1. Parotid Sialography Parotid sialograms were investigated in 29 patients with classical or definite RA according to the criteria of the American Rheumatism Association (one of whom had scleroderma), 5 patients with SLE (according to the Dubois's criteria, three were definite, one probable and another possible SLE), 3 patients with other autoimmune diseases (Hashimoto's thyroiditis, colitis ulcerosa and undiagnosed collagen disease), 3 patients with polyarthralgia and 10 patients with nonautoimmune diseases. Sialographic technique was performed by modified Rubin's Method using contrast medium Conray-400. Sialectasis which is pathognomonic of Sjogren's syndrome (SS) alone was observed in 6 patients with RA (20.7%) (3 punctate and 3 globular patterns) and 2 patients with SLE (one punctate and another globular pattern). Retention of the contrast medium in the duct for at least 5 minutes after the injection was observed in patients with RA, one patient with SLE and one patient with colitis ulcerosa. Sial ectasis and retention almost always existed together, and were observed in patients from young to older one. Although dilatation of the Stensen's duct and subalveolar dissection also existed together, they were observed in only older patients. It appeared that the former is the specific findings of SS and the latter is the non-specific findings according to the aging. Dry mouth was complained in 7 sialectasis (87.5%), 3 subalveolar dissection (60.0%), 10 retention (62.5%) and 9 normal sialogram (37.5%). Salivary hyposecretion (less than 10 ml/10min) was observed in 4 sialectasis (50%), one subalveolar dissection (20%), 6 dilatation of the Stensen's duct (37.5%), 5 retention (45.5%) and one normal sialogram (4.2%). These results show that sialectasis and retention are well correlated with salivary hyposecretion, but dry mouth is not so diagnostic in SS. Two patients with SLE had sialectasis were young women and showed normal salivary and lacrimal secretion. These cases may be supported by Heaton's hypothesis that SS is a benign and chronic form of SLE, or thay may be a subclinical state of SS. 2. Schirmer test Sixty seven patients (36RA, 6SLE, 3 other autoimmune diseases, 3 polyarthralgia and 19 non-autoimmune diseases) were examined by Schirmer test. Besides lacrimal hyposecretion was observed in RA and other autoimmune diseases, it began in younger age. These results show that autoimmune diseases have a sicca element in themselves. Compared with the results of sialography, Schirmer test was not correlated with sialectasis and retention. Dry eye was complained in only 4 patients (13.3%) with lacrimal hyposecretion (less than 10mm/5min) and all patients with dry eye had keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS). Dry eye is more diagnostic than Schirmer test. 3. Corneal staining by 1% rose bengal solution Twenty five patients with RA or SLE were examned corneal staining (Holm's type A) was observed in 5 patients with RA (20%). Staining of the medial and lateral bulbar conjunctiva (Holm's type B and C) were observed in 6 patients with RA (24%) and one patient with SLE. Nine patients with positive staining (type A, B and C) (75%) showed lacrimal hyposecretion. Dry eye was complained in 4 patients with type A staining (80%), but no patient with type B and C complained dry eye. Dry eye appears to be specific for the diagnosis of SS as sialectasis on the sialogram. 4. Salivary secretion All amount of saliva was collected during ten minutes chewing two pieces of gum. All of 21 patients with non-autoimmune diseases showed more than 10 ml/10min, and slight degree of salivary hyposecretion was observed with aging. Nine patients with RA (25.7%) showed salivary hyposecretion (less than 10ml/10min), besides it began in younger age. It was also observed in patients with other autoimmune diseases. Only 36.4% patients with salivary hyposecretion showed sialectasis on the sialogram. It can be supposed that patients with sialectasis and good salivary secretion are subclinical states of SS, and that this state is depends on the compensative function of the glands. Therefore, it is impossible to suppose the salivary dysfunction from the complaints of patients alone. It is required that saliva must be analysed not only quantitativly but also qualitativly (such as RA factor, complement and lysozome). Dry mouth was not only complained in 9 patients who showed salivary hyposecretion (81.8%). but in 10 patients showed normal secretion (50%). Dry mouth appears to be less specific for the diagnosis of SS than dry eye. 5. Diagnosis of SS Vanslow's criteria of SS was modified as follows. (1) Major : ① Sialectasis or salivary gland enlargement ② Positive corneal staining (type A) ③ Classical or definite RA (according to the criteria of the ARA) (2) Minor : ① Arthritis ② History ot salivary gland swelling ③ Dry mouth or salivary hyposecretion (less than 10ml/10min) ④ Dry eye or positive Schirmer test (less than 10mm/5min). Three major was diagnosed as definite, 2 major as probable and one major with one or more minor as possible SS. Of 35 patients with RA, definite (8.6%), probable (17.1%) and possible SS (54.3%) were obserevd. Two of SLE (33.3%) were possible SS. One patients with undiagnosed collagen disease was possible SS. Clinically, definite and probable SS may be diagnosed as Sjogren's syndrome. Two possible SS with SLE may be supporsed as subclinical states of SS who do not yet exhibite full criteria. Compared with the clinical and laboratory findings of these definite, probable and possible SS with RA, it was supporsed that positive antinuclear factor or positive LE cells in RA patients almost always represents SS, drug allergy, especially to gold therapy may be a manifestation of SS. Hypergammaglobulinemia, extreme elevation of erythrocyte sedimentation rate, struma, lymphnode enlargement in RA patients must be suspected of SS. Although one possible SS with SLE and one probable SS with RA showed positive ANF (peripheral pattern), it is impossible to differentiate SS from SLE by ANF alone. Because Suzuki et al. reported that 15.4% of SS had showed positive ANF (peripheral pattern). Examinations of salivary glands including sialography must be performed in patients with SLE in the future. To detect a subclinical SS, sialography and corneal staining must be performed even in patients with no sicca symptom, because of the compensatory functions of salivary and lacrimal glands.


It is shown that the encoding/decoding problem for any asynchronous M-user memoryless multiple-access channel (MAC) can be reduced to corresponding problems for at most 2M-1 single-user memoryless channels. This is done via a method called generalized time sharing that is closely related to a previously developed method called rate-splitting multiple access. These methods reduce the seemingly hard task of finding good multiple-access codes and implementable decoders for such codes to the much better understood task of finding codes and decoders for single-user channels. As a by-product, some interesting properties of the capacity region of M-user asynchronous discrete memoryless channels are derived.


Social inclusion is an important yet under-researched contributor to health and wellbeing. Young adults with serious mental illness (SMI) are thought to be socially excluded. This has not been rigorously assessed due to a lack of psychometric tools to measure social inclusion in this population. This research program demonstrated the reliability and validity of a new tool (the Filia Social Inclusion Measure) in samples of young adults both with and without SMI. In comparing these groups, it also produced novel insights into the social exclusion of young adults with SMI in domains of independent living and reciprocity in social relationships.


This article considers antipuritans in Elizabethan and early Stuart England as they were portrayed in didactic texts, especially dialogues, and as they appear in court records. When godly Protestants were dubbed "puritan," they responded with the antipuritan, a caricature of their critics as dull-witted despisers of religion who excused their indifference by calling the zealous "puritans." The article then asks whether antipuritans were only a useful polemical fiction, and finds real antipuritans in the records of diocesan courts, visitations, and the Star Chamber. Real antipuritans used the same accusations of hypocrisy, spiritual pride, censoriousness, and disobedience as the fictional antipuritans used in the dialogues. In texts and in parishes, the "puritans" and the "ignorant" called each other names, deployed contending stereotypes, and offered rival versions of post-Reformation religion. What each had to say about the other offers insights into tensions within the Church of England.


WALTER LAQUEUR is Chairman of the International Research Council at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Terrorism promises to continue for years to come as the prevalent mode of conflict--sometimes in its "pure" form, sometimes within the framework of civil war or general lawlessness. Nonetheless, much rethinking must occur since the terrorist acts of the past do not necessarily offer a reliable guide for the future. Only an examination of the changing face of terrorism and an analysis of current trends can offer valuable insights into future outbreaks. For a long time, conventional wisdom held that terrorists were idealistic, courageous young patriots and social revolutionaries driven to desperate actions by intolerable conditions, oppression, and tyranny. This assessment was not entirely wrong; it was buttressed by the existence of oppression and social conflicts to which violence seemed the only effective response. Terrorism in Transition While some terrorists are still patriots and genuine revolutionaries, this pattern is no longer typical. Any survey of the world map of terrorism--the parts of the world where the most casualties occur--reveals the emergence of other features. It reveals not only growing fanaticism but also the growth of indiscriminate murder, the desire to exercise power, and sheer bloodlust. For many years, assessments of terrorism overrated the role of ideology as an underlying motive. Once considered the all-important factor in terrorist acts, ideology now takes second billing. Aggressive and militant individuals, not activists, tend to be those most convinced of the righteousness of their cause. For example, the investigation into the 1997 murders of foreign tourists at Luxor, Egypt, established that the six Islamic perpetrators were not poor, desperate, or deeply religious, but merely misanthropic students from middle-class families eager to find an outlet for their aggression. Wordsworth once wrote about the "motive hunting of a motiveless malignity," and the truth of his words has been ignored for too long. In many instances, a leftist terrorist could easily have turned to the extreme right or to some sectarian group, but for some biographical accident or outside influence. Carlos the Jackal was a precursor of this type, as were the Afghani hired guns now involved in terrorism from Algeria and Bosnia to the Philippines. This emerging pattern of a new breed of terrorism did not fit the stereotypic assumptions of the earlier age, which held that evil was banal, jihad was an Islamic synonym for the Salvation Army, and all criminals were sick people who needed medical attention. Evil and malignancy were used infrequently, and aggression was considered the consequence of an unhappy, deprived childhood or some other unfortunate social circumstance. In this pluralist world, the grievances of terrorists seemed to some as legitimate and as deserving of a hearing as all others. This argument had its seductions, especially if one happened to live thousands of miles away from the site of bloodshed. More recently, perceptions of human nature have become more pessimistic. Gaining ground are convictions that genes can predispose people to aggressive behavior, that few truly peaceful societies exist, that even primitive man often disemboweled his victims and regarded outsiders as enemies. In effect, evil has become a genetic problem against which civilization has struggled in vain. Human beings have fought an uphill battle to sublimate this insidious instinct and to replace it with the gospel of love, or at least of peaceful coexistence. Given this orientation, conventional terrorism is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. St. Thomas once asked whether it was always sinful to wage war, and based on earlier authorities, he concluded that it was not, given three preconditions: the authority of the sovereign (for private individuals had no business declaring war); a just cause; and a rightful intention (namely, the advancement of good or the avoidance of evil). …


We have studied the phenomenon of two-photon absorption in photonic nanowires doped with an ensemble of four-level nanoparticles. The photonic nanowire is made from two photonic crystals, A and B, where A is embedded in B. Photons are confined in the nanowire due to the band structure engineering of photonic crystals. It is considered that one of the resonance levels of nanoparticles lies near a photon-bound state of the nanowire. The two-photon absorption coefficient has been calculated using the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. It is found that there is an inhibition of two-photon absorption in the system. This is due to the strong coupling between nanoparticles and the nanowire.


This study examines the extent of corporate real estate holdings by corporate non-property companies listed on Bursa Malaysia for the 1995 to 2001 period. Several asset and capital structure ratios are used to determine the extent of real estate ownership. The results of this study provided strong evidence that corporate real estate is a significant asset in the balance sheets of Malaysian listed companies. On average real estate comprises 36% of net tangible assets, 34% of shareholders' equity, 35% of market capitalization, 27% of total capital employed and 19% of total tangible assets of listed companies for the 1995-2001 period. The level of property ownership of a non-property company is affected by its industry sector. Property holdings vary from 7% for the Mining Sector to 50% in the Hotel Sector. The Plantation and Hotel Sectors are the sectors having a high level of property holdings. The one way ANOVA shows that the real estate asset intensities are significantly different from one sector to another. The Scheffe tests confirms that the Plantation and Hotel Sectors are significantly different other sectors. Property intensity is negatively related to shareholders' equity, market capitalization, and total long term asset. But it is positively related to total liability.


Excerpt] The recent real estate finance debacle has starkly demonstrated the failure amongst segments of the financial markets, and more importantly, the systematic weaknesses of the market. Factors contributing to the crisis included excessive leverage, degraded lending standards, a compensation structure at financial institutions which promoted inordinate risk assumption, the lack of transparency in available market information, dubious security ratings, a confusing and inefficient regulatory structure, and the growth of increasingly complex structured securities. There appears to have been a collective inability to identify not only specific risks but also systemic risk in the real estate financial markets, including the CMBS securities market. The underlying tenets of free market theory, market discipline, and market efficiency have been severely challenged.


A new model for simulating gyrotron oscillators in the monomode time-dependent linear self-consistent regime is presented. Starting from a nonlinear time-dependent monomode model, the linearization and the following simplification of the model, based on a moment approach, are described. This simplified model represents a numerically efficient model and allows to have a deeper physical insight, in particular, for regimes dominated by self-consistent effects such as for the gyro-backward wave instability. One specific case of a gyrotron cavity is studied in detail and compared with experimental results, with special attention to self-consistent effects and to the differences with a model using a fixed field profile. Self-consistent linear simulations are, amongst other applications, important for the design of frequency-tunable gyrotrons or high-power gyrotrons with cavities having a relatively low quality factor, but also for studies of parasitic oscillations as they may occur in beam ducts and/or in the launcher section following the interaction cavity.


We propose a novel framework for computing descriptors for characterizing points on three-dimensional surfaces. First, we present a new non-learned feature that uses graph wavelets to decompose the Dirichlet energy on a surface. We call this new feature Wavelet Energy Decomposition Signature (WEDS). Second, we propose a new Multiscale Graph Convolutional Network (MGCN) to transform a non-learned feature to a more discriminative descriptor. Our results show that the new descriptor WEDS is more discriminative than the current state-of-the-art non-learned descriptors and that the combination of WEDS and MGCN is better than the state-of-the-art learned descriptors. An important design criterion for our descriptor is the robustness to different surface discretizations including triangulations with varying numbers of vertices. Our results demonstrate that previous graph convolutional networks significantly overfit to a particular resolution or even a particular triangulation, but MGCN generalizes well to different surface discretizations. In addition, MGCN is compatible with previous descriptors and it can also be used to improve the performance of other descriptors, such as the heat kernel signature, the wave kernel signature, or the local point signature.


In the United States, the interpretation of international maritime conventions is carried out within the general context of U.S. constitutional law. The Constitution's Article 11(2) provides that the President of the United States is granted the "Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur." Article 111(2) extends the judicial power of the United States "to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority." Article VI(2) instructs that the "Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby,any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." Article I(10) limits the States: "No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation."


This paper measures the effects of bankruptcy protection on industry structure and environmental outcomes in oil and gas extraction. Using administrative data from Texas, I exploit variation in an insurance requirement that reduced firms' ability to avoid liability through bankruptcy. Among small firms, the policy substantially improved environmental outcomes and reduced production. Most production was reallocated to larger firms with better environmental records, but high-cost production where social cost may have exceeded social benefit decreased. These results suggest that incomplete internalization of environmental costs due to bankruptcy is an important determinant of industry structure and safety effort in hazardous industries. (JEL G22, G33, L25, L71, Q35, Q52)


In this study, unmodified graphite and graphite modified with a silane agent were used to ameliorate the thermal conductivity coefficient and dynamical properties of unsaturated polyester resin. The effect of unmodified graphite and modified graphite addition on thermal conductivity coefficient and dynamical properties of unsaturated polyester resin in the graphite amounts of 0.02% and 0.3% by weight were studied using solid thermal conductivity measuring device and DMA test. The results showed that the silane modifier can help to create strong covalent bonds between graphite particles and unsaturated polyester resin network and cause changes in thermal and dynamic properties compared to unmodified graphite particles. Adding 0.3% of the weight of the unmodified graphite to the unsaturated polyester resin resulted in a 7% raise in the storage modulus in the glassy region. However, adding the same amount of graphite modified using the silane agent increased the storage module by 33% in the glassy region. Silane modifier caused better dispersion of graphite particles in the resin structure. Superior dispersion of graphite particles caused more interaction between graphite particles and resin network, which significantly increased the modulus of unsaturated polyester resin. In contrast, better dispersion of graphite particles because of the presence of silane agent increased the thermal resistance at the surface of graphite particles, which reduced the thermal conductivity coefficient compared to unmodified graphite.


We summarize progress in the development and application of metamaterial structures utilizing superconducting elements. After a brief review of the salient features of superconductivity, the advantages of superconducting metamaterials over their normal metal counterparts are discussed. We then present the unique electromagnetic properties of superconductors and discuss their use in both proposed and demonstrated metamaterial structures. Finally we discuss novel applications enabled by superconducting metamaterials, and then mention a few possible directions for future research.


This project is concerned with the development and evaluation of an integrated approach to sound-based access to spreadsheets. The primary target user population is visually impaired users, employing speech-based screen readers as their main means of accessing the data. Other users may benefit from the approach in situations where sound may provide an effective alternative or complementary means of exploring complex data relationships, when the visual interface being employed is too small to afford effective spreadsheet display or in monitoring situations where the visual attention of users must be employed elsewhere. The paper begins with an introduction to the use of spreadsheets by visually impaired users, including the current state of auditory interfaces as provided by commercial screen reader (SR) systems. The development of a prototype system to enhance speech-based access through the use of data sonification is described. The results of a number of detailed evaluations are discussed, drawn from a number of "real work" situations. The paper concludes with an examination of the issues arising from the evaluations, and a program of future research.


Objective: This study was undertaken to evaluate the changes in total and anti-herpes simplex virus (HSV)-specific cervical IgA and IgG antibody profiles during and after pregnancy. Methods: Serum and cervical secretions were obtained from pregnant patients before 20 weeks gestation, at 34–36 weeks gestation, and at 6 weeks postpartum and tested for total IgA and IgG antibody and for IgA and IgG to HSV proteins by Western blot. Results: Seven women were HSV seronegative, 14 HSV-1 seropositive, and 14 HSV-2 ± HSV-1 seropositive. Minimal changes in the serum anti-HSV profiles were seen over the 3 visits. The total cervical IgA, IgG, and protein levels did not change between the 2 pregnancy visits but tended to increase at the postpartum visit. No consistent change in cervical HSV-specific IgA and IgG was seen during pregnancy, but the levels increased markedly at the postpartum visit. Conclusions: Lower cervical anti-HSV antibody levels may be related to the previously reported increased frequency of a reactivation of HSV during late pregnancy. Further evaluation is necessary to confirm and quantify the changes in genital immunity during pregnancy and to evaluate whether the increased levels at the postpartum visit are sustained.


With salt stress presenting a major threat to global food production, attention has turned to the identification and breeding of crop cultivars with improved salt tolerance. For instance, some accessions of wild species with higher salt tolerance than commercial varieties are being investigated for their potential to expand food production into marginal areas or to use brackish waters for irrigation. However, assessment of individual plant responses to salt stress in field trials is time-consuming, limiting, for example, longitudinal assessment of large numbers of plants. Developments in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) sensing technologies provide a means for extensive, repeated and consistent phenotyping and have significant advantages over standard approaches. In this study, 199 accessions of the wild tomato species, Solanum pimpinellifolium, were evaluated through a field assessment of 600 control and 600 salt-treated plants. UAV imagery was used to: (1) delineate tomato plants from a time-series of eight RGB and two multi-spectral datasets, using an automated object-based image analysis approach; (2) assess four traits, i.e., plant area, growth rates, condition and Plant Projective Cover (PPC) over the growing season; and (3) use the mapped traits to identify the best-performing accessions in terms of yield and salt tolerance. For the first five campaigns, >99% of all tomato plants were automatically detected. The omission rate increased to 2–5% for the last three campaigns because of the presence of dead and senescent plants. Salt-treated plants exhibited a significantly smaller plant area (average control and salt-treated plant areas of 0.55 and 0.29 m2, respectively), maximum growth rate (daily maximum growth rate of control and salt-treated plant of 0.034 and 0.013 m2, respectively) and PPC (5–16% difference) relative to control plants. Using mapped plant condition, area, growth rate and PPC, we show that it was possible to identify eight out of the top 10 highest yielding accessions and that only five accessions produced high yield under both treatments. Apart from showcasing multi-temporal UAV-based phenotyping capabilities for the assessment of plant performance, this research has implications for agronomic studies of plant salt tolerance and for optimizing agricultural production under saline conditions.


This research reviews the literature on case study as a strategic qualitative research methodology. Although case studies have been criticised by some authors as lacking scientific rigour and do not address generalizability, this research, however, reiterated its appropriateness when dealing with a process or a complex real-life activities in great-depth. Case study has been commonly used in social science fields like sociology, industrial relations and anthropology eventhough generally was considered an underutilized strategy. Hence, this research explained the general concept of a case study, strengths and weaknesses of using this method knowing that theoretically case is exciting and data rich. Based on a study of four organizations and the researcher's own experience, this article described matters on how case study was undertaken, gaining excess to those organizations and the systematic process of data collection and triangulation (multiple techniques). It was noted that combining multiple techniques for elicitng data in case study research actually strengthens and confirmed results.


Students at Middlebridge High School typically have challenges sorting and organizing their work in binders as well as completing multistep tasks. In other words, their executive functioning ability is often impaired. When attempting to complete something like a lab, or even something as simple as a small homework assignment, some of the assignment can easily go missing in the shuffle of the school day. Technology can often be sold as a "silver bullet" to solve many of these issues. But, how well can technology really help these students? Is the current state of technology in education robust enough to handle the day-to-day issues of a pupil who is susceptible to misplacing parts, or the whole of, an assignment? Students in a chemistry class were cycled through four phases where they alternately used completely digital methods of managing a workflow to complete homework and lab assignments, and analog methods such as traditional paper with a writing implement and a physical binder organization system. As these phases were cycled through, data was collected to see how well they kept track of artifacts (items of school work) and how efficiently they completed their work. Some of the technology solutions employed were Google Drive, Google Classroom, Google Docs, GoodReader, and DocHub. In addition, the effect of these technology solutions were measured for the teacher. For these students, it turned out that technology hindered more than it helped. Some of the technology was very frustrating to use by the students, since a single bug in the software, or one user-unfriendly feature, could stop a student working in his or her tracks. Students kept track of assignments less efficiently when using digital methods of work management, evidenced by longer times of retrieval to find assignments and a lower completion rate of assignments. However, there were some promising results for the teacher's use of these digital methods. Some of the methods made it easier and faster for the teacher to grade and return work for students. The technology solutions utilized seemed immature and too fragmented for efficient use by students, seemingly turning a workflow into a "workslow."


Humans have always been fascinated by natural crystals, with their wonderfully perfect shapes, colors, and sizes. The inspiration drawn from their delicate morphologies and sometimes incredible sizes has motivated an enthusiastic pursuit of knowledge to understand the formation of these natural wonders. A promising picture is emerging that is painted by brushes from two schools of thought. One treats crystallization as the successive attachment of individual ions or molecules, and the other as an aggregation of nanosized clusters, either in an ordered fashion or in an initially random arrangement followed by self-reorganization into a crystalline structure. The earlier model, the classical theory, is derived from equilibrium thermodynamics and the atomic structures of crystal surfaces. In contrast, the new, nonclassical model is observation-based, thanks to the advent of high-resolution imaging techniques. Together, they represent our current state of knowledge as we work towards unraveling the secrets of crystallization.


PURPOSE
Doctors in Australia play an important role in facilitating access to specialist palliative care (SPC) services for people with advanced cancer. This study aimed to describe doctors' perceptions of barriers to referring patients for SPC, and to identify triggers and facilitators for referral.

METHOD
Forty semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with doctors involved in the care of people with advanced cancer from a variety of settings.

RESULTS
Six themes were identified: disease and treatment; psychosocial; communication and interpersonal issues; health services issues; timing; and, health professionals' skills. All doctors considered the presence and complexity of physical symptoms, stage of the disease and treatment orientation as important in decisions to refer for SPC. Less important were the psychosocial well-being and cultural characteristics of the person with cancer and their family. Factors reportedly affecting referral and access included health professionals' ability to communicate openly and honestly about disease progression, availability and location of SPC resources and doctors' expertise. Divergent views were expressed about appropriate timing for access. The predominant view that SPC is for management of physical symptoms may result in nonreferral of those who have complex problems without physical symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS
Given the complex relationship between psychological and physical well-being and health-related quality of life, it is important that all factors contributing to patient well-being are identified. Routine use of objective measures of unmet and complex needs may help identify people who are likely to most benefit from SPC and optimize access, regardless of timing, stage of disease, and treatment orientation.


For resource intensive tasks, effective utilization of resources is essential to achieve scalability and a satisfactory quality of service. The number of resources required and how the resources should be grouped depends on many factors, such as, network delays, the availability of resources and their current utilizations. Making such decisions at runtime using information, such as, current system state can improve performance. This paper proposes an adaptive architecture in which resource groupings and their patterns of interactions can be changed dynamically based on the task to be performed and the system state. A prototype implementation, valid for a certain type of tasks, is described. This architecture can be extended for other types of tasks using the concepts discussed in this paper


Standardisation of practice within surgical pathology begins with standardisation of procedures and processes and results in standardisation of practice by all professionals within the surgical pathology department, including pathologists' assistants (PAs).

Healthcare in today's world is constantly evolving, and surgical pathology is no exception. Testing that was unavailable just years ago can now be considered standard practice that defines a patient's prognosis and treatment, such is the case with breast cancer biomarkers.1 These tests sometimes emerge into practice faster than their quality control and quality assurance practices can be universally implemented, leading to issues such as those defined by the Cameron Inquiry in Canada2 and the Barne's Report in the UK.3 These investigations and resulting recommendations call for standardisation of practice in the department directly performing these tests via reproducible, objective, strict quality assurance and control measures, and of all preanalytical and postanalytical steps involved in handling the specimens destined for testing, including standardisation of the professionals involved in these steps.

Standardisation in regards to surgical pathology applies to all tasks, beginning with specimen acceptance and accessioning and continues to specimen preparation for fixation, decalcification, ancillary testing, gross descriptions and dissections including specimen sampling, and extends to successive histology techniques such as tissue processing, staining, stain interpretation and immunohistochemistry. Most of these tasks are easily standardised, such as standardisation fixation solutions, fixation times, ischaemic times, programming tissue processors and other automated and easily reproducible tasks. However, standardising a task as interpretive and unique as gross description and dissection of a complex specimen proves more of a challenge.

Traditionally, these complex, difficult to standardise functions were performed by the diagnosing pathologist themselves, and their own preferences were sometimes evident in their practice. However, over the span of years, these tasks were slowly undertaken by a new profession that began to …


Low dimensional heterostructures have potential applications in information, sensing, and energy-related technologies. In order to obtain high-quality low dimensional heterostructures, an essential method is tuning chemical composition in a single nanostructure to obtain two or multiple components with well-matched electronic band structures. Here, we present a tutorial review of a unique chemical vapor growth approach with in situ switchable solid chemical sources that can build composition-modulated chalcogenide heterostructures in one-dimensional nanowires, quasi one-dimensional nanobelts and two-dimensional atomic layered nanosheets in a controlled manner. This approach has generated a large variety of heterostructures that not only exhibit gradient distribution in chemical composition, but also show sharp interfaces. Diverse integrated photonic and optoelectronic devices are enabled by the composition-modulated heterostructures based on chalcogenides or other material systems.


Organizations that do not have an accurate view of their customers and their needs, urgently require a customer relationship management (CRM) system. CRM should be viewed as a strategic process to better understand and meet the needs of customers. This article presents the findings of research that sought to investigate customers' needs and experiences of the services provided by a financial services provider. The aim of the research was to provide recommendations for improving CRM practices. An interpretivistic research paradigm, was adopted, denoting a qualitative study; and a structured questionnaire and non-probability purposive sampling were used for the empirical investigation. The results indicated that if suitable customer relationship management is employed, customer needs are met, leading to long-lasting relationships. Customers are the building blocks of any organisation; therefore, organisations should pay attention to maintaining their existing customers and establishing good relationships with them.


Nimesulide is a selective COX-2 inhibitor used in a variety of inflammatory, pain and fever states. After oral administration the drug is rapidly and extensively absorbed. Nimesulide is rapidly distributed, extensively bound to albumin and eliminated with a terminal half-life of about 4 h. Excretion of the unchanged drug in urine and faeces is negligible. Nimesulide is mainly cleared from the body by metabolic transformation and the principal active metabolite is the 4′-hydroxyl derivative (M1). After oral administration, nimesulide shows linear pharmacokinetics in the dose range from 25 to 100 mg. The usual therapeutic regimen is 100 mg p.o. twice daily. The pharmacokinetic profiles of nimesulide and M1 in children and elderly do not differ from those of healthy young subjects. The pharmacokinetics of nimesulide and M1 are not altered in moderate renal impairment. Pharmacokinetic interactions between nimesulide and other drugs given in combination were absent or of no clinical significance.


STUDY QUESTION
Are there treatment selection markers that could aid in identifying couples, with unexplained or mild male subfertility, who would have better chances of a healthy child with IVF with single embryo transfer (IVF-SET) than with IUI with ovarian stimulation (IUI-OS)?

SUMMARY ANSWER
We did not find any treatment selection markers that were associated with better chances of a healthy child with IVF-SET instead of IUI-OS in couples with unexplained or mild male subfertility.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY
A recent trial, comparing IVF-SET to IUI-OS, found no evidence of a difference between live birth rates and multiple pregnancy rates. It was suggested that IUI-OS should remain the first-line treatment instead of IVF-SET in couples with unexplained or mild male subfertility and female age between 18 and 38 years. The question remains whether there are some couples that may have higher pregnancy chances if treated with IVF-SET instead of IUI.

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION
We performed our analyses on data from the INeS trial, where couples with unexplained or mild male subfertility and an unfavourable prognosis for natural conception were randomly allocated to IVF-SET, IVF in a modified natural cycle or IUI-OS. In view of the aim of this study, we only used data of the comparison between IVF-SET (201 couples) and IUI-OS (207 couples).

PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS
We pre-defined the following baseline characteristics as potential treatment selection markers: female age, ethnicity, smoking status, type of subfertility (primary/secondary), duration of subfertility, BMI, pre-wash total motile count and Hunault prediction score. For each potential treatment selection marker, we explored the association with the chances of a healthy child after IVF-SET and IUI-OS and tested if there was an interaction with treatment. Given the exploratory nature of our analysis, we used a P-value of 0.1.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE
None of the markers were associated with higher chances of a healthy child from IVF-SET compared to IUI-OS (P-value for interaction >0.10).

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION
Since this is the first large study that looked at potential treatment selection markers for IVF-SET compared to IUI-OS, we had no data on which to base a power calculation. The sample size was limited, making it difficult to detect any smaller associations.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
We could not identify couples with unexplained or mild male subfertility who would have had higher chances of a healthy child from immediate IVF-SET than from IUI-OS. As in the original trial IUI-OS had similar effectiveness and was less costly compared to IVF-SET, IUI-OS should remain the preferred first-line treatment in these couples.

STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S)
The study was supported by a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development, and a grant from the Netherlands' association of health care insurers. There are no conflicts of interest.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
The trial was registered at the Dutch trial registry (NTR939).


Oxidative polymerization of two isolated lignans, secoisolariciresinol, and secoisolariciresinol diglucoside, as well as the lignan macromolecule, by a high redox potential Trametes hirsuta laccase was studied with different analytical methods. The reactivity of laccase with the different compounds was studied by an oxygen consumption measurement. The polymerization of laccase-treated lignans was evidenced by size exclusion chromatography, reversed phase - high performance liquid chromatography, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation - time of flight mass spectrometry. The data showed that the selected substrates could be oxidised by laccase. Secoisolariciresinol and secoisolariciresinol diglucoside were polymerized by laccase to a similar extent. The lignan macromolecule reacted to a lesser extent. Polymerization of the macromolecule proceeded mainly via its secoisolariciresinol diglucoside moieties. Furthermore, it was shown that ferulic acid can be linked to polymerized secoisolariciresinol via decarboxylation by laccase. This investigation showed that lignans can be enzymatically modified by Trametes hirsuta laccase.


Author(s): Heathcott, Joseph; Rogan, Kevin | Abstract: The conceptual dyad of urban/rural has long formed the basis of the planner's description of space. However, the terms themselves are increasingly insufficient to describe the world in which we live, presenting as overdetermined and reductive signifiers. In this photographic essay, we use Google Earth satellite images to examine a series of locations where descriptors such as 'urban' and 'rural' falter against manifold, shifting, and unstable landscape forms. We draw on Henri Lefebvre's concept of the abstract spaces of capitalism, globalization, and urbanization, which he argued are dialectically produced through their interaction with landscape. However, where Lefebvre contended that abstraction instantiates in more or less discrete typological forms, we argue that abstract space only becomes intelligible under conditions of 'entanglement,' where qualities such as 'urban' and 'rural' become momentarily comprehensible at the instant we observe or describe them. In the end, holding the world still long enough to describe it reveals crucial patterns and relations, but always at a cost, always with the risk of reduction, simplification, and overdetermination. Such pitfalls are inevitable in research; however, they become all the more prevalent as the terms we use to describe the world become less and less applicable, and as the accumulation of anomalies compels us to build new models and to tell new stories.


This paper presents material testing procedures using an ASTM C666 (Standard Test Method for Resistance of Concrete to Rapid Freezing and Thawing) apparatus to evaluate resistance of asphalt concrete (AC) mixtures with respect to freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles. The ASTM C666 apparatus is mostly used for testing F-T resistance of pervious concrete, but it can be an ideal device to replace the currently used AASHTO T283, Standard Method of Test for Resistance of Compacted Asphalt Mixtures to Moisture-Induced Damage, as it was never intended to simulate F-T resistance for asphalt mixtures. To evaluate the effectiveness of the ASTM C666 apparatus in determination of F-T resistance of asphalt mixtures, two types of AC materials were sampled from an asphalt paving project: rubberized modified asphalt (RMA) and fiber reinforced asphalt (FRA). All specimens were prepared in the Materials Laboratory of Northern Arizona University, and their F-T resistance was tested using an ASTM C666 apparatus at six designed cycles: 0, 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 cycles. After each desired cycle is complete, specimens were removed from the ASTM C666 apparatus and then tested for their stiffness using a bending beam rheometer (BBR). The viscoelastic reposes of asphalt mixtures tended to be less significant after 150 F-T cycles. The field evaluation of local asphalt paving associated with climatic F-T cycle data and F-T test results indicate that surface conditions and cracking progress of the asphalt pavements do have closer agreement with the increase of F-T cycles. The ASTM C666 apparatus is capable of providing F-T conditioning of the specimens. In combination of the BBR device and the corresponding procedure, the thermal properties of the mix (e.g., stiffness at 60 s or relaxation modulus function) can be measured and determined. The testing procedures and results are promising and prone to the purposes of F-T resistant simulation. The findings presented in this paper provide a positive trend for future research focusing on the evaluation of long-term F-T durability of asphalt mixtures.


Early on in Apuleius's The Golden Ass before Lucius, the non-hero of the first ten books, has changed into an ass, the reader learns from two ignoble citizens of the witching city of Thessalian Hypata that Lucius's parents' names are Theseus and Salvia. Milo, a miserly banker, welcoming Lucius to his "humble abode," as he euphemistically speaks of it, hopes Lucius will be content with slender fare and will thus emulate the virtues of his father's namesake, the Attic hero, Theseus, who did not spurn the small hospitality of the old, impoverished, but noble Hecale (1.24).(1) Later, while strolling through the forum of Hypata, Lucius meets up with a wealthy matron, Byrrhena by name, who, he learns, is closely related to him. Remarking on how much he resembles the nobility of his most blessed (sanctissima) mother Salvia, she then explains that she had helped to nurture him (2.2). In fact, she continues, the two women were close kin, descended from Plutarch, and, reared as sisters, had even shared the same nursemaid.(2) This information about Lucius's parents is so meager that one wonders why it was given at all, but on close inspection one finds that Theseus and Salvia are important insights into Apuleius's major Platonic theme--the sacredness of love, human and devine. Not Platonic, however, is Apuleius's emphasis in book 11 that it is married love which holds the cosmos together. Isis, her husband Osiris (or Osirapis), and their son Horus, into whom the asinine non-hero Lucius of the first ten books is ultimately transformed, ever battle the disintegrating irruptions of Seth, god of chaos, one of whose theriomorphs is the flame-red ass. Other noble marriages in the Metamorphoses are those of Cupid and Psyche, who becomes divinized by married love; of Plotina, who fights off brigands and has her husband restored to his high post at Rome; of Grace (Charite) and Tlepolemus, both of whom the Sethian Thrasyllus, whose name means Great Despoiler, ultimately destroys. It is unseemly that the usurious Milo should be talking of the great-hearted Attic hero, Theseus, or that Byrrhena, Lucius's Bad Mother of folklore, should allude to sanctissima Salvia as her sister. For, as I hope to show, Salvia is Isis sospitrix (11.9, 15, 25) and sanctissima (11.25).(3) She is also Ariadne Aphrodite, ineffable, not to be spoken of, arrete, specially by such as Byrrhena. But the reader is not yet fully aware of Apuleius's startling ironies. For instance, not known is that Lucius is on the verge of becoming an ass, sacred to Seth, god of confusion. Because Plutarch is mentioned twice in The Golden Ass, as Lucius's forbear on his mother's side (1.2, 2.3) and because Milo specifically alludes to Theseus and Hecale, it is in order first to see what relevant material Plutarch has given in his biography of Theseus. Plutarch (14) tells us that while Theseus is on his way to slay the bull of Marathon, he is provided with shelter and hospitality during a storm by the aged, noble, but very poor Hecale. She vows to Zeus that she will offer sacrifice to him if Theseus comes back safely with his mission successfully fulfilled. But she dies before his return. Hence Theseus dedicates a sanctuary to Zeus Hecaleios and institutes a festival for the god and Hecale. Plutarch reports that the diminutive of her name, Hecaline, is also used because she addressed Theseus with endearing baby-talk. While this account seems to be straightforward heroic saga, pure and simple, it is not. It is an account of a rite--both words (mythoi) and actions (dromena)--which was enacted by the people of the Attic deme, Hecale, supposedly established by Theseus. Hecale looks suspiciously like apocope for Hekebolos, or the longer form Hecatebolos, Hecate, the far-shooting moon, or even Heca-lene, a melding of Hecate-Selene. If so, old Hecale, the eponymous heroine of the Attic deme Hecale, dies, symbolizing the waning and then the dark of the moon. …


Imidazole activates synthesis of acetylcholine by choline acetyltransferase. Pilocarpine hydrochloride, an imidazole derivative, was investigated for its activation effect. In vitro, millimolar concentrations of pilocarpine significantly activated human ciliary body and retinal and rabbit corneal epithelial, iris-ciliary body, and retinal choline acetyltransferases. Concentrations greater than 100mM pilocarpine inhibited acetylcholine synthesis. In vivo, 1% or 4% pilocarpine eyedrops given every 30 minutes for four applications failed to significantly alter rabbit ocular acetylcholine levels. There was a tendency for pilocarpine-treated eyes to have lower levels of acetylcholine. Although pilocarpine altered acetylcholine synthesis by human and rabbit ocular tissues in vitro, this phenomenon could not be demonstrated in rabbits in vivo. However, because tissues of intact rabbit eyes degrade pilocarpine, the possibility remains that this drug can alter acetylcholine synthesis when applied to the intact human eye.


Sex is a fundamental trait that is determined, depending on the species, by different environmental and/or genetic factors, including various types of sex chromosomes. However, while the functioning and evolution of sex chromosomes have been explored in species scattered across the eukaryotic tree of life, little is known about tempo and mode of sex chromosome evolution in closely related species. Here, we examined the dynamics of sex chromosome evolution in an archetypical example of adaptive radiation, the cichlid fishes of African Lake Tanganyika. Through inspection of male and female genomes of 244 cichlid taxa and the analysis of transcriptomes from 66 taxa, we identified the sex chromosomes in 79 taxa, involving 12 different linkage groups. We estimated that Tanganyikan cichlids have the highest rates of sex chromosome turnover and heterogamety transitions known to date. That the recruitments of chromosomes as sex chromosomes is not at random and that some chromosomes have convergently emerged as sex chromosomes in cichlids, provides empirical support for the limited options hypothesis of sex chromosome evolution.


An optical kicked system with free-space light propagation along a sequence of equally spaced thin phase gratings is presented and investigated. We show, to our knowledge for the first time in optics, the occurrence of the localization effect in the spatial frequency domain, which suppresses the spreading of diffraction orders formed by the repeated modulation by the gratings of the propagating wave. Resonances and antiresonances of the optical system are described and are shown to be related to the Talbot effect. The system is similar in some aspects to the quantum kicked rotor, which is the standard system in the theoretical studies of the suppression of classical (corresponding to Newtonian mechanics) chaos by interference effects. Our experimental verification was done in a specific regime, where the grating spacing was near odd multiples of half the Talbot length. It is shown that this corresponds to the vicinity of antiresonance in the kicked system. The crucial alignment of the gratings in-phase positioning in the experiment was based on a diffraction elimination property at antiresonance. In the present study we obtain new theoretical and experimental results concerning the localization behavior in the vicinity of antiresonance. The behavior in this regime is related to that of electronic motion in incommensurate potentials, a subject that was extensively studied in condensed matter physics.


Group behaviors are widely used in animation, yet it is difficult to impose hard constraints on their behavior. We describe a new technique for the generation of constrained group animations that improves on existing approaches in two ways: the agents in our simulations meet exact constraints at specific times, and our simulations retain the global properties present in unconstrained motion. Users can position constraints on agents' positions at any time in the animation, or constrain the entire group to meet center of mass or shape constraints. Animations are generated in a two stage process. The first step finds an initial set of trajectories that exactly meet the constraints, but which may violate the behavior rules. The second stage samples new animations that maintain the constraints while improving the motion with respect to the underlying behavioral model. We present a range of animations created with our system.


Dual-grating structure thin-film silicon solar cells with different front and back grating periodicities are designed The geometrical parameters of both gratings are investigated. The reflection is greatly reduced by the front grating, whereas the absorption in the long wavelength is increased because of the back grating. The short circuit current of the combined structure is enhanced by 16.8% for a 1-\mu m thick c-Si layer compared with that of the conformal grating structure. The short circuit current can be further increased by creating a relative lateral displacement between the front and back gratings. The displacement results in a more remarkably enhanced absorption when the thickness of the active layer is reduced, indicating its importance in the design of ultra-thin high-efficiency solar cells.


Turkish Grameen Micro Credit Project (TGMP) is quite new in Turkey which started from 2003, works as a part of Grameen Bank Bangladesh replication program. Through this female based micro credit services women can be self sufficient, empowered and raise their family's socio economic condition at the same time. As a whole TGMP is a big scope for the poorest part in the society to gain economic empowerment. This paper analyzes the relationship and association of loans in form of amount and number with membership time period for the achievement of economic empowerment and graduation of a member. An analysis is made on the basis of a regression model where economic graduaiton and empowerment of a member is quantified interms of time after which they cease to take the loans even still be the members of TGMP. Using some poverty free indicators declared by TGMP, this study also examines how the members can achieve socio-economic empowerment gradually.


Throughout the late summer and fall of 1786, farmers in central and western Massachusetts organized themselves into armed groups to protest against established authority and aggressive creditors. Calling themselves "regulators" or the "voice of the people," these crowds attempted to pressure the state government to lower taxes and provide relief to debtors by using some of the same methods employed against British authority a decade earlier. From the perspective of men of wealth and station, these farmers threatened the foundations of society: property rights and their protection in courts and legislature. In this concise and compelling account of the uprising that came to be known as Shays' Rebellion, Sean Condon describes the economic difficulties facing both private citizens and public officials in newly independent Massachusetts. He explains the state government policy that precipitated the farmers' revolt, details the machinery of tax and debt collection in the 1780s, and provides readers with a vivid example of how the establishment of a republican form of government shifted the boundaries of dissent and organized protest. Underscoring both the fragility and the resilience of government authority in the nascent republic, the uprising and its aftermath had repercussions far beyond western Massachusetts; ultimately, it shaped the framing and ratification of the U.S. Constitution, which in turn ushered in a new, stronger, and property-friendly federal government. A masterful telling of a complicated story, Shays' Rebellion is aimed at scholars and students of American history.


An outbreak of Foodborne disease,  is considered and defined up to the WHO data,  when two or more people experience similar illness after consuming food, from a common source. There is important to be mentioned then on  each year, an estimated 48 million people in the United States get foodborne illness, who cause 128, 000 hospitalizations and about 3,000 deaths annually. Each year, 1 in 6 Americans gets sick by consuming contaminated foods or beverages. More than 250 different foodborne diseases can  be described yearly worldwide. Most of these diseases are infections, causing  a difficult morbidity, by a variety of bacteria, viruses, and parasites, that can be existent in many  food products everywhere  in our world today. All these statistic arguments were used by us to start and study such infections and their  incidence and morbidity   in  some specific and separate  Romanian  regions. The detection and investigation was  primarily handled by local health jurisdictions of medical polices. We have studied  professional all  happened and determined already in detail  such appeared medical phenomena for Foodborn inefctions. True is and it must be accepted then  anyone can get sick by a foodborne illness, caused by foods improperly prepared or mishandled at home, or  in food service establishments, or even on markets. That for, during  2015-2019,  it was studied in our institutions many data, for to determine a complex epidemiological and clinical survey and study. The reason was to figure out  how such diseases can appear in our territory.  All present and occurred  facts were analyzed, as well all phenomena caused  foodborn infections. Finally all this  let many data and interpretations. With,  many   cases of the diseases  from our Ro  regions, were well analyzed, from several medical  and epidemiological point of view. There were cumulate during the study time , 18,890 suspect and  real sick cases. Foodborne diseases occurred mostly as a result of ingestion of contaminated food products, because of several microorganisms, which  appeared at any stage in the food process from:  food production, processing to consumption. Most illness usually have arise even from improper handling, incorrect hand washing in meals preparation, or food storage.. All these were serious analyzed  arguments and have started  observations and comprehensive epidemiological study , for the appeared  foodborn infections and their  incidence, detected  in our  regions. Most of our reported cases of foodborne illness occured as individual 15% or sporadic cases, in family or collectivity situations- 27%. All  almost appeared during the summer season, from May to September, on each year. It was present an average of 10 % for the hot year 2016 in special in august time  and  even an increase  of  5% cases, in the very warm summer days of the year 2017 and 2019. Most of  illnesses were  simple  forms  70% , or 22%  middle one. Only 5% have need hospitalization and from this only 3% were considered emergency cases for a  specific treatment use . The microbiological etiology was suggestive for:  Salmonella spp. in  67% forms and  Salmonella enteritidis was a characteristic in 29% of  the cases.  It was identified  even then 14% of diseases were determined by Staphylococcus aureus . Foodborne diseases are globally important, because of their often high incidence in some places and the costs that they impose on  each land or society in such conditions. Food contamination  occurred in our cases , at any activity point, during: production, processing, distribution, or preparation. In our Ro situation, some foods were contaminated before to reach in the  kitchen, by  incorrect hand washing  ofthe food handlers. When contaminated food stayed on store shelves, in restaurant kitchens, or in home pantries, more people became sick. Outbreaks occurred  in Urban in 57% cases and in  Rural in  43% of cases. We have detect mostly the disease, in adults with several chronically diseases, male in  56%, followed by elderly people in 24%,  or young children in 20% of cases .It was  also determined  the  opportunity how the diseases can happen in  our Ro population and so, it was demonstrate that the insecure food preparations and less hygiene habits  in  some kitchens, let the outbreaks happen. Most frequent contaminated food products found I our regions were:  egg products in 25%;   meat products in 20%;  milk products in 18%, unwashed well fruits in  17% , or  even some seafood dishes, in 11% of the cases. It is clear already then foodborn infections must and can  be prevent in population, and that for,  there are  some food safety recommended steps as: clean, separate, cook, and chill  to lower chance of food poisoning and to can protect well all of us, for to not  get  sick and infected. Also, it is necessary to wash correct   hands when we prepare any food,  or eat them, More there is useful  to clean correct all  surfaces as often possible and to not allow  any cross-contaminate can happen anywhere where food can be prepared for several meals distributions.  Also, we must be attentive to never leave perishable food outside  for more than 2 hours and to  refrigerate promptly the food prepares for any dishes use.. Foodborn diseases are globally important because of their high incidence,  medical demages and even  the costs they impose anytimes and anywhere.  It is necessary to prevent and control  such infection, which means almost to be put together specialists for: laboratory, epidemiology, environmental health, hygiene as several other one, with more possible enteric disease expertise. All efforts conduct  to prevent foodborn infections and are  attributes for  correct determination of all medical phenomena and analyzes of the  outbreaks responsibilities anywhere else worldwide.


Systems engineering has become a commonly practiced discipline in many ground-based telescope projects over the last decade. Invented by the large defense and aerospace companies decades ago, space astronomy projects have long embraced systems engineering. While it is much easier to fix problems after the fact, ground-based projects have taken longer to embrace this approach. As ground-based projects have grown in size and complexity, discovering the benefits of a systems approach has taken time. The up-front costs should be compared to the intended savings at the end of a project in order to find a balance in applying systems engineering tools. Based upon size and complexity of a project, one might expect a different balance in the rigorous application of systems engineering discipline when applied to the ground-based systems of today, The question is, as future ground-based systems increase an order of magnitude in complexity and cost, will this push the systems implementation closer to that of complex space systems? Thoughts will be presented for future giant telescopes based upon experience outside of astronomy, as well as systems implementation on the Gemini 8-meter Telescopes Project and for the new Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST).


In the article "Effect of 18F-FDG Uptake Time on Lesion Detectability in PET Imaging of Early-Stage Breast Cancer," by Kristen A. Wangerin, Mark Muzi, Lanell M. Peterson, Hannah M. Linden, Alena Novakova, Finbarr O'Sullivan, Brenda F. Kurland, David A. Mankoff, and Paul E. Kinahan (Tomography, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 53–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.18383/j.tom.2015.00151), errors were discovered in Table 2. These errors have been corrected and the revised table is shown below. These corrections do not affect the main conclusions and interpretation of the original paper.


Investing in index-based ETFs has become popular with both retail and institutional investors. Reasons include the fact that index-based funds consistently outperform those that are actively managed, are cheap, and are easy to understand. However, in the international space, including both the emerging and developed markets, index funds have yet to garner the same success as their siblings in the U.S. This partially owes to investor reluctance to rely on passive index funds to gain equity exposure to markets with high mis-pricing, particularly where active managers can reasonably identify undervalued securities and outperform the market. Almost all traditional indexes are capitalization-weighted, and this presents a problem in the less efficient asset spaces. Cap weighting puts additional portfolio weights into stocks that are overvalued and reduces weights in stocks that are undervalued. This method of index construction results in a performance drag on cap-weighted portfolio returns. Where this over- and undervaluation is most severe (inefficient markets), this performance drag is most pronounced. We explore, in this article, accounting-based index (ABI) methodology, which overcomes some of the structural problem associated with traditional indexes, particularly in less efficient markets.


The reemergence of virtual reality (VR) in the last few years has led to affordable commodity hardware that can offer
new ways to teach, communicate and engage with difficult concepts, especially those which involve complicated 3D
motion and spatial manipulation. In a higher education context, these immersive technologies make it possible to teach
complex molecular topics in a way that may aid or even supersede traditional approaches such as molecular models,
textbook images, and traditional screen-based computational environments. In this work we describe a study involving
24 third-year UK undergraduate chemistry students who undertook a traditional computational chemistry class
complemented with an additional component utilising real-time interactive molecular dynamics simulations in VR
(iMD-VR). Exploiting the flexibility of an open-source iMD-VR framework which we recently described,(1) and building
on recent work where we demonstrated the ability to use this framework to run 'on-the-fly' density functional theory
in VR at interactive speeds,2 we designed three tasks for students to complete in iMD-VR: (1) interactive rearrangement
of the chorismate molecule to prephenate using forces obtained from 'on-the-fly' density functional theory calculations;
(2) unbinding of chorismate from the active site chorismate mutase enzyme using molecular-mechanics forces
calculated in real-time; and (3) docking of chorismate with chorismate mutase using real-time molecular mechanics
forces. A survey indicated that most students found the iMD-VR component more engaging than the traditional
approach, and also that it improved their perceived educational outcomes and their interest in continuing on in the field
of computational sciences.


Over recent years, remotely sensed data and spatial analysis techniques by providing timely and relatively inexpensive information, has proved useful for inventorying and motoring of widelife habitat in protected areas. To investigate on land cover pattern and the land use change in the Pendjari Biosphere Reserve , a time series of satellite imageries including LANDSAT TM and SPOT XS were used . Ancillary data were also used .The procedure of mapping land cover land use change involved three stages as follows: (i) data collection , preprocessing and visual interpretation (ii) defining land use land cover types (iii) Evaluation of land use change In addition to land use and land cover mapping, decision support maps were elaborated using GIS. These maps included the following themes: infrastructure, monitoring, plan for


Treatment of emerging contaminants, such as antimicrobials, has become a priority topic for environmental protection. As a persistent, toxic, and bioaccumulative antimicrobial, the accumulation of triclosan (TCS) in wastewater sludge is creating a potential risk to human and ecosystem health via the agricultural use of biosolids. The impact of microwave (MW) pretreatment on TCS levels in municipal sludge is unknown. This study, for the first time, evaluated how MW pretreatment (80 and 160 °C) itself and together with anaerobic digestion (AD) under various sludge retention times (SRTs: 20, 12, and 6 days) and temperatures (35 and 55 °C) can affect the levels of TCS in municipal sludge. TCS and its potential transformation products were analyzed with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry. Significantly higher TCS concentrations were detected in sludge sampled from the plant in colder compared to those in warmer temperatures. MW temperature did not have a discernible impact on TCS reduction from undigested sludge. However, AD studies indicated that compared to controls (no pretreatment), MW irradiation could make TCS more amenable to biodegradation (up to 46%), especially at the elevated pretreatment and digester temperatures. At different SRTs studied, TCS levels in the thermophilic digesters were considerably lower than that of in the mesophilic digesters.


Background: Parity is associated with increased maternal risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a J-shaped fashion. Vascular adaptation to changes during pregnancy may be an indicator of future CVD risk. The literature indicates that pregnancy results in an increase in common carotid artery inter-adventitial diameter (CCA IAD) and intima-media thickness (CCA IMT), markers of vascular aging and future CVD risk. These changes were found to recede early postpartum, although not consistently and not back to pre-pregnancy levels. This study aims to determine whether vascular changes during pregnancy persist beyond the initial postpartum period. Methods: This study is a follow-up to a prospective study that assessed vascular health in a cohort of 43 healthy women during each trimester of their first pregnancy and 6-8 weeks postpartum. Data on physical measures, biomarker assays, pregnancy outcomes, and health history were collected 1-5 years following the index birth. B-mode ultrasound was used to measure CCA IAD and CCA IMT. Paired t-tests and multivariable linear regression were used to assess changes in vascular measures. Results: Sixteen participants with mean age 32.4 years completed the second postpartum visit. The average time from index delivery was 2.7 years. Unadjusted mean CCA IAD slightly decreased and CCA IMT increased at the second postpartum visit compared to the first postpartum and first trimester visits; these changes were not statistically significant. Long-term postpartum, larger CCA IAD was associated with higher blood pressure whereas thicker CCA IMT was associated with less time since index birth, greater weight change, less time breastfeeding, and lower insulin resistance (p


Known under the nickname "green gold", hops are a perennial, dioecious plant that can reach a height of 6-9 meters and can live for 12-20 years. Hop species are spread in Central Europe, Southeast Asia, and are naturalized in North America. The therapeutic actions of hops are multiple, the most significant being the sedative, estrogenic, antioxidant and antibacterial effects.


IT professionals who want to move into the networking side in a corporate or enterprise setting will find the detailed content they need to get up to speed on the very latest networking technologies; plus, current networking professionals will find this a valuable and up-to-date resource. This hands-on guide is designed so that you can select, design, and implement an actual network using the tutorials and steps in the book. Coverage includes an overview of networking technologies, including the hardware, software, transmission media, and data transfer processes; in-depth coverage of OSI and TCP/IP reference models; operating systems and other systems software used in todays networks; LANs, WANS, and MANs, including the components and standards that operate within each type of area network; and more.


Knowledge transfer is a real challenge for organizations and particularly for those who have based their strategy on knowledge codification using knowledge engineering methods. These organizations are facing one major problem: their knowledge repository is used by few persons. Why? In this article, we identify barriers for transfer and appropriation of codified knowledge referential. We show that codified knowledge transfer should be a specific collaborative process taking into account three aspects: complexity and specificity of codified knowledge, readers' profiles, and exchange channels. Then, we propose to improve knowledge transfer process by developing new specifications for the codified knowledge to increase its transferability and by elaborating a pertinent shared context for knowledge interpretation. It is an empirical methodology which optimizes continuity between knowledge codification and knowledge transfer.


For all animals it is highly advantageous to associate an environmental sensory stimulus with a reinforcing experience. During associative learning, the neural representation of the sensory stimulus (conditioned stimulus; CS) converges in time and location with that of the reinforcer (unconditioned stimulus; US). The CS is then affiliated with a predictive value, altering the animal's response towards it in following exposures. In my PhD thesis I made use of olfactory aversive conditioning in Drosophila to ask where these two different stimuli are represented and how they are processed in the nervous system to allow association.
In the first part of my thesis, I investigated the presentation of the odor stimulus (CS) and its underlying neuronal pathway. CS-US association is possible even when the US is presented after the physical sensory stimulus is gone ('trace conditioning'). I compared such association of temporally non-overlapping stimuli to learning of overlapping stimuli ('delay conditioning'). I found that flies associate an odor trace with electric shock reinforcement even when they were separated with a 15 s gap. Memories after trace and delay conditioning have striking similarities: both reached the same asymptotic learning level, although at different rates, and both memories have similar decay kinetics and highly correlated generalization profiles across odors. Altogether, these results point at a common odor percept which is probably kept in the nervous system throughout and following odor presentation. In search of the physiological correlate of the odor trace, we used in vivo calcium imaging to characterize the odor-evoked activity of the olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) in the antennal lobe (in collaboration with Alja Luedke, Konstanz University). After the offset of odor presentation, ORNs showed odor-specific response patterns that lasted for a few seconds and were fundamentally different from the response patterns during odor stimulation. Weak correlation between the behavioral odor generalization profile in trace conditioning and the physiological odor similarity profiles in the antennal lobe suggest that the odor trace used for associative learning may be encoded downstream of the ORNs.
 In the second part of the thesis I investigated the presentation of different aversive stimuli (USs) and their underlying neuronal pathways. I established an odor-temperature conditioning assay, comparable to the commonly used odor-shock conditioning, and compared the neural pathways mediating both memory types. I described a specific sensory pathway for increased temperature as an aversive reinforcement: the thermal sensors AC neurons, expressing dTrpA1 receptors. Despite the separate sensory pathways for odor-temperature and odor-shock conditioning, both converge to one central pathway: the dopamine neurons, generally signaling reinforcement in the fly brain. Although a common population of dopamine neurons mediates both reinforcement types, the population mediating temperature reinforcement is smaller, and probably included within the population of dopamine neurons mediating shock reinforcement. I conclude that dopamine neurons integrate different noxious signals into a general aversive reinforcement pathway.
Altogether, my results contribute to our understanding of aversive olfactory conditioning, demonstrating previously undescribed behavioral abilities of flies and their neuronal representations.


Cydia pomonella granulovirus (CpGV) is a highly virulent pathogen of codling moth (CM, Cydia pomonella L.) larvae. It has been developed to one of the most successful commercial baculovirus biocontrol agents used on hundred thousands of hectares of pome fruit production worldwide. In recent years, however, three types (I to III) of field resistance to CpGV as well as the existence of resistance-breaking CpGV isolates have been discovered, providing an ideal model for studying baculovirus-host adaptation. This thesis aims to elucidate the potential of recently collected isolates of CpGV from northwest China to infect susceptible and resistant CM colonies and to study the stability and restoration of type I resistance in laboratory rearing by mass-crossing and selection. To further explore the genotypic and biological differences of CpGV, the population structure of 20 CpGV isolates was analyzed on the basis of Illumina next generation sequence (NGS) data. The isolates included seven new Chinese CpGV isolates, termed CpGV-ZY, -JQ, -ALE, -KS1, -KS2, -ZY2 and -WW, the re-sequenced isolates CpGV-M, -S, -E2, -I12 and the Iranian isolate CpGV-I0X, as well as the active ingredients of commercial virus selections from MadexPlus, MadexMAX, MadexTOP (V15), V14, V34, V45 and Carpovirusine EVO2.
First, resistance testing or full range bioassays were conducted to determine the resistance-breaking capacity or the median lethal concentration (LC50) of the Chinese CpGV isolates against susceptible and three resistant CM strains, representing type I to III resistance (Chapter 2). The isolates were further screened for the presence of the additional 2×12 bp repeat insertion in CpGV gene pe38 (ORF24), which had been proposed to be the target of type I resistance in the Mexican isolate CpGV-M. It was found that the isolates CpGV-JQ, -KS1 and -ZY2 could break type I resistance, though a distinct delay was observed in the infection process. The isolates followed the previously established "pe38 model" of resistance-breaking, except CpGV-WW, which lacked the 2×12 bp repeat involved in resistance-breaking but failed to overcome type I resistance. However, CpGV-WW was able to overcome type II and type III resistance. Correlation of bioassay results and the isolates' pe38 repeat structure were in agreement with the potential role of pe38 as the major target for resistance in CpRR1, except for CpGV-WW.
Second, resistance tests with CpGV-M revealed a certain decline of the resistance level of CM strain CpRR1, expressing type I resistance, after it had been reared for several years without virus pressure (Chapter 3). Therefore, two newly selected lines, CpRR1_F5 and CpRR1_F7, were established by mass crossing experiments combined with virus selection on CpGV-M. Resistance level of the newly selected lines was determined by full range bioassays. The successful selection process resulted in a 15- to 160-fold increase of the LC50 of CpRR1_F5 resistance compared to CpRR1, suggesting that the rearing in absence of virus selection was most likely the main factor involved the observed resistance decline of CpRR1. Additionally, some fitness costs of fecundity were recorded in the re-selected CpRR1_F5. Single-pair crossing of CpRR1_F5 and CpRR1-F7 with susceptible CM, followed by a resistance testing with a discriminating concentration of CpGV-M occlusion bodies, revealed a dominant but not fully sex-linked inheritance arguing for a partial change of previous genetic traits in CpRR1.
Third, in Chapter 4 the genomic difference among seven new Chinese CpGV isolates could provide some answers for the virulence difference observed in bioassays. After Illumina NGS sequencing, the genome annotation and phylogenetic analyses of these isolates indicated that the genomes were highly conserved and related to known CpGV isolates, despite a considerable geographic distance. However, two new phylogenetic lineages, termed genome groups F (CpGV-JQ and -ZY2) and G (CpGV-ALE), were proposed in addition to previous phylogenetic genome groups A to E. The genetic composition of the isolates was further quantified on the basis of previously identified genome group specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In addition of 223 new SNP positions out of total 563 SNPs were detected against CpGV-M reference sequence, which represented virus characteristics of Chinese isolates. Whereas CpGV-WW was proposed to be genetically highly homogeneous, belonging to genome group E, the other six isolates were mixtures of at least two genotypes. Thereof CpGV-ZY, -KS1 and -KS2 were highly similar and were composed of variable ratios of genome group A (CpGV-M) and genome group E (CpGV-WW). Detailed quantification of the 12 bp repeat unit of pe38 corresponded to the results obtained from PCR and Sanger sequence analyses (Chapter 2).
Fourth, to achieve a fully comprehensive perspective of CpGVs of different origin, 20 CpGV isolates, including twelve natural isolates from different geographic locations and eight selected CpGV strains, were analyzed together for the distribution and frequency of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in NGS genome data and for the abundance of the 12 bp repeat unit in pe38 (Chapter 5). The results indicated that CpGV-M, -WW, -S and MadexPlus were genetically highly homogenous isolates with a low rate of polymorphisms, while other isolates were composed of two or more genome groups at different ratios. Based on hierarchical clustering on principal components (HCPC) analysis, six distinct clusters were proposed, which represents the previously proposed main phylogenetic lineages, though the insertions and deletions were not included in cluster analysis. Relative location of different isolates in HCPC further reflected the ratio of variable compositions of different genome groups. For the quantification of the proportions of 1-5×12 bp repeat units in the different CpGV isolates a "read counting" method was developed and showed a high diversity and less conserved characteristics in pe38 than literature reported before. The established methods for SNP quantification and HCPC analysis provide novel tools to decipher the molecular complexity of genome mixtures in virus isolates, thus depicting the population structure of baculovirus isolates in a more adequate form than genome consensus based analyses.
In summary, the results in this thesis showed that resistance loss in CpRR1 is developing in laboratory under continuous rearing without virus pressure. Newly discovered CpGV isolates exhibited high potential for control of known types of field resistance of CM. The established methods to determine positional SNP distribution can be easily extended to other (baculo)viruses to assess isolate composition and genetic diversity and to study quality and stability of virus mixtures during propagation. It can be further applied to determine its potential for control of resistant CM on molecular level, since CpGV isolates with the similar virulence patterns were found to be grouped together considering their spatial location in factor map of HCPC. Understanding CpGV population structure and the genetic adaption between baculovirus and host insect give a crucial blueprint to improve current strategies of CpGV resistance management in the field.


Many mammals use heterothermy to meet challenges of reduced food availability and low temperatures, but little is known about the prevalence of heterothermy in wild mesocarnivores. We monitored body temperature (Tb) in free-living striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) through winter 2015–2016 in suburban Flagstaff, Arizona, a high-elevation site that experiences temperate winters. Subcutaneous Tb and heterothermy index (HI) were significantly affected by ambient temperature, and varied significantly across 7 skunks in midwinter. Twenty-one of 36 (58%) unique diurnal dens used by skunks were associated with human structures, and although females were found in dens under houses more than expected compared to males, we found little evidence that skunks selected dens where they could access anthropogenic heat sources. This is the 1st study to document Tb variation over winter in free-living striped skunks. Our results are consistent with 2 previous studies of captive skunks in documenting considerable variation among individuals in the extent of heterothermy. If reduced Tb during heterothermy alters rate of viral replication, variation among individual skunks could have implications for the maintenance and spread of diseases like rabies.


This article analyses the resources, capabilities and advantages of relational processes of acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances and partnerships in the automotive sector based on an analysis of five dyad case studies. These strategies imply significant structural and relational changes constrained by a systemic disintegration of production and new governance structures such as inter-firm partnering and networking. Data were collected using interviews, participant observation, documents and specialised publications and were evaluated based on the content analysis technique. The results of the survey indicate that these mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures: 1) have enabled automakers and supplier growth through the process of internationalisation; 2) are driven by different objectives, but mainly by geographical locations and technological, managerial, institutional and market resource complementarities; 3) reveal a significant exchange of resources and capabilities acquired through these relationships at intra- and/or inter-organisational levels in the internationalisation process.


This thesis concerns the evolution of language. A proliferation of theoretical models have been presented in recent years purporting to offer evolutionary accounts for various aspects of modern languages. These models rely heavily on abstract mechanistic models of the production and reception of language by modern humans, drawn from various approaches in linguistics which aim at such models. A very basic and ubiquitous assumption is that expressions have meaning in virtue of being associated with internal representations, and that therefore the evolution of language can be modelled on the basis of individuals trying to produce external manifestations of these internal "meanings". I examine the role of this assumption in language evolution theorising, and review evidence from neuroscience and first language acquisition relevant to the validity of this assumption. The chaotic nature of the relationship between "meaning" and the brain undermines the supposition that the evolution of language was driven by spontaneous association between internal structures and external forms. I then turn to the philosophical basis of language evolution theorising, adopting a Wittgensteinian perspective on the cognitive interpretation of linguistic theories. I argue that the theoretical apparatus of such approaches is embedded in language games whose complicated rules relate to linguistic behaviour (and idealisations of that behaviour) but not to neural organisation. The reinterpretation of such descriptions of language as descriptions of the internal structures of language users is rejected as a grammatical confusion: if the rules for constructing linguistic theory descriptions do not mention neural structures, then theoretical descriptions of the linguistic abilities of an individual say nothing non-trivial about their internal brain structure. I do not deny that it would, in principle, be possible to reduce linguistic theories (reinterpreted as mechanistic descriptions) to neural structures, but claim that this possibility is guaranteed only by leaving the practice of re-describing physical brain descriptions entirely unconstrained. iii iv Thus the idea that we can reasonably infer the behaviour of humans and prehumans in more primitive communicative environments by manipulation of the models of linguistic theories is unfounded: we have no idea how such a manipulation would translate into statements about neural organisation, and so no idea how plausible such statements about earlier neural organisation (and the resultant behaviours) are. As such, cognitive interpretations of linguistic theories provide no better ground for statements about behaviour during earlier stages in the evolution of language than guessing. Rejecting internal-mechanism based accounts as unfounded leaves the evolution of language unexplained. In the latter parts of this thesis, I offer a more neutral approach which is sensitive to the limited possibilities available for making predictions about human (and pre-human) behaviour at earlier stages in the evolution of language. Rather than focusing on the individual and imputed internal language machinery, the account considers the communicative affordances available to individuals. The shifts in what individuals can learn to do in interaction with others, that result in turn from the learning of interactive practices by others, form the basis of this account. General trends in the development of communicative affordances are used to account for generalisations over attested semantic change, and to suggest how certain aspects of modern language use developed without simply assuming that it is "natural" for humans to (spontaneously) behave in these ways. The model is used in an account of the evolution and common structure of colour terms across different languages.


Herein, new smart thermo-responsive photoluminescent nano- and macrogel hybrids based on quantum dots (QDs) and poly(diethylene glycol methyl ether methacrylate) (pMEO2MA) are reported. The synthetic strategy comprises the functionalization of the homemade hydrophobic CdSe nanoparticles (NPs) with thiol-functionalized methacrylic monomers via ligand exchange reactions. Therefore, the organic–inorganic hybrid QD NPs decorated with methacrylic groups are able to connect the inorganic core with the growing pMEO2MA chains during the radical polymerization reaction by acting as multicrosslinker nanoagents. Depending on whether the bottom-up polymerization approach is conducted in solution or in bulk, nanometric core–shell QD@pMEO2MA NPs or hybrid pMEO2MA hydrogels crosslinked by QD NPs are achieved, respectively. Both nanogel and hydrogel hybrids experience a considerable and sudden increase in the fluorescence emission upon heating due to gel collapse at the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT), independent of pH. Moreover, at very basic pH (pH 12), the hydrogels also undergo a colour change from red to fully blue, which makes them promising as pH sensors. Both pH- and thermo-response are reversible in both nano- and macro-gel materials.


Abstract. Seasonal snow cover is the largest single component of the cryosphere in areal extent, covering an average of 46 million square km of Earth's surface (31 % of the land area) each year, and is thus an important expression of and driver of the Earth's climate. In recent years, Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover has been declining at about the same rate (~ −13 %/decade) as Arctic summer sea ice. More than one-sixth of the world's population relies on seasonal snowpack and glaciers for a water supply that is likely to decrease this century. Snow is also a critical component of Earth's cold regions' ecosystems, in which wildlife, vegetation, and snow are strongly interconnected. Snow water equivalent (SWE) describes the quantity of snow stored on the land surface and is of fundamental importance to water, energy, and geochemical cycles. Quality global SWE estimates are lacking. Given the vast seasonal extent combined with the spatially variable nature of snow distribution at regional and local scales, surface observations will not be able to provide sufficient SWE information. Satellite observations presently cannot provide SWE information at the spatial and temporal resolutions required to address science and high socio-economic value applications such as water resource management and streamflow forecasting. In this paper, we review the potential contribution of X- and Ku-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for global monitoring of SWE. We describe radar interactions with snow-covered landscapes, characterization of snowpack properties using radar measurements, and refinement of retrieval algorithms via synergy with other microwave remote sensing approaches. SAR can image the surface during both day and night regardless of cloud cover, allowing high-frequency revisit at high spatial resolution as demonstrated by missions such as Sentinel-1. The physical basis for estimating SWE from X- and Ku-band radar measurements at local scales is volume scattering by millimetre-scale snow grains. Inference of global snow properties from SAR requires an interdisciplinary approach based on field observations of snow microstructure, physical snow modelling, electromagnetic theory, and retrieval strategies over a range of scales. New field measurement capabilities have enabled significant advances in understanding snow microstructure such as grain size, densities, and layering. We describe radar interactions with snow-covered landscapes, the characterization of snowpack properties using radar measurements, and the refinement of retrieval algorithms via synergy with other microwave remote sensing approaches. This review serves to inform the broader snow research, monitoring, and applications communities on progress made in recent decades, and sets the stage for a new era in SWE remote-sensing from SAR measurements.


We consider how to organise the processing and marketing of an agricultural product when farming costs are known only by the individual farmers. We show that when marginal costs are uncorrelated, the market for final goods is competitive, and the market for processing is non-competitive, the socially optimal production levels are sustained by a cooperative and a cooperative only. We show also that the cooperative form is particularly useful when the cost uncertainty is large and the net average revenue product is small. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.


This paper presents the story of Lucas v. Earl, 281 U.S. 111 (1930), the seminal case in the assignment of income area that also led to the availability of joint returns for married couples. The case is perhaps most famous for Justice Holmes' "fruit and tree" metaphor. Drawing upon the personal history of Guy Earl (including his role in the development of Northern California and the possible motivation behind the 1901 agreement with his wife Ella to share their income), the parties' briefs (including the role of Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the first woman to serve as Assistant Attorney General and as head of the Tax Division), judicial opinions in other assignment of income cases (especially those dealing with community property states), and scholarly commentary, the paper describes what was really involved in the Earl case, the government's and the taxpayer's litigation strategies, the decision-making processes of the courts, and the case's impact on the development of the tax law. The paper will be published as a chapter in a book to be entitled Tax Stories: An In-Depth Look at Ten Leading Federal Income Tax Cases (Foundation Press, forthcoming 2002). Additional financial support for the project has been provided by the American Tax Policy Institute.