The principle of informed consent, aimed at the lawfulness of health assistance, tends to reflect the concept of autonomy and of decisional autodetermination of the person requiring and requesting medical and/or surgical interventions. This legal formula, over the last few years, has gained not only considerable space but also importance in the doctrinal elaboration and approaches, as well as juridical interpretations, thereby influencing the everyday activities of the medical profession. Informed consent is still the object of continuous explorations, not only asfar as concerns the already confirmed theoretical profile but, instead, the ambiguous practical and consequential aspect. Analysing how the concept and role of consensus was born and developed with the more adequate and reasonable excursions to make it valid and obtain it, it is impossible not to take into consideration, on the one hand, the very ancient philosophical origins and, on the other, the fact that it was conditioned by religion with the moral aspects and the accelerated deontological evolution with pathways parallel to the needs and the progress offered by new forms of treatment and novel biotechnological applications. The principle of consent is a relatively new condition. In fact, already in the times of not only the Egyptian civilisation, but also the Greek and Roman, documents have been found which show how the doctor's intervention had, in some way, first to be approved by the patient. Plato (law IV) had already foreseen the problems, the procedures and the modes of information which are, in synthesis, at the root of the principles of the present formula of informed consent and correlated the practice of the information and consensus with the quality and social position of the patient. The only guarantee that the patient might have, derived from a fundamental principle of medicine of all times: "in disease, focus on two aims, to improve and not to cause damage". A figure can be recognised, in the Hippocratic physician, that cared about the patient's suffering, but never neglected looking after his own outcome, endeavouring to avoid becoming involved in lack of success and death of a patient. The concept of consensus is inexistent, albeit, there is an awareness of the presence of precautious and preventive information. In the behaviour of doctors, in ancient times, it is not difficult to recognize the true motives and the real reasons that, already in those days, give rise to the necessary "defensive medicine" particularly as far as concerns the social status of the patient. Already from the early origins, continuing the Hippocratic tradition, the relationship between doctor and patient was consolidated, based upon two very definite criteria, represented, on the one hand, by the professional duty of the physician to do what is bestfor the patient and, on the other, the duty of the patient to completely accept the physician's decisions and intervention. The Hippocratic physician respected a principle of professional responsibility which was more religious and of a moral type, but, from a legal point of view, very weak inasmuch as it depended upon regulations elaborated by human beings. The conviction and certainty that the physician acted, in the interest of his patient's well-being, has been passed down over the centuries endowing the physician with moral authority and a kind of legal impunity, conditions which corresponded, in an almost reflection-likefashion, with the duty of obedience and subjection, on the part of the patient. Christianity was grafted into this consolidated vision of the sacral character of medicine and medical practice, which did not substantially change the Hippocratic type of ethical behaviour. Non only the population but also the Christian physician was aware of the religious importance of his intense activity as a mission and compared to a special kind of priesthood in safe-guarding health, considered as a gift of God. Therefore, invested with this authority which derived from his professional role and from his very work, he felt it his duty to guide the patient, deciding and for him. The patient is an ignorant person who does not have the knowledge, the intellectual capacity or moral authority to oppose or disagree with the wishes and decisions of the physician who, instead, on account of his doctrine, knows exactly what is goodfor him. In this regard, if we were to speak of consensus concerning the physician's intervention, he would be considered useless in as much as obvious and understood when seeking help. The attitude of the patient towards the physician has always tended to one of strong faith and characterized by psychological subjection borne out by traditions thousands of years old. A patient who was sick, again, as an attitude of respect and gratitude, followed the treatment but never asked for any explanations regarding the therapeutic effects and the physician refrained from taking any initiative to inform the patient or his/her family. Each phenomenon, therefore, has a precise origin, a well-defined history and when its importance tends to significantly condition the activities concerning Man, a desire emerges to learn the origin and the history. As is well known, a trial commenced in Nuremberg, on December 19, 1946, of Nazi doctors and a code was defined in which the judges, all Americans, clearly emphasized a view of medical research and technology: science should never transform or consider human beings as an instrument to be employed for scientific purposes. In actual fact, documents exist providing evidence that a few decades before the drawing up of the Nuremberg Code, the need had been expressed, in Germany itself to somehow make medical interventions and actions legal by means of the use and practice of consensus. The moral and ethical principles in those documents, even if not available as bibliographic references in the English literature, certainly merit, from a historical viewpoint to be considered as conceptual elements and doctrinal and socio-cultural products, even if at that time, of little practical importance, which belong to the European culture and, in particular, and almost paradoxically, in the light of what happened, to the German culture. The United States of America is held to be the country of origin of informed consent, the initial aim of which was make sure that the correct dignity of the patient's independence be reserved at the time of decision making and choice of medical options. Reports on this topic, in fact, first appeared in the USA, at the beginning of the 18th Century, with problems focusing on and limited to only the simple rights of the patient in giving his/her approval of the health intervention later to be conceptually developed, along the lines of an itinerary with, at intervals, famous legal actions, until in the 20th Century, informed consent was reached, a criterion that, as is well known, foresees and includes not only the important and fundamental autonomy of the patient to decide, which stems ones personal rights, but also the essential objective element, which is, information. The expression informed consent has simply been transposed in Italian and roughly translated in an ambiguous fashion into "consenso informato" when, on the contrary, it should be referred to as "informazione per il consenso" "information for consensus" not only to respect the concept but, surely, for a more correct deciphering and a more precise interpretation related to the numerous concepts it presupposes and implies. Information and consent may be compared to the two sides of the same coin. These are the two important pillars that coincide and are joined giving weight to the medical responsibility, as far as concerns consent to the health intervention: on the one hand, having obtained consent,following correct and sincere information interpreted and deciphered as an important phase and an essential indicator of correct, scrupulous medico-professional procedure and, on the other, the consensus itself conceived as a duty aiming at the maximum respect of the rights to autodetermination, independence and autonomy of the patient, as a person. At the beginning of the Nineties, as we have seen, we were made aware of a series of legal actions regarding medical responsibility which was greatly conditioned by the Anglosaxon influence which initially induced many Italian magistrates and forensic physicians to adopt an extremely rigid attitude with no attempt to comply, in any way, with the culture and traditions of our country and our tradition which has always been inspired by good common sense, both medical and human. The American experience has been very rapidly adopted, by some, without a profound, complete and necessary historical and evolutional analysis aimed at those intertwined principles that have been motifs that have gradually led to the legal references in those emblematic cases referred to, the conclusions of which continue to attract a great deal of attention. In Italy, the legal and doctrinal evolution of informed consent, even if following a little more rapidly the traces, steps, problems and interpretations of the various aspects drawn up, characterized and applied in the United States, has not only occurred at a later time, but, despite reaching the same meaningful objectives, the same considerations, the same importance, and, unfortunately, the same inconveniences, has had quite different aims, approaches and articulations. In this respect, it is enough to focus attention on the different cultural traditions and religious routes, on the different doctrinal background, the particular historical origins and the individual legal aspects, all extremely different one from the other. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)


OBJECTIVE
To determine the incidence of vaccine-associated adverse events (VAAEs) diagnosed within 30 days of vaccination in cats and characterize risk factors for their occurrence.

DESIGN
Retrospective cohort study.

ANIMALS
496,189 cats vaccinated at 329 hospitals.

PROCEDURES
Electronic records were searched for VAAEs that occurred after vaccine administration classified by practitioners as nonspecific vaccine reaction, allergic reaction, urticaria, shock, or anaphylaxis. Clinical signs and treatments were reviewed. The association between potential risk factors and a VAAE occurrence was estimated via multivariate logistic regression.

RESULTS
2,560 VAAEs were associated with administration of 1,258,712 doses of vaccine to 496,189 cats (51.6 VAAEs/10,000 cats vaccinated). The risk of a VAAE significantly increased as the number of vaccines administered per office visit increased. Risk was greatest for cats approximately 1 year old; overall risk was greater for neutered versus sexually intact cats. Lethargy with or without fever was the most commonly diagnosed VAAE. No localized reactions recorded in the 30-day period were subsequently diagnosed as neoplasia when followed for 1 to 2 years.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Although overall VAAE rates were low, young adult neutered cats that received multiple vaccines per office visit were at the greatest risk of a VAAE within 30 days after vaccination. Veterinarians should incorporate these findings into risk communications and limit the number of vaccinations administered concurrently to cats.


This conceptual paper investigated the importance of employee empowerment and its impact on emotional labour in securing success of service delivery. This study advocates that empowerment is essential and also a key factor in the development of service quality and customer satisfaction. It
is predicted that employees who are empowered and display suitable positive emotions at work may be able to manage their emotional labour efficiently. Therefore, the major goal of this paper was to develop and propose a conceptual framework on the impact of empowerment and positive emotions
on emotional labour. It aimed to help marketers and managements to have a better understanding of empowering front-line employees in the organisation. Accordingly, this study conceptualised the relationships between empowerment, positive emotions, and negative emotions with deep acting,
surface acting and expressions of naturally felt emotions. The model was developed based on the extent literature in services marketing, organisational behaviour and services management literature. Meanwhile, structural equation modelling was proposed to analyse the relationships among the predicted antecedents with their outcomes. The paper foresees contribution in services marketing literature as well as hotel management literature on the importance of empowering employee and its impact on emotional labour


This article presents the pedagogical framework underlying the design of EarlyStatistics, a European Union funded program that aims to enhance the quality of statistics education offered in European elementary and middle schools by facilitating intercultural professional development of teachers using exemplary web-based educational tools and resources. The program adopts best practices in statistics education, adult education, and distance learning. Its development is guided by the Effective Learning Environment Framework (NRC, 2000), a research-based theoretical framework that identifies the components which are essential for the establishment of an effective learning environment. The distance learning environment is carefully designed to respect the tenets of the Effective Learning Environment framework: learner centeredness, community centeredness, knowledge centeredness, and assessment centeredness.


During 2015, the international community agreed three socio-environmental global development frameworks, the: (i) Sustainable Development Goals, (ii) Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and (iii) Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Each corresponds to important interactions between environmental processes and society. Here we synthesize the role of geoscientists in the delivery of each framework, and explore the meaning of and justification for increased geoscience engagement (active participation). We first demonstrate that geoscience is fundamental to successfully achieving the objectives of each framework. We proceed to characterize four types of geoscience engagement (framework design, promotion, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation), and present examples of engagement within the scope of the geoscience community. In the context of this characterization, we discuss: (i) our ethical responsibility to engage with these frameworks, noting the emphasis on societal cooperation within the Cape Town Statement on Geoethics; and (ii) the need for increased and higher quality engagement, including an improved understanding of the science-policy-practice interface. Facilitating increased engagement is necessary if we are to maximize geoscience's positive impact on global development.


A modulated sample-introduction device for use in flame emission spectrometry has been constructed and evaluated. With this device, the flow of aerosol to the excitation source is modulated by the application, at a specific frequency, of a pressure pulse to the nebulizer chamber; the use of frequency-selective detection then permits efficient signal recovery. If source background remains at a constant level, it is not detected and the signal-to-background ratio (S/B) is consequently improved. Because the technique provides a decrease in the instrument 1/f and flame-background flicker noise, detection limits are improved. These features are especially prominent when the analyte line of interest is in a spectral region of high source background. Modulation frequencies of 8 to 20 Hz have been explored and have resulted in good depth of modulation (>99%) and signal-pulse separation. The construction and operation of the device will be described and its performance for several elements evaluated in terms of detection limits, S/B enhancement, and working curve linearity. Also, the extension of the technique to selective spectralline modulation schemes and to inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry will be considered.


We present the analysis of 1207 RR Lyrae found in photometry taken by the Catalina Survey's Mount Lemmon telescope. By combining accurate distances for these stars with measurements for ∼14,000 type-ab RR Lyrae from the Catalina Schmidt telescope, we reveal an extended association that reaches Galactocentric distances beyond 100 kpc and overlaps the Sagittarius stream system. This result confirms earlier evidence for the existence of an outer halo tidal stream resulting from a disrupted stellar system. By comparing the RR Lyrae source density with that expected based on halo models, we find the detection has ∼8σ significance. We investigate the distances, radial velocities, metallicities, and period–amplitude distribution of the RR Lyrae. We find that both radial velocities and distances are inconsistent with current models of the Sagittarius stream. We also find tentative evidence for a division in source metallicities for the most distant sources. Following prior analyses, we compare the locations and distances of the RR Lyrae with photometrically selected candidate horizontal branch stars and find supporting evidence that this structure spans at least 60° of the sky. We investigate the prospects of an association between the stream and the unusual globular cluster NGC 2419.


We present the theory of semilocal exchange-correlation (XC) energy functionals which depend on the Kohn–Sham kinetic energy density (KED), including the relevant class of meta-generalized gradient approximation (meta-GGA) functionals. Thanks to the KED ingredient, meta-GGA functionals can satisfy different exact constraints for XC energy and can be made one-electron self-correlation free. This leads to a better accuracy over a wider range of properties with respect to GGAs, often reaching the accuracy of hybrid functionals, but at much reduced computational cost. An extensive survey of the relevant literature on existing KED dependent XC functionals is provided, considering nonempirical, semi-empirical, and fully empirical ones. A deeper analysis and a wide benchmark are presented for functionals derived considering only exact constraints and parameters obtained from model and/or atomic systems.


The first purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Inventory of Opinions About Persons with Disabilities (IOPD). The IOPD was developed to collect preservice early childhood educators'self-report data related to inclusion. A total of 332 participants enrolled in graduate programs in a college of education served as the validation sample. After validation and revision of the IOPD, the researcher used the instrument to investigate preservice early childhood educators' beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge about students with disabilities and their inclusion in general education classrooms. Data were collected from 172 participants from 10 universities in Texas during their student teaching/final intern semesters. This research demonstrated that an instrument, the IOPD, could be developed to effectively measure preservice early childhood educators' beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge about the inclusion of children with disabilities in their classrooms. The participants reported positive self-perceptions (mean = 2.0388) about their beliefs and attitudes toward inclusion. However, the participants reported less positive attitudes about training (mean = -.09884). Discriminant function analyses indicated a negligible statistical effect for type of program (professional development school or traditional) and a statistically significant effect for preferred classroom setting (non-inclusive, special education, inclusive). Further research with the same participants or similar cohorts at one and three years of inservice teaching could broaden the scope of knowledge regarding early childhood teachers' opinions about inclusion and students with disabilities. In addition, including procedures for gathering qualitative data with the Inventory of Opinions About Persons With Disabilities might provide more specific information about individual beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge about inclusion.


Born on the same day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were true contemporaries. Though shaped by vastly different environments, they had remarkably similar values, purposes, and approaches. In this exciting new study, James Lander places these two iconic men side by side and reveals the parallel views they shared of man and God. While Lincoln is renowned for his oratorical prowess and for the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as many other accomplishments, his scientific and technological interests are not widely recognized; for example, many Americans do not know that Lincoln is the only U.S. president to obtain a patent. Darwin, on the other hand, is celebrated for his scientific achievements but not for his passionate commitment to the abolition of slavery, which in part drove his research in evolution. Both men took great pains to avoid causing unnecessary offense despite having abandoned traditional Christianity. Each had one main adversary who endorsed scientific racism: Lincoln had Stephen A. Douglas, and Darwin had Louis Agassiz. With graceful and sophisticated writing, Lander expands on these commonalities and uncovers more shared connections to people, politics, and events. He traces how these two intellectual giantscame to hold remarkably similar perspectiveson the evils of racism, the value of science, and the uncertainties of conventional religion. Separated by an ocean but joined in their ideas, Lincoln and Darwin acted as trailblazers, leading their societies toward greater freedom of thought and a greater acceptance of human equality. This fascinating biographical examination brings the mid-nineteenth-century discourse about race, science, and humanitarian sensibility to the forefront using the mutual interests and pursuits of these two historic figures. "


This dissertation study examined a broad question of whether computer-based grammar tutorials are effective and welcome tools to review grammar for language learners by investigating effects of three different modes of such tutorials on learners' knowledge and satisfaction. For this study, I developed experimental tutorials in three different modes (a static text with a voice-over narration, an animated text with a voice-over narration, and a recording of a real teacher) for two target structures of German grammar (regular verb conjugation and separable-prefix verbs).
In total, there were more than 100 Elementary German students at two Midwestern universities, who participated in different stages of the study. The participants represented a mostly homogeneous group with characteristics that are common for college-level learners.
There were two parallel experiments in this study that employed identical methods but focused on two different target structures. Thus, both experiments examined the effect of the three study tutorials on learners' knowledge and satisfaction, but Experiment 1 focused on the regular verb conjugation, whereas Experiment 2 focused on the separable-prefix verbs. For each experiment, the participants completed a pretest, worked with the assigned tutorial mode, completed a posttest, and filled out a number of questionnaires.
The results of the analysis demonstrated that the study tutorials helped learners to significantly improve their knowledge of grammar; however, the mode of the tutorial did not make a difference. Likewise, all modes of tutorial received similar satisfaction ratings; however, additional qualitative analysis suggested that a considerable number of the participants preferred the animated mode.
The findings of the study demonstrate that computer-based grammar tutorials can be effective and welcome tools to review grammar for language learners. Moreover, tutorials of this type can be a viable method of achieving the desired balance between the form- and meaning-focused activities in language classrooms. Also, such tutorials appeal to learners because they support more individualized learning.


Scholars spend a lot of time considering the legitimacy and implications of the Supreme Court striking down federal laws by use of judicial review. Similarly, there is a large literature focusing on the Court's power and obligation to manage the federal judiciary through its certiorari powers over its own docket and its ability to reverse lower courts. However, there is almost no work that examines the interplay of the Court's judicial review powers and its managerial authority. Scholars have overlooked this intersection because they implicitly understand the power of judicial review and the federal hierarchy as institutions based on vetoes. On this account, the Court takes a judicial review case to veto either Congress or a lower court. This suggests that the Court should never take a case in which it affirms a lower court and upholds a federal statute. This account is (almost) entirely wrong. Using a new and comprehensive dataset, we show that throughout its history, the Court has affirmed the lower court and upheld the statute in the plurality of its judicial review decisions. The box that current theories predict should be empty is actually the fullest.
This is the first article to provide an empirical look at the Supreme Court's judicial review practices in relation to its discretionary power over its docket. It considers various possible explanations for these uphold-affirm cases like circuit splits or mandatory review and finds them wanting. The empirical results lead us to develop a theory of positive judicial review. While many scholars have pondered what the Court gains from striking down laws, we are the first that considers the normative implications of and what the Court may gain from upholding statutes.
We use these empirical and theoretical efforts to examine the Roberts Court and show that it is an historical outlier. Under Roberts, the Court has dramatically reduced its judicial review docket, and it has stopped taking uphold-affirm cases entirely. We examine what may have caused the Roberts Court to be the first Court in history that conforms to theoretical expectations and use these insights to predict how the Court may behave in the future.


In this paper, we study a number of wellknown combinatorial optimization problems that fit in the following paradigm: the input is a collection of (potentially inconsistent) local relationships between the elements of a ground set (e.g., pairwise comparisons, similar/dissimilar pairs, or ancestry structure of triples of points), and the goal is to aggregate this information into a global structure (e.g., a ranking, a clustering, or a hierarchical clustering) in a way that maximizes agreement with the input. Well-studied problems such as rank aggregation, correlation clustering, and hierarchical clustering with triplet constraints fall in this class of problems. We study these problems on stochastic instances with a hidden embedded ground truth solution. Our main algorithmic contribution is a unified technique that uses the maximum cut problem in graphs to approximately solve these problems. Using this technique, we can often get approximation guarantees in the stochastic setting that are better than the known worst case inapproximability bounds for the corresponding problem. On the negative side, we improve the worst case inapproximability bound on several hierarchical clustering formulations through a reduction to related ranking problems.


The failure rate function is one of the most important functions in reliability analysis as it addresses concepts such as scheduling, maintenance, improved system design, cost analysis, etc. Kernel-based estimation of the failure rate function imposes minimal assumptions on the data, and thus offers large flexibility. Therefore, it is very helpful in reliability analysis where the shape of the failure function is a primary target. However, standard kernel estimates are biased more than usual in the endpoints. Motivated by the advantages that the local linear fitting method provides for estimation of densities near the boundary, we employ the technique to the failure rate setting. We show that it produces estimators that have the same amount of boundary bias as in areas outside the boundary. The mean square error properties of the method are demonstrated, and a practically useful procedure for automatic smoothing parameter selection is developed, and studied both theoretically, and by simulations. The result is displayed graphically by distributional, and real life data.


Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as important mediators of intercellular communication in a diverse range of biological processes. For future therapeutic applications and for EV biology research in general, understanding the in vivo fate of EVs is of utmost importance. Here we studied biodistribution of EVs in mice after systemic delivery. EVs were isolated from 3 different mouse cell sources, including dendritic cells (DCs) derived from bone marrow, and labelled with a near-infrared lipophilic dye. Xenotransplantation of EVs was further carried out for cross-species comparison. The reliability of the labelling technique was confirmed by sucrose gradient fractionation, organ perfusion and further supported by immunohistochemical staining using CD63-EGFP probed vesicles. While vesicles accumulated mainly in liver, spleen, gastrointestinal tract and lungs, differences related to EV cell origin were detected. EVs accumulated in the tumour tissue of tumour-bearing mice and, after introduction of the rabies virus glycoprotein-targeting moiety, they were found more readily in acetylcholine-receptor-rich organs. In addition, the route of administration and the dose of injected EVs influenced the biodistribution pattern. This is the first extensive biodistribution investigation of EVs comparing the impact of several different variables, the results of which have implications for the design and feasibility of therapeutic studies using EVs.


This paper examines the issues of international and regional financial integration and its impact taking a sample 25 SSA countries. The research tests both the direct and indirect channels through which the impact of financial integration works and is transmitted to the real economy. Directly, it is argued that financial openness affects economic growth through enabling access to foreign financial markets, increasing financial service efficiency and helping in diversification of risks and consumption smoothing. Thus while inducing additional capital investment, it also fosters macroeconomic discipline. Indirectly, the process of international financial integration facilitates the transfer of technological know-how, promotes trade and enhances specialization.While financial openness of recent years has laid a strong foundation to consolidate financial integration between regions and with international financial markets, we do not observe a robust link between financial openness and economic growth in SSA region. The empirical analysis considers the possibility of a positive indirect effect, and we report evidence in favour of the indirect transmission root. From our results, we observe a positive and statistically significant association between international financial integration and financial development under all its selected indicators. This finding suggests that financial capital market integration aids growth indirectly through promoting domestic financial markets. The study reports evidence suggesting that good institutions, higher level of human capital, and stable macroeconomic environment play an important role in mitigating the negative impacts of international financial openness.


In the implementation of hosted business services, multiple tenants are often consolidated into the same database to reduce total cost of ownership. Common practice is to map multiple single-tenant logical schemas in the application to one multi-tenant physical schema in the database. Such mappings are challenging to create because enterprise applications allow tenants to extend the base schema, e.g., for vertical industries or geographic regions. Assuming the workload stays within bounds, the fundamental limitation on scalability for this approach is the number of tables the database can handle. To get good consolidation, certain tables must be shared among tenants and certain tables must be mapped into fixed generic structures such as Universal and Pivot Tables, which can degrade performance.
 This paper describes a new schema-mapping technique for multi-tenancy called Chunk Folding, where the logical tables are vertically partitioned into chunks that are folded together into different physical multi-tenant tables and joined as needed. The database's "meta-data budget" is divided between application-specific conventional tables and a large fixed set of generic structures called Chunk Tables. Good performance is obtained by mapping the most heavily-utilized parts of the logical schemas into the conventional tables and the remaining parts into Chunk Tables that match their structure as closely as possible. We present the re sults of several experiments designed to measure the efficacy of Chunk Folding and describe the multi-tenant database testbed in which these experiments were performed.


The Tootoo and Mequillon Ni-Cu-Pt-Pd deposits in the South Raglan Trend of the New Quebec orogen host significant but as yet unexploited nickel-copper-platinum group element (PGE) mineralization within the mafic-ultramafic rocks of the Expo Intrusive Suite. The olivine melagabbronorite host rocks have been pervasively altered to hydrous mineral assemblages dominated by chlorite, tremolite-actinolite, and relict late-magmatic hornblende, characteristic of greenschist facies metamorphism. In greenschist-altered rocks, the PGE are spatially associated with intercumulus blebs and networks of pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and pentlandite after primary magmatic sulfides. Palladium is significantly enriched in the vicinity of veins associated with local replacement of the early hydrous silicate mineral assemblage by talc, calcite, dolomite, and minor serpentine and disseminated magnetite. The varieties of platinum group minerals (PGM) are similar in samples both with and without carbonate alteration, with platinum hosted exclusively in discrete sperrylite grains, and palladium dominantly hosted by the Pd-Sb intermetallic phases of sudburyite, ungavaite, and naldrettite, as well as merenskyite, kotulskite, and michenerite. Palladium minerals commonly form composite grains with hessite, altaite, and other PGM. Most of the PGM are hosted by silicate minerals, but some also occur attached to sulfide minerals, and a few PGM grains are completely enclosed within sulfides. In samples disturbed by carbonate alteration, the PGM are present in greater abundance and larger size. We suggest that palladium was transferred from massive ores to the net-textured ores via an oxidizing, CO2-bearing, neutral to mildly alkaline fluid capable of mobilizing the semimetals such as antimony as hydroxide complexes. Upon reaching zones where oxygen fugacity was buffered to lower values by an assemblage containing pyrrhotite but not magnetite, antimony in the fluid was reduced to its metallic state, causing coprecipitation of palladium in intermetallic phases. This process appears to have been localized at a reaction front near the outer edges of moderately oxidized carbonate-altered domains surrounding carbonate veins. This reaction front has high Pd/Pt whereas lower Pd/Pt ratios are observed in magnetite-bearing, carbonate-altered samples closer to the carbonate veins. PGE grades in the vicinity of carbonate alteration attain levels of potential economic significance, possibly meriting attention as PGE resources distinct from the Ni-Cu-PGE sulfide assemblage extracted by current beneficiation practices in nearby deposits. If the magnetite-free, carbonate-altered lithofacies can be confirmed by further study to show consistently elevated Pd grades, then it may be possible to improve Pd recoveries.


Evaluation of a Parent Education Program for Divorcing Parents* Participants in a parent education program mandated for divorcing parents were compared with a similar sample of individuals who had not participated in such a program. The mail survey consisted of 236 individuals. A series of 2(program) X 2(parental residential status) MANCOVA s and ANCOVA 's, with SES and age as covariates, indicated a program effect in terms of the parentchild relationship for those divorced four years or less. The program participants expressed a high level of satisfaction with the program and believed that it was very beneficial. Key Words: coparenting, divorce education, parent education. Divorce rates in the U.S. have resulted in a growing number of children who are being coparented in binuclear families. Various legal reforms in recent years (e.g., no fault divorce legislation, joint legal custody, mediation, etc.) have assumed a high level of cooperative parenting between former spouses, and clinicians and researchers have noted that former spouse relationships are pivotal to overall family functioning (Guisinger, Cowan, & Schuldberg, 1989; Furstenberg, Nord, Peterson, & Zill, 1983; Seltzer & Bianchi, 1988; Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980). Yet research has indicated that many parents find the coparenting role very difficult (e.g., Ahrons & Rodgers, 1987; Maccoby, Depner, & Mnookin,1990; Wallerstein & Kelly, 1980). Parent education or psychoeducational programs for divorcing individuals (sometimes referred to as divorce education programs) have been developed in recent years to facilitate the transition to these co-parental roles. Trad (1991) describes psychoeducation as a form of learning that facilitates the mastery of a major life transition. Similarly, parent education programs for divorcing parents have been referred to as a form of "mental health" education (Kalafat, Underwood, Fiedler, & Neigher, 1990). In general, parent education programs for divorcing parents are brief, time-limited efforts that use directive, didactic approaches to teach parents about the impact of divorce on children as well as to provide parents with positive attitudes and essential coparenting skills to facilitate child adjustment (Braver, Salem, Pearson, & DeLuse, 1996; Zibbell,1992). Successful psychoeducational interventions can be found in a wide variety of subject areas. In the area of child abuse prevention, Frank and Rowe (1981) reported favorable results utilizing a psychoeducational model with small group meetings of mothers and their children. Brent, Poling, McKain, and Baugher (1993) found that parents of affectively ill adolescents showed improvement in knowledge about depression as well as a modification of dysfunctional beliefs about depression and its treatment after just one psychoeducational session lasting only two hours. In the area of social skills training, Brown (1980) demonstrated that a psychoeducational approach could be used effectively to reduce anxiety and fears in mental health clients. Brown's approach even demonstrated outcomes superior to those of a therapeutic group approach in terms of reducing psychiatric hospitalizations within one year after participation. Research on passive interventions for divorcing couples, i.e., case study and other written materials, has indicated that knowledge alone can reduce disruptive behaviors at least short-term; differences have been found in experimental groups as compared to control groups for up to three months after exposure to the material (Arbuthnot, Poole, & Gordon, 1996; Kurkowski, Gordon, & Arbuthnot,1993; Ogles, Lambert, & Craig, 1991). Evaluation of Divorce Education Programs Although there are over 500 parenting programs for divorcing individuals nationwide, few of these programs have been systematically evaluated (Arbuthnot & Gordon, 1996; Braver, Salem, Pearson, & Deluse, 1996). …


This paper investigates the non-GAAP performance measures of the REIT industry, specifically the difference (FFO adjustment) between concurrent FFO and Net Income (NI). Using the U.S. Equity REIT data from 1993 to 2018, we first find evidence that both NI and FFO are associated with REIT market-adjusted stock returns, suggesting both contain information that is valuable to investors. Second, we document a significant and positive relationship between contemporaneous FFO adjustment and NI, indicating a possible "selective" and "intentional" inclusion and/or omission of "good" vs. "bad" news in FFO reporting. Third, we find direct evidence that more powerful CEOs are indeed associated with higher FFO adjustments, suggesting CEOs' involvement in hiding subpar performance. Finally, we focus our attention on a more recent period, when the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) provided additional clarifications and guidelines, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) increased scrutiny on FFO reporting. Our results show a diminished "manipulation" for the majority of the REITs, suggesting these guidelines and scrutiny have achieved their intended purposes. While non-GAAP performance measures might supply additional information to investors, our results indicate that providing continuous guidance and monitoring is essential.


Purpose - The paper identifies different information flow strategies to enhance integration in strategic alliances and studies these strategies with respect to contextual factors and the impact on performance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines empirical data gathered from 56 manufacturing companies, describing 112 supply chain relationships. An empirical taxonomy is created based on cluster analysis. Findings - Based on a parsimonious description of inter-firm information flows in the literature and our empirical findings, we identify 3 types of alliances: Silent, Communicative and IT intensive alliances. While Silent alliances have the poorest overall performance, substantial similarities are found between Communicative and IT intensive alliances. In particular, the analysis suggests that IT intensive alliances, albeit performing better on operational capabilities, are not performing better on relationship satisfaction compared to Communicative alliances. Additional analyses indicate that partners of an IT intensive alliance are substantially more interdependent and larger in size. Research limitations/implications – This research presents a taxonomy of information flow strategies in a supply chain context. This research is not describing causality, since our data is not longitudinal in nature. Practical implications – Managers need to selectively invest in IT according to an overall supply chain integration strategy, which also takes softer, less technological forms of integration into consideration. Originality/value – This research provides insight into inter-firm information flows from a contingency perspective, recognizing heterogeneity of firms and supply chain practices..


law) was signed into law at the end of 2015, but schools and districts have until the 2017-2018 school year to begin implementing their plans to comply with it. ESSA represents a substantial shift from prior law in how it addresses teacher professional growth and evaluation, and as schools and districts prepare to implement it, it is worth understanding how they may make the best use of their existing investments in those areas. This brief, which draws on data from a large survey of secondary school teachers and principals conducted by MDRC in the spring of 2016, discusses how existing evaluation and support systems could be better used to realize the new law's vision of teacher improvement. The data from the survey suggest that if districts wish to move toward the type of continuous growth opportunities for teachers that ESSA envisions, they could do so by investing in additional training for school leaders; such training would be intended to help them use existing teacher evaluation systems to identify teachers' needs and connect them with professional development opportunities.


Building upon the quantum-holographic theory of nonlocal communication presented at last year's AGSE conference (Bradley, 2006), this paper extends the theory to include both nonlocal communication (intuition) and nonlocal agency—the subtle but significant (scientifically measurable) effect that intentionally focused bio-emotional energy can have on nonlocal objects and events. I draw on quantum holography and research on the psychophysiology of nonlocal interaction—mind/matter and mind/living systems interaction—to show how entrepreneurs not only use their passionate attention to intuitively locate a future business opportunity but can also actively shape its actualization into reality by their sustained passionate intentions. It is their greater attunement to an order of energetic information beyond space/time that taps them into the rationality of implicit potentials and sets them apart from other business actors. In short, energetic information is the language of creativity and entrepreneurship: it is the means by which future opportunities can be intuitively located and intentionally actualized into being.


Esas mujeres rubias  (2011) [Those Blonde Women] by Ana Garcia-Sineriz is a Spanish novel giving a mother's first-person account of her life to date, including losing her only daughter at age fourteen due to a condition called Diamond-Blackfan anemia. Although other motifs are present, the core of the story is maternal bereavement – its causes and its effects – and inextricably bound up with this is a depiction of motherhood across three generations: that of the narrator in the present day; her mother, in the Franco years; and her maternal grandmother before that. The article compares the experiences and attitudes of the three women and explores the presentation of mother-blame in the novel in order to try to determine whether these fictional characters reflect a constant in our cultural conceptualization of motherhood or, on the contrary, a phenomenon which has either gained or lost traction over time. In particular, it explores and questions the issue of maternal choice inextricably bound up with this and debates the view found in real-life research that women today have significantly more choice about motherhood than in previous generations, arguing instead that what has changed are only the specifics of how, why and over what choice is exercised, rather than any step change from no choice to real freedom of choice. The novel offers a vivid dramatization of the limitations to maternal choice across the generations and how these inflect mother-blaming, showing that there seems to be no sign of the phenomenon's waning.


Concatenative languages use implicit argument passing to provide a concise expression of programs comprising many composed transformation functions. However, they are sometimes regarded as "write-only" languages because understanding code requires mentally simulating the manipulations of the argument stack to identify where values are produced and consumed. All of this difficulty can be avoided with a notation that presents both the functions and their operands simultaneously, which can also ease editing by making available values and functions directly apparent. This paper presents a two-dimensional notation for these programs, comprising alternating rows of functions and operands with arguments and return values indicated by physical layout, and a tool for interactive live editing of programs in this notation.


"Earth's Oldest Rocks" provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of early Earth, from planetary accretion through to development of protocratons with depleted lithospheric keels by c. 3.2 Ga, in a series of papers written by over 50 of the world's leading experts. The book is divided into two chapters on early Earth history, ten chapters on the geology of specific cratons, and two chapters on early Earth analogues and the tectonic framework of early Earth. Individual contributions address topics that range from planetary accretion, a review of Earth meteorites, significance and composition of Hadean protocrust, composition of Archaean mantle and deep crust, all aspects of the geology of Paleoarchean cratons, composition of Archean oceans and hydrothermal environments, evidence and geological settings of early life, early Earth analogues from Venus and New Zealand, and a tectonic framework for early Earth. This title contains comprehensive reviews of areas of ancient lithosphere on Earth, of planetary accretion processes, and of meteorites. It focuses on specific aspects of early Earth, including oldest putative life forms, evidence of the composition of the ancient atmosphere-hydrosphere, and the oldest evidence for subduction-accretion. It presents an overview of geological processes and model of the tectonic framework on early Earth.


RNA is an essential biological material for research in genomics and translational medicine. As such, its storage for biobanking is an important field of study. Traditionally, long-term storage in the cold (generally freezers or liquid nitrogen) is used to maintain high-quality (in terms of quantity and integrity) RNA. Room temperature (RT) preservation provides an alternative to the cold, which is plagued by serious problems (mainly cost and safety), for RNA long-term storage. In this study, we evaluated the performance of several RT storage procedures, including the RNAshell® from Imagene, where the RNA is dried and kept protected from the atmosphere, and the vacuum drying of RNA with additives such as the Imagene stabilization solution and a home-made trehalose solution. This evaluation was performed through accelerated (equivalent to 10 years for RNAshell) aging and real-time studies (4 years). To check RNA quality and integrity, we used RNA integrity number values and RNA-seq. Our study shows that isolation from atmosphere offers a superior protective effect for RNA storage compared with vacuum drying alone, and demonstrates that RNAshell permits satisfactory RNA quality for long-term RT storage. Thus, the RNA quality could meet the demand of downstream applications such as RNA-seq.


This paper reports a perspective investigation of computational modelling of blood fluid in microchannel devices as a preparation for future research on fluid-structure interaction (FSI) in biofluid mechanics. The investigation is carried out through two aspects, respectively on physical behaviours of blood flow in microchannels and appropriate methodology for modelling. The physics of blood flow is targeted to the challenges for describing blood flow in microchannels, including rheology of blood fluid, suspension features of red blood cells (RBCs), laminar hydrodynamic influence and effect of surface roughness. The analysis shows that due to the hyperelastic property of RBC and its comparable dimension with microchannels, blood fluid shows complex behaviours of two phase flow. The trajectory and migration of RBCs require accurate description of RBC deformation and interaction with plasma. Following on a discussion of modelling approaches, i.e. Eulerian method and Lagrangian method, the main stream modelling methods for multiphase flow are reviewed and their suitability to blood flow is analysed. It is concluded that the key issue for blood flow modelling is how to describe the suspended blood cells, modelled by Lagrangian method, and couple them with the based flow, modelled by Eulerian method. The multiphase flow methods are thereby classified based on the number of points required for describing a particle, as follows: (i) single-point particle methods, (ii) mutli-point particle methods, (iii) functional particle methods, and (iv) fluid particle methods. While single-point particle methods concentrate on particle dynamic movement, multipoint and functional particle methods can take into account particle mechanics and thus offer more detailed information for individual particles. Fluid particle methods provide good compromise between two phases, but require additional information for particle mechanics. For furthermore detailed description, we suggest to investigate the possibility using two domain coupling method, in which particles and base flow are modelled by two separated solvers. It is expected that this paper could clarify relevant issues in numerical modelling of blood flow in microchannels and induce some considerations for modelling blood flow using multiphase flow methods.


The theory of low-order linear stochastic differential equations is reviewed. Solutions to these equations give the continuous time analogues of discrete time autoregressive time-series. Explicit forms for the power spectra and covariance functions of first- and second-order forms are given. A conceptually simple method is described for fitting continuous time autoregressive models to data. Formulae giving the standard errors of the parameter estimates are derived. Simulated data are used to verify the performance of the methods. Irregularly spaced observations of the two hydrogen-deficient stars FQ Aqr and NO Ser are analysed. In the case of FQ Aqr the best-fitting model is of second order, and describes a quasi-periodicity of about 20 d with an e-folding time of 3.7 d. The NO Ser data are best fitted by a first-order model with an e-folding time of 7.2 d.


Alveolar capillary dysplasia (ACD) is a rare neonatal lung disease characterized anatomically by a defective and hypoplastic development of pulmonary alveoli leading to persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) and finally lethal respiratory failure. It is often associated with congenital left heart obstruction. Given the fatal prognosis an early diagnosis is important. However, due to the fast onset of PPHN in neonates and lack of pathognomonic signs for its cause, safe and fast detection of ACD is challenging. Therefore, following the exclusion of cardiac and common pulmonary causes, lung biopsy becomes essential for diagnosis.We hereby report a case of ACD with atrial septal defect type one and hypoplastic aortic arch with an ante-mortem diagnosis and discuss the current state of medicine in relation to ACD.


We explore whether stellar tidal streams can provide information on the secular, cosmological evolution of the Milky Way's gravitational potential and on the presence of subhalos. We carry out long-term (Δt ~ tHubble) N-body simulations of disrupting satellite galaxies in a semianalytic Galaxy potential in which the dark matter halo and the subhalos evolve according to a ΛCDM cosmogony. All simulations are constrained to end up with the same position and velocity at present. Our simulations account for (1) the secular evolution of the host halo's mass, size, and shape, (2) the presence of subhalos, and (3) dynamical friction. We find that tidal stream particles respond adiabatically to the Galaxy growth, so that, at present, the energy and angular momentum distribution is exclusively determined by the present Galaxy potential. In other words, all present-day observables can only constrain the present mass distribution of the Galaxy independent of its past evolution. We also show that if the full phase-space distribution of a tidal stream is available, we can accurately determine (1) the present Galaxy's shape and (2) the amount of mass loss from the stream's progenitor, even if this evolution spanned a cosmologically significant epoch.


BACKGROUND
Lumbar open laser microdiscectomy has been shown to be an effective intervention and safe approach for lumbar disc prolapse. However early post-operative physical disability affecting daily activities have been sporadically reported.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the feasibility of using early individualised manipulative rehabilitation to improve early post-operative functional disability following lumbar discectomy.

METHODS
Randomised controlled pilot trial. Setting at a major metropolitan spine surgery hospital. Twenty-one patients aged 25-69 years who underwent lumbar microdiscectomy were randomised to either the manipulative rehabilitation treatment group or the active control group. Rehabilitation was initiated 2-3 weeks after surgery, twice a week for 4 weeks. Each session was for 30 minutes. Primary outcomes were the Roland-Morris disability questionnaire and the visual analogue pain scale. Outcome measures were assessed at baseline and post-intervention.

RESULTS
Early post-operative physical disability was improved with a 55% reduction by early individualised manipulative rehabilitation, compared to that of control care with a 5% increase. Early post-operative residual leg pain decreased with rehabilitation (55%) and control care (9%).

CONCLUSION
This pilot study supports the feasibility of a future definitive randomised control trial and indicates this type of rehabilitation may be an important option for post-operative management after spinal surgery.


In an increasingly interconnected global order, governments are experiencing growing pressures to engage in cooperative and integrative processes. Indeed, regionalism has become a primary objective for all regions. East Asia is no exception. Using the "European Union" as a model, scholars generally regard East Asian regionalism as a "failure." With an emphasis on 'process' over 'progress' East Asian regionalist institutions lack the institutional formality and accountability mechanisms valued by Western standards on regionalism. I do not dispute these claims about East Asian regionalism so much as to propose a different interpretation allowed by applying a different theoretical lens. I subscribe to a relationalist framework that emphasizes relations vis-a-vis networks and identity, instead of a substantialist framework (the study of physical institutional entities). This allows me to analyze the ways in which relational processes in East Asia are changing the very identities and objectives of member nations. I analyze foreign policy speeches and documents released by the People's Republic of China during the span of 3 essential time periods: the Mao Zedong era, the era of reform led by Deng Xiaoping, and the current administration of President Hu Jintao. In these documents I examine particular shifts in China's guiding foreign policy ideology in order to observe a growing Chinese 'regional identity'. Through this I defend the idea that there is a dynamic and differentiated 'East Asian' Model' of regionalism.


Many collaborative situations require that a remote helper guides a local worker in
performing manipulations of physical objects in the real world (physical tasks). Existing
systems supporting such collaboration often confine collaborators in fixed desktop settings.
Therefore they have limited usefulness in situations in which collaborators are mobile and/or
desktop settings are not feasible. In this paper, we present HandsInAir, a wearable system for
remote guidance. This system is designed to support mobility of the collaborators and provide
easy access to remote expertise. HandsInAir draws on the richness of hand gestures for remote
guiding and implements a novel approach that supports unmediated remote gestures and allows
the helper to perform natural gestures by hands without the need of a physical support. We
review related work, describe technical implementation, and present a usability study
demonstrating the usefulness and usability of HandsInAir.


This study investigates whether peers are a contributing factor in childhood body-weight outcomes. Using an instrumental variables method on exogenously assigned peers, we find that the weight of peers within the same grade and school significantly impacts body mass index (BMI) z-score of an individual student. A typical student's BMI z-score increases when facing heavier peers. The size of the peer-effect, however, is very modest. For a percentage point increase in the proportion of obese students in the same grade, a typical student's BMI z-score increases by only 0.00341 standard deviations.


This thesis concerns infinitives of result in English, examples of which are given under (a-c). (a) John designed a battery to operate at high temperatures. (b) John designed a battery to win a prize. (c) John designed a battery for the competition, only to discover that he was ineligible. The infinitive in (a) is called a Purpose Clause; the infinitive in (b) is called a Rationale Clause; and the infinitive in (c) is called a Telic Clause. These infinitives are optional modifiers of the verbs with which they occur. I argue, however, that important characteristics of their form and interpretation follow naturally if the infinitives are assumed to have argument structures which must be incorporated into the argument structure of the verb they modify. In Chapter 1, I introduce the constructions and offer a general discussion of the problems posed by modifiers in a study of natural language semantics, arguing that these problems are best addressed by viewing modifiers as predicates of a standard sort. This establishes a central hypothesis of this thesis, namely that the syntax and semantics of modification should be incorporated into the theory of argument structure, or "theta theory". In Chapter 2, I offer a summary of key works in the literature in two areas: theories of argument projection by Williams and Higginbotham and studies of infinitives of result by Faraci, Bach, Chierchia, and Jones. In Chapter 3, I apply a range of syntactic tests to establish the structural relation of the infinitives to the sentences they modify. I argue that the infinitives are embedded at an increasing distance from the modified verb, from which important characteristics of their distribution follow. In Chapter 4, I turn to the internal syntax of the constructions and consider the nature and distribution of the gaps that occur within each infinitive and the manner in which those gaps are interpreted. I relate key characteristics of the infinitives to the nature of their argument grids. I also address constraints on interpretation introduced by pronominal binding in the infinitives. In Chapter 5, I discuss a variety of problems on the syntax-semantics interface involving argument structure and control. The issues raised move from the relatively syntactic (phrase structure accounts of Purpose Clause antecedence and the possibility of event control for the Rationale and Telic Clauses) to the philosophical semantic (causal efficacy and the nature of resultant states in the interpretation of the Purpose Clause). I then offer a full sample analysis of a sentence modified by all three infinitives of result. My conclusion points again to the importance of argument structure in an analysis of infinitives of result in particular and of modification in general.


Objective To explore the influence of high fluoride exposure on reproductive hormones in male living in endemic fluorosis villages in China. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted in Tongxu county in Henan Province, China. Endemic fluorosis villages and control villages were selected by random sampling according to fluoride concentration in drinking water and the prevalence of endemic fluorosis. Local male residents aged from 18 to 50 years old who were born and grew up in the investigated villages were recruited as subjects by cluster sampling. Fasting blood and urine samples were collected. The serum level of GnRH was detected using ELISA. The serum level of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol (E2), and testosterone (T) were determined by chemiluminesence immunoassay (CLIA). Results The serum levels of FSH were 7.82 mlU/ml, 10.20 mIU/ml and 9.57 mIU/ml in male from defluoridation villages (DFPG), high fluoride villages (HFG) and control villages (CG) respectively. FSH level in male from DFPG was significant lower than that from HFG and CG (P<0.05). The serum levels of E2 were 33.67 ng/mL, 29.17 ng/mL and 28.99 ng/mL in DPFG, HFG and CG respectively. E2 level in male from DFPG was significant higher than that from HFG and CG (P<0.05). Serum levels of E2 in CG were associated with LH (r=0.343, P=0.000), age (r=0.195, P=0.015), and inversely associated with serum FSH (r=-0.237, P=0.003), whereas this correlation was not observed for serum E2 level in DFPG and HFG. Conclusion Long-term fluoride exposure in drinking water may influence the reproductive hormones in males living in endemic fluorosis villages. (Zhou T, Ding Z, Xi Y, Yang RP, Duan LJ, Li SH, Cheng XM, Hou JX, Wen SB, Liu J, Chen J, Cui LX, Ba Y. Environmental fluoride exposure and reproductive hormones in male living in endemic fluorosis villages in


A shortage of good quality water has led to the use of low quality, high saline-sodic water that was considered unsuitable for irrigation purposes in the past. Using such water can increase the potential of soil degradation, soil pore blockage and consequently reductions in soil saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks). This can limit crop growth in the long term through the impacts on water and nutrient availability. Most studies use reductions in soil Ks as an indicator of soil pore blockage when saline-sodic irrigation water is used. However, the use of saline-sodic irrigation water requires improved understanding of the of cation exchange processes, soil structural degradation and the potential for soil pore blockage. In order to address this three laboratory trials were conducted to investigate the effect of soil pore size on soil cation exchange processes, dispersed clay movement and the mechanisms of soil pore blockage in relation to changes in soil Ks.
An initial study was conducted on two soils packed into soil cores at two different bulk densities (ρb) and leached with solutions containing varying concentrations of clay sediments. Measurements of soil Ks showed that increasing soil ρb and the concentration of clay sediment in the applied solution significantly increased the percentage of clay sediment retained within the soil columns. This in turn significantly decreased soil Ks particularly for compacted soils. Soil pore blockage occurred near the soil surface in compacted soils while soil pore blockage occurred at depth in soil packed at low ρb. This confirmed that soil pore size has a significant effect on dispersed clay movement and potential soil pore blockage. The soil pore size distribution does not provide information about the mechanism of soil pore blockage. It was hypothesised that clay sediment migration and soil pore blockage occurs in saline-sodic soils and that the soil response will vary depending on clay mineralogy and the quality of irrigation water applied. These issues were addressed in later experiments that used saline-sodic irrigation water applied to soil with different properties. A resin impregnation method was also used to gain a better understand the mechanism of soil pore blockage.

Solutions with different sodium adsorption ratios (SAR) were used to understand the relationship between ion exchange and changes in soil Ks for three soils. A Red Ferrosol (RF), Grey Vertosol (GV) and Black Vertosol (BV) were packed into soil cores at two ρb (1 and 1.2 g cm-3). The rate of ion exchange and reductions in soil Ks during leaching processes were found to be significantly higher in soils with higher proportions of soil macropores (> 30 μm) compared to those dominated by micropores (< 0.02 μm). Further, the correlation between the rate of ion exchange and changes in soil Ks was stronger for the RF soil compared to the BV soil. This indicated that dispersion was the main mechanism for soil Ks reductions in the RF soil while swelling contributed significantly to reductions in soil Ks for the BV soil. Even though the reductions in soil Ks were greater in lower ρb soils, they maintained significantly higher Ks values compared to compacted soil. The measurement of soil exchangeable cations after leaching with high SAR solutions showed a significant increase in soil ESP at the soil surface. The RF soil also reached chemical equilibrium earlier than the GV and the BV soils.

Applications of rain water to the soil cores post-leaching with saline-sodic water led to leaching of soluble cations and significant reductions in the electrical conductivity of the soil solution and soil Ks. These significant reductions were observed just after the first pore volume (PV) of leaching. However, the RF soil maintained higher Ks
values compared to the GV and BV soil. Soils with lower ρb maintained higher Ks values and produced higher concentrations of dispersed clay in the leachate compared to compacted soils.

Image analyses of resin impregnated RF soil taken at depth from soil cores irrigated with good quality water (GQW) and saline-sodic irrigation water showed significant soil pore blockage after the application of saline-sodic water. This confirmed that dispersed clay migrated with infiltrated water. In compacted RF soil the soil pore blockage took place near the soil surface. For the BV soil, pore blockage occurred at and near the soil surface for ρb = 1 and 1.2 g cm-3, respectively. Soil micropores were completely blocked while incomplete blockage was observed in the soil macropores. After applying rain water to soil cores post-leaching with saline-sodic water significant pore blockage occurred at the soil surface in all treatments except for RF packed at low ρb where soil pore blockage was only observed in deeper soil layers. Soil Ks was positively correlated with increasing the soil porosity and soil macroporesity while a strong negative correlation was found between Ks and soil microporosity. Small changes in soil porosity and soil macropores resulted in significant changes in Ks. This research has shown soil pore size has a significant effect on cation exchange processes, dispersed clay movement and the potential for soil pore blockage. However, this interaction differs between soils and is dependent on the dominant clay mineralogy.


This paper is a collection of my personal experiences with the Welsh culture, both as a celebration of heritage in America and as a way of life in Wales. Using my family's ancestral link to Wales as a narrative base, I trace the connections between Wales and America over the past century and look closely at how those ties have changed over time. The piece focuses on five location-based experiences—two in America and three in Wales—that each changed the way I interpret Welsh culture as a fifth-generation Welsh-American. Each travel experience contains characters, places, and interactions that shape my conception of Welsh heritage—from visiting Cardiff on St. David's Day, to staying with distant relatives on a farm in North Wales, to rallying people to learn the Welsh language at the 2012 North American Festival of Wales in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I explore treasured Welsh traditions such as the eisteddfod (music, arts, and literary competition) and the gymanfa ganu (festival of song), while also examining iconic symbols of Wales like the daffodil and the Welsh flag. While my ancestors and living relatives become the main characters of the piece, I also interweave biographical information on prominent Welsh figures, from the esteemed Swansea-born poet Dylan Thomas to the lead singer of the Super Furry Animals, a late 90s rock band. The paper seeks to determine the role of family ancestry in the present day and looks at how cultural identity is changing in an increasingly globalized world.


Prosecution of white collar crime, particularly grand corruption bribery, is increasing. High-level bribery is structurally similar to illegal drug cartels and terrorist organizations. Bribe-givers are serviced by multinational networks of attorneys and bankers – the "gatekeepers".The prosecution of New York attorney and banker, James H. Giffen, in the Southern District of New York generated a pair of landmark opinions on significant issues of first impression rejecting act of state doctrine defenses to bribery cases. Act of state doctrine defenses involve complex legal issues at obscure intersections of U.S. criminal law, constitutional law, conflicts of law, and international comity.The first opinion in the Giffen case provides helpful precedent on a central legal hurdle facing prosecutors developing cases – discovering the facts of bribery schemes where documents are ostensibly protected by foreign law. The second opinion arose in an important factual context, where the alleged U.S. bribe-giver also held official titles inside a foreign government.That the U.S. Department of Justice was apparently not undermined in the Giffen case despite the best efforts of powerful U.S. lobbyists and law firms in a case allegedly involving $105 million in bribes from major oil companies should not be worthy of a law review article under normal circumstances. The prosecution of the Giffen case, at the time the largest in the history of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, during one of the darkest periods in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice, demonstrates the rule of law operating even handedly, even when major oil interests are at stake.


Within Victorian society there was a public perception that within the wider field of
class there were a number of levels at the bottom of which was a criminal class.
This, a very diverse group growing out of the working class, was considered to be
responsible for the vast majority of offences ranging from begging to murder.
Following the ending of transportation in the 1850's the Metropolitan Police were
faced with a number of new problems and responsibilities. These left them open to
allegations that they were so targeting sections of the community that they were
creating this criminal class from within the casual poor and those already known to
police.
As the period progressed the police were given wider powers to deal with the
changed situation as well as extra responsibility for the compilation of criminal
records and the supervision of released convicts. As a result of these changes
allegations were made that the police so harassed those on tickets of leave and under
supervision that it impossible for many to obtain employment. In order for this to
have the case it would have been necessary for the police to be able to identify those
with previous criminal convictions and to target their resources against them.
The way in which resources were to be used had been established in 1829 with the
objective of preventing crime, by way of uniformed officers patrolling beats and
concentrating on night duty. Police resources were not efficiently used and failed to
adapt to changing circumstances. In particular, whilst the available evidence
especially for the early years is not complete it will be argued that, despite the
allocation of considerable resources, the police were very poor at a very important
part of their role, that of the identification of criminals.
The concept of a criminal class has been examined in two ways. There was a
'subjective' public perception of the situation which included all those committing
offences but it is argued that in reality what happened was that there were a series of
legislative changes focussing on a gradually reducing group of habitual offenders
which can properly be called a criminal class. This small group was responsible for
the majority of serious crime during the period. As a result the police came to be
targeting a very narrowly defined group and they as the agents, the public face of the
changes, were the ones against whom complaints were most commonly made.
This research shows that the Metropolitan Police were very poor at some important
aspects of their role and that they were given additional responsibilities without
always having the proper backing of the legislative framework. It also shows that
the police were very aware of the difficulties they faced in dealing with released
convicts and took great pains not only to allay public fears but also made
contributions to the well being of many of those released from prison.


In current Western consumer societies, the poor are excluded and occupy stigmatized positions. By analyzing an interview with a poor man, I look at how stigma is discursively negotiated through the interplay between individual and social dimensions of narratives. First, the interviewee resists the interviewer's 'poor man'-category projection by setting up alternative groups. Second, he invokes and aligns with dominant discourses regarding the necessity to own consumer goods and find a work-life balance, by which he constructs the identity of an empowered "bricoleur" (cf Gabriel et al., 2010). These findings are then related to Goffman's theory of stigma and information control (1963) and to the inextricable link between the performed nature of narratives, their individual and social dimensions and their local and global contexts.


Two endemic subterranean freshwater amphipod species have been discovered in groundwater of the volcanic active zone in Iceland, Crangonyx islandicus and Crymostygius thingvallensis. At least five different ciliate sequences were isolated from C. islandicus and the analysis of variation at the 18S ribosomal DNA gene suggests that they present previously unsequenced species, from the orders Apostomatida and Philasterida. Apostome ciliates are well known to be exuviotrophic epibionts on crustaceans. Analyses of ciliate epibionts from different groundwater amphipod species from North America and mainland Europe revealed distinct groups of ciliates and higher diversity on the epigean amphipod Crangonyx pseudogracilis. Analysis of geographic patterns of the most common ciliate within Iceland revealed population differentiation supporting limited current connectivity between the different groundwater systems. Our study reports an occurrence of previously undescribed ciliate species in a groundwater ecosystem characterized by low species diversity.


In this paper, we propose a novel synthesizing method for high-speed 8-ary quadratic-amplitude modulation (QAM) optical signal generation using commercial optical modulators with binary electrical driving signals. Using this method, we successfully generated 114-Gb/s pulse-duration modulation (PDM)-8QAM optical signals. Intradyne detection of PDM-8QAM optical signals with robust blind polarization demultiplexing has been demonstrated by using a new cascaded multimodulus equalization algorithm. With return-to-zero-shaped PDM-8QAM modulation and the proposed blind polarization demultiplexing algorithm, we demonstrate transmission of a record 32-Tb/s fiber capacity (320 × 114 Gb/s) over 580 km of ultralow-loss single-mode fiber-28 fiber by utilizing C+L-band erbium-doped fiber-amplifier-only optical amplification and single-ended coherent detection technique at an information spectral efficiency of 4.0 bit/s·Hz.


Soybean (Glycine max) oil is one of the most widely used vegetable oils across the world. Breeding of soybean to reduce the saturated fatty acid (FA) content, which is linked to cardiovascular disease, would be of great significance for nutritional improvement. Acyl-acyl carrier protein thioesterases (FATs) can release free FAs and acyl-ACP, which ultimately affects the FA profile. In this study, we identified a pair of soybean FATB coding genes, GmFATB1a and GmFATB1b. Mutants that knock out either or both of the GmFATB1 genes were obtained via CRISPR/Cas9. Single mutants, fatb1a and fatb1b, showed a decrease in leaf palmitic and stearic acid contents, ranging from 11% to 21%. The double mutant, fatb1a:1b, had a 42% and 35% decrease in palmitic and stearic acid content, displayed growth defects, and were male sterility. Analysis of the seed oil profile revealed that fatb1a and fatb1b had significant lower palmitic and stearic acid contents, 39–53% and 17–37%, respectively, while that of the unsaturated FAs were the same. The relative content of the beneficial FA, linoleic acid, was increased by 1.3–3.6%. The oil profile changes in these mutants were confirmed for four generations. Overall, our data illustrate that GmFATB1 knockout mutants have great potential in improving the soybean oil quality for human health.


Flexible working describes various unconventional working arrangements that are now becoming increasingly available to workers in Ireland. Many organizations have introduced some form of flexible working arrangements. The recent pressure on the labour market has forced organizations to consider new ways of attracting potential candidates and introduce benefits which will ensure they are the employer of choice. A more enlightened approach to equality issues has also been a driver for the introduction of flexible working arrangements. Employers are now more conscious of the requirement to ensure equal access to employment and taking steps to remove barriers that may prevent sections of society from applying for jobs. The focus on work/life balance and family friendly policies in recent years has also required organizations to look at how they can accommodate staff with family and other commitments.

The purpose of this dissertation is to look at flexible working from the perspective of the organisation and to consider the experience of several organisations which provide flexible working options for their staff.

The literature review begins by first considering working conditions from an historical perspective. From the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century it will show how the working conditions for employees has changed. The literature review will also look at how the attitudes to workers has changed and developed over the last 200 years and how the work of various theorists and researchers has informed our attitudes to workers and how we can meet their needs while at the same time ensuring that they are productive contributors to organisational performance.

A review of current research will show the current trends in flexible working, look at the reasons why employers are introducing flexible working and the benefits to employers that have introduced these initiatives. The research will then look at the benefits for employees who can avail of flexible working. It will also look at some of the barriers to implementing flexible working practices and some of the issues and problems that can arise with the introduction of these practices.

The research will look at the experience of several organisations who have provided flexible working and identify the benefits that resulted from adopting flexible working policies and the challenges that they have encountered.


TO THE EDITOR: Hillman and colleagues give an excellent overview of rapid response systems (RRSs).1 There is no doubt that this system of care that matches "the right people — with the right skills and knowledge — with the right patients at the right time" is a vast improvement on the usual traditional hierarchical referral model of care, particularly for patients in acute care hospitals whose condition is deteriorating.


Valkova, E., Atanasov, V., Vlaykova, T., Tacheva, T., Zhelyazkova, Y., Dimov, D. & Yakimov, K. (2021). The relationship between the content of heavy metals Cd and Cu in some components of the environment, fish as food and human health. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 27 (5), 963–971 The aim of the study was to establish the relationship between the content of Cd and Cu in the air, drinking water, musculature of fish (Cyprinus carpio L.) and the blood serum of patients with and without COPD. The amount of PM10 has highest values in 2017 (average annual value 25.2 μg/m3). The results regarding the amounts of cadmium in the air of the Stara Zagora region clearly show the absence of pollution. Determination of the amounts of the studied heavy metals in drinking water and the blood serum of the patients was carried out by the method of atomic absorption. The values of Cu, registered during the year-long study into the water of Stara Zagora and Radnevo are much lower than those adopted in Bulgarian legislation norms of 2 mg/l. The highest value of Cd is characterized by the drinking water in Stara Zagora Town from January 2020 (0.0047 mg/l), the value of which almost reaches the norm of 0.005 mg/l, defined in the normative documents. The cadmium concentrations measured during the same period in the drinking water of the Radnevo City are significantly below the accepted norms. Concentrations of copper in musculature of common carp of from our study from 2015 were significantly lower than the norms in force at that time (Regulation No31 of 2004, laying down maximum levels for certain contaminants in foods). Ovcharitsa Dam (0.60 mg/kg) is characterized by the highest values, far below the norms regulated in the then current Regulation 31 (10 mg/kg). Minimum concentration was measured in the muscles of carp inhabiting the Pastren Dam (0.27 mg/kg). Against the background of extremely low values of the element cadmium in the muscles of the studied specimens of the species Cyprinus carpio L. the highest is the concentration measured in the samples from Opan Dam (0.0110 mg/kg), and the lowest in the samples from Pastren Dam (0.006 mg/kg). These concentrations are much lower than the MAC specified in the then active Regulation 31, as well as in the current Regulation No5 and Regulation 1881 (EU).


We introduce and study a new data sketch for processing massive datasets. It addresses two common problems: 1) computing a sum given arbitrary filter conditions and 2) identifying the frequent items or heavy hitters in a data set. For the former, the sketch provides unbiased estimates with state of the art accuracy. It handles the challenging scenario when the data is disaggregated so that computing the per unit metric of interest requires an expensive aggregation. For example, the metric of interest may be total clicks per user while the raw data is a click stream with multiple rows per user. Thus the sketch is suitable for use in a wide range of applications including computing historical click through rates for ad prediction, reporting user metrics from event streams, and measuring network traffic for IP flows. We prove and empirically show the sketch has good properties for both the disaggregated subset sum estimation and frequent item problems. On i.i.d. data, it not only picks out the frequent items but gives strongly consistent estimates for the proportion of each frequent item. The resulting sketch asymptotically draws a probability proportional to size sample that is optimal for estimating sums over the data. For non i.i.d. data, we show that it typically does much better than random sampling for the frequent item problem and never does worse. For subset sum estimation, we show that even for pathological sequences, the variance is close to that of an optimal sampling design. Empirically, despite the disadvantage of operating on disaggregated data, our method matches or bests priority sampling, a state of the art method for pre-aggregated data and performs orders of magnitude better on skewed data compared to uniform sampling. We propose extensions to the sketch that allow it to be used in combining multiple data sets, in distributed systems, and for time decayed aggregation.


A method for the direct correlation at the nanoscale of structural and optical properties of single GaAs nanowires is reported. Nanowires consisting of 100% wurtzite and nanowires presenting zinc-blende/wurtzite polytypism are investigated by photoluminescence spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The photoluminescence of wurtzite GaAs is consistent with a band gap of 1.5 eV. In the polytypic nanowires, it is shown that the regions that are predominantly composed of either zinc-blende or wurtzite phase show photoluminescence emission close to the bulk GaAs band gap, while regions composed of a nonperiodic superlattice of wurtzite and zinc-blende phases exhibit a redshift of the photoluminescence spectra as low as 1.455 eV. The dimensions of the quantum heterostructures are correlated with the light emission, allowing us to determine the band alignment between these two crystalline phases. Our first-principles electronic structure calculations within density functional theory, employing a hybrid-exchange functional, predict band offsets and effective masses in good agreement with experimental results.


The study was undertaken to investigate the effect of water table management
practices on the environmental transport and fate of agrochemicals. A laboratory
based study using disturbed sand soil columns was conducted to investigate the
transport and fate of nitrate (NO~), a commonly used agricultural chemical, to
the underground environment as effected by controlled water table depths.
Three controlled water table depths set as 0.25m, 0.50m, and 0.75m from the
surface and free drainage treatment (no controlled water table depth) were
used. A simple statistical model based on mUltiple linear regression analysis was
developed using experimental data to simulate reduction and transport of
nitrate in soil columns under different water table depths. The regression
model was developed from selected physical variables including water table
depth from the surface, time, and saturated depth. An imperial equation was
obtained from the experimental data with a correlation coefficient of R2 =0.83.
The performance of this equation was tested using experimental data and it
was found that the output from this equation is acceptable and satisfactory.According to the simulated and observed results, it was clearly shown that the
water table depth affects the characteristics of transport nitrate. In addition
significant reduction in nitrate concentration was achieved through different
water table treatments. The results suggest it is possible to promote biological
and chemical degradation to reduce nitrate transport by controlling water table
depths.


In the drive towards a sustainable bio-economy, a growing interest exists in the development of composite materials using renewable natural resources. This paper explores the life cycle assessment of processing of Flax fibre reinforced polylactic acid (PLA), with a comparison of glass fibre triaxial fabric in the production process. The use of hydrocarbon fossil resources and synthetic fibres, such as glass and carbon, have caused severe environmental impacts in their entire life cycles. Whereas, Flax/PLA is one of the cornerstones for the sustainable economic growth of natural fibre composites. In this study, the manufacturing processes for the production of Flax/PLA tape and triaxial glass fibre were evaluated through a gate-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA). The assessment was based on an input-output model to estimate energy demand and environmental impacts. The quality of the natural hybrid composite produced and cost-effectiveness of their LCA was dependent on their roving processing speeds and temperature applied to both the Flax/PLA tape and triaxial glass fabrics during processing. The optimum processing condition was found to be at a maximum of 4 m/min at a constant temperature of 170 °C. In contrast, the optimum for normal triaxial glass fibre production was at a slower speed of 1 m/min using a roving glass fibre laminating machine. The results showed that when the Flax and PLA were combined to produce new composite material in the form of a flax/PLA tape, energy consumption was 0.25 MJ/kg, which is lower than the 0.8 MJ/kg used for glass fibre fabric process. Flax/PLA tape and glass fibre fabric composites have a carbon footprint equivalent to 0.036 kg CO2 and 0.11 kg CO2, respectively, under the same manufacturing conditions. These are within the technical requirements in the composites industry. The manufacturing process adopted to transform Flax/PLA into a similar tape composite was considerably quicker than that of woven glass fibre fabric for composite tape. This work elucidated the relationship of the energy consumptions of the two materials processes by using a standard LCA analytical methodology. The outcomes supported an alternative option for replacement of some conventional composite materials for the automotive industry. Most importantly, the natural fibre composite production is shown to result in an economic benefit and reduced environmental impact.


AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CELL BIOLOGY MEETINGSAN FRANCISCO-- An air of optimism pervaded the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology, held here last month. The $2 billion boost the National Institutes of Health budget got this year explained some of the good cheer. But the 8000 participants also found much excitement in the science, which ranged from new roles for the giant protein titin to the subtle tricks of the salmonella pathogen.


It is widely recognized that the European Convention on Human Rights has led to the most advanced human rights protection system to date and represents an important benchmark for several other international bodies. The individual right of application to the European Court, which unlike other human rights treaties is compulsory for State parties, is a unique feature and pillar of the system. However, the European Court is presently overwhelmed by an abnormal caseload: about 150,000 applications are currently pending in Strasbourg. Recent reforms have increased the Court's efficiency. Yet the British Government has just tried to promote a new reform of the system. This attempt was not entirely disinterested and has led to an unprecedented mobilization by international civil society. The British move has nonetheless triggered a debate on the real challenges facing the European system.


K-12 Teacher Perceptions regarding Hispanic Family Educational Beliefs and Language and Literacy Practices Marisa Lee Department of Linguistics and English Language Master of Arts Abundant research exists examining what occurs in Hispanic homes regarding educational beliefs and literacy and language practices before and after children enter the school system. What is not known is whether or not teachers are aware of these practices and beliefs. The research questions of this study focus first on what perceptions K-12 teachers have about Hispanic educational beliefs and practices, and second, on determining if those perceptions correlate with teacher training in English as a second language (ESL). To answer these questions, a questionnaire was written based on an extensive review of literature regarding three aspects: Hispanic educational beliefs, literacy practices, and language practices. This questionnaire was then administered to 214 K-12 public school teachers from three school districts in Utah. The results were analyzed first using descriptive statistics to learn which perceptions teachers felt strongly about, and second, with a blocked analysis of variance to find correlation between perceptions and ESL training. The results suggest that teachers are uncertain about what is occurring in Hispanic homes. Of the 25 questions analyzed in the descriptive statistics, 68% had response means falling between 3.90 and 5.10 (a score of 4.0 indicating neither agreement nor disagreement). However, results showed that teachers had the strongest views regarding Hispanic literacy practices and the family focus on authority. The analysis of variance showed that ESL training does not correlate with teacher perception. Suggestions for further research and implications of the results of this study are discussed.


This paper explores links between ethnographic approaches, technology design and use and values and beliefs. We document recent empirical work on the use of photographs amongst Chinese families; pointing to some differences with previous empirical studies from predominantly Western cultures and tentatively linking Chinese photo work to rather broader cultural values that may develop some 'sensitivities' for design. For some time ethnography has been interested in 'values' in methodological approaches and concerns. The notion of 'values' is also repeatedly called upon in ethnographic studies of (technology for) the home. In this appeal these studies tellingly echo Peter Winch's sentiments regarding how, in general, social life can be understood only through a understanding of beliefs. This paper documents and explicates photo work amongst Chinese families, linking the families' own explanations and comments about these practices to much wider, if particular, sets of social and cultural values and reflects on the potential influence of these values on technology design.


Until now, the Communist movement has been studied more from the national perspective than the international. This scholarly tradition seems to be at odds with the organisatorial interconnection even subjugation of the national communist parties ("sections") to the Communist International, or Comintern (1919/1943), but it is understandable from the point of view of the historian who has only national sources at his disposal (newspapers, brochures, interviews). Nowadays, the tendency is for the international component of the Communist movement to participate in research. The archives of the Comintern are gradually being released by the Soviet Union, and an enormous number of official publications is emerging, and being made available in libraries by reprints. Here, Vilem Kahan's bibliography is an indispensable tool in listing nearly all reference works and publications by and on the Comintern, and in giving a list of aliases of speakers on Comintern meetings and an overview of all agendas of the meetings. These lists are based on research in 14 specialised Western libraries and on the knowledge of a dozen European languages. The second volume will deal with the front organisations, a third and last volume with the national sections.


Comparing universal against language-specific factors, this chapter examines the roles of lexical aspect, morphological regularity, and transfer in the developmental emergence of past and progressive morphology among four adult learners of English from Italian and Punjabi L1 backgrounds. The learner production data were obtained from the European Science Foundation SLA corpus (Perdue 1993). In contrast to qualitative findings by Klein (1995), quantitative results reveal that lexical aspect correlates with the distribution of tense-aspect morphology, supporting the core predictions of the Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen and Shirai 1994) that learners predominantly use past/perfective markers with telic predicates, and progressive morphology with activity verbs. A paucity of production data makes it difficult to pinpoint effects of morphological regularity and transfer.