OBJECTIVE
Empirical application of a theoretical framework linking use of Network Spinal Analysis (NSA; a holistic, wellness-oriented form of complementary and alternative medicine [CAM]), health lifestyle practices, and self-reported health and wellness.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional self-administered survey study.

RESPONDENTS
Two thousand five hundred and ninety-six (2596) patients from 156 offices of doctors who were members of the Association for Network Chiropractic (currently titled Association for Network Care); estimated response rate was 69%.

MEASURES
Exogenous variables entered into the structural equation model include gender, age, education, income, marital status, ailments, life change, and trauma. A wellness construct consisted of calculated difference scores between two referents, "presently" and "before Network" care, for self-reported items representing wellness domains of physical state, mental-emotional state, stress evaluation, and life enjoyment. Positive reported change in nine items assembled into dietary practices, health practices, and health risk dimensions serve as indicators of the construct of changes in health lifestyle practices. The NSA care construct consisted of duration of care in months, awareness of energy and awareness of breathing since beginning Network care.

RESULTS
Of the exogenous variables only gender, age, and education remain in the final parsimonious structural equation model in these data. Reported wellness benefits accrue to individuals along a direct path from both self-reported positive lifestyle change (0.22), and from NSA care (0.43). The path (0.65) from NSA care to positive health lifestyle changes indicates that NSA care also has an indirect effect on wellness through changes in health lifestyle practices.

CONCLUSIONS
The Structural Equation model tested in these analyses lends support to our theoretical framework linking wellness, health lifestyles, and CAM. This study provides further evidence that our measurements of health and wellness are particularly appropriate for investigating wellness-oriented CAM. There is a positive relationship between the experience of NSA care and self-reported improvements in wellness as well as self-reported changes in lifestyle practices. NSA care users tend toward the practice of a positive health lifestyle, which also has a direct effect on reported improvements in wellness. These empirical links are discussed relative to the sociodemographic characteristics of this population and show that use of NSA care is an aspect of a wellness lifestyle.


The Correlation Power Analysis (CPA) attack is an attack on cryptographic devices, especially smart cards. The results of the attack are correlation traces. Based on the correlation traces, an evaluation is done to observe whether significant peaks appear in the traces or not. The evaluation is done manually, by experts. If significant peaks appear then the smart card is not considered secure since it is assumed that the secret key is revealed. We develop a method that objectively detects peaks and decides which peak is significant. We conclude that using the Gaussian curve fitting method, the subjective qualification of the peak significance can be objectified. Thus, better decisions can be taken by security experts. We also conclude that the Gaussian curve fitting method is able to show the influence of peak sizes, especially the width and height, to a significance of a particular peak.


One of Professor Redish's many important contributions to legal scholarship is his recent work on class actions. Grounding his argument in the theory of democratic accountability that has been at the centerpiece of all his work, Professor Redish suggests that, in nearly all instances, class actions violate the individual autonomy of litigants and should not be used by courts. This Essay, prepared for a festschrift in honor of Professor Redish, begins from the opposite premise: that class actions should be grounded in the notion of social utility rather than autonomy so that class actions should be used whenever they achieve net social gains. This idea of "superiority" presents some difficulties, not the least of which is the capacity of a court to determine whether a class action is indeed superior to other forms of dispute resolution. The Essay proposes a series of presumptions that give effect to superiority and make an inquiry into superiority easier for courts to conduct. When the class-certification outcomes obtained by these presumptions are examined, they do not result in the near-absolute position against class actions that Professor Redish favors, but surprising convergences in the autonomy and utility approaches emerge.


Mercury is the only element with a crystal structure based on a single rhombohedra lattice. Its deformation characteristics are therefore of particular interest. However, prior to the present investigation, there was considerable doubt concerning the interpretation of its mechanical behaviour. In particular, the reported deformation twinning mode had been questioned. Therefore, a two surface analysis of twin traces and surface tilts on a deformed square cross-section single crystals was carried out. The preliminary results of this analysis enabled earlier observations of twin traces on a single surface to be interpreted in terms of a new twin mode. Both methods established that the operative twins have shear elements K1 K2 eta1 eta2 given by '{1 3 5 }'{111}'' relative to the face centred rhombohedral lattice basis. This is the only twin mode with an irrational composition plane occurring in a single lattice structure. It is also unique because it is preferred to an alternative possible mode with a smaller shear. In order to investigate twinning in mercury further, a series of single crystals were deformed by bending at liquid air temperature. This enabled twin growth and the influence of slip on the twin boundary to be observed. A certain characteristic type of twin intersection similar to cross-twins in b.c.c. materials frequently occurred. This, together with straight incoherent twin boundaries which were also analysed, can be accommodated because of an almost exact crystallographic relationship between slip and twin systems. The influence of possible growth and nucleation mechanisms on the choice of the operative mode has been discussed. Finally, the atomic structure of mercury has been represented by models constructed from spheroids in a close packed configuration. In particular, models of the twin boundary have helped in elucidating the twinning process.


Geometric range search is a fundamental primitive for spatial data analysis in SQL and NoSQL databases. It has extensive applications in location-based services, computer aided design, and computational geometry. Due to the dramatic increase in data size, it is necessary for companies and organizations to outsource their spatial data sets to third-party cloud services (e.g., Amazon) in order to reduce storage and query processing costs, but, meanwhile, with the promise of no privacy leakage to the third party. Searchable encryption is a technique to perform meaningful queries on encrypted data without revealing privacy. However, geometric range search on spatial data has not been fully investigated nor supported by existing searchable encryption schemes. In this paper, we design a symmetric-key searchable encryption scheme that can support geometric range queries on encrypted spatial data. One of our major contributions is that our design is a general approach, which can support different types of geometric range queries. In other words, our design on encrypted data is independent from the shapes of geometric range queries. Moreover, we further extend our scheme with the additional use of tree structures to achieve search complexity that is faster than linear. We formally define and prove the security of our scheme with indistinguish ability under selective chosen-plaintext attacks, and demonstrate the performance of our scheme with experiments in a real cloud platform (Amazon EC2).


Since the 1990s, the Indigenous movement worldwide has become increasingly relevant to research in India, re-shaping the terms of engagement with Adivasi (Indigenous/tribal) peoples and their pasts. This book responds to the growing need for an inter-disciplinary re-assessment of Tribal studies in postcolonial India and defines a new agenda for Adivasi studies. It considers the existing conceptual and historical parameters of Tribal studies, as a means of addressing new approaches to histories of de-colonization and patterns of identity-formation that have become visible since national independence. Contributors address a number of important concerns, including the meaning of Indigenous studies in the context of globalised academic and political imaginaries, and the possibilities and pitfalls of constructions of indigeneity as both a foundational and a relational concept. A series of short editorial essays provide theoretical clarity to issues of representation, resistance, agency, recognition and marginality. The book is an essential read for students and scholars of Indian Sociology, Anthropology, History, Cultural Studies and Indigenous studies.


In this study the authors present an application of the radial basis function-pseudospectral (RBF-PS) meshfree method as well as a least squares variant thereof to a three-dimensional (3D) benchmark engineering problem defined by the Laplace equation. To their knowledge this is the first such study. The RBF-PS method is a version of the radial basis function (RBF) collocation method formulated in the vein of traditional pseudospectral methods. The least squares RBF-PS method introduced here as a modification of the RBF-PS method allows the authors to work with fewer RBFs while maintaining a high number of collocation points. In addition, the authors use a leave-one-out cross validation algorithm to choose an 'optimal' shape parameter for their basis functions. In order to evaluate the accuracy, effectiveness and applicability of their new approach, the authors apply it to a 3D benchmark electromagnetic problem. Their numerical results demonstrate that the proposed methods compare favourably to the finite difference and finite element methods.


The success of open source software like Apache or Linux not only attracts practitioners of IS to look more thoroughly on the development processes of these communities but also attracts researchers to take a closer look on how these communities work. At first glance open source software development is seemingly chaotic and anarchistic (Kuwabara, 2000). However, successful open source software communities like Apache or Linux do have strong leadership, management, and governance structures (apache.org, 2003; Bretthauer, 2002; Fielding, 1999). In these communities single individuals or a group of participants exercise leadership functions and are in charge of the project direction and survival. Currently, a strong focus of the open source software (OSS) literature is especially on the motivation of participants who spend a lot of time and effort without getting a direct monetary compensation. So far, only little is known about how these communities are organized, managed, and governed. This paper will concentrate on successful practices of effective leadership in OSS communities as an example of virtual communities. Specifically, we will look how leadership behaviors influence project performance. A conceptual model of how leadership behaviors influences project performance considering several contingencies will be developed, presented and propositions as well as testable hypotheses will be derived.


We introduce a new system robustness index for optimizing the pump design and operation of water distribution systems. Here, robustness is defined as a system9s ability to continue functioning under varying demand conditions. The maximum difference between the daily maximum and minimum pressures of a node was taken as a robustness indicator and incorporated as a constraint in a pump design and operation model that minimizes the total pump cost (construction and operation cost). Two well-known benchmark networks, the Apulian and Net2 networks, were modified and used to demonstrate the proposed model. The Pareto relationship between the total cost and system robustness was explored through independent optimizations of the model for different robustness constraint values. The resulting solutions were compared to the traditional least-cost solution. Regardless of the study networks, considering the robustness resulted in a greater number of small pumps compared with the least-cost solution. A sensitivity analysis on tank capacity was performed with the Apulian network. The proposed model is the pump design and operation tool that accounts for both the total pump cost and system robustness, which are the most important factors considered by water distribution operators.


We summarize the results of an extensive campaign of direct numerical simulations of Rayleigh–Bénard convection at moderate and high Prandtl numbers (10−1 ≤ Pr ≤ 104) and moderate Rayleigh numbers (105 ≤ Ra ≤ 109). The computational domain is a cylindrical cell of aspect ratio Γ = 1/2, with the no-slip condition imposed on all boundaries. By scaling the numerical results, we find that the free-fall velocity should be multiplied by $1/\sqrt{{\it Pr}}$ in order to obtain a more appropriate representation of the large-scale velocity at high Pr. We investigate the Nusselt and the Reynolds number dependences on Ra and Pr, comparing the outcome with previous numerical and experimental results. Depending on Pr, we obtain different power laws of the Nusselt number with respect to Ra, ranging from Ra2/7 for Pr = 1 up to Ra0.31 for Pr = 103. The Nusselt number is independent of Pr. The Reynolds number scales as ${\it Re}\,{\sim}\,\sqrt{{\it Ra}}/{\it Pr}$, neglecting logarithmic corrections. We analyse the global and local features of viscous and thermal boundary layers and their scaling behaviours with respect to Ra and Pr, and with respect to the Reynolds and Péclet numbers. We find that the flow approaches a saturation state when Reynolds number decreases below the critical value, Res ≃ 40. The thermal-boundary-layer thickness increases slightly (instead of decreasing) when the Péclet number increases, because of the moderating influence of the viscous boundary layer. The simulated ranges of Ra and Pr contain steady, periodic and turbulent solutions. A rough estimate of the transition from the steady to the unsteady state is obtained by monitoring the time evolution of the system until it reaches stationary solutions. We find multiple solutions as long-term phenomena at Ra = 108 and Pr = 103, which, however, do not result in significantly different Nusselt numbers. One of these multiple solutions, even if stable over a long time interval, shows a break in the mid-plane symmetry of the temperature profile. We analyse the flow structures through the transitional phases by direct visualizations of the temperature and velocity fields. A wide variety of large-scale circulation and plume structures has been found. The single-roll circulation is characteristic only of the steady and periodic solutions. For other regimes at lower Pr, the mean flow generally consists of two opposite toroidal structures; at higher Pr, the flow is organized in the form of multi-jet structures, extending mostly in the vertical direction. At high Pr, plumes mainly detach from sheet-like structures. The signatures of different large-scale structures are generally well reflected in the data trends with respect to Ra, less in those with respect to Pr.


Although education in recent years has been recognised as holding the potential for both building peace and fuelling conflict, research in the area is scarce. This thesis therefore investigated the role education has played in peace-building following the 2007/08 post-election violence in Kenya. Kenya was chosen because a peace education programme was launched following the violence, making the country particularly progressive in that respect. In order to generate in-depth knowledge on the matter, a case-study approach using mixed-methods was adopted. In addition to four case studies, interviews were carried out with national policy makers and local school authorities to generate data on peace education policies. The qualitative data from the schools was triangulated with a teacher survey from a larger number of schools. The study found that education can indeed build peace, and that the Kenyan peace education programme can play a role in this. Drivers of conflict were also identified in the schools, pointing to a need for a holistic approach to peace education, where the whole school culture is addressed. Only one of the four case-study schools was found to have implemented peace education to the extent encouraged by the Ministry of Education. The three remaining schools were not found to have implemented peace education to the extent that policy makers had hoped. Within these three schools, a range of challenges faced by peace education initiatives were identified. In particular, the perceived relevance of peace education, location of schools, school leadership, sense of ownership of peace education, and national peace education policies were found to have a particular influence. The findings are followed by a set of recommendations for policy makers, teacher trainers and head teachers, arguing that there is a need for further grounding in national policies, more follow-up work in schools and more thorough training in peace, for peace education to reach its full potential in Kenya.


Much of the terrestrial biosphere can be viewed as part of a gradient, with varying amounts of woody plant cover ranging from grassland to forest—the grassland–forest continuum. Woody plant cover directly impacts the soil microclimate through modifications of near‐ground solar radiation and soil temperature, and these interactive effects are relevant for key ecohydrological processes such as soil evaporation. Trends in how increasing woody plant cover affect soil surface microclimate have recently been evaluated for gradients of evergreen woody plants, but analogous trends for deciduous plants, where phenology should be influential, are lacking. We evaluated season‐dependent changes in soil microclimate along a deciduous grassland–forest continuum of velvet mesquite (Prosopis velutina Wooton) using repeated hemispherical photography and continuous soil temperature measurements at the 5‐cm depth. Both near‐ground solar radiation and soil temperature decreased with increasing canopy cover, even during the leafless season. The trends varied substantially among seasons, however, with differences between canopy and intercanopy patches readily evident only during the period of full leaf‐out, during which the correlation between near‐ground solar radiation and soil temperature was strongest. Our results provide a more comprehensive understanding about the interactions of canopy cover, canopy structure attributes, and plant phenology that produce seasonally pulsed heterogeneity in the soil surface microclimate. Notably, our results add a new dimension to the moisture "pulse dynamics" perspective commonly applied to dryland ecohydrology, highlighting seasonally pulsed heterogeneity in soil microclimate that could influence soil moisture dynamics in drylands.


The accuracy of weather forecasts has been a topic of discussion for many years, and a simple but useful method for showing forecast accuracy has been an issue for meteorologists over time. My study on the comparison of meteorological computer forecast models coupled with climatology data and a human produced forecast (from meteorologists at KOMU-TV, Columbia, MO) produced some interesting results. Not surprisingly, the computer models and human produced forecasts were, by far, more accurate than the climatology forecasts, but when I compared all of the data and results with the seasonality variance of temperature data, the outcome was more interesting. Essentially, all forecasts and outcomes had distinct seasonal variability. Some of the more surprising findings were that in seasons with large variability, the computer modeling did a decent job at producing an accurate forecast. It is my hope that the findings in this research will instill more confidence in a human produced forecast and forecasters can determine which computer model has a better handle on seasonal variance based on the model physics.


Public relations can be seen as a management function, whose task is
to establish and foster relationships of mutual understanding and
goodwill between the organization and various groups of publics who
can impact on its success or failure, but also as one of the most
important marketing communications tools. Since public relations
could potentially have great power and influence on the formation of
public opinion, on the creation of the image and reputation of the
organization, as well as on the establishment and maintenance of high
quality and long-term relationships with various business and market
structures, for the needs of the doctoral dissertation a research was
carried out in the higher education institutions in Serbia, in order to
determine the degree of development and forms of application of
public relations in the context of the overall promotional activities of
these institutions.
The main objectives of this paper are related to: a comprehensive
theoretical consideration of marketing communications tools; a
theoretical consideration of public relations as a management
function, and then determining the place, role and importance of
public relations in the marketing communications system; a review of
the application of the most important areas of public relations, as well
as the importance and role of the public relations as the marketing
communications instrument in the higher education institutions in
Serbia.
Based on the defined objectives and goals, hypotheses were
formulated. In order to test the hypotheses, the domestic and foreign
literature and Internet sources were used, as well as the results
obtained through primary and secondary empirical research. For the
purposes of primary research, the structured questionnaire was
designed. Elemental analysis of statistical data obtained through
primary research, was conducted by calculating frequencies,
percentages and cumulative percentages for all dependent variables.
The paper is structured in three parts: the first part is entitled
"Marketing Communications Development"; the second part, titled
"Place and Role of Public Relations in the Marketing
Communications System", deals with the most important
characteristics and areas of public relations, and then on the mutual
relations between marketing and public relations. The third part is
called "Empirical Research". First, the position of the public relations
profession in Serbia is presented, based on the researches conducted
by the Serbian Association of Public Relations (DSOJ) in 2008 and
2012; afterwards, the results of the research conducted in March 2015
in the higher education institutions in Serbia for the purposes of this
dissertation are presented. In the final part of the dissertation the
hypotheses were tested and the final assessment of the results
obtained are presented.


An Ad-hoc network is a self-organized network, without a central coordinator, and which frequently changes its topology. In this paper, we have analyzed the performance of Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET) under wormhole attack. Multiple QoS parameters have been considered here such as throughput, delay, packet delivery ratio, node energy and node density. The NS2 network simulator has been used and the reference point group mobility model (RPGM) is considered to study the effect of node density and the initial energy on the


Since 1932, when Justice Louis Brandeis remarked that in a federal system states can serve as "laboratories" of democracy, political decentralization has been thought to stimulate policy experimentation. We reexamine the political economy behind this belief, using a simple model of voting in centralized and decentralized democracies. We find the electoral logic suggests the opposite conclusion: centralization usually leads to "too much" policy experimentation, compared to the social optimum, while decentralization leads to "too little". Three effects of centralization—an "informational externality", a "risk-seeking" effect, and a "riskconserving" effect—account for the different outcomes.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of cancer patients towards the medical interview and to determine their psychosocial satisfaction subsequent to the dialogue. The answers given by patients with curable cancer were compared to those given by cancer patients whose treatment intent was palliative and to the replies of patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a nonmalignant but also incurable state. The subject population comprised a total of 139 patients. Patients had to complete a questionnaire with a total of 34 items. The answers to the questions were rated on a 5-point scale with response options ranging from 1 to 5 or consisting of true-false statements. Cancer patients, palliative and curative, and HIV-positive patients considered their physicians to be honest (x = 4.34, x = 4.58, and x = 4.30, respectively; p = 0.104), and they emphasized that he/she took enough time answering their questions (x = 4.00, x = 4.30 and x = 4391, respectively; p = 0.12). Cancer patients treated with potentially curable disease were more frequently afraid of being informed about additional diagnostic examinations and about the disclosure of results as compared to cancer patients on palliative care (p < 0.05 for both questions). Patients with HIV-infection considered themselves less informed about the treatment they received as compared to curative cancer patients (x = 3.73 and x = 4.28, respectively; p < 0.046). Only 8.0% of the tumor patients on palliative care, but 63.6% of the HIV-positive patients realized that their medication was given with the objective to relieve symptoms (p < 0.001). When asked about additional goals of treatment, 48% of the palliative cancer patients and 15.1% of the HIV-positive patients checked "cure" (p < 0.002). In conclusion, particularly patients with curable cancer were afraid of information they might receive during the medical interview. Cancer patients considered themselves better informed compared to patients with HIV-infection. This is in significant contrast with the actual, measurable knowledge about their disease in the latter group. It is indeed surprising that only a small minority of incurable cancer patients realized that the goal of the medical care they received was relief of symptoms, the principle objective of palliation.


Background— Acute rheumatic fever remains a serious healthcare concern for the majority of the world's population despite its decline in incidence in Europe and North America. The goal of this statement was to review the historic Jones criteria used to diagnose acute rheumatic fever in the context of the current epidemiology of the disease and to update those criteria to also take into account recent evidence supporting the use of Doppler echocardiography in the diagnosis of carditis as a major manifestation of acute rheumatic fever. Methods and Results— To achieve this goal, the American Heart Association's Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young and its Rheumatic Fever, Endocarditis, and Kawasaki Disease Committee organized a writing group to comprehensively review and evaluate the impact of population-specific differences in acute rheumatic fever presentation and changes in presentation that can result from the now worldwide availability of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. In addition, a methodological assessment of the numerous published studies that support the use of Doppler echocardiography as a means to diagnose cardiac involvement in acute rheumatic fever, even when overt clinical findings are not apparent, was undertaken to determine the evidence basis for defining subclinical carditis and including it as a major criterion of the Jones criteria. This effort has resulted in the first substantial revision to the Jones criteria by the American Heart Association since 1992 and the first application of the Classification of Recommendations and Levels of Evidence categories developed by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association to the Jones criteria. Conclusions— This revision of the Jones criteria now brings them into closer alignment with other international guidelines for the diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever by defining high-risk populations, recognizing variability in clinical presentation in these high-risk populations, and including Doppler echocardiography as a tool to diagnose cardiac involvement.


A study was conducted to compare the clinical effects of xylazine, ketamine, and a cocktail of them in pigeons (Columbia livia). For this study 15 adult and healthy pigeons were divided into 3 equal groups: A - xylazine (16 mg/kg), B - ketamine (60 mg/kg) and C - xylazine-ketamine cocktail (8 mg/kg + 30 mg/kg, respectively). All treatments were administered intramuscularly. Onset of action was smooth with a mean time of onset of 13.4 ± 2.78 min, 11 ± 1.49 min, and 1.6 ± 0.51 min, respectively. In group A and B light sedation and a light plane of anaesthesia were achieved, respectively, accompanied by superficial analgesia. Grou p C birds showed deep anaesthesia accompanied by profound analgesia. Hypothermia, respiratory depression (due to intercostals muscle relaxation and hypothermia) and bradycardia persisted until recovery in groups A and C, while birds in group B showed hyperthermia, tachycardia, and shallow respiration. The effects persisted for 33.7 ± 5.94 min, 47.7 ± 8.06 min, and 112.9 ± 36.51 min, with a recovery period of 65.9 ± 22.22 min, 52.6 ± 9.64 min, and 96.2 ± 19.06 min, for groups A, B, and C, respectively. Recovery was rough in group B and smooth in groups A and C. Results of the study suggested that in pigeons the use of xylazine (alone) is safe for handling and less painful procedures while a xylazine-ketamine cocktail is a suitable anaesthesia for painful procedures at the dosages used in the study. Ketamine alone is not recommended for anaesthesia in pigeons.


This essay sets the contemporary problematic of secularism in a critical frame by posing six key questions: Why is it so difficult—perhaps impossible—to reach a scholarly, much less political, consensus on the significance of "secularism"? What are the implications of mounting pressures within Euro-American discourses to tie secularism ever more closely to Christianity? Insofar as secularism is historically constituted through (a contentious and incomplete) exclusion of religion, can the contours of this contested formation be traced more clearly by drawing on an archive of theological figures, such as that of conversion? If secularism cannot be understood as simply coextensive with modernity, what are the limits of the secular? To what extent does political pluralism presuppose and depend on some notion or formation of the secular? And finally, within the shifting patterns of our world today, what are the most salient connections among secularism, nation, state, and capital? [secular, secularism, Christianity, conversion]


Examining entrepreneurial self-efficacy across venture creation phases is important as research indicates that behaviours to which self-efficacy corresponds are largely concerned with new-venture formation processes and as such are required of entrepreneurs well beyond the point of founding. Hypotheses are formulated, which take into account the sequential nature of entrepreneurial tasks in the venture process. A multidimensional instrument is used to collect data from medium businesses (n = 199). Correlational and regression analysis are performed where empirical evidence supports that entrepreneurial self-efficacy during searching, planning, marshalling resources and implementing people phases of venturing are significantly associated with the competitiveness of the venture. Implications of this study can be advanced to the policy domain where it needs to be stressed that government initiatives will affect venture sustainability only if these policies are conceived in a way that influences entrepreneurial self-efficacy.


In all ecosystems, bacteria are likely to grow in biofilms, and the organisms making
up the natural flora of the colon are considered to be no exception to this. One of the
most important hospital-acquired infections is antibiotic associated diarrhoea, with
the causative agent being the Gram-positive anaerobe, Clostridium difficile. This
organism elaborates two exotoxins, A and B, which cause disease by interaction with
the enterocytes of the colon. Treatment of the condition can be difficult, with
treatment failures not uncommon. As the organism produces a heat stable spore, it
can survive with ease in the environment.
There are no previous reports concerned with the study of anaerobes in an in vitro
biofilm system. The work described here is a study of C. docile, using the Sorbarod
filter system. This was to determine its suitability in establishing continuous culture
biofilms of the organism. It was shown that C. difficile readily established itself on
the filters, maintained a titre in excess of 109 cfu/filter for at least 72h. The lack of
sporulation in the system confirmed that vegetative growth was being maintained. In
the filters, the organism exhibited elongated forms, sometimes in excess of 10
microns in length. Electron microscopy showed that this was probably due to lack of
cell separation at cell division. Toxin production appeared to be higher when C.
difficile was grown in biofilm in comparison with growth in broth and biofilm
effluent.
The susceptibility of the organism to benzylpenicillin, vancomycin, metronidazole
and rifampicin was determined in broth culture, biofilm and biofilm effluent. Broth
minimum inhibitory and minimum bacteriocidal (MIC/MBC) experiments showed,
that apart from rifampicin, the organism was tolerant to the antibiotics. This was
essentially repeated in the filter system. Rifampicin had a significantly better
bactericidal activity against the organism, and synergistic killing was achieved when
rifampicin was combined with vancomycin.
The growth of C. difficile in biofilm with other common members of the bowel flora
was investigated in combination experiments with Bacteroidesfragilis, Enterococcus
faecalis and Escherichia coli. No antagonistic effect was demonstrated and
antimicrobial susceptibility experiments using C. difficile and E. coli in combination
showed resistance of both organisms to broad-spectrum antibiotics. Screening for
bacteriophages and other biological agents with activity against C. difficile identified
an isolate of Lactobacillus paracasei, which had marked activity against the
clostridium as shown by the "sloppy agar" method, but there was a very variable
effect in broth and the Sorbarod biofilms. Interestingly, the bacteriocin-like agent had
activity against not only a number of other clostridial species, but also against
Streptococcus pneumoniae.
The work here is thus a novel investigation of an important infection control problem,
and is the basis for further detailed work examining the growth and pathogenic
properties of C. difficile in biofilm.


This paper presents the investigation of the pressure drop in headers and development of correlation for pressure loss coefficient for single phase flow through round cylindrical headers of parallel MCHXs. The working fluid was compressed air flowing through header with 1 - 20 m/s based on smallest cross section while the velocity through micro-channels was in the range 6 - 30 m/s. The experimental results indicate that the pressure loss coefficient of inlet header is a linear function of the ratio of velocities through micro-channel tube and header, except for the first two micro-channel tubes; the pressure loss coefficient of outlet header is a quadratic function of the ratio of velocities through micro-channel tube and header, and decreases as the velocities through upstream micro-channel tubes increase. Correlations for predicting pressure drop of inlet header and outlet header are developed and agree for 98% of experimental data is within a ±15 Pa.


People rarely put in their papers the things that didn't work, the mistakes they made, and how they found out what went wrong. Such confessions can help others learn how to avoid similar mistakes. Twenty-six confessions were collected to form the bulk of this paper. Themes that arise are errors that result from not understanding the limitations of simulation tools in modeling physical reality, chip verification errors that result from lack of clear communication between designers, and projects that are considered in their own isolated environment of technical challenges rather than the broader context of their environment or application.


In recent years, trials of autonomous shuttle vehicles have been conducted worldwide. Currently, there exists no generalized process model for deployment and continuous operation of shuttles. Shuttle suppliers use their own developed procedures, making it difficult for the relevant stakeholders (e.g., public authorities) to assess the risk of potential shuttle deployment. The Digibus® Austria flagship project, among other goals, develops an approach for the virtual risk assessment of identified critical spots along proposed shuttle paths. Embedded into the deployment process, this serves as a significant body of evidence for safety assurance in shuttle deployment. Conducted simulation studies optimizing the shuttle's trajectory for concrete maneuvers, along with derived requirements for the associated virtual environment, are part of the first noteworthy outcomes. Concretely, the developed virtual environment is integrated in the framework used for virtual validation. The framework is then used for a detailed evaluation of a right-turn maneuver, analyzing possible shuttle trajectories. Considerable differences in sensor coverage at the shuttle's stopping point can be shown. Conclusively, by utilizing the shuttle's restricted operational domain, the proposed virtual risk assessment is considered the first step toward a general procedure for the safety assurance of automated vehicles.


The pandemic that started in Wuhan (China) in 2019 has caused a large number of deaths, and infected people around the world due to the absence of effective therapy against coronavirus 2 of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2). Viral maturation requires the activity of the main viral protease (Mpro), so its inhibition stops the progress of the disease. To evaluate possible inhibitors, a computational model of the SARS-CoV-2 enzyme Mpro was constructed in complex with 26 synthetic ligands derived from coumarins and quinolines. Analysis of simulations of molecular dynamics and molecular docking of the models show a high affinity for the enzyme (∆E binding between −5.1 and 7.1 kcal mol−1). The six compounds with the highest affinity show K d between 6.26 × 10–6 and 17.2 × 10–6, with binding affinity between −20 and −25 kcal mol−1, with ligand efficiency less than 0.3 associated with possible inhibitory candidates. In addition to the high affinity of these compounds for SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, low toxicity is expected considering the Lipinski, Veber and Pfizer rules. Therefore, this novel study provides candidate inhibitors that would allow experimental studies which can lead to the development of new treatments for SARS-CoV-2.


Replicated storage for large Web services faces a trade-off between stronger forms of consistency and higher performance properties. Stronger consistency prevents anomalies, i.e., unexpected behavior visible to users, and reduces programming complexity. There is much recent work on improving the performance properties of systems with stronger consistency, yet the flip-side of this trade-off remains elusively hard to quantify. To the best of our knowledge, no prior work does so for a large, production Web service. We use measurement and analysis of requests to Facebook's TAO system to quantify how often anomalies happen in practice, i.e., when results returned by eventually consistent TAO differ from what is allowed by stronger consistency models. For instance, our analysis shows that 0.0004% of reads to vertices would return different results in a linearizable system. This in turn gives insight into the benefits of stronger consistency; 0.0004% of reads are potential anomalies that a linearizable system would prevent. We directly study local consistency models---i.e., those we can analyze using requests to a sample of objects---and use the relationships between models to infer bounds on the others. We also describe a practical consistency monitoring system that tracks φ-consistency, a new consistency metric ideally suited for health monitoring. In addition, we give insight into the increased programming complexity of weaker consistency by discussing bugs our monitoring uncovered, and anti-patterns we teach developers to avoid.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the current medical and psychosocial status of patients with epilepsy, aiming to facilitate appropriate application of the Intractable/Rare Diseases Act of Japan.

METHODS
By analysing the cross-sectional data of patients registered in the tertiary hospital-based Epilepsy Syndrome Registry of Japan, we investigated the proportion of patients who met the severity criteria as defined by the Act (seizure frequency of at least once a month, or presence of intellectual/neurological/psychiatric symptoms, or both) and whether there are candidate syndrome/diseases to be added to the existing list in the Act.

RESULTS
In total, 2,209 patients were registered. After excluding self-limited/idiopathic epilepsies, 1,851 of 2,110 patients (87.7%) met the severity criteria. The patients were classified into eight main epilepsy syndromes (594 patients), 20 groups based on aetiology (1,078 patients), and three groups without known aetiology (427 patients). Most of the groups classified by syndrome or aetiology had high proportions of patients satisfying the severity criteria (>90%), but some groups had relatively low proportions (<80%) resulting from favourable outcome of surgical therapy. Several small groups with known syndrome/aetiology await detailed analysis based on a sufficiently large enough number of patients registered, some of whom may potentially be added to the list of the Act.

SIGNIFICANCE
The registry provides data to examine the usefulness of the severity criteria and list of diseases that are operationally defined by the Act. Most epilepsy patients with various syndromes/diseases and aetiology groups are covered by the Act but some are not, and the list of designated syndromes/diseases should be complemented by further amendments, as suggested by future research.


After 20 years of research, it is unclear what role the tabletop should play in the home or workplace. Progress has been made towards hardware and software interfaces, connectivity with nearby devices, and understanding human behaviour on and around the table -- yet, in practice tabletops see limited use. This workshop seeks to explore the development and use of tabletops from historical, technical, and social perspectives. Workshop goals include synthesizing opinion and experience from new and established researchers on future directions of tabletop research, and an open discussion of questions such as to what applications are tabletops best suited? and how can tabletops be better integrated into larger workflows and digital ecosystems?


Important strides have been made in the science of learning to read. Yet, many students still struggle to attain reading proficiency. This calls for sustained efforts to bridge theoretical insights with applied considerations about ideal pedagogy. The current study was designed to contribute to this conversation, namely by looking at the efficacy of an online reading program. The chosen reading program, referred to as MindPlay Virtual Reading Coach (MVRC), emphasizes the mastery of basic reading skills to support the development of reading fluency. Its focus on basic skills diverges from the goal of increasing reading motivation. And its focus on reading fluency, versus broad literacy achievement, offers an alternative to already existing reading enrichment. In order to test the efficacy of MVRC, we recruited three school districts. One district provided data from elementary schools that used the MVRC program in Grades 2 to 6 (N = 2,531 total). The other two districts participated in a quasi-experimental design: Six 2nd-grade classrooms and nine 4th-grade classrooms were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) instruction as usual, (2) instruction with an alternative online reading program, and (3) instruction with MVRC. Complete data sets were available from 142 2nd-graders and 172 4th-graders. Three assessments from the MVRC screener were used: They assessed reading fluency, phonic skills, and listening vocabulary at two time points: before and after the intervention. Results show a clear advantage of MVRC on reading fluency, more so than on phonics or listening vocabulary. At the same time, teachers reported concerns with MVRC, highlighting the challenge with reading programs that emphasize basic-skills mastery over programs that seek to encourage reading.


A GOAL Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) project that began in 2008 recorded great success but later an ODF slippage rate close to 30% was witnessed. Subsequent assessments have found this to be caused by dissatisfaction with the quality of latrines built and a lack of access to markets for improved sanitation hardware. As a result GOAL initiated a sanitation marketing project in 2013 that aimed to improve the access to this market. Initial work focused on assessment of demand and supply at a local level, and some assessment of the institutional environment to assess the projects likely challenges. Demand was found to be high, particularly for aspirational products, but a lack of affordability and remoteness to target communities increasing prices were likely to become key challenges. Following 12 months of formative work, including product development and branding, sales commenced with the sale of 394 products in 3 months.


The present study aims at investigating the contribution of multimodal modalities to the context of Remote Towers. Interactive spatial sound and vibrotactile feedback were used to design 4 different types of interaction and feedback, responding to 4 typical Air Traffic Control use cases. The experiment involved 16 professional Air Traffic Controllers, who have been called to manage 4 different ATC scenarios into ecological experimental conditions. In two of the scenarios, participants had to control only one airport (i.e., Single Remote Tower context), while in the other two scenarios participants had to control simultaneously two airports (i.e., Multiple Remote Tower context). The augmentation modalities were activated or not in a balanced way. Behavioral results highlighted a significant increase in overall participants performance when the augmentation modalities were activated in Single Remote Tower context. This work demonstrates that some types of augmentation modalities can be used into Remote Tower context.


Abstract One way to improve the accuracy and reliability of kinematic earthquake source imaging is to investigate the origin of uncertainty and to minimize their effects. The difficulties in kinematic source inversion arise from the nonlinearity of the problem, nonunique choices in the parameterization, and observational errors. We analyze particularly the uncertainty related to the choice of the source time function (STF) and the variability in Earth structure. We consider a synthetic data set generated from a spontaneous dynamic rupture calculation. Using Bayesian inference, we map the solution space of peak slip rate, rupture time, and rise time to characterize the kinematic rupture in terms of posterior density functions. Our test to investigate the effect of the choice of STF reveals that all three tested STFs (isosceles triangle, regularized Yoffe with acceleration time of 0.1 and 0.3 s) retrieve the patch of high slip and slip rate around the hypocenter. However, the use of an isosceles triangle as STF artificially accelerates the rupture to propagate faster than the target solution. It additionally generates an artificial linear correlation between rupture onset time and rise time. These appear to compensate for the dynamic source effects that are not included in the symmetric triangular STF. The exact rise time for the tested STFs is difficult to resolve due to the small amount of radiated seismic moment in the tail of STF. To highlight the effect of Earth structure variability, we perform inversions including the uncertainty in the wavespeed only, and variability in both wavespeed and layer depth. We find that little difference is noticeable between the resulting rupture model uncertainties from these two parameterizations. Both significantly broaden the posterior densities and cause faster rupture propagation particularly near the hypocenter due to the major velocity change at the depth where the fault is located. Online Material: Figures of inverted rupture models, trade‐off curve, and posterior probability density function.


Information provenance is a mechanism for tracing and verifying sources of information. In software development, provenance can be seen in two dimensions: (a) traceability among different versions of the same artifact and (b) traceability among various artifacts across system lifecycle. Maintaining the provenance, including the history of changes and the rationale of changes, are critical in assessing change requests, identifying of appropriate products/builds, and ensuring configuration integrity. Although some Configuration Management (CM) tools support a form of provenance by keeping logs of changes, such logs are proprietary and cannot be migrated to other systems if needed. In this research, we demonstrate how provenance can be achieved in configuration management by binding an artifact to its traceability and evolution information and storing such information in XML-based metadata, so that the information can be moved along with the artifact from one CM tool to another.


A sudden subsidence of the main line railway tracks close to the Johannesburg-Germiston boundary prompted an investigation into the causes and mechanism of the subsidence. The area affected has been undermined in the past, but the movement is unusual in that the mining is at considerable depth. Subsidence has even occurred where the mining depth is in excess of 250 m. Important services traverse the subsiding area, including the four main line tracks, the M2 motorway in a 4 m deep cutting, Main Reef Road and a 1,2 m water main.


Activity-based group work is widely used by occupational therapists in mental health settings (Lloyd, King, & Bassett, 2002), but the evidence to support this intervention is unclear. We therefore conducted a systematic review focused on the question, "Is activity-based group work effective in helping people with severe and enduring mental illness in community settings improve their functional ability and/or reduce their mental health symptoms?" We used a wide-ranging search strategy, including electronic searching, hand searching, citation searching, and use of gray literature, and identified 136 potentially relevant papers. After assessment of relevance and quality, only 3 articles met the minimum criteria. Heterogeneity and flaws in quality meant it was not possible to make specific inferences for practice from the studies. Large-scale rigorous research, in the form of randomized controlled trials, is urgently needed to identify whether activity-based group work is effective.


We provide estimates of workers residing in rural (urban) India and commuting to urban (rural) areas for work. The estimates are based on National Sample Survey Organisation's survey of Employment and Unemployment (2009-10). In 2009-10, a total number of 8.05 million workers not engaged in agriculture commuted from rural to urban areas for work while 4.37 million workers not engaged in agriculture commuted from urban to rural areas for work. We argue that the size of the rural and urban labour force should be adjusted to account for the workers who commute to a location different from their usual place of residence.


The contention posed by Rod Rhodes that policy is made and delivered by autonomous and self-organising policy networks is at the heart of many contemporary debates about the nature of policy and politics. However, while the concept has commanded considerable attention from policy theorists, case studies of how policy networks operate on the ground remain relatively rare. Further still, much of the empirical work has centred on testing relatively abstract claims about the nature of networks rather than thinking through their practical implications for governance. Here, we contrast the approaches taken by two English local authorities in seeking more participatory approaches to environmental policy-making. Building on the work of Kickert et al., we argue that - far from being self-organising - the form of policy networks can be strongly directed by the state through network activation strategies and, indeed, that strong state management of networks is required if policy-making is to proceed in a more inclusive manner. Indeed, we argue that when policy-making is viewed from a network governance perspective the most effective routes to participatory policy-making may rely heavily on manipulation strategies despite the fact that these are frequently described as weaker (or lower) forms of participation. This apparent compromise of participatory objectives may be required to ensure effective policy development.


The article analyses a large content of the English-language magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah . They provide a significant amount of content for research on the role of women (mostly Western) in jihadi terrorism. The author attempts to understand the leading themes related to women and girls exploited in these sources. A major objective is to discover and understand the Islamic State's approach towards women and girls, as well as their role in the self-proclaimed caliphate. To reach this goal, quantitative and qualitative content analysis is used. Research confirmed that both magazines contain special sections for women and interviews with female followers. IS has proved to be relatively tolerant of the inconsistence of its ideology. The author acknowledges that the magazines discussed were inconsistent, or rather variant in the application of its message. This is particularly true to the role of women.


ABSTRACT The deep sea is a massive, largely oligotrophic ecosystem, stretched over nearly 65% of the planet's surface. Deep-sea planktonic communities are almost completely dependent upon organic carbon sinking from the productive surface, forming a vital component of global biogeochemical cycles. However, despite their importance, viruses from the deep ocean remain largely unknown. Here, we describe the first complete genomes of deep-sea viruses assembled from metagenomic fosmid libraries. "Candidatus Pelagibacter" (SAR11) phage HTVC010P and Puniceispirillum phage HMO-2011 are considered the most abundant cultured marine viruses known to date. Remarkably, some of the viruses described here recruited as many reads from deep waters as these viruses do in the photic zone, and, considering the gigantic scale of the bathypelagic habitat, these genomes provide information about what could be some of the most abundant viruses in the world at large. Their role in the viral shunt in the global ocean could be very significant. Despite the challenges encountered in inferring the identity of their hosts, we identified one virus predicted to infect members of the globally distributed SAR11 cluster. We also identified a number of putative proviruses from diverse taxa, including deltaproteobacteria, bacteroidetes, SAR11, and gammaproteobacteria. Moreover, our findings also indicate that lysogeny is the preferred mode of existence for deep-sea viruses inhabiting an energy-limited environment, in sharp contrast to the predominantly lytic lifestyle of their photic-zone counterparts. Some of the viruses show a widespread distribution, supporting the tenet "everything is everywhere" for the deep-ocean virome. IMPORTANCE The deep sea is among the largest known habitats and a critical cog in biogeochemical cycling but remains underexplored in its microbiology. Even more than is the case for its prokaryotic community, our knowledge of its viral component has remained limited by the paucity of information provided by studies dependent upon short sequence fragments. In this work, we attempt to fill this existing gap by using a combination of classical fosmid libraries with next-generation sequencing and assembly to recover long viral genomic fragments. We have sequenced ca. 6,000 fosmids from two metagenomics libraries made from prokaryotic biomass from the deep Mediterranean Sea and recovered twenty-eight complete viral genomes, all of them novel and quite distinct from all previously described viral genomes. They are preferentially found in deeper waters and are widely distributed all over the oceans. To our knowledge, this is the first report on complete and cosmopolitan viral genomes from the bathypelagic habitat. The deep sea is among the largest known habitats and a critical cog in biogeochemical cycling but remains underexplored in its microbiology. Even more than is the case for its prokaryotic community, our knowledge of its viral component has remained limited by the paucity of information provided by studies dependent upon short sequence fragments. In this work, we attempt to fill this existing gap by using a combination of classical fosmid libraries with next-generation sequencing and assembly to recover long viral genomic fragments. We have sequenced ca. 6,000 fosmids from two metagenomics libraries made from prokaryotic biomass from the deep Mediterranean Sea and recovered twenty-eight complete viral genomes, all of them novel and quite distinct from all previously described viral genomes. They are preferentially found in deeper waters and are widely distributed all over the oceans. To our knowledge, this is the first report on complete and cosmopolitan viral genomes from the bathypelagic habitat.


Globally, Rotavirus is the common major etiologic agents of diarrhea in infant, young children and neonatal calves. It is very important to early diagnose the disease for effective treatment. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence, molecular characteristics, and the effect of rotavirus strains for severe gastroenteritis in neonatal calves in five Iraqi governorates (Al-Qadissiya, Babel, Kerbala, Missan, Wassit). A total of 125-stool specimens were examined, it have been collected from calves form the period between November 2015 to March 2016. The ages were ranging from 6 to 60 weeks. The specimens were examined using Chromatographic Immunoassay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Polymerase-chain reaction (PCR). Our results gave us 67 (53.6%) positive by chromatographic immunoassay, 45 (36%) positive by ELISA and 32 (25.6%) positive by PCR. Genotyping were analyzed by multiplex PCR. Genotype combination G1P[8] was (30%) followed by G1P[4] (20%), G3P[4] (20%), G2P[4] (10%), G2P[8] (10%) and G9P[4] (10%). Such information will not only aid in seeking advocacy for introducing rotavirus vaccine in national immunization program in Iraq, but will also help in the evaluation of the efficacy of these vaccines in relation to the rotavirus genotyping circulation.


Embedded assertions have been recognized as a potentially powerful tool for automatic runtime detection of software faults during debugging, testing, maintenance and even production versions of software systems. Yet despite the richness of the notations and the maturity of the techniques and tools that have been developed for programming with assertions, assertions are a development tool that has seen little widespread use in practice. The main reasons seem to be that (1) previous assertion processing tools did not integrate easily with existing programming environments, and (2) it is not well understood what kinds of assertions are most effective at detecting software faults. This paper describes experience using an assertion processing tool that was built to address the concerns of ease-of-use and effectiveness. The tool is called APP, an Annotation PreProcessor for C programs developed in UNIX-based development environments, APP has been used in the development of a variety of software systems over the past five years. Based-on this experience, the paper presents a classification of the assertions that were most effective at detecting faults. While the assertions that are described guard against many common kinds of faults and errors, the very commonness of such faults demonstrates the need for an explicit, high-level, automatically checkable specification of required behavior. It is hoped that the classification presented in this paper will prove to be a useful first step in developing a method of programming with assertions. >


Our investigations concern the role of symbiosis as an enabling mechanism in evolutionary adaptation. Previous work has illustrated how the formation of mutualist groups can guide genetic variation so as to enable the evolution of ultimately independent organisms that would otherwise be unobtainable. The new experiments reported here show that this effect applies not just in genetically related organisms but may also occur from symbiosis between distinct species. In addition, a new detail is revealed: when the symbiotic group members are drawn from two separate species only one of these species achieves eventual independence and the other remains parasitic. lt is nonetheless the case that this second species, formerly mutualistic, was critical in enabling the independence of the first. We offer a biological example that is suggestive of the effect and discuss the implications for evolving complex organisms, natural and artificial


The predominant paradigm for using machine learning models on a device is to train a model in the cloud and perform inference using the trained model on the device. However, with increasing number of smart devices and improved hardware, there is interest in performing model training on the device. Given this surge in interest, a comprehensive survey of the field from a device-agnostic perspective sets the stage for both understanding the state-of-the-art and for identifying open challenges and future avenues of research. However, on-device learning is an expansive field with connections to a large number of related topics in AI and machine learning (including online learning, model adaptation, one/few-shot learning, etc.). Hence, covering such a large number of topics in a single survey is impractical. This survey finds a middle ground by reformulating the problem of on-device learning as resource constrained learning where the resources are compute and memory. This reformulation allows tools, techniques, and algorithms from a wide variety of research areas to be compared equitably. In addition to summarizing the state-of-the-art, the survey also identifies a number of challenges and next steps for both the algorithmic and theoretical aspects of on-device learning.


We consider the problem of reconstructing a specific connected community S ⊂ V in a graph G = (V,E), where each node v is associated with a signal whose strength grows with the likelihood that v belongs to S. This problem appears in social or protein interaction network, the latter also referred to as the signaling pathway reconstruction problem (Bailly-Bechet et al., 2011). We study this community reconstruction problem under several natural generative models, and make the following two contributions. First, in the context of social networks, where the signals are modeled as boundedsupported random variables, we design an efficient algorithm for recovering most members in S with well-controlled false positive overhead, by utilizing the network structure for a large family of "homogeneous" generative models. This positive result is complemented by an information theoretic lower bound for the case where the network structure is unknown or the network is heterogeneous. Second, we consider the case in which the graph represents the protein interaction network, in which it is customary to consider signals that have unbounded support, we generalize our first contribution to give the first theoretical justification of why existing Steiner-tree type heuristics work well in practice.


This is the first comprehensive historical picture to be published of the life and work of the Church of England in the second half of the twentieth century. It traces the evolution of the Church in a period of immense upheaval, giving not only a detailed portrait of the work of its archbishops and bishops, but also exploring the Church's relationship with the State, the changes within its central institutions, and the response of the wider community to those changes. Placing the Church of England in its social context, Andrew Chandler examines the parochial reforms which arose in response to the realities of domestic and international migration, multi-culturalism and secularization. Other themes explored are the administration of property (particularly bishops' houses and the work of the cathedrals), 'ethical investment', and the recent crises which are still the subject of argument. Included among these are the financial speculations of the late 1980s and early 1990s, from which flowed controversies about the reform of the Church of England itself and the nature of its relationship with the state.


Abstract While staff photographers are losing their jobs, news agency networks have become main suppliers of visual content to the news media. A global news site such as the Guardian leans to news agencies for most of its selected visuals. In tandem with the expanding visual power of new agencies, the ethical standards of the wholesalers are challenged by increasing amounts of user generated content, distant editing, and the live-streaming of breaking news. This article discusses editorial dilemmas prompted by proliferate, high tech processing of visual content by the news agencies' global networks, exemplified by the coverage of terrorism. The analysis is grounded in a variety of empirical data, and aspects of Manuel Castells' theory on communication power provide a theorizing framework for the discussion. The study suggests that the visual power of today's news agencies rests on three interconnected processes of handling imagery: agency infrastructuring, technological infrastructuring and global newsroom infrastructuring.


Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is surrounded by confusion and controversy regarding its definition, course, etiology and treatment. Among adults, ADHD is rarely considered a diagnostic reality of primary importance and is often overlooked. This study provides descriptive validity for adult ADHD in distinguishing it from controls, and identifying both a pure condition and one wrought with comorbidity.


This volume accompanies an exhibition of the same name, which includes artefacts from nearly 2000 years before the Christian era. Objects such as coffins, tombs, masks, jewellery, papyri, sarcophagi and monumental and small-scale sculpture reveal the reverence and awe with which the Egyptians considered the mystery of death. The essays in this book explore Egyptian art history, customs and worship, with specific focus on the Amduat, a book devoted to the pharaoh's 12-hour journey to the afterlife. Additional writings detail the background of the collection and focus upon the role of art in ancient Egypt.


If communities are to become a viable means of implementing social policy then community practitioners must individually examine their personal praxis. Therefore, in discovering a community's aims and objectives, a management model is needed that offers every practitioner a reflexive means of understanding peoples' beliefs, values, and attitudes. This proposition is critically examined through a philosophical framework that explores individuals' diverse perspectives on community, derived from their adherence to contending ontological and epistemological propositions about the social world, and its related ethical and motivational dimensions. Following a philosophical analysis, the taxonomy of social reality perspectives, developed by Dixon (2003) and Dixon and Dogan (2002; 2003a, b, c, d; 2004). is systematically used to explore the contending views on social reality. Thus, methodological configurations are associated with logical categories, (1) naturalist agency, underpinning the self-interested (free-riding) homo economicus\ (2) naturalist structuralism, underpinning the obligation driven homo hierarchus; (3) hermeneutic structuralism, underpinning the conversation-saturated homo sociologicus (Archer, 2000: 4); and (4) hermeneutic agency, underpinning homo existentialis. The disciplines of social psychology, ethics, and political science are employed to explore selected facets of human nature, moral principles, and political ideology chosen, by associates of each set of methodological configurations, in particular relational situations. Informed by this investigation a sample of community practitioners were questioned about their praxis. This reveals that a substantial majority understand and accept an objective and knowable social worid where people are self-interested. Therefore, these practitioners perceive community as a setting where they can influence the decisions of others through discourse and judge its ethical merits by the degree of loyalty and obligation extended to their projects. Thus, it is apparent that community practitioners should evaluate their praxis, through critical self-reflection, if they are to develop suitably robust and durable symbiotic relationships with adherents to each of the four social reality perceptions. This research leads to a new logic, based on the innovative interpretation of ontotogical and epistemotogical configurations offered in the seminal work of Bhaskar (1978 and 1979) and Archer (1989, 1995, 2000 and 2003). Here, an emerging social ontology informs the construction of more specific theories conceming the dynamics of community in identifiable localities. Therefore, it now becomes possible to construct a management model, incorporating contending social realities, the techniques of mediation and the results of changing cognition and cognitive dissonance, that facilitates community practitioner's critical self-reflection and construction of managerial strategies based on community member's contending perceptions of social reality.


The performance of optical/wireless hybrid networks is largely limited by the wireless part. To reduce the wireless transmission, we configure virtual channels in the optical infrastructure as "shortcuts" between selected gateways. Adding virtual channels changes the network topology and affects the optimality of gateway deployment. Meanwhile, the gateway locations dictate the traffic distribution that affects the selection of gateways for virtual-channel placement. We propose to jointly optimize the gateways and virtual channels, and formulate the optimization as a mixed integer programming problem. In addition, we design an efficient heuristic algorithm based on k-means clustering to iteratively optimize these two aspects. Our schemes are evaluated using various network settings (network size, number of gateways, etc.). In particular, a random topology with Ethernet traffic is studied for delay and throughput. Numerical results show that our design and optimization effectively reduce the wireless transmission, which leads to better scalability, smaller traffic delay, and larger throughput.


BACKGROUND
Both physiologic and psychological reasons for cycling total parenteral nutrition (TPN) have been well established. Despite widespread acceptance of this practice, the only previously published method for calculating TPN cycle rates is inherently flawed.

METHODS
A mathematical formula was derived to facilitate reliable calculation of cyclic TPN flow rates as a function of total volume and cycle time. A publicly accessible website was subsequently developed to expedite rapid determination of TPN cycles.

RESULTS
A fail-safe method of calculating TPN cycle flow rates can be expressed as F = V/(4T-10), where F is equal to the basal flow rate (mL/h), T is equal to the desired cycle time (hours), and V is equal to the total volume of TPN (mL) to be delivered in 24 hours. The basal flow rate and twice the basal flow rate are used for the first and last 2 hours of the TPN cycle, and the remainder of the cycle runs at 4 times the basal flow rate. TPN cycles may be easily calculated online using this formula at http://peds.stanford.edu/tpn.html.

CONCLUSIONS
We have developed a fail-safe method of calculating TPN cycle flow rates that will consistently deliver the desired volume and have made an online implementation of this formula publicly available.


Ventilation-perfusion (V/Q) imaging was performed in a 36-year-old woman who had uncontrolled hypertension, chest pain, and shortness of breath. The findings of chest radiographs were normal. Multiple subsegmental perfusion defects were present bilaterally, with corresponding ventilation abnormalities. A moderate-sized matched defect was also present in the left upper lobe without an associated ventilation abnormality. An intermediate probability for pulmonary embolism was suggested. In addition, the kidneys were visualized on ventilation imaging. A review of her past imaging records indicated that an adenosine sestamibi myocardial scan had been performed 1 day earlier. There was no plausible explanation for renal visualization on ventilation images alone, and this resulted in further investigation. Finally, it was found that TI-201 had replaced sestamibi as the tracer for the stress test because the latter agent was not available that day. Previous myocardial imaging with TI-201 and fat absorption of xenon are some of the causes of renal visualization during ventilation scans.


Autonomous agents empowered by Large Language Models (LLMs) have undergone significant improvements, enabling them to generalize across a broad spectrum of tasks. However, in real-world scenarios, cooperation among individuals is often required to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of task accomplishment. Hence, inspired by human group dynamics, we propose a multi-agent framework \framework that can collaboratively and dynamically adjust its composition as a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts system. Our experiments demonstrate that \framework framework can effectively deploy multi-agent groups that outperform a single agent. Furthermore, we delve into the emergence of social behaviors among individual agents within a group during collaborative task accomplishment. In view of these behaviors, we discuss some possible strategies to leverage positive ones and mitigate negative ones for improving the collaborative potential of multi-agent groups. Our codes for \framework will soon be released at \url{https://github.com/OpenBMB/AgentVerse}.


This paper develops a systems engineering-based framework to assist in the design of an online engineering course. Specifically, the purpose of the framework is to provide a structured meth odology for the design, development and delivery of a fully online course, either brand new or modified from an existing face-to-face course. The main strength Systems Engineering provides to online course design and delivery is the holistic worldview and the life-cycle approach. Adopting the life-cycle approach ensures a smooth transition for faculty members who are in the process of modifying their curriculum to meet student and industry demands. The effectiveness and function of the framework is discussed with respect to results from a brand new fully online course that was designed and developed for the Engineering Management Program at University of Houston Clear Lake, including a survey of students on Blackboard efficiency. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications of the framework for online education and future research.


BackgroundAngiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor therapy elicits beneficial responses from patients with heart failure. We hypothesized that a major site of action of these drugs is tissue ACE and that ACE inhibitors might differ in their ability to inhibit tissue ACE. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the effects of captopril and enalapril on blood pressure and renal function and on serum and tissue ACE activities in sham-operated rats and rats with heart failure induced by coronary artery ligation. Methods and ResultsDuring short-term (1-week) treatment, captopril (200 mg kg−1·day−1) and enalapril (25 mg·kg−1·day−1) elicited equipotent effects on blood pressure and inhibition of serum ACE activity (85%). The effects of long-term treatment (47 days) were then studied beginning 45±5 days after coronary ligation in four treatment groups: sham-operated, vehicle (n=14); heart failure, vehicle (n=10); heart failure, captopril (n=8); and heart failure, enalapril rats (n=7). During long-term treatment, captopril and enalapril caused comparable falls of 12–18 mm Hg in blood pressure (p<0.01 compared with vehicle treatment). There was no change in urine volume or sodium or potassium excretion in vehicleor captopril-treated heart failure rats; in contrast, enalapril-treated heart failure rats demonstrated 83% and 10% increases in urine volume and daily sodium excretion, respectively, compared with vehicletreated rats (both p≤0.01). No significant changes in blood urea nitrogen or creatinine were observed with either treatment. Enalapril but not captopril elicited a significant decrease in serum and lung ACE activities. Captopril but not enalapril inhibited aortic ACE activity. Both agents caused a comparable inhibition of renal ACE activity. The magnitude of inhibition of renal ACE activity but not serum and vascular (aortic) ACE activities correlated with the long-term blood pressure response. Enalapril but not captopril normalized renal angiotensinogen expression; the magnitude of this effect correlated with the increase in daily urinary sodium excretion (r= −0.43; p<0.005). ConclusionsThese data suggest that chronic treatment with these two agents elicits differential effects on tissue ACE activities and renal angiotensinogen regulation. The differential renal effects of these agents may be important in the treatment of heart failure.


The evolution of mobile computing devices and wireless networks has created a new mobile computing environment. Users equipped with a mobile host can access, retrieve, and process information while in mobility. Laptops become more powerful data processing elements. Traditional transaction model has moved forwarding to mobile transaction. This paper proposed the model with the aims at solving the stated issues. A key requirement in such an environment is to support frequent disconnection of mobile database. Transaction management models for databases, in particular the centralized databases, has long been established. Due to the nature of mobile computers, the traditional transaction management models are no longer appropriate. This paper present a model that implements this framework in an asynchronous and synchronous system.


This paper offers a critical examination of the student experience of a new part-time degree in Early Childhood Studies. The current Scottish Executive emphasis on encouraging lifelong learning through improved access, extended participation and the provision of opportunities for progression has created a climate where studying part-time while continuing to work is receiving active government support. The degree examined in this paper offers Early Years staff the opportunity to continue their personal development as they work and it fits well with the increasing recognition of the need for a more valued and qualified workforce in Early Years. Data on student experiences was collected at the end of the first calendar year of the course through structured student evaluation of the modules delivered and through student responses to a 'Support for Learning Agenda'. The agenda was used twice during the year to encourage reflective comment about ongoing participation in the course and also as the basis for discussion with a personal tutor. Results from the two sets of data highlighted the complexity of balancing work, personal and study commitments in part-time study. The issues which emerged for discussion and further investigation included expectations of the learning environment, the difficulties of making transitions from one type of learning environment to another and a number of issues related to combining study and work. The paper concludes by considering the implications for policy and practice.


Summary Taxonomy of plant genetic resources is an important input in characterising and evaluating cultivated plants and it is essential for identifi cation and documentation of the diversity of genebank collections. In former times taxonomical determination was based only on morphological characters. Nowadays, new molecular and chemical methods and techniques are available for providing additional information. As examples of the interaction of morphological, molecular and phytochemical data, investigations of a parsley (Petroselinum crispum [Mill.] Nyman, Apiaceae) and an opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L., Papaveraceae) collection of the German genebank are demonstrated. 220 parsley and 300 opium poppy accessions were cultivated and described morphologically. In addition, the molecular distance and the phylogenetic relationship of the accessions were performed with molecular marker analysis. Essential oil compound and content for parsley and the content of the fi ve main alkaloids (morphine, codeine, thebaine, noscapine, papaverine) for opium poppy were measured with GC (gas chromatography) and HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography), respectively. For parsley the results of the three methods support the existing taxonomy partly, a separation of root and leaf parsley was confi rmed. However, the taxonomy of opium poppy should be revised because molecular and chemical data do not verify the morphological results. But nevertheless taxonomy of cultivated plants is an important tool to describe the variability of plant genetic resources.


The issue of teaching and learning communication strategies has been controversial over the past few decades. Whereas some theoretical arguments reject the benefits of teaching of communication strategies, many practical and empirical studies make pedagogical recommendations and support the idea. Nevertheless, there appears to be no information on teaching communication strategies to Thai learners of English in Thailand. To address these issues, this thesis investigates the effects of teaching communication strategies to Thai learners of English in Thailand. It was designed as an interventionist study conducted with a group of students. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected in the current study. Sixty-two fourth year students majoring in Engineering at King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok participated in this study. All the students received a 12-week communication strategy-based instruction and 12 students were asked to complete four speaking tasks and retrospective protocols. Data were collected via (1) self-report strategy questionnaire, (2) attitudinal questionnaire (3) transcription data of four different speaking tasks, and (4) retrospective protocols. The results from the self-report strategy questionnaire and the speaking tasks showed that the explicit teaching of communication strategies raised students' awareness of strategy use and promoted the greater use of taught communication strategies of the students. The students considered the taught strategies in communication strategy instruction useful, especially pause fillers and hesitation devices, approximation, self repair and circumlocution. With respect to the retrospective verbal reports, the findings showed that the students tended to be more aware of the taught communication strategies. They revealed their intention and reasons behind their use of some taught communication strategies in more detail while completing the postspeaking tasks. Finally, the positive outcomes of the teaching of some specific communication strategies were supported by the findings of an attitudinal questionnaire on the strategy instruction. The findings suggest that the students found the communication strategy instruction useful for them. They also showed positive feelings and attitudes towards the communication strategy instruction.


We consider two-player, zero-sum stochastic games in which each player controls the player's own state variable living in a compact metric space. The terminology comes from gambling problems in which the state of a player represents its wealth in a casino. Under standard assumptions (e.g., continuous running payoff and nonexpansive transitions), we consider for each discount factor the value vλ of the λ-discounted stochastic game and investigate its limit when λ goes to zero. We show that, under a new acyclicity condition, the limit exists and is characterized as the unique solution of a system of functional equations: the limit is the unique continuous excessive and depressive function such that each player, if the player's opponent does not move, can reach the zone when the current payoff is at least as good as the limit value without degrading the limit value. The approach generalizes and provides a new viewpoint on the Mertens–Zamir system coming from the study of zero-sum repeated games with lack of information on both sides. A counterexample shows that under a slightly weaker notion of acyclicity, convergence of (vλ) may fail.


This article presents the empirical findings of a study undertaken to compare the views of language editors and supervisors concerning the appropriate level of editorial intervention in the production of postgraduate dissertations and theses within the South African higher education context. Masters and doctoral students are required to demonstrate scholarship by presenting their research in a clear, well-structured manner that is in accordance with the rigours of academic writing. The lack of such writing and presentation skills is increasingly being recognised as a significant obstacle to the successful completion of postgraduate qualifications. Against the background of these and other problems, the traditional supervisory model, which emphasises monitoring the student's autonomous research in a dyadic student-supervisor relationship, is shifting towards a collaborative mentoring model that comprises several role players, including a professional language editor. The involvement of an editor raises issues concerning the dimensions the editor should become involved in; the degree of editorial intervention; and the method of editing. In order to gain a balanced perspective on these issues, a self-administered questionnaire comprising an inventory of editing tasks, modes of editing and modes of querying was e-mailed to a census of South African editors registered with the South African Translators' Institute (SATI) and/or the Professional Editors' Group (PEG). The same questionnaire, with minor adjustments, was e-mailed to a census of supervisors employed at South African universities who had agreed to participate in the study. The findings indicated that while there was a convergence of editor-supervisor opinion concerning the structural and content editing tasks not being appropriate, opinions differed on the stylistic and copy-editing tasks considered appropriate, with supervisors adopting a more conservative view. The combined responses yielded a restricted set of tasks limited to only the most basic copy-editing tasks that are viewed as appropriate in the editing of dissertations and theses.


The domestication of the dog some 12 to 14,000 years ago has undoubtedly been of great benefit to humans. From a Darwinian perspective wolves that started to cohabit with humans made a smart choice given the nearly ubiquitous distribution of dogs around the world today compared to the patchy distribution and small population of wolves. The human:dog relationship may be as close as pampered and cosseted lap dogs to strays and feral dogs which live a precarious existence on the fringes of human society. The diversity of breeds of dogs and uses to which we put them may lead to their exposure to infectious organisms and their unwitting participation in the transmission of over 60 zoonotic infections (Hubbert et al., 1975; Baxter and Leck 1984) Human behaviour plays a pivotal role in the perpetuation of tapeworm or cestode infections in dogs and their zoonotic importance in humans being transmitted through the inadvertent ingestion of eggs (Macpherson et al., 2000).

This chapter reviews the complex role dogs play in the cestode zoonoses with a focus on the most important from a public health point of view, including Echinococcus granulosus and E. multilocularis, to less common Echinococcus spp, Diphyllobothrium spp., Dipylidium sp., Taenia spp, Spirometra spp. and Mesocestoides spp.


Vegetation indices have been widely used for the detection of archaeological traces, based on crop marks, during different phenological stages. Such indices can be used in order to enhance interpretation performance of multispectral and hyperspectral satellite data, for identification of buried archeological remains. Although a variety of indices exists in the literature, research is still limited and only a small group of these indices have been explored. This paper aims to highlight the prospects as well the limitations of several broadband vegetation indices for the detection of Neolithic tells in the Thessalian plain (Greece). Several multispectral Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite images have been used for evaluating the effectiveness of such indices. In addition, new developed algorithms and hyperspectral narrowband indices, specially designed for archaeological research, have been also used and compared using hyperspectral satellite data (EO-Hyperion). Indeed, the Normalized Archaeological Vegetation Index (NAVI) as well as a linear transformation of the Landsat 5 TM were applied to satellite data. The above were also compared to other processing algorithms such as Tasseled – Cap algorithm and Principal Component Analysis. The results have shown that several indices and new algorithms may be used for the enhancement of crop marks, while some no-widely used indices can be successfully used for archaeological purposes.


Introduction The need to record power output (PO) of riders during training and competition is well accepted in modern cycling. Accuracy of PO needs to be high in order to measure differences in performance (Gardner et al. 2004; Hurst and Atkins 2006). Further ergometers are often used for training or testing, which demands good accuracy in PO (Guiraud et al. 2010). PO can be measured by different systems, with static or mobile ergometers (Paton and Hopkins 2001). The Elite Drivo is a new static ergometer (Elite, Fontaniva, Italy). This ergometer uses two optical torque sensors, which measures the time delay between a set of teeth. The advantage of such a system is, that it is not influenced by temperature. SRM (Trainingsystems, Schoberer Rad Messtechnik, JA¼lich, Germany) is a power-meter that measures PO accurately at the spider crank. SRM has been validated previously and is considered as a gold standard (Gardner et al. 2004; Hurst and Atkins 2006; Jones and Passfield 1998). The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of the Elite Drivo ergometer in comparison with the SRM device. We hypothesised that the Elite Drivo underestimate PO compared to the SRM, due to mechanical losses, as the Drivo measures PO at the rear wheel and SRM at the spider crank.   Methods 6 cyclists (age: 24.1 ± 1.8 years, height: 1.79 ± 0.07 m, body mass: 71.7 ± 7.5 kg) performed all testing sessions on a bicycle fitted with a SRM power-meter and fixed on an Elite Drivo ergometer. At the start of the study, the SRM was calibrated whereas the zero-offset was reset before each testing session. The accuracy was investigated in the laboratory during 1) a sub-maximal incremental test and 2) a sprint test. A seventh cyclist performed only the sprint test. The sub-maximal incremental test was performed with six 3-min duration PO (100, 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 W) and three 1-min duration pedalling cadences (60, 80 and 100 rpm) for each PO. Only the last 30 s of each step were analysed. The sprint test consisted of three 7 s sprints to determine maximal PO over 1 s (PO 1-sec ) and 3 s (PO 3-sec ) for the analysis. Results There was a significant difference between the PO SRM and the PO Drivo . (p < 0.001), whereas a strong correlation was measured between both power-meters (R² = 0.999, p < 0.001) (Figure 1A). Moreover, there was no effect of cadence (p = 0.96). Bland-Altman analysis showed that PO Drivo was 16W lower than PO SRM (Figure 1B) with a 95% confidence interval between -66W and 34W. This underestimation increased for higher PO, from -1.6% in the incremental test to -4.1% in the sprint test. For the incremental test, difference between PO Drivo and PO SRM increase with higher absolute PO, but relative (%) variation stayed the same, as for the sprint test, absolute and relative (%) variation increased with higher PO.   Conclusions The main finding of this study shows that Elite Drivo ergometer underestimate PO compared to SRM, but PO Drivo correlates well with PO SRM . The underestimation increases with higher PO, but there is no influence of cadence. Average underestimation was -2.3%, which is higher than stated by the manufacturer. A reason for this underestimation is the design of the power-meters, as the SRM record PO at the spider crank and the Drivo at the rear wheel. Some PO is lost due to chain friction, which is higher in sprint than in constant incremental tests (Hurst and Atkins 2006; Paton and Hopkins 2001). Also, the two power-meters have different measurement processes, which can explain the higher differences in PO at sprints.


Bob Dylan is one of the most significant figures in popular culture. In this book, the authors provide a multi-faceted analysis of his political art. They address Dylan's career as a whole, dealing with such themes as alienation, protest, non-conformity, the American Dream, modernity and postmodernism and pivotal moments of Dylan's career such as the 'Judas' accusation at the 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall concert and Dylan's comments on the need to aid American farmers at Live Aid, 1985. Dylan's songs are analysed for their political meaning and for the songs in contemporary American political and popular culture. As notable specialists in the fields of political theory, literary criticism and popular culture the authors examine Dylan's work from a variety of perspectives—aesthetic theory, Kant, Adorno, Lyotard, Lorca and Collingwood. Collectively, they question how Dylan's work relates to the theory and practice of politics. In this second revised and expanded edition, the chapters have been revised and rewritten, with a new introduction exploring the enigma of Bob Dylan throughout the whole of his career and with a completely new Bob Dylan Timeline integrating Dylan's life, songs and actions into the historical events that shaped his views. Two new chapters have been added, one focusing on the late Dylan, Masked and Anonymous and Love and Theft and another on Dylan at Live Aid and his stance on Farm Aid. This book is a must for anyone seriously interested in the legendary Bob Dylan. [Book Synopsis]


The residual stress (RS) and refractive index (RI) distributions of large-mode-area (LMA) erbium-doped fibers (EDFs) are measured for the first time using a high-resolution three-dimensional index-stress distribution measurement method. The effects of fiber manufacturing, cleaving, and arc fusion splicing of a commercially available LMA EDF are concurrently characterized at state-of-the-art stress, index, and spatial resolutions. RS induced via fiber manufacturing results in RI changes as large as 1.2 ×10-4 RI units through the photo-elastic effect. The relaxation of RS within ~ 30 μm of a cleaved end-face reverses the stress-induced RI changes formed during fiber manufacturing. After fusion splicing, an even larger stress-induced RI change of 3.5 ×10-4 RI units results over an axial distance on the order of millimeters. The diffusion of core dopants reduces the maximum core RI by as much as 21.7% along a transition region length of ~ 400 μm. These measurements represent the first of many required to develop future ultra LMA EDFs where RS effects and dopant diffusion are absolutely critical for fiber design and performance.