This thesis reports on practitioner research I conducted over two semesters
teaching online listening courses to three different groups of students in Fu-Jen
Catholic University in Taiwan. Instead of a typical three-cycle Action Research
model starting with a specific target area to improve, I adopted a more flexible
exploratory approach allowing a longer evaluative phase before deciding on a
focal area. Originally, my interest was to investigate how CSCL (Computer
Supported Collaborative Learning) could help students in counteracting the
relative isolation of online learning. However, after the first phase, I directed my
attention more to the role of reflection as students neglected the online
interactions and preferred communicating their ideas with me through reflective
accounts and listening diaries.
My research questions focused on three areas: the roles of collaboration
and reflection, the online modality and issues related to researching learner
autonomy. With the aim of exploring development over time, I gathered three
kinds of data: pedagogically motivated data including online interactions and
student assignments (listening diaries, reflective accounts); additional student
interview and evaluation data; my fieldnotes and observation data documenting
how I managed the three courses. Therefore, all the data collected was textual
and qualitative in nature. Different approaches to data analysis were applied to
different datasets. Grounded theory was applied to the interview data to allow
themes and codes to emerge, whereas I-statement analysis and some
predetermined coding categories were applied to the diaries and reflective
accounts. The findings are structured according to the three areas of investigation.
First of all, regarding collaboration and reflection, the success/failure of
collaborative tasks depends greatly on task design configuration, while diarykeeping
indeed serves as an effective pedagogical tool to raise students'
awareness of their learning processes and heighten their sense of ownership.
Based on this understanding, teachers can create a space for reflection by
marking regular opportunities for reflection and offering guiding questions.
Secondly, regarding the online modality, the success of the online interactions
contributed to students' sense of ownership, which is closely related to their
perception of what a listening course should be like and their identity as college
students. Lastly, regarding issues related to researching learner autonomy,
combining both Action Research and Exploratory Practice principles is beneficial
to ensure that the teacher-researcher does not impose the research agenda onto
learners. When data elicitation tools and data analysis techniques are also
pedagogically motivated, the findings can authentically represent the picture of
students' learning. In viewing the development of learner autonomy as a learning
process, considering cognitive, affective and behavioural domains can help us to
understand learners' perceptions and metacognitive strategies which are not
easily observable from their learning behaviours. Furthermore, the data reveals
that motivation and strategies interplay with learner autonomy throughout the
process of learning.


Abstract This phenomenological, qualitative study focused on the interrelation between goal commitment and the social, institutional, and cognitive factors that lead to Hispanic females' graduation from an associate degree program. The participants had graduated from a New York City area, urban, independent institution that grants associate degrees and enrolls a large number of first-generation Hispanic students. Questionnaires and interviews were the instruments used to obtain data. Questionnaires were used to collect demographic data and select interview participants. Interviews were the primary conduit to capture the women's perceptions of what factors lead to their success. Several questions were used to explore the impact of goal commitment and other persistence factors. These questions included: (a) What factor(s) did the graduates perceive as most important to their success?, (b) To what degree of importance did the graduates perceive the impact of goal commitment on their graduation from an associate degree program?, and (c) To what extent did factors such as academic integration, social integration, institutional commitment, and financial aid, impact the graduates' goal commitment to complete their two-year degree? At the conclusion of the study, the researcher presented findings and made recommendations that were intended to increase institutional knowledge about the needs and success factors of Hispanic females pursuing associate degrees. The findings should prove useful in increasing the academic success rate of Hispanic females. However, more research is necessary if institutions of higher education in this country want to eradicate the inequities that exist in an educational system that underserves certain segments of our society. Document Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Education (EdD) Department Executive Leadership First Supervisor Ronald D. Valenti Second Supervisor W. Jeff Wallis Subject Categories Education This dissertation is available at Fisher Digital Publications: https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/education_etd/6 A Phenomenological Study of Hispanic Female Associate Degree Graduates and the Interrelation Between Goal Commitment and Social, Institutional, and Cognitive Factors That Lead to Academic Success


Although much has been learned about the workplace experiences of physical education teachers, less is known about the unique experiences of adapted physical educators (APEs). Grounded in role socialization theory, the purpose of this study was to understand the relationships among perceived organizational support, resilience, perceived mattering, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction in APEs. The participants included 237 APEs from the United States, who completed an online survey. The primary data analyses included confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The final structural model was a good fit for the data, χ2(199) = 327.25, p < .001, χ2/df = 1.64; root-mean-square error of approximation = .052 (90% confidence interval [.042, .062], p = .354); standardized root-mean-square residual = .050; nonnormed fit index = .959; comparative-fit index = .964. The results of this study highlight the importance of developing a workplace environment in which APEs feel supported in developing perceptions of matter, reducing emotional exhaustion, and improving job satisfaction.


Nitrification, the oxidation of ammonium to nitrite and then nitrate, is often discounted as a source of nitrate in euphotic zone waters due to photoinhibition of nitrifying microorganisms and/or competition for ammonium with phytoplankton. However, there have also been counterarguments that nitrification represents a significant "regenerated" nitrate source to phytoplankton, augmenting the "new" nitrate supplied via physical processes. If nitrification is an appreciable nitrate source in the euphotic zone, then the assumption of a balance between nitrate uptake and organic matter export will overestimate export production. We investigated the relative importance of nitrification and nitrate uptake in the subarctic North Atlantic in late spring and late summer. The rates and vertical distributions of primary production, nitrogen uptake, and ammonium and nitrite oxidation were determined through isotope tracer experiments and the distributions of the nitrogen and oxygen isotopes of nitrate. In surface waters, ammonium and nitrite oxidation rates were low, representing an average of 5.2% and 2.5% of total euphotic zone nitrate uptake, respectively. The nitrogen and oxygen isotopes of nitrate confirmed that nitrification was not significant within the euphotic zone. Comparison of the rates of nitrogen uptake and primary production showed that while springtime phytoplankton growth could be fully supported by new nitrate and recycled ammonium, up to 50% of summertime productivity was likely fueled by dissolved organic nitrogen (DON). Uptake of DON implies that the fraction of primary production exported from surface waters in the late summer was significantly lower than the measured nitrate and ammonium uptake rates suggest.


The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of competitive intelligence on the marketing effectiveness of corporate organizations. While much empirical works have centered on marketing effectiveness, the generalizability of its relationship to competitive intelligence in the Nigerian context has been under researched.  A 36- item survey questionnaire to measure competitive intelligence and marketing effectiveness was developed and 108 corporate organizations in Nigeria were selected from the gazette of Nigeria stock exchange as sample of this study. Postal survey was conducted with key informants in the organizations.   Returned instruments were analyzed using multiple regression and non-parametric correlation through the use of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 12. The results of the study reported in this paper validated the earlier instruments and finds strong association between competitive intelligence and marketing effectiveness of corporate organizations in the Nigerian context. The main finding of this study is that competitive intelligence lead to marketing effectiveness in corporate organizations in Nigeria. The implications of the results of this study are clear for scholars and managers.  For managers this paper has implications on the investigation of the link between competitive intelligence and marketing effectiveness of corporate organizations in Nigeria.  In the first place, this paper provides a direct test of the applicability of a western management paradigm to Nigeria marketing system different from other cultures. This paper significantly refines the body of knowledge concerning the impact of competitive intelligence on marketing effectiveness in the Nigeria context. This paper will, no doubt, contribute to the body of existing literature on competitive intelligence and marketing effectiveness.

 Key words: Competitive intelligence, marketing effectiveness corporate organization, Nigeria.


We explore a method for computing admissible heuristic evaluation functions for search problems. It utilizes pattern databases (Culberson & Schaeffer, 1998), which are precomputed tables of the exact cost of solving various subproblems of an existing problem. Unlike standard pattern database heuristics, however, we partition our problems into disjoint sub-problems, so that the costs of solving the different subproblems can be added together without overestimating the cost of solving the original problem. Previously (Korf & Felner, 2002) we showed how to statically partition the sliding-tile puzzles into disjoint groups of tiles to compute an admissible heuristic, using the same partition for each state and problem instance. Here we extend the method and show that it applies to other domains as well. We also present another method for additive heuristics which we call dynamically partitioned pattern databases. Here we partition the problem into disjoint subproblems for each state of the search dynamically. We discuss the pros and cons of each of these methods and apply both methods to three different problem domains: the sliding-tile puzzles, the 4-peg Towers of Hanoi problem, and finding an optimal vertex cover of a graph. We find that in some problem domains, static partitioning is most effective. while in others dynamic partitioning is a better choice. In each of these problem domains, either statically partitioned or dynamically partitioned pattern database heuristics are the best known heuristics for the problem.


Golli proteins, which are generated by alternative splicing from the gene that encodes myelin basic proteins (which are found only in the nervous system), are expressed not only in the nervous system but also in immune tissues. Feng et al., who previously showed that golli negatively regulates T cell activation, uncovered a hitherto undescribed mechanism for this involving inhibition of calcium influx. When stimulated with antibody directed against CD3 (anti-CD3) or with anti-CD3 plus anti-CD28, golli-deficient T cells proliferated more than did wild-type cells; consistent with this, golli-deficient cells stimulated with anti-CD3 plus anti-CD20 produced more interleukin-2 than did wild-type cells. No differences in extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) or c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation were apparent between golli-deficient and wild-type T cells in response to anti-CD3 stimulation; however, the increase in intracellular calcium was enhanced. Calcium imaging in the presence or absence of extracellular calcium, thapsigargin, or both suggested that golli inhibited calcium influx through store-operated calcium channels. Moreover, patch-clamp analysis of golli-deficient cells revealed increased inward calcium current in response to store depletion. A portion of T cell golli protein was associated with the plasma membrane, and experiments in which cells were transfected with either wild-type golli protein or a myristoylation mutant indicated that membrane association was required for golli's inhibition of calcium influx. Thus, the authors conclude that golli acts as a negative regulator of T cell activation through a mechanism completely distinct from that of other negative regulators of T cell receptor signaling. J.-M. Feng, Y. K. Hu, L.-H. Xie, C. S. Colwell, X. M. Shao, X.-P. Sun, B. Chen, H. Tang, A. T. Campagnoni, Golli protein negatively regulates store depletion-induced calcium influx in T cells. Immunity 24, 717-727 (2006). [PubMed]


Digital Science reports in collaboration with the International Unit at Universities UK (UUK) on the significance of international academic collaboration across the UK research base. The report focuses on the implications of EU and global collaboration for universities, research assessment and the economy. International collaboration is increasingly prevalent, accounting for more than half of the UK's annual research output across UK universities; this is associated with increased citation impact. The main findings of the report highlight how:Knowledge capacity is compromised by a failure to be active internationally. The emergence of international knowledge networks (a 'Fourth Age' of research) and the disparity between those more and less engaged will be a critical factor in university strategies.  Today, the majority of our international collaborative partners in research are in other EU member states. Quantitative research assessment is less able to provide informative comparative reports. International collaboration is now so prevalent, and covers so much of the most highly-cited output, that no analysis or profile can be exclusively attributable to any single country or university.  Owning exclusive knowledge assets is becoming meaningless unless our academic base has the right skills to take advantage of them.  If papers are shared then their content and IP is shared.The agility to exploit them ahead of competitors will be important. A flourishing university research base provides an ideal environment for developing knowledge-competent people with the skills that our European competitive economies require.


Purpose: This study was done to identify the relationships between body mass index, nutritional knowledge and the health promotion behavior of nursing students. Methods: Participants consisted of the entire 330 members of the student body of a Korean nursing college. Variables included body mass index, nutritional knowledge and health promotion behavior as well as demographic variables. Data was analyzed by frequencies, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation with the SPSS/Win 21.0 program. Results: The mean score for body mass index was 20.23 kg/m2 for nutritional knowledge, 14.27±3.07 on a total 20-point scale, and for health promotion behavior, 3.03±0.34 on a 4-point scale. Nutrition knowledge positively correlated with health promotion behavior (r=.368, p<.001). Health promotion behavior positively correlated with underweightness (r=.120, p=.005), normal weight (r=.212, p<.001), negatively correlated to overweightness (r=-.351, p<.001), and obesity (r=-.413, p<.001). Nutrition knowledge positively correlated to underweightness (r=.155, p=.005), and normal weight (r=.346, p<.001), negatively correlated to overweightness (r=-.548, p<.001), and obesity (r=-.342, p<.001). Conclusion: In order to enhance the effective health promotion behavior of nursing students, it is important to actively intervene to improve body weight control behavior and nutritional knowledge. Therefore, developing an educational program for improving nutritional knowledge and body weight control behavior of nursing students is recommended.


The problem of how to treat the mentally handicapped attracted much attention from American reformers in the first half of the twentieth century. In this book, Steven Noll traces the history and development of institutions for the 'feeble-minded' in the South between 1900 and 1940. He examines the influences of gender, race, and class in the institutionalization process and relates policies in the South to those in the North and Midwest, regions that had established similar institutions much earlier. At the center of the story is the debate between the humanitarians, who advocated institutionalization as a way of protecting and ministering to the mentally deficient, and public policy adherents, who were primarily interested in controlling and isolating perceived deviants. According to Noll, these conflicting ideologies meant that most southern institutions were founded without a clear mission or an understanding of their relationship to southern society at large. Noll creates a vivid portrait of life and work within institutions throughout the South and the impact of institutionalization on patients and their families. He also examines the composition of the population labeled feeble-minded and demonstrates a relationship between demographic variables and institutional placement, including their effect on the determination of a patient's degree of disability. Originally published in 1995. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.


Communication has been identified as the main barrier to strategy implementation. Using communications theory we develop a framework that can be used to understand important dimensions of communication when communicating innovation strategies. By means of a qualitative multi-case study approach, we analyze the strategy content, the communication channels used, and the communication uniformity among managers and relate these dimensions to strategy implementation success factors. We conducted a total of 32 interviews among senior managers in research and product development, HR managers, HR specialists, chief engineers, product managers, project managers, and engineers. We sought to understand how communication of an innovation strategy was performed and further how such communication was interpreted and acted upon. Our findings suggest that the content of the strategy together with the communication channels and the uniformity between managers will affect strategy implementation success. Further our findings suggest that intentional vagueness in strategy content, contrary to expectations, can be fruitful in certain cases.


This article reviews the important MEC for Education: KwaZulu-Natal and Others v Navaneethum Pillay decision, handed down by the Constitutional Court of South Africa, against reflectionsregarding law and religion in the ten years since that decision was delivered. It places the decision in relation to scholarly debates about the nature of a diverse society and, in particular, how certainstrands of what pass for "liberal" theory do not, in fact, provide for respect for diversity and difference. In particular, the article reviews various ways in which moves towards homogeneity may employ the language of diversity to achieve their ends against the goals of the South African Constitution, which, properly understood, should maximize genuine diversity and accommodation. The article also discusses briefly the recent decision of Organisasie vir Godsdiens Onderrig en Demokrasie v Randhart et al., which interprets sec. 15(2) of the Constitution as allowing religious observances in public schools as long as such observances are not exclusive and exclusionary. The article supports this interpretation and suggests that the goals sought by the applicant in Organisasie vir Godsdiens Onderrig en Demokrasie v Randhart et al. exemplified the kind of "convergence" and "civic totalism". Also discussed is whether other listed constitutional terms such as 'culture', 'belief' and 'conscience' should attract the same kind of protections as 'religion' and whether there is a risk that, by categorizing the protection of other concepts too broadly, important aspects of religion (for example, that it is not simply an individual, but a communitarian right) might be trivialized. Finally, the article reviews certain developments in other countries (France and Canada) to suggest that how the State is understood in the context of accommodation will vary in relation to how the terms 'secular' and 'diversity' are defined.


In the past twenty years, democratic participation through activism and civil disobedience has been increasingly expanded with the evolution of information and communication technology. It is assumed that the role of traditional media is not as influential as it once was due to the growing presence of self-made war journalists, hacktivists and whistleblowers, facilitated through the potential of the internet. The use of the latter as a tool from which information is disseminated rapidly, is fast influencing societal understanding and exposure to issues as they develop. Social media demonstrates precisely this phenomenon, in which people are able to accrue information and act upon it through mass communication and mobilisation. This article will therefore endeavor to analyse the evolution of media in conjunction with activism, from traditional media ethno-political conflict reporting, to today's whistleblowers and hacktivists that use the internet as their main platform. By factoring in these different aspects, this article is able to present a detailed account of the advantages and drawbacks of the latest developments in internet and technology, with special emphasis being placed on the role of online activism.


The National Nanomanufacturing Network (NNN) is an alliance of academic, government, and industry partners that cooperate to advance nanomanufacturing strength in the U.S. The goal of the NNN is to build a network of experts and organizations that facilitate and expedite the transition of nanotechnologies from core research and breakthroughs in the laboratory to production manufacturing. Partners and affiliates will find value added through a range of services, including training and education, industrial vision and roadmap development, thematic conferences and workshops, and a comprehensive online information resource for nanomanufacturing, InterNano. The NNN is funded and coordinated by the NSF Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing, a Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and works in cooperation with the three other nanomanufacturing NSECs—the Center for High-Rate Manufacturing at Northeastern/UMass Lowell/UNH, the Center for Scalable and Integrated Nanomanufacturing at UCLA/Berkeley, and the Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems at UIUC—other academic research centers, as well as participants from NIST, DOD, DOE, NIH, NIOSH, and other institutions. InterNano, a service of the NNN, supports the information needs of the nanomanufacturing community by bringing together resources about the advances in applications, devices, metrology, and materials that will facilitate the commercial development and/or marketable application of nanotechnology. InterNano collects and provides access to information on nanomanufacturing centers, experts, and resources; nanomanufacturing news, reviews, and events; and nanomanufacturing processes, test bed reviews, and research literature, with links to best practices. It is the central, online resource through which nanomanufacturing relevant information is archived and disseminated. InterNano is actively building a suite of informatics tools for the nanomanufacturing community, beginning with three components: a smart company and institutional directory to find and establish connections with potential collaborators; a taxonomy to explore and discover nanomanufacturing content; and a nanomanufacturing process database to share standard nanomanufacturing processes and engineered nanomaterials property information across sectors. InterNano is also currently forging partnerships that will work toward the open exchange of data through federated databases, metadata standards, and the development of advanced analytical tools for evaluating trends within the nanomanufacturing community. InterNano represents the crossroads where issues of lab-scale scientific research intersect with the industry-scale issues of EHS, regulation, market research, and entrepreneurship. As such, the availability of consistent and reliable materials and process information, effective modeling and analysis tools, and trusted standards and protocols for information sharing with respect to intellectual property rights are all very relevant challenges that InterNano and the NNN are invested in addressing.


Economic theory has it that education, under all of its forms, produces positive externalities, with markets providing less than is socially desirable. In such a context, this paper aims at discussing the specific case of e-funding for e-learning: on the one hand, the paper investigates the demand side for donations via crowdfunding platforms, which comes from individuals or entrepreneurs seeking to finance ELearning projects, and on the other hand, it analyses the responsiveness and openness of the supply-side for donations via Internet for ELearning projects in Romania. Crowdfunding has emerged as a viable alternative funding source to traditional bank financing, especially in fields where projects or entrepreneurs have limited access to resources and where the output or outcome of the project creates positive affective reactions. This paper will only consider the cases of reward-based crowdfunding and donation of the four existing models (reward-based crowdfunding, donation, equity crowdfunding or debt crowdfunding), mostly because the Romanian laws in force do not distinguish between all four types (equity and debt crowdfunding are not legislated). The more general case of educational projects financed via crowdfunding platforms is also discussed in order to draw valuable conclusions insofar as the specific case of ELearning is concerned. The analysis is based on a thorough study of all active crowdfunding platforms operating in Romania (a total of eight being identified), with an in-depth discussion of the particular types of projects that require financing. The originality of the paper stems from the fact that there is very little research done in the field of crowdfunding in Romania, and also stands in the fact that the current international literature investigating the topic of crowdfunding does not include analyses of ELearning projects financed via such platforms.


Much evidence links the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor to memory formation, but its role in memory consolidation, a process that can take days or weeks after initial learning, has not been clear. Shimizu et al. generated animals in which they could selectively eliminate NMDA receptor function in hippocampal CA1 neurons at any time. The learning of two well-established memory tasks required intact NMDA receptors for the consolidation of memories. By changing the time after learning at which NMDA receptors were turned on or off, they could rule out an effect on memory retrieval. Memory consolidation appears to require activation of NMDA receptors after the initial learning has taken place. Shimizu, E., Tang, Y.-P., Rampon, C., and Tsien, J.Z. (2000) NMDA receptor-dependent synaptic reinforcement as a crucial process for memory consolidation. Science 290: 1170-1174. [Abstract] [Full Text]


Purpose
Informed by the role congruity theory of prejudice towards female leaders, this paper aims to review the literature on gender and leadership to consolidate existing theory development, stimulate new thinking and provide a framework for future empirical studies. It offers a theoretical framework to understand what may prevent or facilitate the emergence of female leaders.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews and synthesises recent research on the linkages between gender and leadership.

Findings
The review extends Eagly and Karau's (2002) role congruity theory by identifying additional constructs that may alleviate negative prejudicial evaluations and offering new insights into the potential alignment between feminine traits and leadership success.

Practical implications
The theoretical framework that emerged in this paper may be used as a heuristic model to contextually examine the lack of female leaders.

Originality/value
The paper proposes a theoretical framework to understand issues related to the emergence of female leaders. It offers news insights into possible alignment in female-leader role stereotypes that may address prejudicial evaluations against female leaders.


Images of periodic phase objects are calculated for oblique illumination, the scanning method of Dekkers and de Lang, and differential interference contrast. The close relation between the scanning method and oblique illumination is shown. All the methods are capable of resolving grating periods larger than λ/2a, where a is the numerical aperture of both the objective and the condenser lenses. Differential interference gives higher contrast for object periods below λ/a; contrast is slightly higher above λ/a with oblique illumination.


Almost all of today's security systems rely on cryptographic primitives as core components which are usually considered the most trusted part of the system. The realization of these primitives on the underlying processing platform plays a crucial role for any real-world deployment. In this work, we discuss new trends in public-key cryptography that could potentially establish as alternatives to the currently used RSA and ECC cryptosystems. Analyzing these trends from a developer's perspective, we identify the requirements for optimal processing architectures. Moreover, we investigate if these requirements are already satisfied with latest processing platforms, i.e., which of the streaming, hybrid, multi-core or application-specific instructions processors provide a most promising target architecture.


Camden Arts Centre Saturday 17th April 2010 2-5pm: Daylight Robbery 7-10pm: Den of Thieves 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of Camden Arts Centre's internationally acclaimed residency programme. Outset Contemporary Art Fund is helping celebrate this milestone. The Big Rip Off! gives artists license to plunder the history of financial misdemeanours and raise funds through underhand means. Money raised will provide vital funding for future residencies and allow Camden Arts Centre to continue to support artists and their work. Over 40 artists are creating works for Fake Modern. Download the programme brochure for a full list. New works will be added to the list below as they arrive at the gallery. If you would like details of a work not yet featured, please e-mail email@example.com Bidding for items in Fake Modern ends at 9.15 on Saturday 17 April 2010. If you have registered a bid and are unable to attend the evening event, we will call you to update you on the status of your item. If you would like to register a telephone bid, please call 07912581385 between 7.30pm and 9.15pm on Saturday 17th April.


Recent data from the Community Innovation Survey challenge some of the conventional arguments that retailing is inherently less innovative than other sectors within developed economies. According to the data, firms in the UK retail sector are now converging on the all-sector average. Drawing on qualitative research undertaken within retail firms, this article begins by examining some of the implications of this and the reasons why survey data may still underestimate the extent of innovation in the sector. One of the potential contributory factors to an increase in reported levels of innovation may be a reduction in barriers to innovation. In a new analysis of the data, the article explores the nature and incidence of such barriers in the UK. It judges that, although barriers were already perceived to be low, further reductions may have played a part in stimulating innovation. However, amongst other factors, it also notes that the sector still lacks any reliance upon universities and HEIs to assist with strategic innovation. The article further concludes that present economic conditions are likely to detrimentally affect a number of the cost and market factors, which are the most significant barriers to innovation in the sector.


Maize is the most consumed staple food crop in Kenya with a per capita of 110kg. It is equally an important commercial crop particularly in high potential areas. Currently, the presence of Maize lethal necrosis disease (MLND) has constrained its production. The disease is challenging to manage because it is a co-infection of maize by two viruses, the Maize chlorotic mottle virus and Sugarcane mosaic virus, which are vectored mainly by C0111 thrips iFrankliniella Williamsi) and C0111 leaf aphids (Rhopalosiphum maidis), respectively. This study was carried out to assess the potential for companion crops to act as traps or repellents for these vectors, thus contributing to vector management. Trials were carried out in fanners' fields in Bomet County. Treatments included Napier, coriander, millet, sorghum and maize, arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replicates for two seasons, November 2014April 2015 and April-August 2015. Each crop was planted either as an intercrop or a border crop with maize as the main crop. We present results from the first season. There were significant differences (P<O.OO 1) in the presence of C0111 Thrips among the companion crops although intercrops (21. 53) recorded a slightly higher significant figure than border crops (10.28). Coriander trapped the highest number of C0111 thrips (27.6), followed by sorghum (22.2). Napier and millet trapped the lowest mean number of thrips, 9.1 and 4.7, respectively. However, in comparison with maize (85.96), companion crops had significantly lower C0111 thrips, Coriander hosted the highest number of aphids (132.6) compared with Napier (45.9) and sorghum (30.8) while millet recorded the lowest (5.6). The number of aphids in coriander and maize (60.4) was not significantly different from each other but was significantly higher compared with those registered in other companion crops (P=O.0021). This preliminary study shows that both Napier and millet may act as repellent crops for Com Thrips mainly as border crops while coriander and sorghum could act as trap crops majorly as intercrops.


STUDY QUESTION
Can growth trajectories of the human embryonic head be created using 3D ultrasound (3D-US) and virtual reality (VR) technology, and be associated with second trimester fetal head size and periconceptional maternal conditions?

SUMMARY ANSWER
Serial first trimester head circumference (HC) and head volume (HV) measurements were used to create reliable growth trajectories of the embryonic head, which were significantly associated with fetal head size and periconceptional maternal smoking, age and ITALIC! in vitro fertilization (IVF)/intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY
Fetal growth is influenced by periconceptional maternal conditions.

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION
We selected 149 singleton pregnancies with a live born non-malformed fetus from the Rotterdam periconception cohort.

PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS
Bi-parietal diameter and occipital frontal diameter to calculate HC, HV and crown-rump length (CRL) were measured weekly between 9 + 0 and 12 + 6 weeks gestational age (GA) using 3D-US and VR. Fetal HC was obtained from second trimester structural anomaly scans. Growth trajectories of the embryonic head were created with general additive models and linear mixed models were used to estimate associations with maternal periconceptional conditions as a function of GA and CRL, respectively.

MAIN RESULTS
A total of 303 3D-US images of 149 pregnancies were eligible for embryonic head measurements (intra-class correlation coefficients >0.99). Associations were found between embryonic HC and fetal HC ( ITALIC! ρ = 0.617, ITALIC! P < 0.001) and between embryonic HV and fetal HC ( ITALIC! ρ = 0.660, ITALIC! P < 0.001) in ITALIC! Z-scores. Maternal periconceptional smoking was associated with decreased, and maternal age and IVF/ICSI treatment with increased growth trajectories of the embryonic head measured by HC and HV (All ITALIC! P < 0.05).

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION
The consequences of the small effect sizes for neurodevelopmental outcome need further investigation. As the study population consists largely of tertiary hospital patients, external validity should be studied in the general population.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
Assessment of growth trajectories of the embryonic head may be of benefit in future early antenatal care.

STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTERESTS
This study was funded by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Erasmus MC University Medical Centre and Sophia Foundation for Medical Research, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (SSWO grant number 644). No competing interests are declared.


The Western Cape Provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning has contended for a number of years that, where any mining and associated activities in the province triggers activities listed under the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), NEMA authorisation is required before mining activities may commence. This view, supported by the National Department of Environmental Affairs in recent years, requires the completion of an environmental impact assessment and compliance with the more stringent environmental requirements of NEMA in addition to those under the Minerals Act and its successor, the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA).


Mount Merapi with its Merapi-type pyroclastic flows provides burnt and unburnt areas which are excellent to study establishment events of pioneer plant species. Using site comparison approach, floristic composition was studied, and thus an area that was burnt by pyroclastic flows in 2010 (Kalikuning) and another area that is relatively intact or unburnt (Kaliurang) was chosen as study sites. We found 7,817 individuals belonging to 72 species and 36 families in the burnt site, and 4,093 individuals belonging to 79 species and 39 families in the unburnt site. The most important family as determined by the Family Importance Value (FIV) was Rubiaceae in Kalikuning and Asteraceae in Kaliurang. In terms of Importance Value Index (IVI), Borreria occimoides (Rubiaceae) and Eupatorium riparium (Asteraceae) were the most important species in Kalikuning and Kaliurang, respectively. Multivariate approach using Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling ordination technique showed that floristic composition in the newly burnt site were different with those that occupying the intact site (RANOSIM = 0.72). Borreria occimoides, Eupatorium riparium, Athyrium dilatatum, Paspalum conjugatum, Brachiaria reptans, and Selaginella doederleinii were the species mainly responsible in explaining the differences between sites. DOI: 10.7226/jtfm.19.2.85


I propose a new method that ensures efficient rotation-invariant pattern recognition in the presence of signal-dependent noise by combining the application of rotation-invariant correlation filters with preprocessing of the noisy input images. The preprocessing uses local suboptimal estimators derived from estimation theory and implies an a priori knowledge of a model describing the noise source. The image noise sources considered are speckle and film-grain noise. Pour different metrics are used to analyze the correlation performance of the circular-harmonic filter, the phase-only circular-harmonic filter, and the binary phase-only circular-harmonic filter, with and without a preprocessing. Computer simulations show that signal-dependent noise can seriously degrade the performance of the phase-only circular-harmonic filter and the binary phase-only circular-harmonic filter. The most severe indication of correlation-performance degradation is the occurrence of false alarms in 15% to 20% of noise realizations of the correlation. Preprocessing increases the correlation-peak signal-to-noise ratio significantly and reduces the false-alarm probability by one to two orders of magnitude.


The impact of log position in European Larch (Larix decidua Mill.) tree on the physical, mechanical, and surface properties of the particleboard was investigated. The logs were divided into five segments from the butt to the top of tree, which were 0–3 m, 3–6 m, 6–9 m, 9–12 m, and 12–15 m, respectively. The fiber length and wall thickness of the wood decreased with the increase in the tree height while the lumen diameter decreased. Similarly, the amount of cellulose and lignin decreased with the increase in tree height while the amount of hemicelluloses increased. The highest solubility values (hot and cold water, NaOH, and alcohol-benzene) and pH of the wood were found in the butt log, followed by the middle log, and top log, respectively. The physical (thickness swelling, water absorption) and mechanical properties (modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, and internal bond), and surface quality (surface roughness and contact angle) of the particleboards were negatively affected by increasing tree height. The best properties were obtained for the particleboards produced from the particles of the butt log (0–3 m).


In this paper, we consider the M/G/k queueing system with setup times. This particular queueing model is common in manufacturing systems, where idle machines are turned off to save on operating costs, as well as in server farms, where idle servers are turned off to conserve power. While recent literature has analyzed the M/M/k system with exponential setup times, no closedform solutions were obtained. We provide the first analytical closed form expressions for the mean response time, limiting distribution of the system states, as well as the z-transform for the number of jobs in system for the M/M/k system with exponential setup times. In particular, we prove the following decomposition property: the mean response time of the M/M/k system with exponential setup times differs from the mean response time of an M/M/k system without setup times, by a constant factor, which is the mean of the exponential setup time. Using matrix analytic methods and simulations, we show that the above decomposition property may also hold for the M/G/k system with exponential setup times.


Bismuth based oxides have excellent ionic conductivity and fast oxygen surface kinetics and show promising potential as highly active electrode materials in solid oxide cells (SOCs) such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs). However, the low melting temperature and high activity of bismuth based oxides severely limit their wide applications in SOCs. Herein, we successfully synthesized a 40 wt% Er0.4Bi1.6O3 decorated La0.76Sr0.19MnO3+δ (ESB–LSM) electrode via a new gelation method and directly assembled it on a Ni–yttria-stabilized zirconia (Ni–YSZ) cermet supported YSZ electrolyte cell without the conventional high temperature pre-sintering step. ESB decoration substantially enhances the electrocatalytic activity of the LSM electrode for the oxygen reduction/evolution reactions (ORR/OER). A YSZ electrolyte cell with the directly assembled ESB–LSM electrode exhibits a peak power density of 1.62 W cm−2 at 750 °C, significantly higher than 0.48 and 0.88 W cm−2 obtained on cells with a directly assembled pristine LSM and LSM–YSZ composite electrode, respectively. Most importantly the cells with the directly assembled ESB–LSM oxygen electrodes show excellent stability in SOFC, SOEC and reversible SOC operating modes for over 200 h. The present study demonstrates a significant advancement in the development of bismuth based oxide decorated high performance and stable oxygen electrodes for reversible SOCs.


Estuaries serve as important nursery habitats for various species of early-life stage fish, but can experience cooccurring acidification and hypoxia that can vary diurnally in intensity. This study examines the effects of acidification (pH 7.2–7.4) and hypoxia (dissolved oxygen (DO) ~ 2–4 mg L−1) as individual and combined stressors on four fitness metrics for three species of forage fish endemic to the U.S. East Coast: Menidia menidia, Menidia beryllina, and Cyprinodon variegatus. Additionally, the impacts of various durations of exposure to these two stressors was also assessed to explore the sensitivity threshold for larval fishes under environmentally-representative conditions. C. variegatus was resistant to chronic low pH, while M. menidia and M. beryllina experienced significantly reduced survival and hatch time, respectively. Exposure to hypoxia resulted in reduced hatch success of both Menidia species, as well as diminished survival of M. beryllina larvae. Diurnal exposure to low pH and low DO for 4 or 8 h did not alter survival of M. beryllina, although 8 or 12 h of daily exposure through the 10 days posthatch significantly depressed larval size. In contrast, M. menidia experienced significant declines in survival for all intervals of diel cycling hypoxia and acidification (4–12 h). Exposure to 12-h diurnal hypoxia generally elicited negative effects equal to, or of greater severity, than chronic exposure to low DO at the same levels despite significantly higher mean DO exposure concentrations. This evidences a substantial biological cost to adapting to changing DO levels, and implicates diurnal cycling of DO as a significant threat to fish larvae in estuaries. Larval responses to hypoxia, and to a lesser extent acidification, in this study on both continuous and diurnal timescales indicate that estuarine conditions throughout the spawning and postspawn periods could adversely affect stocks of these fish, with diverse implications for the remainder of the food web.


Tree-ring width standard chronologies were created from Juniperus przewalskii Kom data collected in the southern Three-River Headwaters (TRH) Region. Statistical analysis results showed high correlation between the first primary component (PC1) of the four chronologies and instrumental precipitation records during the annual September–August interval. Precipitation of the region was reconstructed for the past 461 years. It was verified that the reconstruction model was stable by split-sample calibration-verification statistics. The reconstruction series revealed 22 extremely dry years and 9 extremely wet years. Results showed relatively dry periods occurred during 1567–1597, 1604–1614, 1641–1656, 1684–1700, 1734–1755, 1817–1830, 1913–1932, 1953–1971, 1990–2005. Relatively wet periods occurred during 1615–1630, 1657–1683, 1701–1733, 1756–1786, 1798–1816, 1844–1855, 1864–1875, 1885–1912, 1933–1952, 1977–1989. Comparison with tree-ring based precipitation reconstructions, and chronologies from surrounding areas provided a high degree of confidence in our reconstruction, and correlated well with the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas (MADA) dataset in the public section of corresponding grids. The empirical mode decomposition analysis suggests the existence of significant periods with intervals of 2–5, 6–10, 11–18, and 28–60 years. This research contributes to a better understanding of historical variations in precipitation and will aid in future plans to address climate change of the TRH Region.


Spreadsheets are active documents that are heavily employed in administration, financial forecasting, education, and science because of their intuitive, flexible, and direct approach to computation. But they are also error-prone, poorly documented, often contain actual data in legacy form. Therefore, assistance for high-impact spreadsheet users is needed. To determine what kind of help could be useful, we analyze user expectations with an "Wizard-of-Oz" experiment. This shows that background knowledge is missing in spreadsheets. In the SACHS project we approach the missing background knowledge by adding a semantic layer. We illustrate spreadsheets with a semi-formal domain ontology and equip them with a semantically transparent interface that allows new forms of interaction like "semantic navigation", "framing", or "playing with variants", on which a survey is given. Moreover, an integration of assessment knowledge into the SACHS approach is presented. We model it based on theory graphs and sketch a potential SACHS extension with innovative assessment interaction.


Many experts argue that climate change will exacerbate the severity and number of extreme weather events. Such climate-related hazards will be important security concerns and sources of vulnerability in the future regardless of whether they contribute to conflict. This will be particularly true where these hazards put large numbers of people at risk of death, requiring the diversion of either domestic or foreign military assets to provide humanitarian relief. Vulnerability to extreme weather, however, is only partially a function of physical exposure. Poor, marginalized communities that lack access to infrastructure and services, that have minimal education and poor health care, and that exist in countries with poor governance are likely to be among the most vulnerable. Given its dependence on rainfed agriculture and its low adaptive capacity, Africa is thought to be among the most vulnerable continents to climate change. That vulnerability, however, is not uniformly distributed. Indicators of vulnerability within Africa include the historic incidence of climate-related hazards, population density, household and community resilience, and governance and political violence. Among the places in Africa most vulnerable to the security consequences of climate change are parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and South Sudan.


Given that the current era of austerity in the public sector is likely to bring about changes in the management practices of the public sector, it is worth taking a look back at the literature of the previous era of major cutbacks. This article examines what kind of changes to public sector financial and personnel management were proposed and adopted during the era of retrenchment in the 1970s and 1980s. The review of the literature shows that the previous cutback era triggered a search for increased flexibility and rationality both in financial management and personnel management to enable optimal cutback decisions and their implementation. It also indicates that the management of the finances and human resources during scarcity requires very difficult trade-offs.


A new type of measuring and computing engine has been constructed which determines wave-lengths and wave numbers directly from spectrograms made by crossing the dispersion of a Fabry-Perot interferometer with that of a concave diffraction grating. The wave-length of a spectrum line is first determined to six figures from the grating dispersion by the method used in the author's automatic comparator, and this wave-length is then converted to wave number by a mechanical continuous-function computing arrangement. The thickness of the etalon separator used having been pre-set into the machine, all wave-lengths are automatically divided into twice this thickness to give on dials the order of interference corresponding to the instantaneous wave-length setting of the comparator. The interference pattern of each spectrum line is projected on a screen in front of the operator with a magnification proportional to the square root of the order of interference, and falls on a set of parabolic fiducial lines drawn to fit the optical system used to project the interference fringes on the slit of the grating spectrograph. The operator moves the screen carrying these parabolic lines up or down until they coincide with the density maxima of the interference pattern; the partial order of interference ∊ in the center of the pattern can then be read to three figures from a dial. By turning the plate control handle of the machine slightly the operator then makes the ∊ reading of the machine coincide with that of this dial; cams having introduced corrections for the dispersion of air and the variation of phase change with wave-length, the dials then give the wave-length and wave number of the line correctly to seven or eight figures, depending on its sharpness. The speed of reduction of Fabry-Perot patterns is by this means increased at least 20-fold over that of previous methods, and the precision of setting appears to be considerably improved also. Repeat readings on sharp lines are found consistent to within a few ten-thousandths of an angstrom. The precision of the wave-length values obtained is limited principally by the diffuseness of the interference pattern arising from the breadth of a line.Improvements now under development include automatic photoelectric scanning of interferometer patterns, and the direct recording by an electric typewriter of eight-figure wave-length and wave-number values for each line. The new device is being used to determine standard wave-lengths needed for the more effective utilization of the original automatic comparator.


The use of falsetto register in alternation with chest register is common in folk music, in particular, Hawaiian song and Alpine yodeling. There is no special effort to merge or equalize the registers; rather, each register is cultivated in its own frequency range and some attempt is made to balance the intensity. An update on the acoustics and physiology of voice registration is given. Current thinking is that the thyroarytenoid muscle in the vocal fold regulates the tension and shape of the vocal fold. Chest register is associated with a more rectangular vocal fold shape (in the vertical direction), a more sudden interruption of airflow in the glottal cycle, and a strengthening of the second and third partials. Falsetto register, on the other hand, is associated with a more convergent glottis (in the vertical direction), a more gradual interruption of airflow, and a concentration of energy in the fundamental. [Work supported by NIDCD, Grant No. P60‐DC00976.]


Butyrolactone I (BLI) can be used to maintain meiosis blocked during transport of oocytes to the laboratory, aiming to maintain their quality and competence. This work evaluated the effect of BLI during transport of bovine oocytes on the cortical granules (CG) distribution, and fertilization. Meiotic block culture was in basic medium (TCM-199 with 0.2 mM pyruvate, 25 mM sodium bicarbonate, and 75 mg mL-1 gentamicin) with 10 μLM BLI (B10) or 100 (AM BLI + 0.3% BSA (B100). During meiotic block, oocytes were cultured in cryogenic vials (15/vial) containing 60 μLL of medium recovered with mineral oil, packed in a portable incubator (Thawing Unit MT 35/42, Minitub) at 38.5°C during the first 5 h, and then transferred to a incubator at 38.5°C and 5% CO2 in air for the remaining 19 h. Then, they were matured at 38.5°C and 5% CO2 in basic medium supplemented with 0.6% BSA and hormones (maturation medium, MM) for 20 h. As controls, a group of oocytes was matured in MM during 24 h, without prior meiotic block. Control oocytes were cultured at 38.5°C and 5% CO2 (control 1, C1) or in the same portable incubator conditions in which the blocked oocytes were cultured (C2). A group of oocytes was fixed immediately after follicular aspiration (C0). At the end of cultures, a group of oocytes (n = 853) were stained with 1 μg mL-1 Lens culinaris (FITC-LCA) and assessed for the distribution of CG (arrangement in clusters = immature; peripheral = mature). The remaining oocytes (n = 563) were fertilized for 18 h, and zygotes were stained with 10 μg mL-1 Hoechst 33342 and assessed for sperm penetration and pronuclear formation. Oocytes with 2 pronuclei (2PN) were considered to present normal fertilization, and oocytes with >2PN were considered to be polyspermic. The data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey's test, and correlation between CG positioning and pronuclear formation was analyzed with the Pearson correlation test. After meiotic block, the proportion of immature CG were higher (P 2PN was higher (P < 0.05) in B10 (5.9%) than in C1, C2, and B100 (0.0, 1.4, and 0.0%, respectively). There was a fine correlation between mature CG and normal pronuclear formation (R = 0.5; P < 0.05). We conclude that (1) CG migration is reversibly blocked by BLI at a concentration of 100 μLM during transport; (2) oocyte transport in the portable incubator, but not BLI itself, adversely affects the normal pronuclear formation; and (3) CG maturation is essential for normal pronuclear formation. Financial support: FAPESP.


Over the last 30 years, feminist international relations (IR) and gendered approaches to foreign policy and security have been gaining attention in both the academy and in government. However, the systems and institutions that exist in our country are strategically designed to maintain patriarchy and privilege masculinity, so this work isn't necessarily permeating into what is taught to students in undergraduate classrooms. Using a feminist lens, I analyze if and how women, gender, and feminism are being integrated into undergraduate IR courses at various public higher education institutions upstate New York. I consider the various arguments cited by professors for not teaching feminist IR and the potential consequences of continuing to exclude feminism and gender from undergraduate international relations courses. I conclude that the only way to subvert the patriarchal dominance of both knowledge and practice is to become more curious about what we're teaching and learning in international relations. Why Women?

   5


In the recent years, Governments both in developed and developing countries are embracing open data initiatives as fundament al in facilitating government transparency, accountability, and public participation by making data freely available to the public. In addition, open data serves as an essential cornerstone in supporting technological innovation and economic growth by enabling third parties to develop new kinds of digital applications and services (Gray 2014; Ding et al. 2011; Shadbolt et al. 2012).

Despite the rising uptake of such initiatives, little has been written on the experience as well as the skills and knowledge for citizens in open data and technology environments. This paper seeks to fill this gap by presenting unique lessons learnt from the implementation of Kenya's globally acclaimed Open Data Portal which was launched in July 2011. Kenya forms an interesting study choice as the country was the first developing country in sub-Saharan Africa and the second on the continent after Morocco to develop the portal. The portal, powered by Socrata Inc, aims to make core government developmental, demographic, statistical and expenditure data available for researchers, policymakers, ICT developers and the general public.

The varying technological, economical, and cultural differences in Kenya significantly affect access and usage of the portal as seen in wide inequalities in technical expertise, internet access, and extent of use. In addition, there are various system and management challenges inhibiting the utility and ease of interaction of the Portal. These challenges include empty datasets, broken links, obsolete information, and lack of numerous datasets requested by the public which date back to over two years.

The authors who are Kenyan citizens explore the challenges and best practices learnt from implementation of Kenya Open Data Portal and discuss from a citizen's view point these unique and interesting findings and how they relate and contrast to other countries.


Supradetachment basins that formed during the Devonian extensional collapse of the Scandinavian Caledonides have been explained as hanging-wall basins formed along the listric breakaway zone of a major detachment fault system. This model involves significant rotation of bedding as the detachment flattens to an approximately horizontal orientation, and explains the large stratigraphic thicknesses of east-dipping layers overlying in tectonic contact the top-to-the-west Nordfjord-Sogn detachment zone (NSDZ). However, it fails to explain one of the basins, the Hasteinen basin, where east-dipping Devonian strata rest unconformably on a metamorphic substrate that forms part of the upper plate of the detachment system. Based on detailed field mapping, we present a model where the Hasteinen forms as a ramp basin that develops on the upper plate above a major west-facing ramp in the NSDZ. We test both of these models by forward modeling using 2DMove (two-dimensional kinematic modeling software). The results show how two different types of supradetachment basins can coexist in a subhorizontal detachment zone in an area that underwent many tens of kilometers of lateral crustal extension.


Rapid penetration into the market of new technologies will certainly bring in benefits to consumers or more generally to the economy, but almost unavoidably be accompanied by frictions in both domestic and international markets. For these technologies to be really beneficial to the society, such strategies are to be implemented that reduce frictions in the markets with as little decrease in positive impacts as possible.

Taking into account that the issues are of interdisciplinary (technology and economy) and international character and IIASA's sales point is exactly on this point, we are convinced that IIASA is one of the most appropriate institutions which can conduct a study on the issues.

The author takes industrial robots as the target technology and describes possible research items.


The water that St. John Parish in southeast Louisiana treats and supplies originates from a groundwater well that produces water of high organic content and color. In the past, the organics were oxidized and broken down by chlorination, but utilities are moving away from this practice because of the production of disinfection byproducts such as trihalomethanes and haloacidic acids. The utility has therefore sought to remove the need for chlorination from the injection point near the well and treat the raw water completely via cartridge prefilters followed by a bank of membranes in the treatment plant.


Shear stress transport (SST) k–ω model and detached eddy simulation (DES) have been widely applied in crosswind stability simulations for trains in the literature. In the previous research, the influence of the SST and DES approaches on the flow field around trains, which affects the surface pressure and consequently the aerodynamic forces of the train, was not properly investigated in terms of their influence flow field. The SST and improved delayed detached eddy simulation (IDDES) turbulence models have been tested in this study for their ability to predict the flow field around, surface pressure, and aerodynamic forces on a 1/25th scale Class 390 train subjected to crosswinds. Numerical simulation results were validated with experimental data. Results show that both SST and IDDES predict similar trends in the mean flow field around the train. However, there were some slight differences observed in the size of vortices, the position of separation points, and consequently, the separation and attachment lines. The SST results compared more closely to the experimental data than IDDES for pressure coefficient on the leeward surface and roof at certain loops. Slight differences were observed in force coefficients for SST and DES. The side force coefficients calculated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) sit within the experimental uncertainty, whereas the lift force coefficients deviated greatly due to the omission of some underbody geometrical features. Both SST and IDDES approaches used the linear-upwind stabilized transport (LUST) scheme and were able to predict accurately the time-averaged surface pressure within the margin of the experimental uncertainty.


The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence, characteristics, and possible clinical impact of the thin fluttering bands detected by carotid ultrasound. This is a prospective, observational study carried out in a single center between 2016 and 2018. A thin fluttering band was defined as a hyperechoic fluttering band detected by ultrasound in the carotid lumen in absence of findings compatible with pattern of dissection. Intraobserver and interobserver variability were carried out. A total of 3440 patients (p) were evaluated by carotid ultrasound, and thin fluttering bands were detected in 118 p (prevalence of 3.43%). The mean age was 58.9 ± 8.5 years and 48 p (40.7%) were male. In total, 97.5% of patients had no symptoms or neurological history. A total of 134 thin fluttering bands were identified (1.13 TFB/p; 104 p with 1 thin fluttering band, 12 p with 2 thin fluttering bands, and 2 p with 3 thin fluttering bands), and 83% of them were visualized from both longitudinal and transversal ultrasound views. Seventy-seven (57.5%) thin fluttering bands were localized on the right side, with the carotid bifurcation as the most common location (127 thin fluttering bands, 94.8%). The mean length of the bands was 5.6 ± 2.6 mm, with no significant differences in size according to the location, intima media thickness, or presence of carotid plaques. No significant interobserver and intraobserver variability was found. In conclusion, we have presented patients with thin fluttering bands, observing a significant prevalence in our population and ruling out a visual artifact. Their relationship with the genesis of atheroma plaques or its possible neurologic impact remains unclear.


Alternative breeding strategies, based on colchicine-induced autotetraploids, have been proposed as a means of introducing disease resistance into banana breeding programs. This paper describes techniques for the in vitro induction of banana autotetraploids by the use of colchicine on cultured explants. The technique can be readily applied and large numbers of autotetraploids produced. The optimum treatment involved immersing shoot tips in a 0.5% w/v colchicine solution for 2 h under aseptic conditions. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was applied with the colchicine treatments to increase cell permeability and so absorption of colchicine, resulting in the optimum treatment unchanged at 0.5% colchicine, but including the addition of 2% v/v DMSO. Of the shoot tips treated over 30% were induced to the autotetraploid level.

Methods for in vitro selection of induced tetraploids from treated diploid plantlets were also developed. Tetraploid plants were more robust with thicker pseudostems, roots and broader leaves than diploids and they could be selected on these morphological characteristics. Mean stornatal lengths of diploid banana plants growing in vitro were significantly smaller (16.0 pm) than the tetraploids (26.9pm) and were used as a more reliable indicator of ploidy than morphological criteria alone. A root tip squash technique using carbol fuchsin was developed for positive confirmation of ploidy change by chromosome counts. Although chimerism and reversion to the diploid form occurred, it was not considered a problem because of the large number of autotetraploids induced. Stable autotetraploids were recovered and established in the field and were characterised by their large, drooping leaves and thick pseudostems. They have retained these characteristics for more than 3 years in the field.


"Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked." (1) INTRODUCTION The thesis of this essay is simple: As long as we maintain the current conception of ourselves as intentional and potentially rational creatures, as people and not simply as machines, the mens rea requirement in criminal law is both inevitable and desirable. I begin with the challenge to personhood, action and responsibility that recent work in psychology and neuroscience allegedly present. Then I turn to some dangerous distractions that are often confused with the questions of personhood, action and responsibility. The next section explains why the genuine challenge from neuroscience can be met. Finally, I turn to the positive case for mens rea. I do not argue for any particular categorization or hierarchy of mens rea terms. (2) Instead, I argue more generally that mens rea, which is understood to be the mental state element that is part of the definition of most criminal offenses, (3) is crucial to culpability and central to our value as moral beings. I. THE CHALLENGE TO PERSONHOOD, ACTION, AND RESPONSIBILITY As I type the words of this paper, I have an experience that virtually every neurologically intact human being takes for granted: the subjective experience of first person agency, the experience of mental causation, that my bodily movements and thoughts are caused, roughly speaking, by my intentions. (4) To the best of our knowledge, only human beings have a fully developed capacity to act for reasons. This description sounds like Cartesian dualism--the notion that we have an immaterial mind or soul that is somehow in causal relation with our physical body and that causes it to move as the mind directs. But I fully accept that we inhabit a thoroughly material universe in which all phenomena are caused by physical laws. In particular, human action and consciousness are produced by the brain, a material organ that works according to biophysical laws. At present, however, we do not have a clue about how the brain enables the mind, or about how action and consciousness are possible. (5) Understanding how the brain enables the mind would revolutionize our understanding of biological processes and the nature of personhood, (6) but such understanding may not be possible. (7) Although action and consciousness are scientific and conceptual mysteries, (8) they are at the heart of both common sense, "folk psychology," and the conception of the person inherent in judgments about responsibility and culpability. The capacity for intentional movement and thoughts-the capacity for agency--is a central aspect of personhood and is integral to what it means to be a responsible person. We act because we intend. Responsibility judgments depend on the mental states that produce and accompany our bodily movements. This is how we think about ourselves, and this is the concept of the person that morality and law both reflect. Law and morality as action-guiding normative systems of rules are useless, and perhaps incoherent, unless one accepts this view of personhood. Virtually everything for which we deserve to be praised, blamed, rewarded or punished is the product of mental causation and, in principle, responsive to reason. Machines may cause harm, but they cannot do wrong, and they cannot violate expectations about how we ought to live together. Only people can violate expectations of what they owe each other, and only people can do wrong. Machines do not deserve praise, blame, reward or punishment. Machines do not deserve concern and respect simply because they exist. These concepts apply only to potentially acting, intentional agents. Suppose, however, that our conscious or potentially conscious intentions are not genuinely causal or seldom are so. To use the title of a recent book by an eminent psychologist, suppose that our "conscious will" is just an illusion. (9) Ordinary notions of action and agency are allegedly under attack from psychology and neuroscience, (10) a critique that some legal scholarship has begun to embrace. …


A characteristic phenomenon that occurs at slow spreading ridge, e.g. the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, is the formation of large faults, which at some place results in lifting up of the mantle rocks up to the ocean floor. Ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal systems are precisely located on these mantle outcrops, where circulation of seawater along the faults alters the periodites that mainly compose the mantle. The process known as serpentinisation results the production of a large amount of H2, which is a great source of energy for further chemical reactions such as methane and heavier hydrocarbons production. High concentration of CH4 detected in the water column above ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal fields has indeed been suggested to be the abiogenic product of a Fisher-Tropsh synthesis (3H2 + CO  CH4 + H2O), which is supported by the carbon isotopic data. This has lead to the idea of abiogenic formation of larger organic compounds such as hydrocarbons or key molecules for the origin of life issue. Both thermodynamics and laboratory work support this idea, but field data have been lacking up to date. Our study will present results on the organic content of hydrothermal fluids from 6 ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal fields of the MAR. Fluids were collected at Rainbow, Lost City, Logachev I & II and Ashadze I & II during the EXOMAR and the SERPENTINE cruises conducted by IFREMER, France. Innovative and efficient techniques have been developed, used and improved to concentrate, isolate and extract compounds from the fluids by SPE (Solid Phase Extraction)-GC-MS. Organics were listed and all compounds present in deep seawater and blank experiments were discarded as considered contaminants. The remaining appeared to be mainly hydrocarbons and oxygen-bearing compounds that were clearly -identified by comparison of recorded mass spectra with library data.This work is carried out partly within the MoMARnet (Monitoring deep sea floor hydrothermal environments on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: A Marie Curie Research Training network) framework.


The US EPA requires direct evidence of contaminant removal before bioremediation or natural attenuation can be used for site remediation. Microcosm studies are commonly used to provide this line of evidence; however, molecular biology tools may provide a better approach for biological forensic analysis of contaminated sites. DNA biomarker technology and laboratory scale microcosms were used to assess the feasibility of natural attenuation, biostimulation, and bioaugmentation for the remediation of a benzene and toluene (B/T) contaminated aquifer. Detection and subsequent increase of target aerobic catabolic and phylogenetic gene biomarkers corroborated aerobic B/T degradation observed in laboratory scale microcosms. Anaerobic biomarker and microcosm studies failed to produce evidence of anaerobic B/T biodegradation potential. Biostimulation (nitrate and sulfate addition) and bioaugmentation with a known anaerobic benzene degrading culture both failed to stimulate B/T removal. However, the addition of benzoate slightly stimulated the removal of benzene under anaerobic conditions. Collectively these results suggest this petroleum hydrocarbon aquifer is not strictly anaerobic and has the potential for natural attenuation processes under aerobic conditions. This research demonstrated the value of using DNA biomarkers as a tool for biological and abiotic forensic site investigations. Acknowledgments I acknowledge my advisor and mentor, Dr. Pedro J.J. Alvarez for allowing me the opportunity to pursue a career in a field I love, for pushing me to develop my autonomy, project management skills, and providing endless research opportunities. I would also like to acknowledge my committee members; Dr. Herb Ward for his time, effort, and pearls of wisdom concerning technical writing, Dr. Joseph Salanitro for advisement and enlightening discussions on the topic of anaerobic biodegradation, and Dr. Philip Bedient for his time and willingness to serve on my advisory committee. Pursuit of this graduate degree would not have been possible without the unwavering support, love, and philosophical wisdom of my parents, David and Patricia Monier, my siblings, Jill and Jonathan, and my dear grandparents Audrey, James, Marge, and Jack.


Given the large number of choices that consumers make each day it seems likely that they will generally adopt decision strategies that minimize cognitive effort, particularly with low price products such as most items found in a supermarket. One such strategy may be to simply choose what has been chosen in the past, i.e. to fall into a pattern of routine choices or decisions. In contrast, there may be preferences for variety in markets for low price, highly differentiated goods. We develop a conceptual and empirical model of routine choice, and the factors that result in transitions to two strategies other than routine selection, to wit, utility maximizing choice among available alternatives and a variety seeking strategy. The empirical approach we employ provides a mechanism for the examination of panel data that avoids the state dependence issues present in most applications to these types of data. We apply this framework to the choice of two food products that illustrate the heterogeneity across types of products in decision strategies and routine choice patterns.


The evolution of a complex beam width parameter g describing focusing or defocusing of a paraxial Gaussian beam is considered as the cause of an additional topological (Berry) phase of the electromagnetic field associated with the beam. It is pointed out that the well-known Gouy phase is a special case of such a phase that should arise in general in all symplectic systems.


We develop an analytical theory that accounts for the image and surface charge interactions between a charged dielectric membrane and a DNA molecule translocating through the membrane. Translocation events through neutral carbon-based membranes are driven by a competition between the repulsive DNA-image-charge interactions and the attractive coupling between the DNA segments on the trans and the cis sides of the membrane. The latter effect is induced by the reduction of the coupling by the dielectric membrane. In strong salt solutions where the repulsive image-charge effects dominate the attractive trans-cis coupling, the DNA molecule encounters a translocation barrier of ≈ 10 kBT . In dilute electrolytes, the trans-cis coupling takes over image-charge forces and the membrane becomes a metastable attraction point that can trap translocating polymers over long time intervals. This mechanism can be used in translocation experiments in order to control the DNA motion by tuning the salt concentration of the solution.


Feasibility of a holographic point-by-point storage in a methyl red-doped Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) is determined. Micro-holograms (gratings) are recorded next to each other. Smallest grating diameter obtained is 69.9 mm, with minimum grating distance of 80 mm. Recording of adjacent grating reduces the diffraction efficiency of existing grating by 17% (average).


It is known that the perfect absorption of two identical waves incident on a complex potential from left and right can occur at a fixed real energy and that the time-reversed setting of this system would act as a laser at threshold at the same energy. Here, we argue and show that PT-symmetric potentials are exceptional in this regard which do not allow Coherent Perfect Absorption without lasing as the modulus of the determinant of the $S$-matrix, $|\det S|$, becomes 1, for all positive energies. Next we show that in the parametric regimes where the PT-symmetry is unbroken, the eigenvalues, $s_\pm$ of $S$, can become unitary (uni-modular) for all energies. Then the potential becomes coherent perfect emitter on both sides for any energy of coherent injection. We call this property Transparency.


Distinct histological forms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may respond differently to treatment as they have different patterns of soluble adhesion factors and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Polish researchers claim. Their investigations centred on synovial and serum samples from 42 patients with RA and 32 controls with osteoarthritis (OA). Serum concentrations of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (sICAM-1), soluble vascular adhesion molecule 1 (sVCAM-1), soluble E-selectin (sE-selectin), and VEGF were significantly higher in patients with RA than OA. All except sE-selectin were much higher for patients with RA showing follicular synovitis (16) compared with patients showing diffuse synovitis (24) and patients with OA. They were also linked with clinical markers for RA, including erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C reactive protein, number of swollen joints, and x ray evidence indicating more severe disease. In follicular RA the synovium contained circular aggregates of lymphocytes around a central core and associated with new capillaries. In diffuse synovitis and OA it showed a more uniform spread of mononuclear cells throughout the tissue. Synovial tissue was taken from patients during hip or knee operations. Serum concentrations of adhesion factors and VEGF were measured by ELISA. Distinct types of synovitis seem to be found with different patterns of cytokines in the synovium and cytokines and metalloproteinases in serum. Macrophages and fibroblasts migrate to the synovium under the influence of adhesion molecules and increased vascularisation promoted by VEGF, sVCAM, and sE-selectin. Once there their cytokines and metalloproteinases mediate tissue destruction, maybe controlled by lymphocytes.


DESCRIPTION Get the single-source solutions guide to the sustainable management of water resources. Why is water the environmental issue? The answer is simple: without it, life on this planet could not exist. Yet, despite this fact, reckless consumption practices from a growing population are drying up the Earth's already limited water resources. Other factors, such as river and lake contamination, rising temperatures, and disproportionate geographic accessibility further contribute to the fresh water crisis. To confront this pressing concern, this enlightening guide, which covers over twenty case studies offering insights into real-world projects, uses a holistic, integrated approach to illustrate ways to preserve vital water supplies -from green design remedies to encouraging greater personal responsibility. This book:


South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, is once again at the centre of a medical and scientific storm over the issue of HIV and AIDS, attracting a great deal of criticism from the media. The last time it occurred it was over the announcement of a "miracle cure" for AIDS, which turned out to have no medical value whatever and proved to cause only harm to patients illegally receiving the drug. The inventors of the cure, Virodene, bypassed all the research protocols and controls at universities and went directly to the thenminister of health, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Dr Zuma presented the pair and their claims to a cabinet meeting, and they were hailed for their "discovery."

In the debacle that followed, Mbeki, then the deputy president, was thoroughly convinced by the "researchers." He was so taken by their case that when a financial squabble broke out among the "research team" he personally intervened, arranging early morning secret meetings with Zuma to organise a peace meeting between the warring parties. The …


In recent years, CGIAR centres and research programs have moved towards open access as part of commitments to make CGIAR information products widely accessible. These efforts span a wide variety of activities including adoption of policies, awareness raising, using open licenses and establishing open access repositories for products as well as data. This article explains the origins, operation and uses of the CGSpace repository set up in 2009 by the International Livestock Research Institute with several partners. Starting from an "institutional" effort, it has evolved into a collaboration among dozens of programs and entities, pooling technical efforts and generating collective public goods for the wider agricultural world. This article covers the CGSpace and open access value proposition, technical developments and choices, content management and standards, use and update, metrics and reach, as well as lessons and promising practices for wider use.


Background. The association between obesity and psychopathology is well known. However, the presence of psychopathology in patients with morbid obesity who attend bariatric surgery and its impact in weight loss has been less studied. Objective. To perform a theme update about the general context of psychiatric disorders associated with morbid obesity, and to assess the impact of such disorders in patients undergoing bariatric surgery. Method. EBSCO Research Database and PubMed databases were consulted. Articles published between 2011 and today were selected. Key words related to the topic of study were used. Results. The studies reviewed showed five psychopathological clinical entities with high prevalence in patients who attend bariatric surgery: Depression and anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, disorders of eating behavior, substance abuse, and some dimensions of personality. The presence of these disorders was associated to a poor post-surgical weight loss. Discussion and conclusion. Binge eating disorder and substance abuse impact on weight loss after bariatric surgery is controversial. The evaluation of obese patients who attend bariatric surgery must emphasize, according with reported disorders prevalence, the identification of depression, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.


The gtsummary package provides an elegant and flexible way to create publication-ready summary tables in R. A critical part of the work of statisticians, data scientists, and analysts is summarizing data sets and regression models in R and publishing or sharing polished summary tables. The gtsummary package was created to streamline these everyday analysis tasks by allowing users to easily create reproducible summaries of data sets, regression models, survey data, and survival data with a simple interface and very little code. The package follows a tidy framework, making it easy to integrate in standard data workflows, and offers many table customization features through function arguments, helper functions, and custom themes.


Early visual processing analyses fine and coarse image features separately. Here we show that motion signals derived from fine and coarse analyses are combined in rather a surprising way: Coarse and fine motion sensors representing the same direction of motion inhibit one another and an imbalance can reverse the motion perceived. Observers judged the direction of motion of patches of filtered two-dimensional noise, centered on 1 and 3 cycles/deg. When both sets of noise were present and only the 3 cycles/deg noise moved, judgments were reversed at short durations. When both sets of noise moved, judgments were correct but sensitivity was impaired. Reversals and impairments occurred both with isotropic noise and with orientation-filtered noise. The reversals and impairments could be simulated in a model of motion sensing by adding a stage in which the outputs of motion sensors tuned to 1 and 3 cycles/deg and the same direction of motion were subtracted from one another. The subtraction model predicted and we confirmed in experiments with orientation-filtered noise that if the 1 cycle/deg noise flickered and the 3 cycles/deg noise moved, the 1 cycle/deg noise appeared to move in the opposite direction to the 3 cycles/deg noise even at long durations.


We discuss the phenomenon of closest conjunct agreement with a special focus on head-final languages; we present data from two such languages, Hindi and Tsez, which allow agreement with the rightmost conjunct when the verb follows the conjoined phrase. This contrasts with head-initial languages, such as Arabic, where close conjunct agreement is with the leftmost conjunct in clauses with VS order. In addition, both languages exhibit certain flexibility of word order at root clause level; when the verb precedes the conjoined phrase, it can also agree with the leftmost conjunct. The empirical data from the two languages raise the following questions. First, is the typological difference between head-initial and head-final languages in the context of coordination due to a difference in the structure of coordination in these two groups? Second, to what extent is the syntactic configuration relevant to the computation of closest conjunct agreement? Third, what is the role of linear proximity in closest conjunct agreement? These questions have wider implications for the analysis of agreement and the relation between syntax and the morpho-phonological component.


"Les verites sont des choses a faire et non a decouvrir, ce sont des constructions et non des tresors" – (P. Valery)

Several French authors have contributed to enlarge the knowledge on a soft and constructivist view of systemic thinking in the last decades.

The theory of complexity by Edgar Morin (2005) persisted to be the more complete and exhaustive critic of positivist approaches, underlying the need for embracing complexity, giving up on the necessity for absolute objectivism while opening a path exists between idealism and realism postures.

Morin, (1999) specially described the Complex thinking as a building with three different floors: Information, as well as cybernetics theories would be on the first floor. Second floor would be occupied by auto-organization and dissipative structure theories. The third floor would lodge three principles developed Edgar Morin: (1) The dialogic principle means that two contradictory principles are united not to overcome the contradiction but to consider the complexity of the tension that this contradiction provokes. (2) The recursion principle is based on a procreative loop, meaning that the subject is a product of the system and at the same time the system is created by subjects' actions. Subjects do not only receive information from the system, they build a representation and creatively transform the system. (3) Finally, according to the hologrammatic principle, "the part is in the whole, but the whole is in the part". For instance, society is composed by human beings but the society as a cultural construct is represented in each human being.

Based on this theory, Le Moigne (1994) and the cognitive science authors of enaction theories went beyond the bounded rationality (Simon, 1982), and introduced a new vision of thinking about systems warning designers that systems are interpretations (or cognitive construction) depending on the observer(s). For them, information and knowledge are not identical, as well as knowledge and action are not interdependent. "Knowledge" is an enaction of a system and a mind (Maturana et al., 1970) (not an accumulation of information) and an action that comes into new phenomenon (not a prerequisite for action) (Benasayag, 2006,). Knowledge is about modifying cognitive constructions to create clearness in experimentations and practices. A system cannot be known without acting and transforming it (Piaget, 1998) therefore design research and practices can be seen as means to operate research for action (Avenier et al., 2007).

In systemic design, soft-systemic approaches have been developed (Checkland, 2000) within a constructivist epistemology, considering models not as hard copies of the reality or representations that allow a prediction, but as intermediary objects (Jeantet, 1988) that will support design processes for building effective actions.

Numerous sociologists and designers also participated in the observation of complex processes of innovation and have been defending the importance of social dimension in such processes. For Alter (2002), innovation processes involve the co-evolution of systems, mental representations and relationships between stakeholders. With the Actor Network Theories, Akrich et al., (1988) proposed not only a frame to observe the co-evolution of processes of technical artifacts and social structures but also defined the notion of "translation" referring to the complexity of creating relationships when building innovating networks: stakeholders are constantly creating narratives that could create convergence or divergence between the diverse interests, enrol and disengage new actors.
Complexity, Constructivism, Enaction, Translation are key notions that institute the pillars of systemic thinking. Efforts are still needed to diffuse and embed them into actual organizational and design practices.

The French Bask author, Jean Michel Larrasquet (1950; 2018) was amongst the action-researchers applying complexity and systemic theories in his practices of activist, manager, prospective researcher and professor.

He was co-founder and president of the "Projectics" society for 20 years. Projectics is a community that question the complexity of human action within organizations through an annual conference and a revue that promote new and original angle on the topic, publishing articles in English, Spanish and French.

He also co-initiated a master of systemics from 2012 to 2015 proposed to managers. The training was composed by a 320 hours program, mixing plenary sessions and tutoring, based on 5 different modules introducing complex system management, systemic modelling, agile methodology, creativity and business model tools, inter-culturalism and soft systems approaches, open and sustainable management.

He was the president and an active member of the Bask Study Society "Eusko Ikaskuntza3". This institution was created in 1918 to take up in a comprehensive and integrated way the social challenges of the Basque Country, considering its territorial specificities and going beyond the administrative, ideological and social obstacles. He was managing recent prospective works using design thinking tools to imagine and encourage reflections on strategic societal challenges like resource depletion, tradition and language preservation, health in different rural or semi-rural territories.

He co-created an original program of incubation for social innovative projects named ETICOOP4 in partnership with a major cooperative bank of the region, so project holders did not have to pay any fee for training and coaching. The program is supporting projects based on cooperative values, innovation and territory through common courses reaching 120 hours and 2 years of individual tutoring. Participants particularly enjoyed being challenging by external experts as well as their peers on key entrepreneurship themes like business modelling, financing plan, communication…

Through this contribution, authors would like to outline the contribution of French systemic thinkers that have not been systematically translated in English and therefore are rarely referred by the actual Systemic Design community. More especially, we want to give a special tribute to the legacy of Jean-Michel Larrasquet that has highly participated in supporting processes enhancing the adoption of a complexity and systemic thinking into design practices, for people, organizations or territories (Larrasquet, 2006; Larrasquet and Lizarralde, 2010; Larrasquet, 2012; Larrasquet et al., 2016; Lizarralde et al., 2011; Real et al., 2017). Specific highlights will be provided in the paper to disseminate the wisdom he acquires and transmits through his interrelated academic and practical works:

"Complex organizations are networks of people embedded in territories and cognitive's processes constructing transitions with sense-making, ethics, care and emotions".


Background: The objective of this study was to examine the effect of the Japanese re-work program (RP) to aid in recurrent sick leave prevention. Methods: A multicenter retrospective cohort research was conducted for workers who returned to work (RTW) after sick leave due to mood disorder. Work continuation for subjects who RTW after RP participation and treatment as usual (TAU) and subjects who received TAU only were compared. The Kaplan–Meier method and Cox proportional hazard models were utilized. Additionally, propensity score matching was conducted to control for possible confounds. Results: Log-rank test of overall cohort (n = 323) showed that work continuation of RP + TAU subjects was significantly better compared to that of TAU-only subjects (p = 0.001). Multivariate analysis found a hazard rate of recurrent sick leave for TAU-only subjects of 2.121 (p = 0.001, 95% CI: 1.360–3.309). Additionally, the propensity score-matched cohort (n = 100) had similar differences (p = 0.008), with a hazard ratio of recurrent sick leave of 2.871 (p = 0.009, 95% CI: 1.302–6.331) for TAU-only subjects. Limitations: Only workers who RTW after sick leave were targeted, and no examination was made considering cases who dropped out from RP or TAU. Moreover, the sample was a non-randomized controlled trial, with propensity score matching performed. However, there was an inability to retrieve and adjust for working environment background factors after RTW. Conclusions: Work continuation of subjects with RP was observed to be significantly better, suggesting that the RP was effective for recurrent sick leave prevention.