insects and hummingbirds. These animals have lightweight, flexible wings that undergo large deformations while flapping. Engineering studies have confirmed that deformations can increase the lift of flapping wings. Wing flexibility has been studied through experimental construction-and-evaluation methods and through computational numerical models. Between experimental and numerical methods there is a need for a simple method to model and evaluate the structural dynamics of flexible flapping wings. This dissertation's analytical model addresses this need. A time-periodic assumed-modes beam analysis of a flapping, flexible wing undergoing linear deformations is developed from a beam analysis of a helicopter blade. The resultant structural model includes bending and torsion degrees of freedom. The model is non-dimensionalized. The ratio of the system's structural natural frequency to wingbeat frequency characterizes its constant stiffness, and the amplitude of flapping motion characterizes its time-periodic stiffness. Current flapping mechanisms and MAVs are compared to biological fliers on the basis of the characteristic parameters. The beam analysis is extended to develop an plate model of a flapping wing. The time-periodic stability of the flapping wing model is assessed with Floquet analysis. A flapping-wing stability diagram is developed as a function of the characteristic parameters. The analysis indicates that time-periodic instabilities are more likely for large-amplitude, high-frequency flapping motion. Instabilities associated with the first bending mode dominate the stability diagram. Due to current limitations of flapping mechanisms, instabilities are not likely in current experiments but become more likely at the operating conditions of biological fliers. The effect of structural design parameters, including wing planform and material stiffness, are assessed with an assumed-modes aeroelastic model. Wing planforms are developed from an empirical model of biological planforms. Nonlinearities are described in the effect of membrane thickness on lift generation. Structural couplings due to time-periodic stiffness are identified that can decrease lift generation at certain wingbeat frequencies. An Analytical Investigation of Flapping Wing Structures for Micro Air Vehicles


The discovery of graphene has inspired extensive interest in two‐dimensional (2D) materials, and has led to synthesis/growth of additional 2D materials, generally referred to as 'Beyond Graphene'. Notable among the recently discovered exotic 2D materials are group IV elemental monolayers silicene and germanene, group V elemental monolayer phosphorene, and binary monolayers, such as hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN), and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2 ). Environmental effect on the physical and chemical properties of these 2D materials is a fundamental issue for their practical applications in devices operating under ambient conditions, especially, exposure to air often leads to oxidation of nanomaterials with significant impact on the functional properties and performances of devices built with them. In view of its importance, we present here a review of the recent experimental and theoretical studies on the oxidation of 2D materials focusing on the relationship between the oxidation process and the energy values which can be calculated by first principles methods. The complement of experiments and theory facilitates the understanding of the underlying oxidation process in terms of cohesive energy, energy barrier to oxidation and dissociation energy of oxygen molecule for 2D materials including graphene, silicene, germanene, phosphorene, h‐BN, and MoS2. WIREs Comput Mol Sci 2017, 7:e1280. doi: 10.1002/wcms.1280


The deliberate formation of teacher-identities, philosophies, and pedagogical approaches, as well as the use of self-reflective practices, are essential to growth and development of social work educators. This banded dissertation focuses on the preparation of social work educators and explores the researcher's development as a postmodern teacher/scholar. The constructivist paradigm is applied to both teaching and research and draws from both narrative theory and narrative inquiry in its theoretical framework. The first product addresses both the lack of attention given to preparing social work doctoral students for teaching in the academy and the infrequent use of self-reflective practices and research methods by social work educators and researchers. The author argues that doctoral students need to take the initiative to prepare themselves for teaching in higher education. By identifying four essential content areas and encouraging the use of reflective practices and research methods, she suggests a focused strategy for preparing to teach in social work education. The second product reports on the findings of a self-study research project in which the researcher examined the extent to which a constructivist philosophy was evident in her teaching. Findings operationalize specific constructivist teaching methods, describe the impact of these, and illuminate the internal process she experienced in her dual roles as researcher and teacher. The third product employs self-reflection, narrative inquiry, and autobiographical writing to consider pivotal life experiences and examine their influence on professional development. Using writing and poetry as methods of inquiry, the researcher explores the place, function, and power of story in shaping her teacher-identity, philosophy, and pedagogical approaches.


Recent transformations in the ways that modern sport is managed have fundamentally changed its role in society: previously a simple form of leisure activity and health promotion, sport has become a complex phenomenon and a multibillion dollar business. The combination of sociocultural and economic dimensions makes sport an important tool for the promotion of interests. A leading role in the development of sport throughout history gives the European Union (EU) an advantage in setting the rules for its management, while the size of the sports market in Europe further facilitates the EU's leading role in developing the regulatory basis in this field. The sports model developed by EU institutions plays an important role in the deepening of regional integration processes, promoting the European model outside the region and also the EU's transformation into one of the drivers of the development of the global sports management system.The goal of this article is to identify the specificities of the European model of sport, the instruments and resources used by the EU to promote European values in this field and the universal features of the European approach that make it applicable in other regions. The analysis shows that the EU actively promotes its values, norms and interests by entrenching them into the European sport model and then promoting this model to other countries and regions. Practices and norms developed in the European context are being actively transferred to the international level. Sport, and especially football which is the most popular and among the most profitable sports, has become another area in which European management practices demonstrate their consistency and are being actively applied at the global level.The spread of the European sports model is facilitated by the "spillover" of EU law to the organizations and institutions in which it participates. The EU model is promoted through soft power supported by the authority of the European sports federations and the leading position of the European sports market. By elaborating its own sports policy and encouraging its spread to other regions, the European Union is driving the development of sports management practices at the global level.

https://iorj.hse.ru/data/2018/05/23/1149410186/The European Model of Sport Values, Rules and Interests.pdf


Cancer has become the leading cause of death among Americans today. In 2006, over 500,000 Americans will die due to cancer 11. Cancer is a highly complex disease to understand because it entails multiple cellular physiological systems such as cell signaling and apoptosis 10. Thus, the most common cancer treatments are limited to chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Limitations in cancer treatment are a result of current challenges seen in cancer therapies today, including lack of early disease detection, non-specific systemic distribution, inadequate drug concentrations reaching the tumor, and inability to monitor therapeutic responses. Poor drug delivery and residence at the target site leads to significant complications, such as multi-drug resistance.

Nanotechnology has the potential to offer solutions to these current obstacles in cancer therapies, because of its unique size (1-100nm) and large surface-to-volume ratios 13. Nanotechnologies may have properties of self-assembly, stability, specificity, drug encapsulation and biocompatibility as a result of their material composition 9. The NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer has identified the potential of nanotechnology, and aims to accelerate the application of nanotechnologies in cancer research and clinical development. This program is a comprehensive, systemized initiative encompassing both public and private sectors 8. The program comprises of eight Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNE), twelve platform projects, and four interdisciplinary training programs across the nation [http://nano.cancer.gov]. Thus far, research programs within the Alliance have made remarkable advancements in nanotechnology-cancer research. The objective of this article is to provide a brief review of these advances.

In the April 2006 PNAS publication "Nanoparticle-aptamer bioconjugates for cancer targeting", Langer and Farhrokzad from the MIT-Harvard CCNE tested the effect of aptamer-targeted nanoparticles for treatment of prostate cancer. This novel approach of using aptamers as targeted ligands, on drug-encapsulated nanoparticles, proved to be highly effective in targeting cancer cells and decreasing tumor size 6. Aptamers are DNA or RNA oligonucleotides that fold in tertiary conformations, which then are able to bind to targeting antigens 4. They are advantageous because aptamers are fairly small in size and, therefore, do not significantly impact the particle's overall size. Also, aptamers are non-immunogenic and fairly stable with long circulation times in the body. Aptamers have high affinity and specificity, which is an important requirement in targeting 5,6. The use of these docetaxel-encapsulated nanoparticle-aptamer bioconjugates demonstrated a decrease in tumor size from approximately 300 mm3 to 120 mm3, as seen in Figure Figure1.1. In addition to reducing tumor size, these targeting methods had fewer side effects on healthy cells within the body in comparison to current methods of chemotherapy 6.

Figure 1

A. Prostate Cancer cells were induced in mice using LNCaP prostate epithelial cells. Tumor development was allowed for 21 days in all conditions. Tumor masses were studied over a 109 day period. Saline was used as the control in this case. Results demonstrated ...

A number of the projects within the Alliance are investigating methods to overcome the challenges in maintaining drug circulation and avoiding multi-drug resistance. Due to chemical compositions and lack of targeting, many current therapeutic agents are removed from the body's circulation by the reticuloendothelial system (RES) or immune system 3. In their June 2006 publication, Amiji and Langer addressed these challenges by developing poly(ethylene oxide)-modified poly(beta-amino ester) (PEO-PbAE) nanoparticles. They studied the efficacy and toxicity levels of paclitaxel when it was administrated through PEO-PbAE nanoparticles in mice, bearing human ovarian adenocarcinoma xenograft. The PEO-PbAE polymer nanoparticles were significantly more efficient in drug delivery, reducing toxicity and decreasing tumor growth rates in comparison to the paclitaxel aqueous solution 3.

The interaction between the PbAE polymeric core with the PEO modified surface gives particles hydrophilic PEO components that decreases opsonization signal binding, and thus particles are less prone to phagocytes and macrophages 1-3,14,16. Particles were pH-sensitive, allowing drug release only at certain pH conditions, similar to pH levels unique in tumor cells. As a result the PEO-PbAE nanoparticles demonstrated the greatest drug efficacy. After four weeks the PEO-PbAE nanoparticle had reduced tumor volume to 22% of the original volume, where as the aqueous solution only had reduced tumor volume to 44% 3. As these nanoparticles improve drug circulation, they also decrease chances of multi-drug resistance in long-term therapies.

In further research, Kommareddy and Amiji recently published their work on using poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) surface modified thiolated gelatin nanoparticles to test drug and gene efficacy on breast cancer cells. Studies demonstrated prolonged circulation due to the hydrophilic PEG-modified surfaces. The PEG-modified thiolated gelatin nanoparticles had a high half-life of 37.8 h in the tumor mass. Also, drug release was administrated through thiolated gelatin nanoparticles that are highly sensitive to reducing environments, similar to those found in tumor cells 12. Through nanotechnology, nanoparticles can be modified in a numerous ways to prolong circulation, enhance drug localization, increase drug efficacy, and potentially decrease chances of multi-drug resistance.

Nanotechnology is also overcoming challenges of early detection and imaging in current cancer therapies. In July 2006, an article by Sathe et al. demonstrated the use of nanotechnology in cancer detection 15. Current detection methods are restricted in spectrum range, penetration depth, cell targeting, and signal/noise clarity 9. The Nie team at the Emory/Georgia Tech CCNE has been focusing on the development of quantum dots to improve detection methods. In the study mentioned above, they developed dual-functioning beads comprised of quantum dots and iron oxide nanocrystals embedded in silica beads. These particles were able to target specific cells, due to the iron oxide crystals, and have high imaging qualities, due to the quantum dot component. Currently, they are determining ideal combinations of iron oxides and quantum dots that would give the best imaging qualities 15. Through nanotechnology, highly sensitive and specific imaging agents are being developed with biocompatible and multi-functional properties.

The role of the NCI Alliance is to monitor research programs to ensure they are product-oriented and milestone driven 8,9. Within the five-year funding period, the Alliance aims to increase advancement rates by conducting annual progress reports, monitoring development and encouraging collaboration across the Alliance. This program is unique because it forms a strong network among the top researchers in the nation and encourages research advancement, so projects may reach clinical trial stages in the near future 8. As a result of the organization and framework of the Alliance, there are high prospects in developing highly efficient cancer therapies through the application of nanotechnology.


This book presents the first in-depth, complete, and unified theoretical discussion of the two most important classes of algorithms for solving matrix eigenvalue problems: QR-like algorithms for dense problems and Krylov subspace methods for sparse problems. The author discusses the theory of the generic GR algorithm, including special cases (for example, QR, SR, HR), and the development of Krylov subspace methods. Also addressed are a generic Krylov process and the Arnoldi and various Lanczos algorithms, which are obtained as special cases. The chapter on product eigenvalue problems provides further unification, showing that the generalized eigenvalue problem, the singular value decomposition problem, and other product eigenvalue problems can all be viewed as standard eigenvalue problems. The author provides theoretical and computational exercises in which the student is guided, step by step, to the results. Some of the exercises refer to a collection of MATLAB programs compiled by the author that are available on a Web site that supplements the book. Audience: Readers of this book are expected to be familiar with the basic ideas of linear algebra and to have had some experience with matrix computations. This book is intended for graduate students in numerical linear algebra. It will also be useful as a reference for researchers in the area and for users of eigenvalue codes who seek a better understanding of the methods they are using. Contents: Preface; Chapter 1: Preliminary Material; Chapter 2: Basic Theory of Eigensystems; Chapter 3: Elimination; Chapter 4: Iteration; Chapter 5: Convergence; Chapter 6: The Generalized Eigenvalue Problem; Chapter 7: Inside the Bulge; Chapter 8: Product Eigenvalue Problems; Chapter 9: Krylov Subspace Methods; Bibliography; Index.


The mean heart weight as a measure of arterial hypertension of patients who died from spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (primary intracerebral hemorrhage or PIH) was compared with that of controls from the same autopsy population. All patients with valvular or congenital heart disease or disease processes associated with myocardial infiltration were excluded. In 206 cases of PIH, hypertension was diagnosed if heart weight greater than or equal to the mean heart weight of autopsy controls for either sex, plus 1.5 SD. Only 94 (46%) of all cases of PIH were hypertensive by this criterion. However, hypertension was five times more frequent in the cases than in the controls. The site of hemorrhage was clearly defined in 183 cases (88.8%) only. Of these, 80 (43.7%) had lobar hemorrhage and 69 (37.7%) bled in the basal ganglia. Only 26 cases (12.6%) had evidence of previous cerebral or myocardial infarction and there was no instance of previous intracerebral hemorrhage. These data show that arterial hypertension was present in about half the cases of PIH and suggest that other as yet unidentified risk factors for PIH may be more common than is realized. Patients who died from PIH had been healthy all their lives with no evidence of cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease, and the PIH was their first evidence of disease.


Forest growth predictions are used to build expectations about the future economic performance of management decisions. Faustmann land expectation value (LEV) is a widely used criterion in forestry to evaluate a diversity of decision parameters, such as rotation age and thinning regimes. Most of the predictions and, consequently, expectations are based on emperical knowledge, assuming a steady state in climate and a deterministic forest growth approach. However, the climate may change to potentially different degrees in the coming decades, causing a dynamic and uncertain forest growth and carbon budget. Moreover, carbon economy in forestry, defined as opportunity cost of in situ carbon sequestration, can hardly be analysed using empirical models and calls for process-based forest biomass production models. Process-based models include numerous parameters and processes that embody some degree of uncertainty. The uncertainty of these parameters and climate state propagates over time to the final decision about carbon economy and optimal management solutions. Here we quantify this uncertainty using Bayesian inference and apply twelve different climate change scenarios to evaluate the forecasts of the process-based forest model 3-PG, to predict the growth of European beech (Fagus Sylvatica) in central european conditions as an example. The results show a strong influence of the model's parameters uncertainty on the final decisions about timber based and carbon economy. The uncertainty triples if different climate change scenarios are applied as a source of deep uncertainty where no probability can be assigned to any scenario. To deal with deep uncertainty, a robust decision-making approach has been applied to find solutions with minimum regret or maximum value at risk regarding all scenarios. We conclude that communicating uncertainty is a fundamental issue for forestry economics under changing climate conditions, especially if carbon sequestration is an asset. The key message for designing global forest governance policy in the uncertain times of climate change will be the necessity to take into account both the uncertainty on the demand side, that is, socio-economic developments and regional population needs for forest ecosystem services such as wood, but also the uncertainty of the supply side and the inherent ecological uncertainties in predicting the forests' growth, resources, and climatic conditions.


This paper explores the issue of practitioner-patient communication in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, when the healthcare worker's first language is not that same as that of the patient. In the English as a Second Language (ESL) setting of countries such as the USA and the UK, this issue concerns international graduate students, physicians, and nurses, who need to acquire the technical language of Medical English for their professional qualifications, along with the psychosocial language of physician-patient relationships. In the EFL setting of countries such as Korea the situation is different, but the need for health staff to be able to communicate with English-speaking patients is increasing, in addition to the need to read professional publications printed in English. This paper suggests therefore that due to factors such as international mobility, globalization, and the spreading of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), medical colleges and nursing colleges in EFL countries should go beyond the 'conversation English' paradigm and offer special Medical English programs for pre-service and in-service healthcare personnel. Furthermore, the curricula of these programs should take a humanistic, patient-centered, task-based approach, promoting and developing sensitive counseling skills in English, in addition to teaching the specific vocabulary and lexis of physician-patient interaction.


Identifying general practice trainees at risk of failing the CSA early in their training is important so that supportive measures can be put in place to ensure training progression. The aim of this study was to determine aspects of the trainee's learning portfolio activity which might predict performance in the CSA. From the Mersey School of General Practice records, details were obtained for trainees who had completed their ST3 year between 1 August and 31 December 2012 with respect to the numbers of entries for the Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX), case-based discussions (CBDs), directly observed procedures (DOPS), learning logs and personal development plans (PDPs) that they had carried out in each of their ST1 and ST2 years. Gender, university of qualification and years since qualification were also recorded. Records were obtained for 116 trainees (94 had passed their CSA). ST1 number of CBD and ST1 number of DOPS, university of qualification, gender, and shorter time since qualification were significantly associated with CSA pass. A multivariate model indicated that graduation from a European university and being female were both associated with an increased chance of passing. Longer time since qualification, non-European university graduation and male gender are the strongest predictors of failing the CSA. Portfolio activity is not a predictor of CSA outcome.


The mechanism and kinetics of thiol–maleimide "click" reactions carried out under a variety of conditions have been investigated computationally and using experimental competition reactions. The influence of three different solvents (chloroform, ethane thiol, and N,N-dimethylformamide), five different initiators (ethylamine, diethylamine, triethylamine, diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane, and dimethylphenyl-phosphine), and seven different thiols (methyl mercaptan, β-mercaptoethanol, thioacetic acid, methyl thioglycolate, methyl 3-mercaptopropionate, cysteine methyl ester, and thiophenol) on the energetics and kinetics of thiol–maleimide reactions have been examined using density functional methods. Computational and kinetic modeling indicate that the choice of solvent, initiator, and thiol directly influences whether product formation follows a base-, nucleophile-, or ion pair-initiated mechanism (or some combination thereof). The type of mechanism followed determines the overall thiol–maleimide reaction kinetics. Insights from computational studies are then used to understand the selectivity of ternary thiol–maleimide reactions between N-methyl maleimide, thiophenol, and 1-hexanethiol in different combinations of solvents and initiators. The results provide considerable insight into the interplay between reaction conditions, kinetics, and selectivity in thiol–maleimide reactions in particular and thiol-Michael reactions in general, with implications ranging from small molecule synthesis to bioconjugation chemistry and multifunctional materials.


The artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) and electromagnetic band gap (EBG) characteristics of planar periodic metallic arrays printed on grounded dielectric substrate are investigated. The currents induced on the arrays are presented for the first time and their study reveals two distinct resonance phenomena associated with these surfaces. A new technique is presented to tailor the spectral position of the AMC operation and the EBG. Square patch arrays with fixed element size and variable periodicities are employed as working examples to demonstrate the dependence of the spectral AMC and EBG characteristics on array parameters. It is revealed that as the array periodicity is increased, the AMC frequency is increased, while the EBG frequency is reduced. This is shown to occur due to the different nature of the resonance phenomena and the associated underlying physical mechanisms that produce the two effects. The effect of substrate thickness is also investigated. Full wave method of moments (MoM) has been employed for the derivation of the reflection characteristics, the currents and the dispersion relations. A uniplanar array with simultaneous AMC and EBG operation is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally.


Type 2 diabetes is a lifelong disease and a major health problem in Thai older people. Declining cognitive function and depressive mood can potentially present a barrier to self-care management. To date, there is no primary research data of cognitive impairment related to diabetes in Thailand, particularly in primary care settings which are the first important place for health care service in Thai community. This study contributes to the estimated prevalence of undiagnosed cognitive impairment and undiagnosed depressive mood in Thai older people with type 2 diabetes. In order to promote an early detection of cognitive impairment, a Thai version of Mini-Cog, a brief cognitive screening test for using in primary care settings was developed. A cross-sectional study design was conducted in a group of older diabetic patients aged 60 and over in the primary care settings of San-sai district, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Overall 556 participants were recruited and the following screening tests were applied on them: Mini-Cog Thai version, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) Thai 2002, and the depressive mood screening test of Thai Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS). The study shows the prevalence of Thai older people with type 2 diabetes who were probably undiagnosed with cognitive impairment to be 65.4% (95% CI 59.7%, 70.7%) for Mini-Cog, and 12.4% (95% CI 9.0%, 16.7%) for MMSE Thai 2002. The prevalence of people who were probably undiagnosed with depressive mood by TGDS is shown to be 19.4% (95% CI 15.2%, 24.4%). Logistic regression has been used to identify the associated characteristics of cognitive impairment and the associated characteristics of depressive mood. Using Mini-Cog, age, education, BMI and HDL were found to have effects on cognitive impairment. While using MMSE Thai 2002, only the effect of age and education were associated with cognitive impairment. The associated factor with depressive mood was retinopathy.
The differences of prevalence rate and associated characteristics between the two cognitive screening tests are probably due to the different foci on cognitive domain tests. Mini-Cog may be more sensitive in detecting an earlier stage of cognitive impairment better than MMSE Thai 2002. Mini-Cog Thai version shows a good inter-rater reliability (K=0.8, p<0.001, 95% CI 0.54, 1.06).
This study encourages health care providers' awareness of cognitive decline and depressive mood that may affect self-care diabetes. Mini-Cog Thai version might be used as a brief cognitive screening tool in primary care settings.


Previous research has shown that about 30% of adolescent girls and 15% of adolescent boys suffer from disordered eating (DE) which can be defined as problematic eating below criteria for eating disorders according to DSM-V (Hautala et al., 2008; Herpertz-Dahlman et al., 2008). Even sub-clinical unhealthy weight-control behaviors have predicted outcomes related to obesity and eating disorders five years later (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2006). However, two issues question the validity of DE. First, in contrast to eating disorders, under- or overweight/obesity are not necessary parts of DE. Second, some symptoms and correlates of DE are similar to those of depression. E.g., parent-adolescent relationships seem to play an important role in explaining both DE (Hautala et al., 2011; Berge et al., 2010) and internalizing problems (Soenens et al., 2012). Thus, this study examined associations between DE and a wide range of internalizing and externalizing problems, parent-adolescent relationship characteristics, and food intake and sleep habits in a general population of adolescents. Comparing results with and without controlling for depression reveals whether DE is a specific problem or merely a depressive symptom. This study also explored whether DE and the other variables under study are associated independently of weight status (underweight, overweight/obesity, and normal weight), specific to under- or overweight, or spurious if taking weight status into account.The study is based on the first wave of an on-going longitudinal study, and all measures are child-reported (N=1,281). Adolescents attending grades 7 to 10 in a Southern Swedish municipality (age 12.5 to 19.3, M = 15.2, SD = 1.2) filled out questionnaires in class. DE was measured using the SCOFF, a five-item screening scale validated for use in general populations (e.g. Muro-Sans et al., 2008; Noma et al., 2006).The results of univariate ANOVAs indicate that associations with DE were largely independent of weight status. Moreover, most associations with disordered eating were spurious when controlling for depression. However, some associations remained. Above and beyond depression effects, adolescents with DE reported lower self-esteem, stronger feelings of being over-controlled by their parents and active withholding of information towards them, consumption of fewer meals during the week, and higher levels of daytime sleepiness. Boys with ED slept more hours during the week and ate more fruits and vegetables than boys without ED. In conclusion, despite an overlap between depressive symptoms and disordered eating, this study provides ample evidence that sleep, nutrition habits, self-esteem, and parental control issues distinguish eating disordered adolescents from those suffering from general depressive symptoms.


One of the most widely-used multivariate conditional volatility models is the dynamic conditional correlation (or DCC) specification. However, the underlying stochastic process to derive DCC has not yet been established, which has made problematic the derivation of asymptotic properties of the Quasi-Maximum Likelihood Estimators (QMLE). To date, the statistical properties of the QMLE of the DCC parameters have purportedly been derived under highly restrictive and unverifiable regularity conditions. The paper shows that the DCC model can be obtained from a vector random coefficient moving average process, and derives the stationarity and invertibility conditions of the DCC model. The derivation of DCC from a vector random coefficient moving average process raises three important issues, as follows: (i) demonstrates that DCC is, in fact, a dynamic conditional covariance model of the returns shocks rather than a dynamic conditional correlation model; (ii) provides the motivation, which is presently missing, for standardization of the conditional covariance model to obtain the conditional correlation model; and (iii) shows that the appropriate ARCH or GARCH model for DCC is based on the standardized shocks rather than the returns shocks. The derivation of the regularity conditions, especially stationarity and invertibility, should subsequently lead to a solid statistical foundation for the estimates of the DCC parameters. Several new results are also derived for univariate models, including a novel conditional volatility model expressed in terms of standardized shocks rather than returns shocks, as well as the associated stationarity and invertibility conditions.


In this paper, Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are investigated for the purpose of classifying planar shapes represented by their curvature coefficients. In the training phase, special attention is devoted to the initialization and model selection issues, which make the learning phase particularly effective. The results of tests on different data sets show that the proposed system is able to accurately classify objects that were translated, rotated, occluded, or deformed by shearing, also in the presence of noise.


Postgraduate Medical Journal (PMJ) includes an interesting article by an eclectic group of authors from the USA, Singapore and the Middle East.1 They studied aspects of gender equity in accredited clinician-educator programmes in Singapore, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In short, their conclusions show that the situation regarding gender equity, or the lack of it, is no better in those locations than it is in North America, Europe or Australasia on which much of the previous comparable literature has focused. The study defined clinician educators as 'physicians whose primary responsibilities are patient care and education, and whose research represents only minor portion (sic) of academic contributions' and included a high proportion of people whose professional education was from Europe or the USA, that is, introducing international mobility as a feature of the population under study. The most concerning findings were that women were less likely to have an academic position and less likely to have institutional leadership status (despite there being no gender difference in time worked at present institution or years in current position); women were less likely to be promoted and more likely to be dissatisfied with work–life balance; outcomes in women but not in men were affected by marital status and having children. This report adds to numerous previous studies showing that careers in academic medicine are not forged on a level playing field: women are disadvantaged and men predominate at senior academic levels and in leadership roles. This is despite the predominance of women entering, and graduating from, medical school in most regions and the roughly equal numbers of women and men at early career stages. So what is going wrong with academic career progression for women and what can be …


Summary There is disagreement on whether the supply of lithium is adequate to support a future global fleet of electric vehicles. We report a comprehensive analysis of the global lithium resources and compare it to an assessment of global lithium demand from 2010 to 2100 that assumes rapid and widespread adoption of electric vehicles. Recent estimates of global lithium resources have reached very different conclusions. We compiled data on 103 deposits containing lithium, with an emphasis on the 32 deposits that have a lithium resource of more than 100,000 tonnes each. For each deposit, data were compiled on its location, geologic type, dimensions, and content of lithium as well as current status of production where appropriate. Lithium demand was estimated under the assumption of two different growth scenarios for electric vehicles and other current battery and nonbattery applications. The global lithium resource is estimated to be about 39 Mt (million tonnes), whereas the highest demand scenario does not exceed 20 Mt for the period 2010 to 2100. We conclude that even with a rapid and widespread adoption of electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries, lithium resources are sufficient to support demand until at least the end of this century.


We compare objectives and approaches of four regional studies of marine biodiversity: Gulf of Maine Area Census of Marine Life, Baltic Sea History of Marine Animal Populations, Great Barrier Reef Seabed Biodiversity Project, and Gulf of Mexico Biodiversity Project. Each program was designed as an "ecosystem" scale but was created independently and executed differently. Each lasted 8 to 10 years, including several years to refine program objectives, raise funding, and develop research networks. All resulted in improved baseline data and in new, or revised, data systems. Each contributed to the creation or evolution of interdisciplinary teams, and to regional, national, or international science-management linkages. To date, there have been differing extents of delivery and use of scientific information to and by management, with greatest integration by the program designed around specific management questions.

We evaluate each research program's relative emphasis on three principal elements of biodiversity organization: composition, structure, and function. This approach is used to analyze existing ecosystem-wide biodiversity knowledge and to assess what is known and where gaps exist. In all four of these systems and studies, there is a relative paucity of investigation on functional elements of biodiversity, when compared with compositional and structural elements. This is symptomatic of the current state of the science. Substantial investment in understanding one or more biodiversity element(s) will allow issues to be addressed in a timely and more integrative fashion. Evaluating research needs and possible approaches across specific elements of biodiversity organization can facilitate planning of future studies and lead to more effective communication between scientists, managers, and stakeholders. Building a general approach that captures how various studies have focused on different biodiversity elements can also contribute to meta-analyses of worldwide experience in scientific research to support ecosystem-based management.


It is established that for the effective functioning and ensuring a high level of competitiveness of agricultural formations it is necessary to qualitatively develop all the constituent elements of the resource potential of the business entity. The main place in this belongs to the assessment and effective use of fixed assets, material, labor, financial, information components of the resource potential of the agricultural enterprise as a basis for successful and socio-economic development of the whole system. It is determined that the strategically oriented resource potential of agricultural formations is the availability of a sufficient number of quality resources of the economy and strategic competencies in the management to form and implement a strategy of action to achieve the goals of the enterprise. Methods for assessing the effectiveness of resource management of agricultural formations are studied. The method of determining the integrated indicator of the efficiency of the resource potential of the enterprise in terms of financial, material and labor resources is considered. Integral assessment allows you to compare the achieved level of management efficiency as a whole resource potential of the enterprise and its individual components for a certain period, for a better understanding of the situation, the period is chosen not less than 5 years. Formed stages of the process of forming strategic management of resource potential of agricultural formations which include strategic analysis, development of strategic goals, formation of strategic standards, strategy selection depending on the level of resource potential, formation of measures to ensure effective strategy implementation, evaluation and control of the proposed strategy. The assessment of the level of efficiency of resource potential management and its components of agro-formation is carried out and the matrix of actions according to the reached level of efficiency of resource potential management is filled. The calculation of single, group, complex and integrated indicator of efficiency of management of resource potential of agroforming is carried out. The defined level remains only at a sufficient level, which necessitated the formation of an overall strategy for resource management. A system of strategic management of resource potential is proposed, which demonstrates the process of formation of resource potential and exerts managerial influence on economic processes and its strategic development. The system of strategic management of resource potential is primarily focused on the effective implementation of the functions that underlie agricultural formation. The basis of the developed system was the task of rational and balanced formation of resource potential and to ensure the competitiveness of the economy.


The WWW is currently experiencing a revolutionary growth due to numerous emerging tools, techniques and concepts. Digital journals thus need to transform themselves to cope with this evolution of the web. With their growing information size and access, conventional techniques for managing a journal and supporting authors and readers are becoming insufficient. Journals of the future need to provide innovative administrative tools in helping its managers to ensure quality. They also need to provide better facilities for assisting authors and readers in making decisions regarding their submission of papers and in providing novel navigational features for finding relevant publications and collaborators in particular areas of interest. In this paper, we explore an innovative solution to address these problems by using an emerging Web 2.0 technology. We explore the application of mash-ups for J.UCS - the Journal of Universal Computer Science and encourage readers and authors to try out the applications (see section 11 Conclusions). J.UCS can then serve as a model for contemporary electronic journals.


Abstract. Atmospheric oxidation of isoprene, the most abundantly emitted non-methane hydrocarbon, affects the abundances of ozone (O3), the hydroxyl radical (OH), nitrogen oxide radicals (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), oxygenated and nitrated organic compounds, and secondary organic aerosol (SOA). We analyze these effects in box models and in the global GEOS-Chem chemical transport model using the new reduced Caltech isoprene mechanism (RCIM) condensed from a recently developed explicit isoprene oxidation mechanism. We find many similarities with previous global models of isoprene chemistry along with a number of important differences. Proper accounting of the isomer distribution of peroxy radicals following the addition of OH and O2 to isoprene influences the subsequent distribution of products, decreasing in particular the yield of methacrolein and increasing the capacity of intramolecular hydrogen shifts to promptly regenerate OH. Hydrogen shift reactions throughout the mechanism lead to increased OH recycling, resulting in less depletion of OH under low-NO conditions than in previous mechanisms. Higher organonitrate yields and faster tertiary nitrate hydrolysis lead to more efficient NOx removal by isoprene and conversion to inorganic nitrate. Only 20 % of isoprene-derived organonitrates (excluding peroxyacyl nitrates) are chemically recycled to NOx. The global yield of formaldehyde from isoprene is 22 % per carbon and less sensitive to NO than in previous mechanisms. The global molar yield of glyoxal is 2 %, much lower than in previous mechanisms because of deposition and aerosol uptake of glyoxal precursors. Global production of isoprene SOA is about one-third from each of the following: isoprene epoxydiols (IEPOX), organonitrates, and tetrafunctional compounds. We find a SOA yield from isoprene of 13 % per carbon, much higher than commonly assumed in models and likely offset by SOA chemical loss. We use the results of our simulations to further condense RCIM into a mini Caltech isoprene mechanism (Mini-CIM) for less expensive implementation in atmospheric models, with a total size (108 species, 345 reactions) comparable to currently used mechanisms.


The proposals for the CAP for the 2014–2020 period were heralded by the Agriculture Commissioner as providing 'a new partnership between Europe and its farmers' that will 'enhance both the economic and ecological competitiveness of agriculture', to meet the 'challenges of food security, sustainable use of natural resources and growth'. For the past two decades, the integration of environmental concerns within the CAP has been characterised by a gradual shift in emphasis towards more targeted, regionally defined and programmed approaches, embodied in the agri-environment measures and Pillar 2 more generally, underpinned by cross compliance. These elements all remain within the current proposals, however, a major new element has come into play – the introduction of green direct payments in Pillar 1. The proposals aim to extend a basic level of environmental management to the majority of farmland in Europe, recognising the scale of the environmental challenges to be met. However, these are contentious proposals, faced with criticisms that they are both too demanding and too weak. At the same time, their introduction is coupled with a net reduction in the Pillar 2 budget over the next programming period. Within the context of the broader CAP proposals, this paper considers the opportunities and risks embodied in the proposals for green direct payments as well as possible alternative options. It considers the implications of the proposals for the environment and whether they genuinely will lead to the much needed improvements in environmental outcomes required to meet the significant environmental and climate challenges facing the EU.


Total joint replacement is one of the most common elective surgical procedures performed worldwide, with an estimate of 1.5 million operations performed annually. Currently joint replacements are expected to function for 10–15 years, however, with an increase in life expectancy, and a greater call for knee replacement due to increased activity levels, there is a requirement to improve their function to offer longer term improved quality of life for patients.

The amount of wear that a joint incurs is seen as a good indicator of performance, with higher wear rates typically leading to reduced function and premature failure. New technologies and materials are pushing traditional wear assessment methods to their limits, and novel metrology solutions are required to assess wear of joints following in vivo and in vitro use. This paper presents one such measurement technique; a scanning co-ordinate metrology machine for geometrical assessment. A case study is presented to show the application of this technology to a real orthopaedic measurement problem: the wear of components in total knee replacement.

This technique shows good results and provides a basis for further developing techniques for geometrical wear assessment of total joint replacements


One of the environmental influences to a business arises from competition. Banks have to respond strategically to environmental factors in order to be sustainable. Increased competition threatens the attractiveness of an industry and reduces the profitability of the players (Hamel and Prahalad, 1993). To succeed in the long term, organizations must compete effectively and out-perform their rivals in a dynamic environment. To accomplish this they must find suitable ways for creating and adding value for their customers. Indigenous Kenyan commercial banks use a variety of marketing strategies to respond to competition and other external environmental forces in their plan to expand their operations into the international markets. This study was therefore designed to identify the effects of marketing strategies adopted by indigenous commercial banks in Kenya towards increased internationalization. The study was designed as a descriptive study because it describes events as they are. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample of 6 commercial banks from a population of 44 commercial banks licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya to carryon banking business in Kenya. Data was collected using structured questionnaires which were be administered using the drop and pick method. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics with the help of SPSS and the results presented using tables, percentages and ratios for easier interpretation. A regression analysis was then done to determine the relationship between marketing strategies and internationalization of indigenous commercial banks Kenya. The study found that market development strategies, diversification strategies and product life cycle strategies highly affect the degree of internationalization. It was concluded that the various products/service offering by the indigenous commercial banks are at different stages in the product life cycle and therefore each product needs its unique strategies in order to be marketed effectively in the home as well as in the international market. . Recommendations were made on how indigenous commercial banks can effectively employ marketing strategies in order to optimally benefit from internationalization. Further studies that relate to internationalization were also recommended for future researchers.


11406 The impact of telluric current activity on the corrosion control systems on pipelines in northern regions and cold climates is examined. Three specific areas of concern are identified. These factors are corrosion of the pipe during positive cycles of the telluric disturbances, accurate measurement of cathodic protection performance parameters, and coating damage during negative cycles of the telluric activity. Corrosion rates are calculated versus the magnitude of the pipe potential change caused by discharging telluric current for different values of the Kp geomagnetic index. Methods of compensating and mitigating telluric current effects are discussed in the context of the cathodic protection design and monitoring procedures. The benefits of using potential controlled rectifiers and integrated reference/coupons in mitigating telluric current effects are illustrated.


The coral Pocillopora damicornis hosts genetically distinct and novel types of dinoflagellate symbionts at the high‐latitude site of Lord Howe Island (LHI), yet why these novel types exist at this marginal site is unknown. In this study, it was determined whether one of the novel Symbiodinium types at LHI is physiologically adapted for this high‐latitude site, where water temperatures annually range from 18°C to 26°C. Low and high short‐term thermal bleaching thresholds of the coral–symbiont partnership were measured as 14°C and 30°C. Photochemical sensitivity to temperature (15°C and 29°C) and light treatments (100% and 40% of sunlight), measured as effective quantum yield and fast induction curves, were determined over a 72‐h period. A greater effect on the photochemical reactions of LHI P. damicornis symbionts was recorded in response to a 3°C temperature increase from annual maxima than a 3°C temperature decrease from annual minima. Corals did not bleach when temperature was reduced to 15°C for 72 h; in contrast, a 92% decline in photochemical efficiency was recorded in the 29°C treatment (ΔF:F′m < 0.05), compared to 35% loss in the control (20°C). For the first time, a Pulse Efficiency Analyser fluorometer was used to assess the effect of reduced temperature on symbionts, showing a reduced rate of QA reduction, further enhanced by high light levels. This type of Symbiodinium at LHI may be specialized for cooler and more variable temperatures, so contributing to the success of corals at this marginal location.


While coherency between an RF-tone and OFDM signals in RoF systems at 60 GHz is de-correlated by fiber dispersion, both phase rotation term (PRT) on each subcarrier and inter-carrier interference (ICI) between subcarriers are induced at a receiver. We analytically calculate the powers of PRT and ICI under different parameters, such as subcarrier number, modulation format, laser linewidth and transmission distance. Moreover, dispersion-induced ICI is shown to be non-Gaussian distributed by its kurtosis, and its distribution depends on system parameters. Therefore, using only the power of ICI cannot predict accurate bit error rate (BER) and corresponding power penalty. We propose to use t-distribution to fit the distribution of ICI, and it can be used to compute BER precisely.


People have been using drugs to alter brain states since the dawn of time. But the use of specific drugs to combat specific brain problems is a hallmark of this century. In previous eras doctors reached for laudanum to combat hysteria, oblivious to the underlying neurochemistry. However, in Paris the famous neurologist Charcot purposely gave belladonna to patients with Parkinson's disease to combat the constant salivation that accompanies loss of motor control because women of the time who used the drug to dilate their pupils complained of a dry mouth. Surprisingly, this anticholinergic drug proved effective in combating not just the dribbling but the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Magnetic resonance scan of coronal section of brain in Parkinson's disease

Today we owe much to the work of Henry Dale and Otto Loewi, who established that chemicals act as transmitters to relay a signal from one neurone to the next.1 The guiding principle of modern neuropharmacology is to mimic, block, amplify, or reduce the availability of certain transmitters, believed to be pivotal to the disease to be treated. Yet herein lies the problem.

### Summary points

One transmitter may be linked to many disorders, and one disorder to many transmitters

Classic transmitters have non-classic modulatory functions too

Substances such as nitric oxide and acetylcholinesterase have unexpected signalling properties

Neurodegeneration might be an aberrant form of development, so drugs promoting neuronal regeneration should be approached with caution

Drugs in the future could be used as a Rosetta stone for linking brain and mind

There is no one to one matching of a single chemical system to a disease. Consider, for example, the well known transmitter dopamine. In Parkinson's disease there is a deficit of dopamine in the substantia nigra, hence prompting administration of the precursor and eventual mimicry of the effects of dopamine …


Voting on legislative bills to form new laws serves as a key function of most of the legislatures. Predicting the votes of such deliberative bodies leads better understanding of government policies and generate actionable strategies for social good. However, it is very difficult to predict legislative votes due to the myriad factors that affect the political decision‐making process. In this paper, we present a novel prediction model that maximizes the usage of publicly accessible heterogeneous data, i.e., bill text and lawmakers' profile data, to carry out effective legislative prediction. In particular, we propose to design a probabilistic prediction model which archives high consistency with past vote recorders while ensuring the minimum uncertainty of the vote prediction reflecting the firm legal ground often hold by the lawmakers. In addition, the proposed legislative prediction model enjoys the following properties: inductive and analytical solution, abilities to deal with the prediction on new bills and new legislators, and the robustness to missing vote issue. We conduct extensive empirical study using the real legislative data from the joint sessions of the United States Congress and compare with other representative methods in both quantitative political science and data mining communities. The experimental results clearly corroborate that the proposed method provides superior prediction accuracy with visible performance gain.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions


The ixodid fauna of rodent burrows in the Bandia area was studied. From May 1987 to April 1988, 1794 ticks were collected, mostly immature and mature A. sonrai (98,2%). This tick species is present all year round, without significant seasonal variations. The development cycle of 110 days was determined in the laboratory. Three CCHF virus isolates were obtained from this tick species. However, CCHF transmission experiments strongly suggest that A. sonrai is not a vector of CCHF virus.


Hypertension has long been recognized as a significant
health problem in Australia. Since the condition results in
reduced life expectancy, and employability, requiring careful
monitoring and life long therapy, the choice of treatments
requires special care. Mild hypertension is symptomless, and
accounts for seventy percent of all cases of hypertension. Most
mild hypertensives are unaware of their condition.
Chapter one of this dissertation is largely concerned with
an outline of the pr~valence and the principal means of
detection and treatment of the condition. The cost of lifelong
drug therapy, currently the primary means of treatment, is high.
A comparison with the alternative non-drug treatments is
therefore called for. The aims of this analysis are consistent
with guidelines for hypertension control recommended by the
National Heart Foundation of Australia.
The rest of chapter one, justifies the use of cost-benefit
analysis in indicating the desirability or otherwise of
government intervention in the market for health care. It is
argued that market failure prevents individual decision makers
from rationally evaluating the worth of their human capital.
Market failure is evident in insurance, lifestyle and through
the generation of externalities. The analysis should help to indicate whether a control programme is economically viable,
which treatments should be used and who should be treated.
Chapter two introduces the taxonomy of benefits and costs
used i.e. direct and indirect, visible and invisible savings in
morbidity and mortality, which are the major benefits of
effective hypertension control. The human capital and
willingness to pay approaches for valuation of life are
examined. Both approaches can be drawn together when we view
insurance and lifestyle as a reflection of individuals
willingness to pay, to maintain and increase his own human
capital. The permanent ipcome hypothesis can be used to justify
valueing pensioners time at the market wage. We must assume that
maximising Gross National Product (G.N.P.) does not provide a
basis for human capital valuation.
Choice of the real discount rate presents some
difficulties. Arguments that it ought to reflect the social rate
of time preference and the opportunity cost of capital are
discussed. The use of the risk-free bond rate is viewed as a
reliable proxy.
Chapter three examines the benefits (averted costs) of
effective control of mild hypertension. A mortality model is
developed upon the basis of human capital valuation, yielding
the present value of losses for the condition. The stock-flow
considerations, largely ignored in other studies are examined.
Morbidity costs are categorized by hospitalization, future treatment and loss in labour productivity. An understatement in
estimates is likely given the difficulty in quantifying some
indirect costs.
Chapter four, follows a probabilistic approach in
specifying the linkages between diagnosis, treatment and
outcome. The costs of treatment consist of screening, drug
treatment and the 'salt-modified' diet (non-drug treatment).
Sensitivity analysis is performed upon two alternative treatment
mixes i.e. diuretic drugs provide the primary course of
treatment (the 70% assumption) and non-drug treatment as the
initial therapy (the 20% ~ssumption).
Chapter five reviews the findings of the cost-benefit
analysis. In the aggregate social costs are outweighed by social
benefits. A programme based upon salt-diet modification as the
primary treatment yields the highest net benefit. Benefit cost
ratios suggest that, ideally, the programme should be directed
at males aged 65 to 69.
Research procedures followed consisted primarily of a
review of recent epidemiological studies performed in Australia,
the United Kingdom and the United States. Economic analysis, in
hypertension research, has been confined largely to costeffective
analyses. The increasing sophistication of costeffective
analyses and their scope for capturing the
nonpecuniary value of saving life, avoiding suffering etc, accounts for the growing usurpation of cost-benefit by cost
effective analysis, in health care.
More significantly, the use of quality-adjusted life years,
as a measure of health output, provides information more readily
appreciated by members of the medical profession, generally
lacking formal training in economics.
The Australian National Blood Pressure Study and the Risk
Factor Prevalence Study (National Heart Foundation of Australia
1980) were the primary sources of data. While information on
mortality rates is available on an annual basis, very little is
available on the incidence of non-fatal events i.e. for stroke
and myocardial infarction. Estimates of hypertension related
events were inferred. Dissaggregated data on deaths from heart
and blood vessel disease, provided by the N.H.F., were received
too late to be adequately incorporated.
The benefits and efficacy of drug/non drug treatment of
mild hypertension remains a contentious issue in epidemiological
circles. The forthcoming Medical Research Council Trial (U.K.)
should provide more exhaustive information regarding
hypertensive related events, and age/sex related benefits of
diuretic and beta-blocker therapy, than that currently
available.
The analysis undertaken is exploratory in nature. The
findings largely confirm those views held by the medical profession for the need for concerted efforts at eradicating
mild hypertension in Australia.
The magnitude of the net benefits are particularly
sensitive to choice of adherence-to-therapy probabilities and
stock-flow modelling. A more complete analysis is required which
incorporates sensitivity to adherence rates, and a purpose built
demographic model. A cost-benefit program examining both blood
pressure and cholesterol, as the major risk factors in
heart,disease would be informative.
I wish to thank Bob Rutherford, my supervisor, for
assistance provided throughout the preparation of this thesis.
Thanks must also go to William Magill, Dr. Trevor Beard (of The
Canberra National Blood Pressure Trial) and Stan Crane (of The
National Heart Foundation of Australia) for advice and
suggestions, (reely given; and to Lyn Kumpulainen the typist.


In recent time, wavelet transforms are used extensively for efficient storage, transmission and representation of multimedia signals. Hilbert transform pairs of wavelets is the basic unit of many wavelet theories such as complex filter banks, complex wavelet and phaselet etc. Moreover, Hilbert transform finds various applications in communications and signal processing such as generation of single sideband (SSB) modulation, quadrature carrier multiplexing (QCM) and bandpass representation of a signal. Thus wavelet based discrete Hilbert transform design draws much attention of researchers for couple of years. This paper proposes an (i) algorithm for generation of low computation cost Hilbert transform pairs of symmetric filter coefficients using biorthogonal wavelets, (ii) approximation to its rational coefficients form for its efficient hardware realization and without much loss in signal representation, and finally (iii) development of QCM-SS (spread spectrum) image watermarking scheme for doubling the payload capacity. Simulation results show novelty of the proposed Hilbert transform design and its application to watermarking compared to existing algorithms.


This article uses a unique bank level data from 1991 to 2000 and evaluates how financial reforms affect banking efficiency of domestic and foreign banks in Pakistan. The results suggest that banking efficiency falls during initial reform period when banks adjust to enhanced competition but increases in more advanced stages of reform. While in general foreign and private banks show superior efficiency and factor productivity than do state-owned banks, the relative performance of foreign banks worsens after the consolidation stage of the financial reforms is over. We show the importance of link between bank size, asset quality and bank branches with efficiency indexes and also note that every 10% increase in share of nonperforming to total loans decreases banking efficiency by 6 to 10%.


With growing demands for ethanol, many researchers are turning to Panicum virgatum (switchgrass) as a feedstock of cellulosic ethanol. This study was conducted to examine the germination, biomass, nitrogen, survival, and chlorophyll absorbance of two cultivars of switchgrass grown in competition with Bromus inermis (smooth brome) and with two different levels of nitrogen fertilizer. I predicted that these factors would affect the aforementioned variables, as nitrogen promotes plant growth, competition from other plant species detracts from nutrient availability, and these cultivars are physiologically different. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse as 12 treatments replicated 20 times. Results indicated that the Liberty cultivar had lower germination, but higher survivorship than the Cave-in-Rock cultivar and that treatments with higher levels of competition resulted in lower biomass. Additionally, control treatments of both switchgrass cultivars grown in the absence of smooth brome had the highest levels of chlorophyll absorbance, and competition treatments had overall lower levels of nitrogen than control treatments. Both levels of nitrogen fertilizer decreased chlorophyll absorbance. Furthermore, switchgrass cultivars grown in competition with smooth brome had lower levels of nitrogen compared to control treatments. My results also indicate that during establishment, competition from other species has a greater effect than nitrogen fertilizer. Replicating this experiment for a multi-year randomized block setup would be ideal for extending this study.


Abstract Jeanette Winterson, in her novel "The Stone Gods" that consist of three parts that look like different novellas within actually deals with three main themes that are repeated in three of them which are that the universe is an imprint, human kind's incapability to learn from its mistake and therefore its destiny to be doomed, and the representation of love of different kinds as the only way human soul could be rescued in this futurist dystopia. In parallel with Donna Harraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto" which denies the distinctions such a male and female, human and non-human, Winterson suggests a 'homo sapiens' , a humanoid that is more human than human beings and that become more effective in expressing human feeling than humans themselves. In addition to the thematic connection of the novel, the repetition of the characters in different representations also underlines the interconnectedness among species and thus represents the ecosystem in the novel and universe. This study looks at how evolving trans-humans of our digital age can be seen as alternatives to show the contrast between the materializing, discriminating, capitalizing, stereotyping and opportunist thinking that has taken over the humanity. To do so, setting and characters, the assignment of gender roles as well as the exploitation of nature and female will be of focus via the Cyborg Theory with references to the Ecofeminist theory.


Benzoylecgonine (BE) is the most abundant metabolite of cocaine found in the human body. Analysis of BE in urine by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry is the most common method currently used to detect cocaine abuse. This current method is costly and time consuming, so the investigation of an easier and more cost-effective approach is the goal ofthis research. Because BE is a zwitterion, it is highly soluble in water and very difficult to extract from urine. Once the pKa values of BE are determined, either the cation or anion form of BE can be formed from the zwitterion by adjusting the pH appropriately. When BE is in a cationic or anionic state, it can be ion-paired with an appropriate counter-ion to form a neutral ion pair. This ion pair can then be extracted into a non-polar solvent, concentrated, and quantitatively determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The following portions of this project have been completed: BE was synthesized, characterized, and purity was verified. Preliminary UV-Vis spectra of BE were measured to determine absorption bands of BE in various solvents. Based on these preliminary UV-Vis spectra, dichloromethane was determined to be the best organic extracting agent. Next, pKa values were experimentally determined, with a PKal of2.15 +/.01 and a pKa2 of 11.41 +/.01. The pH of the BE zwitterion solution was adjusted according to these values, and ion pairings and extractions were performed using various ions. Many ion pairs failed to give clear results. There has been some initial success, however, with the ion pair formed between BE and Dragendorfreagent, Bi4-. This ion pair was tested and data gathered in order to generate a clear calibration curve.


Conventional understanding of quality of energy suggests that heat is a low grade form of energy. Hence converting this energy into useful form of work was assumed difficult. However, this understanding was challenged by researchers over the last few decades. With advances in solar, thermal and geothermal energy harvesting, they believed that these sources of energy had great potential to operate as dependable avenues for electrical power. In recent times, waste heat from automobiles, oil and gas and manufacturing industries were employed to harness power. Statistics show that US alone has a potential of generating 120,000 GWh/year of electricity from oil , gas and manufacturing industries, while automobiles can contribute upto 15,900 GWh/year. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) can be employed to capture some of this otherwise wasted heat and to convert this heat into useful electrical energy. This field of research as compared to gas turbine industry has emerged recently over past 30 decades. Researchers have shown that efficiency of these TEGs modules can be improved by integrating heat transfer augmentation features on the hot side of these modules. Gas turbines employ advanced technologies for internal and external cooling. These technologies have applications over wide range of applications, one of which is thermoelectricity. Hence, making use of gas turbine technologies in thermoelectrics would surely improve the efficiency of existing TEGs. This study makes an effort to develop innovative technologies for gas turbine as well as thermoelectric applications. The first part of the study analyzes heat transfer augmentation from four different configurations for low aspect ratio channels and the second part deal with characterizing improvement in efficiency of TEGs due to the heat transfer augmentation techniques.


Boosting algorithms attract much attention in computer vision and image processing because of their strong performance in a variety of applications. Recent progress on the theory of boosting algorithms suggests a close link between good generalization and the margin distrubtion of the classifier \wrt a dataset. In this paper, we propose a novel data-dependent margin distribution learning criterion for boosting, termed Laplacian MDBoost, which utilizes the intrinsic geometric structure of dataset. One key aspect of our method is that it can seamlessly incorporate unlabeled data by including a graph Laplacian regularizer. We derive a dual formulation of the learning problem that can be efficiently solved by column generation. Experiments on various datasets validate the effectiveness of the new graph Laplacian based learning criterion on both supervised and unsupervised learning settings. We also show that the performance of our algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art semi-supervised learning algorithms on a variety of inductive inference tasks, including real world video segmentation.


Abstract The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of the testing of the Elderly Food Based Dietary Guidelines (EFBDGs). Following a literature review, stakeholder discussions and revision, preliminary English EFBDGs were proposed and circulated to an expert panel for input. The developed EFBDGs are based on the existing FBDGs which were revised in 2012 and adapted for older people following the Food and Agricultural Organisation/World Health Organisation (FAO/WHO) guidelines. Minor corrections were received and incorporated, after which the guidelines were tested for comprehension, appropriateness and applicability in consumer groups. A qualitative design was followed with focus group discussions. Firstly, the English EFBDGs were tested with IsiZulu, Afrikaans, IsiXhosa, English and Sesotho speaking elderly aged 60 years and older in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Free State provinces, respectively. Thereafter, they were adapted and translated into IsiZulu, Afrikaans, IsiXhosa and Sesotho. Secondly, the adapted and translated EFBDGs were tested in the mentioned ethnic groups. In general, as expected, the results of the tests showed that the English speaking elderly responded better to the English guidelines than the other ethnic groups. The feedback in respect of the tested translated guidelines was more positive indicating a better understanding of the EFBDGs by the various ethnic groups. This is because, not only were the English guidelines translated, but they were also adapted and words were contextualised according to the day-to-day language use of the groups. It was recommended that the guidelines be incorporated into the Integrated Nutrition Programme for the purpose of nutrition education as well as a guide for food service institutions serving the elderly. Also, it was recommended that the development of support material for health professionals and the wider community be undertaken and the material translated into all the official languages. Future strategies should include the implementation, evaluation and impact of the EFBDGs.


The aim of this study was to investigate the behavioral and emotional problems of children with and without learning disabilities. The study  sample consisted of 15 teachers and 424 primary school children  with and without  learning disabilities were selected from two governmental primary  schools at Beni-Suef City, using case –control research design. Data were collected by the teachers using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for children and adolescents aged 4-16 years. The results conducted that the  prevalence of total difficulties scores among primary school children with learning disabilities was 98.1% abnormal difficulties compared to 79.7% of normal children. Results also found that statistical significant differences were found between children with and without learning disability in all sub domains of emotional and behavioral disorders. This study documents that the high prevalence of difficulties among primary school children is an alarming condition that needs attention and early intervention. The study recommended that a periodic screening test should be provided  for early detection of emotional and behavioral problems for children with learning disabilities.          Key words: Primary school children, learning disabilities,  emotional and behavioral problems


Purpose: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) screening enables early detection of breast cancers in women with an inherited predisposition. Interval cancers occurred in women with a BRCA1 mutation, possibly due to fast tumor growth. We investigated the effect of a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation and age on the growth rate of breast cancers, as this may influence the optimal screening frequency. Experimental Design: We reviewed the invasive cancers from the United Kingdom, Dutch, and Canadian MRI screening trials for women at hereditary risk, measuring tumor size at diagnosis and on preceding MRI and/or mammography. We could assess tumor volume doubling time (DT) in 100 cancers. Results: Tumor DT was estimated for 43 women with a BRCA1 mutation, 16 women with a BRCA2 mutation, and 41 women at high risk without an identified mutation. Growth rate slowed continuously with increasing age (P = 0.004). Growth was twice as fast in BRCA1 (P = 0.003) or BRCA2 (P = 0.03) patients as in high-risk patients of the same age. The mean DT for women with BRCA1/2 mutations diagnosed at ages ≤40, 41 to 50, and >50 years was 28, 68, and 81 days, respectively, and 83, 121, and 173 days, respectively, in the high-risk group. Pathologic tumor size decreased with increasing age (P = 0.001). Median size was 15 mm for patients ages ≤40 years compared with 9 mm in older patients (P = 0.003); tumors were largest in young women with BRCA1 mutations. Conclusion: Tumors grow quickly in women with BRCA1 mutations and in young women. Age and risk group should be taken into account in screening protocols.


Introduction The aim of this study is to analyse different temperature correction methods used for instance in monitoring energy statistics and the National Energy Outlook (NEO). The corrections are based on degree-days methods with underlying assumptions. We are going to analyse the sensitivity of some of these assumptions, namely the base temperature and temperature measurement location. Thereafter, we will investigate the influence different temperature correction methods have on the natural gas consumption of households in the Netherlands.


This book provides a comprehensive overview of the authors' pioneering contributions to nonlinear set-valued analysis by topological methods. The coverage includes fixed point theory, degree theory, the KKM principle, variational inequality theory, the Nash equilibrium point in mathematical economics, the Pareto optimum in optimization, and applications to best approximation theory, partial equations and boundary value problems. Self-contained and unified in presentation, the book considers the existence of equilibrium points of abstract economics in topological vector spaces from the viewpoint of Ky Fan minimax inequalities. It also provides the latest developments in KKM theory and degree theory for nonlinear set-valued mappings.


I treat despotism as a virtual concept. Thus it is necessary to expose its actualizations even when it appears as its opposite, refusing to recognize itself as despotism. I define despotism initially as arbitrary rule, in terms of a monstrous transgression of the law. But since the monster is grounded in its very formlessness, it cannot be demonstrated. However, one can always try to de-monstrate it through disagreements. In doing this, I deal with despotism not as a solipsistic undertaking but as part of a constellation that always already contains two other elements: economy and voluntary servitude. I give three different – ancient, early modern and late modern – accounts of this nexus, demonstrating how despotism continuously takes on new appearances. I conclude, in a counter-classical prism, how the classical nexus has evolved in modernity while the focus gradually shifted towards another triangulation: neo-despotism, use and dissent.


Legionella pneumophila is a gram-negative intracellular pathogen that often causes a serious and life-threatening pneumonia. In lung tissue, bacteria multiply in several types of host cells, including macrophages, monocytes, and alveolar epithelial cells. In this paper, the authors present topics concerning the pathogenesis of Legionella infections, such as exaggeration of acute lung injury by hyperoxia and a role of Pseudomonas quorum-sensing molecules in the ecological niche of Legionella organisms. The authors first examined the effects of hyperoxia on survival in permissive A/J and nonpermissive C57BL/6 mice with Legionella pneumonia. Importantly, hyperoxia treatment alone (90 to 94% oxygen for 60 h), without infection, induced no death of mice in either strain. Histone-associated DNA fragments are a marker for DNA fragmentation, one of the main characteristics of apoptosis, whereas caspase-3 is an essential protease mediating apoptosis. Terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling staining of infected lung sections demonstrated increased apoptosis in hyperoxic mice, predominantly in macrophages (alveolar and interstitial) and alveolar epithelial cells. The growth of L. pneumophila was completely inhibited by 50 μM of N-3-oxododecanoyl-L-homoserine lactone (3-oxo-C12-HSL), and interestingly significant suppressions of virulence factor genes were demonstrated in L. pneumophila exposed to Pseudomonas 3-oxo-C12-HSL.


Introduction: Majority of the Orang Asli rely on the traditional healing method and belief in self therapy despite the introduction of modern medicine. There are lack of medical or clinical reports on their health status as access to the Orang Asli for medical check up is limited due to the low level of trust and misbelief in the modem medicine. Moreover, routine multiple blood sampling for biochemistry tests are difficult to be conducted among them. Metabolomics has been conducted to profile metabolites which are useful to represent the phenotypes of different disease types and stages. The use of global and targeted metabolomics approach enable us to give an information of their metabolism state and therefore provide the insights to their health status. Hence, it was chosen in this study to predict the phenotype of the self claimed healthy Orang Asli. Method: Serum of 83 Orang Asli (OA), 50 healthy volunteers (HT) and 31 patients with history of myocardial infarction (MI) were analysed using LC/MS-Q/TOF. Targeted MS/MS were performed to validate the features of metabolites. Biochemical profiles were determined and recorded for all subjects. Metabolites that were significantly different between MI and HT (p<0.005, >2-fold-changes) were validated using AUROC analysis. Metabolites with AUOO.7 were selected as putative biomarkers, which were further used as variables in building a prediction model (PLSDA) differentiating healthy phenotype and MI. Results and discussions: Our finding revealed that lipids were the major metabolites that significantly different between OA and HT (p<0.005). AUROC analysis had identified twenty-two (22) metabolites as potential biomarkers for myocardial infarction. They include 15(S)-HETE (AUC=0.997), phosphorylcholine (AUC=0.995) and 24,24Difluoro-25-hydroxy-26,27-dimethylvitamin D3 (AUC=0.976). Prediction results revealed that majority of the OA were clustered with the healthy subjects and therefore have similar metabolic state with the group. This shows that they are healthy as they had claimed and as further illustrated by the conventional biochemical analysis. There were however, seven (7) OA whose metabolite profiles were clustered with the patients group, highlighting that they had abnormality in lipid metabolism and implied that they-had MI. An evaluation of their biochemistry profiles show abnormalities of cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL and LDL. Conclusion: Metabolomics-PLSDA prediction model was developed in this study using comprehensive validation approach and it was able to predict the health status of the Orang Asli. This model was developed using the differential metabolite profiles of the MI and healthy volunteers; and would be useful for categorization of an individual's phenotype to either group.


The revolutionary Volkswagen advertising campaign of the 1960s and 70s is universally acknowledged to be the greatest and most influential ever created and was acclaimed as 'the campaign of the century' in the Millennium editions of Time Magazine and the US ad industry bible Advertising Age. Remember those great Volkswagen ads? is the only comprehensive review of this definitive ad campaign. It features a brief history of the iconic Volkswagen Beetle, followed by an account of the birth of the campaign at US ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). This much enlarged and updated edition is illustrated with over 450 reproductions of press advertisements and TV commercial storyboards primarily featuring the VW Beetle, but also the Van, Bus and Camper and finally the VW Fastback and Squareback vehicles. Also included is a new section devoted to the billboards created by DDB in Los Angeles, as well as some of the ads created by their offices in Europe. The book is the result of years of research and numerous face-to-face meetings between the internationally renowned authors and DDB and Volkswagen executives around the world.


Extracellular electrode recording demonstrates acid-triggered electrical activity in glioma cell populations. Glioma patients often suffer from epileptic seizures because of the tumor's impact on the brain physiology. Using the rat glioma cell line C6 as a model system, we performed long-term live recordings of the electrical activity of glioma populations in an ultrasensitive detection method. The transducer exploits large-area electrodes that maximize double-layer capacitance, thus increasing the sensitivity. This strategy allowed us to record glioma electrical activity. We show that although glioma cells are nonelectrogenic, they display a remarkable electrical burst activity in time. The low-frequency current noise after cell adhesion is dominated by the flow of Na+ ions through voltage-gated ion channels. However, after an incubation period of many hours, the current noise markedly increased. This electric bursting phenomenon was not associated with apoptosis because the cells were viable and proliferative during the period of increased electric activity. We detected a rapid cell culture medium acidification accompanying this event. By using specific inhibitors, we showed that the electrical bursting activity was prompted by extracellular pH changes, which enhanced Na+ ion flux through the psalmotoxin 1–sensitive acid-sensing ion channels. Our model of pH-triggered bursting was unambiguously supported by deliberate, external acidification of the cell culture medium. This unexpected, acidosis-driven electrical activity is likely to directly perturb, in vivo, the functionality of the healthy neuronal network in the vicinity of the tumor bulk and may contribute to seizures in glioma patients.


Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of corporate governance (CG) on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures. This is done in the context of firms operating in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and is largely based on the legitimacy theory, although other theories such as principal–agent theory and stakeholder theory are disucssed.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used the annual reports of 147 firms in the GCC countries, drawing on a legitimacy theory framework to determine the impact of CG characteristics, such as management ownership, ownership concentration, independence of board members, duality of CEO and chairman positions and the existence of an audit committee, on firms' CSR disclosures to various stakeholders. Accordingly, the authors developed five hypotheses to examine the above variables and used a data set from Hawkamah – the Institute of Corporate Governance. This study covers a period of six years (2007-2012). The data set had been regressed in a multi-variate regression analysis.

Findings

The authors reported that greater managerial ownership and concentration of ownership have positive impact on CSR disclosures. The findings of this study also show that internal CG mechanisms, such as the independence of board members, the separation of powers, between the CEO and chairman positions and the existence of an independent audit committee, also have a positive influence on CSR disclosures. In addition, the leverage ratio, return on assets, company's size and age emerge as important determinants of CSR disclosures; nevertheless, the company's size and age are statistically not significant. These significant findings corroborate the recent concern with CG in developing countries that brings greater attention to CSR disclousures, as both internal and external CG mechanisms are effective in influencing the CSR practices.

Practical implications

This study fills the gap in literature by providing empirical evidence on the impact of CG on CSR disclosures in a significant region in the emerging economies. Furthermore, it alerts regulators, policy-makers, practitioners and firms' executives in the GCC region and other developing countries to pay more attention to CG reforms and enforcement as well as to increase institutional pressures regarding CSR adaptation.

Originality/value

The study on how CG and CSR disclosures are connected has been limited. This study addresses this research gap and focuses on a region that has often been overlooked by accounting research.


Now that more than a decade has passed since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), it has become clear that the decision, though certainly important, was not quite the panacea for faulty expert testimony that many of us first thought it would be. As the first part of this article notes, even after Daubert, which directed trial courts to take seriously a party's motion to exclude faulty expert testimony, there are still many instances where experts testify to incorrect opinions. This article observes that, in each case where opposing experts testify to directly opposite opinions about an issue of historical fact, one of the experts must be wrong. It argues that, in any case of opposing expert testimony, we expect the jury to determine which of the experts is wrong, so we should give the jury as much information as reasonably possible to help it determine which expert is wrong and which is right. This article recommends that courts end their tendency to give expert witnesses preferred treatment, as vis-a-vis fact witnesses, under civil procedure (discovery), professional responsibility, and evidence law. Given the substantial potential for retaining attorneys to influence the testimony of their expert witnesses, courts should provide the jurors who must evaluate the resultant testimony with at least as much information about the formation of expert testimony as they do about the formation of fact witness testimony. To give the jurors the information they need to sift the wheat from the chaff in expert testimony, courts in civil cases should: (a) permit attorneys to contact opposing retained expert witnesses ex parte; (b) require disclosure and discovery regarding all communications between attorneys and the expert witnesses they retain; (c) provide for automatic disclosure of all drafts of expert witness reports that have exchanged hands between experts and the attorneys who retained them; (d) allow a party to introduce the testimony of any person designated as an expert by any party; and (e) admit bias testimony about the original retention of the expert by a party other than the one calling the expert at trial, when that is the case. By adopting each of these recommendations, courts would treat experts as they do fact witnesses and thereby give jurors the same sorts of information about the formation of expert testimony, including the influence of attorneys on that testimony, that they receive about the formation of fact witness testimony.