BACKGROUND
Sodium glucose transporter-2 inhibitors reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and a history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Because of their baseline risk, patients with previous myocardial infarction (MI) may derive even greater benefit from sodium glucose transporter-2 inhibitor therapy.

METHODS
DECLARE-TIMI 58 (Dapagliflozin Effect on Cardiovascular Events-Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction 58) randomized 17 160 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and either established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (n=6974) or multiple risk factors (n=10 186) to dapagliflozin versus placebo. The 2 primary end points were composite of MACE (cardiovascular death, MI, or ischemic stroke) and the composite of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure. Those with previous MI (n=3584) made up a prespecified subgroup of interest.

RESULTS
In patients with previous MI (n=3584), dapagliflozin reduced the relative risk of MACE by 16% and the absolute risk by 2.6% (15.2% versus 17.8%; hazard ratio [HR], 0.84; 95% CI, 0.72-0.99; P=0.039), whereas there was no effect in patients without previous MI (7.1% versus 7.1%; HR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.88-1.13; P=0.97; P for interaction for relative difference=0.11; P for interaction for absolute risk difference=0.048), including in patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease but no history of MI (12.6% versus 12.8%; HR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.81-1.19). There seemed to be a greater benefit for MACE within 2 years after the last acute event ( P for interaction trend=0.007). The relative risk reductions in cardiovascular death/hospitalization for heart failure were more similar, but the absolute risk reductions tended to be greater: 1.9% (8.6% versus 10.5%; HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.65-1.00; P=0.046) and 0.6% (3.9% versus 4.5%; HR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.72-1.00; P=0.055) in patients with and without previous MI, respectively ( P interaction for relative difference=0.69; P interaction for absolute risk difference=0.010).

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and previous MI are at high risk of MACE and cardiovascular death/hospitalization for heart failure. Dapagliflozin appears to robustly reduce the risk of both composite outcomes in these patients. Future studies should aim to confirm the large clinical benefits with sodium glucose transporter-2 inhibitors we observed in patients with previous MI.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION
URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier: NCT01730534.


Consideration of the role that religion plays in women's lives in developing contexts can be important in understanding ways of approaching their "strategic gender needs". Rather than rejecting religion for its inherent patriarchy, styles of "religious feminism" have emerged across the globe. These argue for reinterpretations of religious systems that are consistent with the "core" values of the tradition as well as various types of feminist thinking. The aim of this paper is to discuss the emergence of a transnational movement across Buddhist traditions and countries that is concerned to make full ordination an available option to women in contexts where it is currently prohibited. While becoming fully ordained is considered to be the most suitable way of becoming enlightened and escaping future rebirths, a strong theme within the movement is the argument that gender hierarchies within Buddhism have a broader cultural impact upon social attitudes that disempower women and limit their development. Dialogue between members of Buddhist communities across the world has encouraged reflection upon and a challenge to unequal and oppressive gender hierarchies within the Buddhist tradition and within Buddhist societies. This paper explores four "international" events/examples that enable information exchange as well as the flow of material support between women from different traditions.


Globalization has become an inescapable fact of contemporary life. Some leaders, in both the East and the West, believe that human rights are culture-bound and that liberal democracy is essentially Western, inapplicable to the non-Western world. How can civilized life be preserved and issues of human rights and civil society be addressed if the material forces dominating world affairs are allowed to run blindly, uncontrolled by any cross-cultural consensus on how human values can be given effective expression and direction? In a thoughtful meditation ranging widely over several civilizations and historical eras, Wm. Theodore de Bary argues that the concepts of leadership and public morality in the major Asian traditions offer a valuable perspective on humanizing the globalization process. Turning to the classic ideals of the Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, and Japanese traditions, he investigates the nature of true leadership and its relation to learning, virtue, and education in human governance; the role in society of the public intellectual; and the responsibilities of those in power in creating and maintaining civil society. De Bary recognizes that throughout history ideals have always come up against messy human complications. Still, he finds in the exploration and affirmation of common values a worthy attempt to grapple with persistent human dilemmas across the globe.


This article examines Australia's contentious 2011 Trade Policy Statement in which the Federal Government indicated that it will no longer provide for investor-state arbitration (ISA) in future bilateral and regional trade agreements (BRTAs), choosing instead to rely on alternatives to ISA. These are likely to vary from encouraging investor-state parties to negotiate contracts that provide mechanisms for dispute resolution to providing by treaty that domestic courts resolve such disputes. Notwithstanding a change in Australia's Federal Government in 2013, two years after the Policy Statement was announced, the new Liberal Government has retreated from that Policy notably by including ISA in the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA) concluded on 5 December 2013. However, it has not rejected the Policy, but has indicated instead that it will consider ISA in its treaties on a case-by-case basis. As a result, the Policy could still have significant ramifications for Australia in negotiating BRTAs; it could have a material impact on Australia's inbound and outbound investors, as well as upon other states and investors directly or indirectly impacted by Australia's Policy. It is also conceivable that other states will follow Australia's initiative and reconsider whether to agree to ISA in their BRTAs. In analysing the policy shift against ISA, the paper evaluates the nature of foreign direct investment (FDI) and its economic and legal significance to host and home states, as well as to inbound and outbound foreign investors. Following this analysis, the paper outlines the rationale behind Australia's rejection of ISA in 2011. It evaluates the perceived advantages and disadvantages of alternatives to ISA, such as diplomatic intervention in investor-state disputes and conciliation proceedings between investorstate parties. However, it focuses on the most likely alternative to ISA, namely, reliance on domestic courts to resolve investment disputes. The paper argues against the complete rejection of ISA. It illustrates the challenges of Australia relying on domestic courts to resolve investor-state disputes in light of the impending Investment Chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and the preservation of Australia's investment interests in Asia.As an alternative, the article proposes the adoption of a BIT policy which would provide investor-state parties with a choice among dispute-avoiding measures, including access to either domestic courts or ISA. The rationale is that such an approach is likely to preserve the national interests of Australia, while also gaining support within the international community of states and among foreign investors.


This new edition of Forecasting Volatility in the Financial Markets assumes that the reader has a firm grounding in the key principles and methods of understanding volatility measurement and builds on that knowledge to detail cutting-edge modelling and forecasting techniques. It provides a survey of ways to measure risk and define the different models of volatility and return. Editors John Knight and Stephen Satchell have brought together an impressive array of contributors who present research from their area of specialization related to volatility forecasting. Readers with an understanding of volatility measures and risk management strategies will benefit from this collection of up-to-date chapters on the latest techniques in forecasting volatility. Chapters new to this third edition: * What good is a volatility model? Engle and Patton * Applications for portfolio variety Dan diBartolomeo * A comparison of the properties of realized variance for the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 equity indices Rob Cornish * Volatility modeling and forecasting in finance Xiao and Aydemir * An investigation of the relative performance of GARCH models versus simple rules in forecasting volatility Thomas A. Silvey * Leading thinkers present newest research on volatility forecasting *International authors cover a broad array of subjects related to volatility forecasting *Assumes basic knowledge of volatility, financial mathematics, and modelling


Introduction: This study aimed to translate the 31-item Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory (QOLIE-31) into Vietnamese and validate the translation.

Methods: The inventory was translated through "forward – backward" translation, and culturally adapted for standardization. To ensure the reliability of the inventory, the internal consistency and the temporal consistency was determined. Clinical variables were tested for discriminant validity by comparing their scores.

Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient ranged from 0.91 to 0.57, with the lowest in the Overall quality of life subscale. Test-retest reliability showed high reproducibility with intra-class correlation coefficients ranging from 0.72 to 0.87 (p<0.001). The mean score of QOLIE-31 was 71.31. Further, the study used the statistical differences of QOLIE-31 scores in the drug-resistant group to show discriminant validity.

Conclusion: The Vietnamese QOLIE-31 is a reliable and valid instrument as proven by the statistical data and can be used to assess quality of life in people with epilepsy.


The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive impacts retailers of electronic
and electric equipment across the European Union. However, there are differences between
solutions developed at country level. As a consideration of the various models of closed-loop
supply chain can be valuable, this paper presents the implementation of the WEEE directive in
the UK, concentrating on the role of retailers and cooperation with logistics providers in
designing cost-effective and sustainable solution for electronic and electric waste. It is an
important case, since the British model seems to be effective: According to BERR estimations, in
2007 in the UK, 7kg of WEEE was collected per head of population, against a 4kg target set by
the EU.


The entire book, with its unconventional page arrangement and eclectic, frenetic mix of text and picures, is a spoof on the art of book design and the art of the fairy tale. The individual tales, such as he Really Ugly Ducklingand ittle Red Running Shorts, can be extracted for telling aloud, with great success. Another masterpiece from the team that created The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! "-Horn Book"


Volcanic glasses contained in distal fallout tephras from the Izu arc volcanic front (Izu VF) provide unique perspectives on general problems of arc volcanism. Unlike cogenetic lavas, these glasses are liquid compositions where element concentrations as well as ratios have significance. Isotopic evidence and previous work show that there is no sediment melt contribution to the sources of the Izu VF tephras, and hence their trace element characteristics permit determination of the trace element contents of slab fluids. The slab fluid is a composite of metasediment (∼5% of total fluid) and metabasalt (∼95%) component fluids, and carries large ion lithophile elements (LILE) with high LILE/Th and LILE/U, and low Th and U relative to source. Except for Sr and K, the metabasalt fluid is much less enriched than the metasediment fluid, but its large relative proportions make it an important carrier of many trace elements. The metabasalt fluid has the characteristics of the arc trace element signature, obviating the need for ubiquitous involvement of sediment in arc magma genesis. The fluid component in the tephras is remarkably constant in composition over fifteen million years, and hence appears to be a robust composition that may be applicable to other convergent margins. Assuming that the metabasalt fluid is a common component, and that distribution coefficients between sediment and fluid are similar from one arc to another, composite fluid compositions can be estimated for other arcs. Differences from this composition then would likely result from a sediment melt component. Comparison to arcs with sediment melt components in their source (Marianas, eastern Aleutians) shows that partial sediment melts may be so enriched, that they can completely mask the signature of the comingling slab fluids. Hence sediment melts can easily dominate the trace element and isotopic signature of many convergent margins. Since sediment melts inherit the LILE/LILE ratios of the trench sediment, Earth's surface processes must eventually influence the compositional diversity of arcs.


In 1833 at age 21, William Warren Goddard joined his father's Boston firm of shipbuilding and mercantile trade. This was the beginning of a very successful 41-year career that brought him much financial success and worldwide recognition. When he became sole owner, he began a changing of trade routes from transatlantic ports to those of North and South America. His commodity of choice was Chilean copper and copper ore. Not only did he trade in copper, he became the owner of copper mills in both Massachusetts and Connecticut. By 1850 when California achieved statehood, San Francisco had already become a destination for Goddard's ships, and in the Port of New York he opened another office. Preserved papers in the Library at Mystic Seaport from Goddard to his captains and agents were written without fear of loss at sea. The surviving captains' logs emphasize their loyalty, while graphically depicting the voyages.


Abstract The current RFX-mod machine control system relies upon proprietary products for control (PLCs) and supervision (SCADA). To improve the software versatility and to overcome increasing difficulties with legacy products, a major overhaul is being implemented. The new architecture retains the modularity of the current one, but Javais used to program most of the control tasks and the graphical user interfaces, moving the control functions to a new PC-based layer. The physical layer of the communication employs Industrial Ethernet technology for the local area network; data exchange is based on TCP/IP and OPC communication protocols, and on MDS plus technology. The master scheduler talks to non-PLC subsystems using TCP/IP and exchanges data with the tasks on the PLCs through the MDS plus transport layer and OPC. One Windows PC hosts the OPC and MDS plus servers; other PCs execute the control functions and provide the graphical user interface. This paper describes and analyses the current architecture of the RFX-mod machine control system and the renewed one, which is under development. The first encouraging tests, concerning mainly the communication performance, are reported.


Aim and background: this study investigates faculty members' perceptions of the impact of Impact of the leadership styles of nursing deans on the job satisfaction of faculty members working in nursing education in Oman. Nursing education in Oman currently is going through a major transformation, with the appointment of new deans, the introduction of an accreditation process, and the upgrading of the nursing diploma to a Bachelor's degree program in all governmental nursing institutions. These reform require significant development work in a short period of time; various taskforces have been established with specific tasks such as curriculum restructure, improving the range and number of research activities, the merging of institutes, introducing new policies, and establishing a quality assurance approach. This reform programme demands effective leadership to lead faculty, build the vision and respond to a range of external demands.
In Oman, there is a lack of research on the role of leadership in higher education and its importance to staff professional development and job satisfaction, which in turn reflects on the level of organizational performance. The significance of this study is that it explores the perceptions of both teaching staff and their deans in a comparable set of organizations to determine which leadership styles have the greatest potential to improve their organizations. This was an insider research project with the researcher being a nursing dean; however certain measures were taken to ensure validity and reliability of the study.

Method and conclusion: The study involved 147 lecturers and 7 leaders from various nursing institutes in Oman. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires: the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Weiss 1967) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Avolio & Bass 2004). Qualitative data were analysed for recurring themes and coded accordingly. Coding categories were constructed from the concepts and themes that emerged during the interview process and from the review of the literature. The overall findings indicate that most faculty members are satisfied with the leadership style of their deans. The transformational leadership style emerged as the preferred style to ensure faculty satisfaction and maintain productivity levels in demanding times; however, the deans also used a transactional leadership style for specific tasks.

Implications: Management roles in health care education are very demanding, thorough preparation is required for the dean's role and its associated tasks in order to develop and sustain a transformational style. Work-related leadership training and skill-development workshops, mentoring, and survival skills workshops could provide new deans with much needed support. The research on transformational leadership provides a good starting point; however, we need to think of the next step. It is very clear that deans of nursing institutes need to adopt transformational-transactional leadership styles to overcome continuous challenges, satisfy the nursing faculty and boost organizational productivity. Hence, the role of the nursing dean in Oman has to be built on transformational leadership, with a focus on collaboration by adopting a distributive stance (distributed leadership) that focuses on learning.


The task of identifying the differences between laws and constitutional conventions has caused British constitutional theorists a great deal of trouble. Two possible distinctions are canvassed. First, that laws are enforced by courts, with legal sanctions following their breach, whilst conventions are enforced only by political pressure. Secondly, that laws are systematic, a set of rules bound together by other rules, whereas each constitutional convention stands alone. A sophistication of this second distinction focuses on the special claims that law makes. Even if conventions can, sometimes, form systems, this system will not make the claims which are characteristic of legal systems. This paper argues that neither distinction can be sustained. The difference between law and convention is one of degree: laws and conventions should be placed upon a spectrum of types of social rules, a spectrum gradated in terms of the formalisation of rules. Laws lie at the most formalised end of this spectrum, but there is no single, definable, point at which rules shift from being conventions into being laws. Alongside this argument, it will be contended that conventions can become laws through judicial intervention, and that conventions can 'crystallise' into laws over time by becoming increasingly formalised.


This study assessed the impact of life coaching on physical activity participation, self-efficacy, social support, and perceived behavioural control among physically inactive youth between the ages of 12 and 14 years in London, Ontario. The multiple-baseline across participants single case-experimental design study consisted of five 12 to 14 year olds. Six coaching sessions were conducted over two months by a certified professional Co-active coach. Physical activity increased for one participant while the other participants' physical activity remained unchanged. No significant changes occurred in self-efficacy, social support, and perceived behavioural control with specific regard to becoming more physically active. Results indicted no consistent intervention effects for physical activity. Furthermore, coaching may not be appealing to youth of this age group given the difficulties experienced obtaining the necessary number of participants and the low levels of participant commitment throughout the study.


Optical networks using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology have emerged as an attractive solution for meeting rapidly growing demands forBandwidth. WDM allows the same fiber to carry many signals independently as long as each uses a different wavelength. Connections must therefore be routed and assigned to wavelengths such that no two calls use the same wavelength on the same link. This is known as the routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem. If full conversion is available at all nodes, the WDM network is equivalent to a circuit-switchednetwork; however, the high cost of wavelength converters often makes it desirable to keep the amount of conversion used in the network to a minimum. Since the performance of this architecture is tightly linked to the efficient establishment of light paths, a detailed investigation of the lightpath establishment problem is conducted.This study addresses an important problem in wavelength routed all-optical WDM networks: how to efficiently utilize a limited number of resources on statically routed optical core. We first formulate a routing scheme to balance channels across the network and then introduce a wavelength allocation scheme to reduce number of wavelength channel and wavelength conversion. Both theoretical and simulation results are presented. By using the proposed routing scheme and wavelength assignment algorithm, only a very small number of wavelength converters are needed to achieve same performance as that of the full-Complete Wavelength conversion. This objective is achieved in the study by evolving the routing and wavelength assignment scheme using very simple and intuitive steps.


Abstract The behaviour of ice caps and glaciers on sub-Antarctic islands during previous periods of warming provide key empirical evidence for understanding the behaviour of marine ice sheets in the future. However, the extent of ice on sub-Antarctic islands during the last 100 kyr is poorly constrained. Here, we investigate the past glacial extents on South Georgia, where previous Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) reconstructions vary between small fjord-terminating glaciers and a large marine-based ice sheet. To help resolve this uncertainty, we apply Schmidt hammer relative-age dating to measure rock hardness and, thus, exposure age of a range of glacial deposits. Applying a hardness–age calibration curve constructed from well-dated Holocene, late-glacial deposits and terminal LGM deposits, we determine that deglaciation of the approximately 600 m-high peaks on the outer Lewin Peninsula occurred during the latter half of the last glacial stage, and probably the end of the LGM. We infer that South Georgia was covered by a marine-based ice cap during the latter part of the last glacial stage.


Marina Viktorovna Romanova5, Alexei Valerievich Yumashev6 This study is aimed at the development of a guideline for analysis of the economic activity of an enterprise to control and ensure the interaction of tasks and functions of management in the current and strategic aspects in the conditions of innovative development. The proprietary methodology for enterprise management control system formation is developed. The concept of matrices of analysis and interaction between the functions of the enterprise management is introduced. The matrix of operational control and management, the matrix of strategic control and management, the matrix of integrated control and management are considered by the authors. The concept of enterprise management control is considered herein. The objectives of the management control system in the modern economy are also described. The key role of control in the implementation of the current and strategic objectives of the enterprise management is substantiated. The proposals are formulated to improve the control function at the enterprise with the help of new information technologies. Based on the proprietary methodology of matrix analysis and interaction of objectives and functions of the enterprise management system, the algorithm for the formation of a system of integrated flexible internal control is developed.


Abstract This article re-examines the history of NATO's original post-Cold War enlargement to include the Visegrad states of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. It uses both published materials and the author's new interviews with key US and Russian policymakers, and employs robust qualitative counterfactual methods to ask two questions: whether there were any realistic alternatives to NATO enlargement, and whether NATO enlargement was responsible for the downturn in Russian relations with the West. It concludes that domestic politics were the dominant factors explaining policy directions on both the US and Russian sides; that NATO enlargement was probably inevitable given US domestic political factors and West European acquiescence; that Russia's turn against the West preceded the NATO expansion discussion in the US; that the tenor of the Russian turn is explained by status concerns rather than military threat perceptions, and that it was aggravated most by Western unilateral airstrikes rather than NATO's geographical enlargement; and that the one policy initiative that might have realistically slowed NATO enlargement if it had been adopted differently, Partnership for Peace, did not affect those Russian status concerns and thus could not have redirected the relationship.


On 4 August 1916, the day after Roger Casement was executed, the Hearst International Film Pictorial Newsreel released moving pictures of Sir Roger at his writing desk. Although Hearst claimed that the films were shot in Belgium, they had been shot in Germany the year before. The authors have found the original film at the Library of Congress in the John E. Allen collection. A copy of the film has also surfaced in a British documentary series on World War I, from where it was posted on YouTube. But there was no information on how the film was shot in 1915 or the story behind it. The authors have also searched the provenance of the film. The story involves two Americans, Franz Hugo Krebs, journalist, and Albert K. Dawson, cinematographer, in the sad episode of Casement in Germany prior to the Easter rising of 1916 and his trial in London. Casement had been trying to enlist the Germans' support in a general rising against England and the raising of an Irish Brigade. He had quickly found out that the Germans were simply using him for propaganda purposes. Nevertheless, he decided to assist Krebs and Dawson in their use of photography for his own propaganda aims. Aside from its undisputed propaganda value, the photo and film session became an important document of Casement's life. Today, Casement receives increasing attention for his heroic struggle against to speak out against all wrongs, not just those committed against Ireland. These films and photographs are in part a testament to this struggle.


The alarming state of safe water deprivation among the residents of rural communities in Nigeria is well recognized. Unfortunately, research that shows the policy-gaps in the water supply sector of the country and measures to eliminate them in order to improve water supply sustainability in the country is lacking. This paper investigates the landscape of water service provision to rural communities in Nigeria using investigative and qualitative approaches due to the desire to explore the experience and opinions of previous workers/agencies in the region. Primary and secondary data were used in the study. Findings characterized the rural water supply landscape in the region. The community-based service providers are constrained by several policy-gaps that negatively impact on the quality and sustainability of rural water supply in the country. Rural water interventions suffer from a high rate of failures due largely to weak institutional framework in the water supply sector. The paper recommends that for rural water supply sustainability to be improved in Nigeria all the stakeholders must work together to prioritize and address the policy-gaps constraining service delivery simultaneously in the region. Working on one factor alone may not result in sustainable services.


Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) is an aggressive disease that has been linked to altered immune, inflammatory, and angiogenesis responses. A better understanding of these aberrant responses might improve early detection and prognosis of SCCHN and provide novel therapeutic targets. Previous studies examined the role of multiplexed serum biomarkers in small cohorts or SCCHN sera. We hypothesized that an expanded panel comprised of multiple cytokines, chemokines, growth factors, and other tumor markers, which individually may show some promising correlation with disease status, might provide higher diagnostic power if used in combination. Thus, we evaluated a novel multianalyte LabMAP profiling technology that allows simultaneous measurement of multiple serum biomarkers. Concentrations of 60 cytokines, growth factors, and tumor antigens were measured in the sera of 116 SCCHN patients before treatment (active disease group), 103 patients who were successfully treated (no evidence of disease group), and 117 smoker controls without evidence of cancer. The multimarker panel offering the highest diagnostic power was comprised of 25 biomarkers, including epidermal growth factor, epidermal growth factor receptor, interleukin (IL)-8, tissue plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, α-fetoprotein, matrix metalloproteinase-2, matrix metalloproteinase-3, IFN-α, IFN-γ, IFN-inducible protein-10, regulated on activation, normal T-cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, IL-7, IL-17, IL-1 receptor-α, IL-2 receptor, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, mesothelin, insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1, E-selectin, cytokeratin-19, vascular cell adhesion molecule, and cancer antigen-125. Statistical analysis using an ADE algorithm resulted in a sensitivity of 84.5%, specificity of 98%, and 92% of patients in the active disease group correctly classified from a cross-validation serum set. The data presented show that simultaneous testing using a multiplexed panel of serum biomarkers may present a promising new approach for the early detection of head and neck cancer. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(1):102–7)


Iron oxyhydroxide (FeOOH) mineral plays an important role in a variety of atmospheric, terrestrial and technological settings. Molecular resolution of reactions involving these minerals is thereby required to develop a fundamental understanding of their contributions in processes taking place in the atmosphere, Earth's upper crust as well as the hydrosphere. This study resolves interactions involving four different types of synthetic FeOOH particles with distinct and well-defined surfaces, namely lath- and rod-shaped lepidocrocite (γ), goethite (α) and akaganeite (β). The surface and bulk reactivities of these particles are controlled by their distinct structures. When exposed to ambient atmospheric or aqueous conditions their surfaces are populated with different types of (hydr)oxo functional groups acting as reaction centers. These sites consist of hydroxyl groups that can be singly- (≡FeOH, -OH), doubly- (≡Fe2OH, μ-OH), or triply-coordinated (≡Fe3OH, μ3-OH) with underlying Fe atoms. Moreover, these sites exhibit different types, densities, distributions, as well as hydrogen bonding patterns on different crystal planes for each mineral. Knowledge of the types and distributions of hydroxyl groups on minerals with different surface structures is fundamental for building a molecular-scale understanding of processes taking place at FeOOH particle surfaces.In this thesis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to resolve the interactions between (hydr)oxo groups of FeOOH particles with (in)organic acids, salts, water vapor as well as carbon dioxide. The focus on such compounds was justified by their importance in natural environments. This thesis is based on 9 articles and manuscripts that can be found in the appendices.FTIR spectroscopic signatures of hydroxyl groups in the bulk of well crystallized FeOOH minerals were characterized for structural differences and thermal stabilities. Those of akaganeite were particularly resolved for the variable bond strength of bulk hydroxyls induced by the incorporation of HCl through nanostructured channels at the terminations of the particles. FTIR bands of hydroxyl groups at all particle surfaces were monitored for responses to thermal gradients and proton loadings, providing experimental validation to previous theoretical accounts on surface site reactivity. This site reactivity was resolved further in the fluoride (F-) and phosphate (PO43-) ions adsorption study to follow the site selectivity for ligand-exchange reactions. These efforts showed that singly-coordinated groups are the primary adsorption centers for ligands, doubly-coordinated groups can only be exchanged at substantially higher ligand loadings, while triply coordinated groups are largely resilient to any ligand-exchange reaction.These findings helped consolidate fundamental knowledge that can be used in investigating sorption processes involving atmospherically and geochemically important gases. The latter parts of this thesis were therefore focused on water vapor and carbon dioxide interactions with these FeOOH particles. These efforts showed how surface structure and speciation affect sorption loadings and configurations, as well as how water diffused into and through the akaganeite bulk. Hydrogen bonding is one of the most important forms of interactions between gas phase and minerals. It plays a crucial role in the formation of thin water films and in stabilizing surface (bi)carbonate species. The affinity of surface hydroxyl groups for water and carbon dioxide is strongly dependent on their abilities to form hydrogen bonds. These are controlled by coordination number and site accessibility/steric constraints. In agreement with the aforementioned ligand-exchange studies, surfaces dominated by singly coordinated groups have stronger ability to accumulate water layers than the ones terminated by groups of larger coordination number. Collectively, these efforts consolidate further the concept for structure-controlled reactivities in iron oxyhydroxides, and pave the way for new studies along such lines.


Abstract Background: Given the potential to augment tissue repair and regeneration, platelet-rich plasma [PRP] has been advocated to treat hamstring injuries. Findings: The present report details the case of a 34-year-old physically fit male who presented with chronic pain, localized in the left buttock. This pain had persisted for 3 years. The patient consulted multiple physicians, exhausted conservative treatment modalities, and underwent lumbar laminectomy without success. When treated with a single PRP injection, the patient had significant improvements in pain and quality of life. Conclusion: A single PRP injection has potential to treat hamstring injuries and restore pre-injury function in athletes.


This new and improved edition focuses on providing practical information and tools that engineers can use to maximize the profitability and reliability of their fluid catalytic cracking operations. The updated chapters and new content deliver expertise and know-how to an industry that faces significant cost cutting in capital expenditure and R&D, along with the retirement of technical specialists who are taking existing knowledge out of the industry with them. This "FCC Handbook" provides a valuable easy-to-understand resource for both experienced and inexperienced engineers and anyone else associated with the FCC process. This book gives those who need a quick reference, and gives those who are developing their skills and knowledge trusted information that will help them succeed with their projects. This title features common examples that will enable engineers to achieve increased unit savings. It is updated with the latest process technologies for handling residue and "deep" hydrotreated feedstock. It features a new chapter discussing refractory lining, providing an introduction to the different refractories employed in FCC units, examples of various refractory linings and associated anchors, installation techniques as well as some guidelines for proper drying and curing refractory lining. There is a new troubleshooting chapter, increasing the practical application of the book, along with new visual references to operation optimization. About the author: Reza Sadeghbeigi is President of RMS Engineering, Inc. a Houston, Texas based engineering firm providing high-level technical expertise in the area of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and related processes. Reza has 35 years of hands-on FCC experience in the refining industry, focusing on technical services, troubleshooting, process design, and project management, including major FCC revamps. A licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) in Texas and Louisiana, Reza has published technical papers and produced industry seminars on refining and catalytic cracking operations and conducted numerous client customized FCC training courses and public seminars. This is the only practical approach, with tools and techniques for those with FCC responsibilities to help maximize the profitability and reliability of fluid catalytic cracking operations. This title is updated throughout, with new material focusing on latest developments, the shift to using FCC to process lower quality crudes, and new applied material on troubleshooting. It provides a reference for both experienced engineers who need a quick reference, as well as providing those who are developing their skills and knowledge with access to trusted information that will help them succeed in their projects.


Africa is the developing region most at risk from the global economic crisis. Its recent strong growth has been interrupted. Already home to the largest number of low-income countries in the world, the region is now likely to experience higher unemployment and poverty; increases in infant mortality; and difficulty coping with longer-lasting effects such as higher school drop-out rates, reductions in health care, environmental degradation and a rise in conflict. Africa therefore needs to recover as quickly as possible. In this policy brief we draw on a number of recent UNU-WIDER studies to discuss the policy options for recovery.


Endogenous retroviruses materially contribute to humoral immunity in mice. Scattered across our genome are endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), ancient "footprints" of previous viral infections. Scientists do not fully understand their functions, but Zeng et al. now report a role for ERVs in mobilizing a particular type of B cell–driven immune response in mice [T cell–independent (TID)], which is usually mounted in response to viral capsids or bacterial polysaccharides (see the Perspective by Grasset and Cerutti). Immunizing mice with a model TID antigen elicited an increase in ERV RNA and DNA in the cytoplasm of B cells. Innate immune receptors that recognize cytoplasmic nucleotides then triggered signaling cascades that resulted in the production of immunoglobulin M. M. Zeng, Z. Hu, X. Shi, X. Li, X. Zhan, X.-D. Li, J. Wang, J. H. Choi, K.-w. Wang, T. Purrington, M. Tang, M. Fina, R. J. DeBerardinis, E. M. Y. Moresco, G. Pedersen, G. M. McInerney, G. B. Karlsson Hedestam, Z. J. Chen, B. Beutler, MAVS, cGAS, and endogenous retroviruses in T-independent B cell responses. Science 346, 1486–1492 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text] E. K. Grasset, A. Cerutti, Retroviral help for B cells. Science 346, 1454–1455 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This thesis is a comparative content analysis of the modern-day female protagonists represented in Disney's newest and highest grossing film series, Frozen and Frozen II. As one of the few major media companies that have captivated a global audience, Disney has supplied fantasy princess narratives for over 80 years. With the new addition of Disney+, classic and modern princess films alike are now available for instant streaming. As the sample represents the newest films in the post-transitional wave of the Disney Princess line, this study aims to reveal what messages are being projected to young, impressionable audiences around the world. Between the third wave of feminism and rising conversations of gender roles and communication, Disney Princess films in particular have been the subject of many conversations and criticisms. Using content analysis methodology with each film, the data identifies gender roles, conflict resolution, and common themes between the six main characters: Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, the King, and the Queen.


Muons, one of the fundamental elementary particles, originate from the collision of cosmic rays with atmospheric particles and are also generated in particle accelerator collisions. Muon flux and lifetime are usually analyzed to obtain important insights regarding time dilation and to ascertain the characteristics of the particles and processes that occur during collision. In this study, we analyzed the factors that influence muon flux and lifetime using Cosmic Ray Muon Detectors (CRMDs). We hypothesized that the positioning of cosmic ray detector scintillator plates and depth of water above such scintillator plates would affect muon flux and lifetime. Muon flux and lifetime would be affected as an increase in matter in the path of a muon would slow or stop muons passing through it. Altering liquid shielding indicated that muon flux was inversely related to the depth of water that it passed through. Altering scintillator positioning indicated that detection rates of muon decay increased with the distance between the top and bottom of the scintillator plates resulting from the scintillator plate orientation. Unlike previous studies, the effects of the shielding were noticeable at smaller scales. Overall, this study suggests that water can be used to decrease muon flux and that the scintillator orientation is a potential determinant of the volume of data collected in muon decay studies.


Transmission of ultrashort laser pulses under 100 fs at a central wavelength of 1560 nm from a mode-locked laser is investigated over meter-scale lengths of an inhibited-coupling fiber with 65 µm core diameter. Performance of the fiber in this application is evaluated experimentally using cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating, either with the fiber loosely coiled up to 3 m of length or bent over one full loop down to 6 cm radius. Experimental results on observed dispersive stretching of the pulse up to around 200 fs are compared with non-linear propagation simulations using the generalized non-linear Schrodinger equation parametrized with measured characteristics of the fiber. Dechirping of the pulse to its original shape in the fiber under bending is observed and related to suppression of higher-order modes. We show that the proposed fiber can be used to transmit around 90 fs long laser pulses without spectral or temporal distortions, if a 6 cm radius loop is applied.


Adaptation to climate change in forestry has become a growing concern, in part due to the impact of storms and other events that have raised the awareness of such risks amongst forest owners. Sweden is one of Europe's most densely-forested countries, with this sector playing a major role economically. However adaptation has, to a large extent, been limited to the provision of recommendations to forest managers, most of which have only been partially implemented. This paper summarizes research with direct implications for adaptation to climate change within the forestry sector in Sweden. The focus is based in particular on providing examples of adaptations that illustrate the specific Swedish orientation to adaptation, in line with its relatively intensive forest management system. The paper thus illustrates a specific Swedish orientation to adaptation through active management, which can be contrasted with approaches to adaptation in other forestry systems, in particular those with limited management or management based on maintaining natural forests in particular.


Image registration is a fundamental in remote sensing applications such as inter-calibration and image fusion. Compared to other multi sensor image registration problems such as optical-to-IR, the registration for SAR and optical images has its specials. Firstly, the radiometric and geometric characteristics are different between SAR and optical images. Secondly, the feature extraction methods are heavily suffered with the speckle in SAR images. Thirdly, the structural information is more useful than the point features such as corners. In this work, we proposed a novel Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) based Optical-to-SAR image registration algorithm. The feature of line support region (LSR) is used to describe the structural information and the orientation attributes are added into the GMM to avoid Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm falling into local extremum in feature sets matching phase. Through the experiments it proves that our algorithm is very robust for optical-toSAR image registration problem. * Corresponding author. This is useful to know for communication with the appropriate person in cases with more than one author.


Single-channel currents through GABAand glycine-activated chloride channels of post-natal tissuecultured hippocampal neurons were measured to determine their anion selectivity and their concentration dependence of permeation. Current—voltage relations for both agonists displayed rectification with single channel conductance increasing at positive potentials. Permeabilities determined from reversal potentials were maximal for anions with a diameter of about 4 A f . Larger diameter anions had lower permeabilities, consistent with an approximate pore diameter of 6 A for both agonist-activated channels. The permeability for anions of similar size was greatest for those ions with a more symmetrical charge distribution (e.g. N 0 3> Bicarbonate). The permeability sequence was SCN> N 0 3> I> Br> Cl~ > Formate> Acetate> Bicarbonate> Gluconate> F> Phosphate, whereas the conductance sequence for anion efflux was Cl> Br> N 0 3> I> SCN> Formate> Acetate > Bicarbonate > Gluconate> F> Phosphate^ These results suggest that the ions interact with sites within the channel, with hydration forces contributing an important component to the barrier for ion entry into the channel. The spherically symmetrical halides displayed an exponential relation between relative permeability and hydration energy. Concentration dependence of conductance for Cl channels in symmetrical Clsolutions with agonist in the pipette showed an increase at positive potentials and a decrease at negative potentials. GABAand glycine-activated channels also exhibited anomalous molefraction effects in a mixture of Cland SCN. These results suggest that both agonist-activated channels act as multi-ion pathways and have similar permeation characteristics.


There have been a number of researches that presented information on the history of traditional hand embroidery wedding dress of the people in Makkah and Madinah, which is a way to preserve the heritage and to renew it. This study also intends to demonstrate what today's brides desire to wear, and also describe the methodology of collaborating the traditional hand embroidery with contemporary design. This study was conducted in order to identify certain aspects of young brides' personality as a factor for implementing special gown design. By using the existing knowledge of the elders from Makkah and Madinah on the traditional hand embroidery and feedbacks from young brides, it is found that majority of them do not have the knowledge and understanding of the hand embroidery heritage. Moreover, a theoretical analysis backed by observations from Makkah and Madinah's wedding dress shops, and Hejaz wedding ceremonies, indicates that young brides are attracted to the unique gown designs, such as traditional dresses that express their character. Quantitative results in the form of questionnaires are provided as evidence to show that modem gown designs embroidered with traditional hand embroidery is preferred by the young brides, who are responded to the questionnaire, and it also shows that it is feasible as a fashion item and is marketable in Makkah and Madinah's clothing stores. The final results showed that a large number of the respondents agreed with this concept of integrating contemporary gown with traditional hand embroidery, while only small groups of them disagreed. However, from these small groups, little number disagreed based on the reason that they do not have enough facts about this handicraft. It is believed that this concept the integrating contemporary design with traditional hand embroidery will benefit the Saudi's fashion industry, as well as a big step towards reviving wedding dress traditions and enhancing its productivity.


Background: Distal radius fractures present frequently to the orthopaedic surgeon following high velocity injuries in the young or low velocity injuries in the elderly. Haematoma block or conscious sedation can be applied to provide anaesthesia during reduction. Comparing the effects of both anaesthetic methods is yet to be fully evaluated.Objective: To compare the pain level and quality of reduction using haematoma block and conscious sedation following reduction of distal radius fractures.Design: Prospective comparative cross-sectional study.Patients and Methods: Seventy patients with distal radius fractures were grouped for closed reduction; in one group conscious sedation was used and the other, haematoma block. All patients had pain measured with Visual Analogue Scale and quality of reduction by measuring palmar tilt on plain radiograph.Main Outcome Measures: Severity of pain and palmar tilt on radiograph measured before and after reduction.Results: The modal age group was 60 years (40%) with a slightly higher female preponderance (57.1%). Majority, 54.3% had injuries following fall on outstretched hand. The mean Visual Analogue Score for pain following conscious sedation and haematoma block post reduction was 3.5 and 2.4 respectively. The mean palmar tilt of radius for conscious sedation and haematoma groups were 10.1 and 10.9 degrees respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the efficacy of both anaesthetic methods.Conclusion: The choice anaesthesia for reduction of distal radius fracture on should be based on surgeon's preference, patient's wish and history of drug reactions.Keywords: Distal Radius Fractures, Haematoma Block, Conscious Sedation


The recent global financial crisis, the Great Recession and the subsequent implementation of a variety of unconventional policy measures have raised the issue of how to correctly measure the stance of monetary policy when policy interest rates reach the zero lower bound (ZLB). In this paper, we propose a new "shadow policy rate" for the US economy, using a large set of data representing the various facets of the US Federal Reserve's policy stance. Changes in term premia at various maturities and asset purchases by the Fed are key drivers of this shadow rate. We document that our shadow policy rate tracks the effective federal funds rate very closely before the recent crisis. More importantly, it provides a reasonable gauge of US monetary policy stance when the ZLB becomes binding. This facilitates the assessment of the policy stance against familiar Taylor rule benchmarks. Finally, we show that in structural vector autoregressive (VAR) models, the shadow policy rate helps identify monetary policy shocks that better reflect the Federal Reserve's unconventional policy measures.


The demands placed on human service workers in supporting people through challenging circumstances can contribute to high levels of stress and burnout. Self-care practices implemented regularly may decrease the impact of the high levels of stress while also serving as strategies for coping during particularly stressful times. The interconnections between contemplative practices, including mindfulness, as coping and preventative strategies for self-care practice among human service workers are beginning to emerge. We used a multimethod study to examine the effectiveness of eight weeks of contemplative practice training in increasing self-care, awareness, and coping strategies for 12 human service workers. Paired t-tests conducted on pre- and post-training scores on the Perceived Stress Scale and the Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale showed that mindfulness was significantly increased and that stress significantly decreased over the intervention. Thematic analysis from participant journaling and a focus group discussion suggests that time, permission, and place for learning and practicing mindfulness-based activities are necessary. A meditative model is presented to illustrate how enhanced awareness through mindfulness practice can increase self-care which can, in turn, positively affect the service human service workers provide to their clients.


Wireless sensor networks have become a very attractive research topic in recent years. Many academic and professional research groups made efforts to construct operative hardware devices and sophisticated software to meet the special conditions in their projects. But there has been little done to create a general structure for smart sensors to cooperate and to offer their services to human or software clients. In this paper we present first results of our investigations in this topic. As a test scenario and source of inspiration we set up a sensor network prototype in an office situation, where the physical environment should be measured and adjusted according to specific conditions. In particular the light and humidity state of potted plants within an office should be autonomously adjusted to the plants special needs as most research associates in our lab forget to care for their plants on a regular basis. On the basis of this prolific scenario we introduce a first stage middleware system architecture providing service distribution and accomplishment within wireless sensor networks. Core components of the architecture have been implemented in hardware and software to show the feasibility and abilities of our approach.


This article examines how and why the covid-19 pandemic featured as a central issue in the Alternative for Germany's 2021 Bundestag election campaign. Using a wide range of political communication tools, the radical right party's opposition to public health policies against the pandemic ranged from a critique of hygienic measures to hosting coronavirus denialism and conspiracy myths suggesting that "the elite" had manufactured "corona hysteria" to subjugate the German people. Mirroring its general radicalization process toward an anti-system movement party, the AfD's campaign primarily gave voice to an ideologically driven, conspiracist, and authoritarian-nationalist core electorate, which has its center of gravity in the East. In the environment of an emerging "pandemic divide," the party also sought to appeal to a robust minority of corona skeptics. More generally, the AfD's campaign points to the still underresearched role of science denialism and conspiracy myths in radical right mobilizations of a counterfactual age.


Infrastructure-based mobile networks are becoming increasingly overloaded due to strong growing number of mobile devices like smartphones and their communication needs. Especially in urban cities the cost of maintaining and extending infrastructure is high due to increased geographical density of mobile devices. While this increasing density puts high load on infrastructure-based networks, it is an enabler for infrastructure-less networks like Delay Tolerant Networks that perform end-to-end routing through store-carry-forward. In this work we present a novel routing scheme for offloading traffic from infrastructure-based networks with the help of Delay Tolerant Networks. Messages are initially routed in the infrastructure-less network, and continuously switch over to infrastructure-based routing when the probability of successful delivery in the infrastructure-less network decreases. We analyze the scheme under different types of heterogeneity by varying the fraction of infrastructure-capable devices, fraction of DTN-capable devices, and message size. Our scheme allows to offload larger parts of traffic from infrastructure networks. For example, using a message time-to-live of 5 hour scheme can offload 36% of traffic from infrastructure networks with acceptable ad-hoc forwarding load and storage requirements on mobile devices.


Drug abuse is considered to be a major public health problem, particularly among school-attending adolescents and young adults studying at tertiary institutions. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of substance abuse among medical students at a university and to evaluate the negative impact of these drugs on the students' academic performance and social life. The study was conducted amongst medical students at a university located in the southern rural part of St Lucia, West Indies and was designed to be a cross-sectional survey using self-administered anonymous questionnaires, which is a modified version of the World Health Organisation questionnaire designed to determine student drug abuse. One hundred preclinical medical students, 57 males and 43 females took part in the survey, with ages ranging from 19 to 45 years and a mean age of 26.04 ± 5.17 years.
The results indicated that 94% of the respondents had used drugs before. Alcohol was the commonest substance of abuse (73%) with the commonest predisposing factor to drug use being social-peer pressure (79%). The negative impact of drug use was seen mostly on their academic performances (16%), followed by their social life, (12%) and financial situation (7%). A strong correlation was found between substance affordability and availability with a statistical significance of p < 0.01. Most of the respondents were introduced to substance abuse by their friends. The most noticeable effect of drug / substance abuse on the students was reported to be class absenteeism (12%).
As the prevalence of drug abuse was found to be very high in this study, it is of significant importance that the use of psychoactive drugs among university students be studied further as to find a solution to this ever-increasing problem.


This review aims to summarize spatio-temporal pattern analysis approaches for crime analysis. Spatio-temporal pattern analysis is a process that obtains knowledge from geo-and-time-referenced data and creates knowledge for crime analysts. In practice, knowledge needs vary amongst different situations. In order to obtain relevant types of knowledge, different types of spatio-temporal pattern analysis approaches should be used. However, there is a lack of related systematic review which discussed how to obtain related knowledge from different types of spatio-temporal crime pattern. This paper summarizes spatio-temporal patterns into five major categories: (i) spatial pattern, (ii) temporal pattern, (iii) frequent spatio-temporal pattern, (iv) unusual spatio-temporal pattern and (v) spatio-temporal effect due to intervention. In addition, we also discuss what knowledge could be obtained from these patterns, and what corresponding approaches, including various data mining techniques, could be used to find them. The works of this paper could provide a reference for crime analysts to select appropriate spatio-temporal pattern analysis approaches according to their knowledge needs.


Encompassing all AS and A level specifications, in a clear and consistent style. * Ensures complete coverage of the 2000 AS and A Level specifications. * Contains new chapters on IT, tackling synoptic questions, and lean production and management. * Includes detailed accounts of cash flow statements, corporate culture, organisation theory, decision trees, economics-related topics and financial and numerical techniques. * Provides guidance on project work, exam practice, study skills and tackling case studies, with advice and tips from a former Chief Examiner. "The book enables students to build an all-round understanding of business concepts. A great deal of relevant theory is explained in an accessible and concise format...it is a good resource for teachers and students." Review from the EBEA Journal.


In the tradition of E. M. Forster's "Aspects of the Novel" and Milan Kundera's "The Art of the Novel", "How Fiction Works" is a scintillating and searching study of the main elements of fiction, such as narrative, detail, characterization, dialogue, realism, and style. In his first full-length book of criticism, one of the most prominent critics of our time takes the machinery of story-telling apart to ask a series of fundamental questions: What do we mean when we say we 'know' a fictional character? What constitutes a 'telling' detail? When is a metaphor successful? Is realism realistic? Why do most endings of novels disappoint?Wood ranges widely, from Homer to Beatrix Potter, from the Bible to John Le Carre, and his book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. Playful and profound, it incisively sums up two decades of bold, often controversial, and now classic critical work, and will be enlightening to writers, readers, and anyone interested in what happens on the page.


Background Uterine prolapse (UP) is a reproductive health problem and public health issue in low-income countries including Nepal. Objective We aimed to identify the contributing factors and stages of UP and its impact on quality of life in the Jhaukhel–Duwakot Health Demographic Surveillance Site of Bhaktapur, Nepal. Design Our three-phase study used descriptive cross-sectional analysis to assess quality of life and stages of UP and case–control analysis to identify contributing factors. First, a household survey explored the prevalence of self-reported UP (Phase 1). Second, we used a standardized tool in a 5-day screening camp to determine quality of life among UP-affected women (Phase 2). Finally, a 1-month community survey traced self-reported cases from Phase 1 (Phase 3). To validate UP diagnoses, we reviewed participants' clinical records, and we used screening camp records to trace women without UP. Results Among 48 affected women in Phase 1, 32 had Stage II UP and 16 had either Stage I or Stage III UP. Compared with Stage I women (4.62%), almost all women with Stage III UP reported reduced quality of life. Decreased quality of life correlated significantly with Stages I–III. Self-reported UP prevalence (8.7%) included all treated and non-treated cases. In Phase 3, 277 of 402 respondents reported being affected by UP and 125 were unaffected. The odds of having UP were threefold higher among illiterate women compared with literate women (OR=3.02, 95% CI 1.76–5.17), 50% lower among women from nuclear families compared with extended families (OR=0.56, 95% CI 0.35–0.90) and lower among women with 1–2 parity compared to >5 parity (OR=0.33, 95% CI 0.14–0.75). Conclusions The stages of UP correlated with quality of life resulting from varied perceptions regarding physical health, emotional stress, and social limitation. Parity, education, age, and family type associated with UP. Our results suggest the importance of developing policies and programs that are focused on early health care for UP. Through family planning and health education programs targeting women, as well as women empowerment programs for prevention of UP, it will be possible to restore quality of life related to UP.


Abstract Introduction Disaster triage is the allocation of limited medical resources in order to optimize patient outcome. There are several studies showing the poor use of triage tagging, but there are few studies that have investigated the reasons behind this. The aim of this study was to explore ambulance personnel attitude towards, and experiences of, practicing triage tagging during day-to-day management of trauma patients, as well as in major incidents (MIs). Methods A mixed method design was used. The first part of the study was in the form of a web-survey of attitudes answered by ambulance personnel. The question explored was: Is it likely that systems that are not used in everyday practice will be used during MIs? Two identical web-based surveys were conducted, before and after implementing a new strategy for triage tagging. This strategy consisted of a time-limited triage routine where ambulance services assigned triage category and applied triage tags in day-to-day trauma incidents in order to improve field triage. The second part comprised three focus group interviews (FGIs) in order to provide a deeper insight into the attitudes towards, and experience of, the use of triage tags. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results The overall finding was the need for daily routine when failure in practice. Analysis of the web-survey revealed three changes: ambulance personnel were more prone to use tags in minor accidents, the sort scoring system was considered to be more valuable, but it also was more time consuming after the intervention. In the analysis of FGIs, four categories emerged that describe the construction of the overall category: perceived usability, daily routine, documentation, and need for organizational strategies. Conclusion Triage is part of the foundation of ambulance skills, but even so, ambulance personnel seldom use this in routine practice. They fully understand the benefit of accurate triage decisions, and also that the use of a triage algorithm and color coded tags is intended to make it easier and more secure to perform triage. However, despite the knowledge and understanding of these benefits, sparse incidents and infrequent exercises lead to ambulance personnel's uncertainty concerning the use of triage tagging during a MI and will therefore, most likely, avoid using them. RådestadM, Lennquist MontánK, RüterA, CastrénM, SvenssonL, GrythD, FossumB. Attitudes towards and experience of the use of triage tags in major incidents: a mixed method study. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(4):376–385.


The performance of ERP systems is a critical success factor for the reliable operation of a business. A promising approach to cope with the complexity of nowadays' ERP systems and to predict their actual behavior is simulation. Commercial ERP systems, however, only provide limited insight and thus several components have to be handled as black boxes and require a modeling approach. In this paper we depict an approach to increase the accuracy of ERP system performance simulation by using an evolutionary algorithm for modeling the black boxes performance behavior. We can show that evolutionary algorithms are able to generate performance models for ERP components based on measured performance data that describe the performance behavior of these components accurately. Furthermore we point out the characteristics of the algorithm, as well as its advantages and disadvantages, and give an outlook about the future research.


This report is a summative evaluation of the preparatory phase of an Education for Diversity project between two schools – one controlled and one maintained – in the rural and town communities of Co Tyrone and Co Fermanagh. A professional partnership spanning many years has existed between the two schools and it was the positive legacy of these that inspired the preparatory development of what was seen to be a unique joint community relations project aimed at whole school involvement.


PURPOSE
To develop a method of performing routine periodical QC of CT systems by automatically analyzing key performance indicators (KPI) obtainable from scanning manufacturers' QC phantoms making it possible to follow a CT scanners performance between annual tests (e.g., on a daily basis).

METHODS
A KPI pertains to a measurable or determinable parameter that is influenced by other underlying parameters, where a stable KPI implies that the underlying parameters are stable as well. KPIs were identified and verified by studying and mapping out the relationship between established QC parameters used in annual testing. The KPIs include positioning, noise, uniformity, homogeneity, CT number of water and CT number of air. An application that automatically analyzes phantom images sent to a DICOM receiver was developed (MonitorCT). CT technologists send scans of a QC phantom to the developed application on a daily basis.

RESULTS
290 daily QC scans, from two CT scanners, have been collected and analyzed during ten months. A systematic offset of circa 3mm from the scanner isocenter has been observed in the positioning test, which is under investigation. Noise, uniformity and homogeneity tests have been within specified tolerances during the data collection period. The CT numbers have trended outside of both MonitorCT and vendor tolerances which was caught using the developed method, which would not have been noticed otherwise until annual tests were performed. Consequently, actions could be taken promptly (water calibration).

CONCLUSION
Automated monitoring of KPIs is a powerful tool that can, with little effort, be used to supplement established QC methodologies. Medical physicists, or other concerned parties, are able to obtain an indication of the current and historical (trends) status of a CT system so that actions can be taken directly to ensure the quality of CT examinations and patient safety.


Policy innovation is a significant challenge for the public sector. This article illustrates its magnitude through a case study of the National Innovation Summit. The article concludes that the Summit represented an elaborate process of search and engagement that sanctioned an outcome that was, in most respects, largely pre-determined. Its outreach and deliberations served the political purpose of mobilising industry and media attention and communicating the government's commitment. But there is no evidence that it exercised any substantive influence on policy development. The obstacles confounding any other outcome are considerable. Strategic thinking is inhibited by various organisational factors including lock-in to a present successful strategy, the constraints on policy choices associated with multiple veto points and the need to maintain medium term fiscal and policy discipline across a wide range of agencies and claimants. The article explores ways these inhibitions might be overcome.


Predicting organismal phenotypes from genotype data is important for plant and animal breeding, medicine, and evolutionary biology. Genomic-based phenotype prediction has been applied for single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping platforms, but not using complete genome sequences. Here, we report genomic prediction for starvation stress resistance and startle response in Drosophila melanogaster, using ∼2.5 million SNPs determined by sequencing the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel population of inbred lines. We constructed a genomic relationship matrix from the SNP data and used it in a genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) model. We assessed predictive ability as the correlation between predicted genetic values and observed phenotypes by cross-validation, and found a predictive ability of 0.239±0.008 (0.230±0.012) for starvation resistance (startle response). The predictive ability of BayesB, a Bayesian method with internal SNP selection, was not greater than GBLUP. Selection of the 5% SNPs with either the highest absolute effect or variance explained did not improve predictive ability. Predictive ability decreased only when fewer than 150,000 SNPs were used to construct the genomic relationship matrix. We hypothesize that predictive power in this population stems from the SNP–based modeling of the subtle relationship structure caused by long-range linkage disequilibrium and not from population structure or SNPs in linkage disequilibrium with causal variants. We discuss the implications of these results for genomic prediction in other organisms.


This paper explains the management of the Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) fishery in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, and current knowledge about the state of the regional krill stock. In this region, krill fishing is permitted in an area of approximately 3.5 million km2 which is divided into four subareas (labelled Subareas 48.1 to 48.4) for management and reporting purposes. The effective regional catch limit (or 'trigger level'), established in 1991, is 0.62 million tonnes year–1, equivalent to ~1% of the regional biomass estimated in 2000. Each subarea has also had its own catch limit, between 0.093 and 0.279 million tonnes year–1, since 2009. There is some evidence for a decline in the abundance of krill in the 1980s, but no evidence of a further decline in recent decades. Local-scale monitoring programs have been established in three of the subareas to monitor krill biomass in survey grids covering between 10 000 and 125 000 km2. Cautious extrapolation from these local monitoring programs provides conservative estimates of the regional biomass in recent years. This suggests that fishing at the trigger level would be equivalent to a long-term exploitation rate (annual catch divided by biomass) of <7%, which is below the 9.3% level considered appropriate to maintain the krill stock and support krill predators.
Subarea catch limits exceed 9.3% of conservatively estimated subarea biomass in up
to 20% of years due to high variability in krill biomass indices. The actual exploitation
rate in each subarea has remained <3% because annual catches have been <50% of the
trigger level since 1991. Comparison with the 9.3% reference exploitation rate suggests
that current management is precautionary at the regional scale. The subarea catch limits
help prevent excessive concentration of catch at the subarea scale. Finer-scale management
might be necessary to manage the risk of adverse impacts which might occur as a
result of concentrated fishing in sensitive areas or climate change. Frequent assessment
of the krill stock will enhance CCAMLR's ability to manage these risks. Continuing the
local monitoring programs will provide valuable information on krill variability, but more
information is required on how the monitored biomass relates to biomass at the subarea
and regional scales.


INTRODUCTION Data citation should be a necessary corollary of data publication and reuse. Many researchers are reluctant to share their data, yet they are increasingly encouraged to do just that. Reward structures must be in place to encourage data publication, and citation is the appropriate tool for scholarly acknowledgment. Data citation also allows for the identification, retrieval, replication, and verification of data underlying published studies. METHODS This study examines author behavior and sources of instruction in disciplinary and cultural norms for writing style and citation via a content analysis of journal articles, author instructions, style manuals, and data publishers. Instances of data citation are benchmarked against a Data Citation Adequacy Index. RESULTS Roughly half of journals point toward a style manual that addresses data citation, but the majority of journal articles failed to include an adequate citation to data used in secondary analysis studies. DISCUSSION Full citation of data is not currently a normative behavior in scholarly writing. Multiplicity of data types and lack of awareness regarding existing standards contribute to the problem. CONCLUSION Citations for data must be promoted as an essential component of data publication, sharing, and reuse. Despite confounding factors, librarians and information professionals are well-positioned and should persist in advancing data citation as a normative practice across domains. Doing so promotes a value proposition for data sharing and secondary research broadly, thereby accelerating the pace of scientific research.


Increased incidence of infections due to Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC-Kp) was noted among patients undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) at a single hospital. An epidemiologic investigation identified KPC-Kp and non-KPC-producing, extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Kp in cultures from 2 endoscopes. Genotyping was performed on patient and endoscope isolates to characterize the microbial genomics of the outbreak. Genetic similarity of 51 Kp isolates from 37 patients and 3 endoscopes was assessed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). Five patient and 2 endoscope isolates underwent whole genome sequencing (WGS). Two KPC-encoding plasmids were characterized by single molecule, real-time sequencing. Plasmid diversity was assessed by endonuclease digestion. Genomic and epidemiologic data were used in conjunction to investigate the outbreak source. Two clusters of Kp patient isolates were genetically related to endoscope isolates by PFGE. A subset of patient isolates were collected post-ERCP, suggesting ERCP endoscopes as a possible source. A phylogeny of 7 Kp genomes from patient and endoscope isolates supported ERCP as a potential source of transmission. Differences in gene content defined 5 ST258 subclades and identified 2 of the subclades as outbreak-associated. A novel KPC-encoding plasmid, pKp28 helped define and track one endoscope-associated ST258 subclade. WGS demonstrated high genetic relatedness of patient and ERCP endoscope isolates suggesting ERCP-associated transmission of ST258 KPC-Kp. Gene and plasmid content discriminated the outbreak from endemic ST258 populations and assisted with the molecular epidemiologic investigation of an extended KPC-Kp outbreak.


This paper reports on the findings of a user study that explored how searchers tend to fixate on information associated with different relevance criteria in the web during the relevance judgment process. The user study involved the completion of questionnaires, use of eye tracking technology, talk aloud protocols and post-search interviews. As opposed to previous studies, the present research asked participants to search for real information needs that represented different search contexts (e.g. from searches about personal interest to academic related searches). This permitted the identification of several relevance criteria that naturally occur across different search contexts and the emergence of some fixation patterns, not observed before, associated to the use of these criteria. Although the study examined participants' eye movements for both predictive and evaluative relevance judgments, this paper is focused on the findings of the predictive relevance judgment process and specifically participants' evaluation of the results presented in the search result interface of the Google search engine. It is anticipated that the findings reported in this paper could shed light on the process of predictive relevance judgment and especially on the problem of relevance criteria use through the use of eye tracking.


Background:The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) collects detailed information regarding the use and payment for health care services from a nationally representative sample of Americans. The survey is designed to provide analysts with the data they need to support policy-relevant research on health care expenses, utilization, insurance coverage, and access in the United States and to provide policymakers with the results and data they need to make informed decisions. Objectives:This article summarizes the capacity of this broad-based and publicly available information resource to support research efforts directed towards achieving a better understanding of the dynamics of American healthcare and to better characterize its current state. Methods:The MEPS comprises a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population in the United States, and collects comprehensive data on individuals and their health care experiences over a span of 2 years. Household survey data are collected by means of computer-assisted personal interviews, and those data are supplemented by information collected directly from the medical providers used by survey participants. Insurance data are collected both from households and through a separate state and nationally representative survey of business establishments, which collects information on health insurance provided by United States employers. Results:The MEPS has been used extensively in scientific publications and published reports, as well as by the Federal and state governments to examine the delivery and financing of healthcare in the United States. Conclusions:The analytical findings generated by the MEPS are key inputs to facilitate the development, implementation, and evaluation of policies and practices addressing health care in the United States and its related costs. Recent efforts to reconcile MEPS and the National Health Expenditure Accounts have the potential to provide an even more accurate and powerful data tool for research and policy analysis.


Papers in the December 2018 issue of the Journal include discussion on 5G security, what's next for the National Broadband Network, a technical paper on the conflicts in routing and UAV autonomy, HTTP traffic flow load balancing and an insight into how the use of location information affects privacy. The history of Australian telecommunications paper on impressions of an overseas visit by a lines engineer provides an insight into how knowledge transfer improves with the opportunity to study telecommunications in Europe, North America and Australia. The Journal welcomes contributions.


Our paper models and empirically tests the production behavior of firms operating under uncertainty. The study compares firms operating in perfect competition with those producing with product market power. Our model predicts that both types of companies produce less under uncertainty from the cost of risk. In addition, our model predicts that companies with market power have a greater market value, face more product market uncertainty, use less leverage but have similar levels of default risk as firms operating under perfect competition. We empirically test our model by comparing manufacturing firms that operate in close to perfect market competition having little product differentiation and operating in low concentrated industries versus those that have product market power using advertising and/or R&D and operating in highly concentrated industries. The empirical evidence supports our hypotheses. We also model and empirically investigate the effect of the "option against value" on the firm's performance that occurs to companies when the real product market changes greatly reduce or even eliminates firms' product markets. Long, Wang and Zhang (2006) originally presented this idea and tested it with the machine tool industry to investigate dynamic downward changes in real product markets and the resulting affect on individual firms' values. We also find that smaller companies, those with less capital market following are more likely to experience a product market shift going out of business. This is even after we controlled the default probability estimates based on Merton's Equity Option Pricing.


This essay explores three characteristics of story that give rise to the concerns that storytelling is unfairly manipulative. To examine these concerns, I consider three stories - two about the law, one about an Irish tour guide. I use these stories to illustrate the three characteristics of story that may raise ethical concerns. There are, undoubtedly, other potential ethical land mines on the road of Applied Legal Storytelling, but I will discuss only these three. My hope is that these stories will encourage others to join in the conversation and that in doing so, we will develop a richer understanding of the appropriate limits of storytelling's power in a legal context.The first story illustrates that stories do not have to be true to be credible. Narrative coherence and fidelity, not truth, is what makes a story believable. The second story shows how stories are always told from a particular point of view. That necessarily means other points of view are slighted or not told at all. What we leave untold may often be as powerful as the story we tell. If we leave out too much, our story becomes misleading. Finally, the third story examines the ability of story to appeal to emotions as well as to logic. This seems at odds with our traditional concepts of objective, impartial justice. Indeed, it is perhaps this aspect of story - that it allows our emotions to override our objectivity - that creates the most strident objections to its "manipulative" power. Despite these potential pitfalls, I ultimately conclude that Applied Legal Storytelling does not create new ethical dilemmas. Rather, closer inspection of these ethical concerns shows that storytelling is consistent with our existing norms about the ethical practice of law.


: This squib presents an argument for a locality-based, Case-theoretic licensing approach to configurations in which certain positions cannot be occupied by overt material at Spell-Out. Investigating an indirect causative construction in Sason Arabic, I demonstrate that the embedded agent is separated from its licenser by a phase domain, and as such cannot be Case-licensed. A¯-movement makes licensing possible, placing the embedded agent and its licenser in a local configuration. I also show that this approach fares better than alternative hy-potheses such as the Exfoliation account or a PF-based account.


"The Bill of Rights and the States: An Overview From One Perspective," discusses historical evidence for application of the Bill of Rights to the states, primarily under the privileges or immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It also briefly discusses application under due process. The article tells about my interest in application of the Bill of Rights to the States (starting with college in the 1960s) and about the wide spread agreement among legal academics in the 1970s and 1980s that history did not support applying the liberties to the states. Many of these relied on the work of Professor Charles Fairman, which rejected, at least, total application, and these scholars assumed Fairman's work was "conclusive." Indeed, some thought it disproved application generally. Later many relied on Raoul Berger. Critics at the time typically dismissed Justice Black's analysis. Curiously, they often totally ignored Professor Crosskey's long law review article responding to Professor Fairman's article on the same subject. As a law student and practicing lawyer, I made a few ineffective attempts to get scholars to at least read and discuss the Crosskey rebuttal. Finally, thanks to a law partner who loaned me Raoul Berger's Government by Judiciary, I began to write about the subject myself. In this article, I discuss the substantial historical case for applying the liberties to the states under the privileges or immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. I do so using multiple modes of analysis. The best way to understand historic meaning is multi-factorial, as opposed to the "one true method" of understanding. The methods I suggest (thanks to the contributions of others ) are historical context, the text of the amendment viewed in light of how the words "privileges" and "immunities' were used historically to describe Bill of Rights liberties, context (or inter-textual analysis), precedent, the views of leading framers, discussion in the campaign of 1866 which was largely a referendum on the Fourteenth Amendment, limited light from ratification, and constitutional structure. I summarize a few of these in this abstract. Historical context: Since meaning is contextual, a good place to start is with the historical context. That context includes the suppression of speech, press, assembly, association, free exercise of religion, and other basic Bill of Rights liberties in the South (and sometimes in the North) in the interest of slavery. The suppression had taken place in the South for more than thirty years before the Civil War, and as the war approached Republicans had their speech, press, and assembly suppressed. The historical context also includes, of course, the racial discrimination of the Black Codes immediately after the war. A number of those codes not only discriminated, but also struck at basic constitutional liberties-if one assumes, as leading Republicans did, that the states were obliged to obey them. The codes abridged the right of blacks to preach, to worship together with a minister of their choice, to assemble, to speak, to bear arms, and to be free from cruel punishments. The great failing of the work of scholars such as Professor Fairman and Raoul Berger was to consider far too limited a context. One of the great contributions of Professor Crosskey was to suggest expanding the context by looking at Republican complaints about denials of civil liberty in the South (before and after the war) and looking at their legal ideas. Crosskey recognized that many Republican framers held legal ideas that did not accord with Supreme Court decisions. They saw decisions such as Dred Scott and Barron v. Baltimore as wrong and in need of correction. Other modes of analysis are discussed in the paper. Note: This article grew out of an invitation to participate in a conference on Incorporation of the Bill of Rights at the University of San Diego School of Law. The conference was co-sponsored by the USD Institute for the Study of Constitutional Originalism. This and other papers from the conference will be published in The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues.


Incorporation of concepts from landscape ecology into understanding and managing riverine ecosystems has become widely known as riverscape ecology. Riverscape ecology emphasizes interactions among processes at different scales and their consequences for valued ecosystem components, such as riverine fishes. Past studies have focused strongly on understanding the ecological processes in riverscapes and how human actions modify those processes. It is increasingly clear, however, that an understanding of the drivers behind actions that lead to human modification also merit consideration, especially regarding how those drivers influence management efficacy. These indirect drivers of riverscape outcomes can be understood in the context of a diverse array of social processes, which we collectively refer to as human dimensions. Like ecological phenomena, social processes also exhibit complex interactions across spatiotemporal scales. Greater emphasis on feedbacks between social and ecological processes will lead scientists and managers to more completely understand riverscapes as complex, dynamic, interacting social–ecological systems. Emerging applications in riverscapes, as well as studies of other ecosystems, provide examples that can lead to stronger integration of social and ecological science. We argue that conservation successes within riverscapes may not come from better ecological science, improved ecosystem service analyses, or even economic incentives if the fundamental drivers of human behaviors are not understood and addressed in conservation planning and implementation.


The mass balance of Greenland has been assessed with data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission. Monthly data has been used through the time span of the study; January 2003 - December 2012. Level 2 data from three providers has been used. These are the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) , GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) and the Center for Space Research (CSR). The linear trend in this study points to -181±11 Gt/yr, -172±10 Gt/yr and -183±11 Gt/yr for the three data providers respectively. Notable corrections applied to improve the accuracy of this study are gravity leakage correction, adjustment for post-glacial rebound and non-isotropic smoothing filtering. This master thesis also gives an insight some of the mathematical background of physical geodesy and how this can be applied to use GRACE data to track changes in the gravity field. The methodology of applying this theory is explained in-depth with explanations of some natural assumptions along the way. Results are presented from correction calculations, important secular trend graphs and different time series plots of data from the three data providers. These results are compared to the works of other mentionable authors in the field of polar mass redistribution. Lastly, the thesis enlists some noteworthy strengths and weaknesses of the conducted study. To the author's knowledge, this is the first ice mass loss estimation of Greenland using GRACE level 2 Release 05 data decorrelated by non-isotropic filtering.