In this paper, we investigate the effects of complex energy transfer dynamics and Gaussian profiles on the gain and noise figure performance of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) with high doping concentration. We use a two-level system to study the complex energy transfer dynamics that comes from the homogeneous up-conversion (HUC) and the pair-induced quenching (PIQ). In our model, the system is stimulated by a pump source at the wavelength of 1480 nm and operated with a signal source at the wavelength of 1560 nm. Assuming a uniform distribution of erbium ions in the fiber core, we approximate the fundamental mode distributions by Gaussian profiles which are commonly used to calculate the mode radius or spot size. Using the numerical calculations and analysis of the rate and power propagation equations for a two-level model under consideration, the most advantageous Gaussian profile is determined as the Whitley mode radius to obtain a high-gain and a low-noise figure per unit length of silica-based fiber amplifiers. The effects of the number of ions per cluster and the percentage of ions in clusters on the calculated gain and noise figure are compared for several pump powers. Results are discussed to achieve a desired gain and noise figure performance, and compared with the available experimental data to verify the feasibility of the model.


Jason Robillard has been doing ultramarathons for many years, and started advocating for barefoot running before it was cool and is considered an authority on it. In this guide, he teaches trail-running newbies and experienced marathoners essential survival skills and tips for running long distances: how to run in snow, ice, and mud; how to cross large streams of water; what to do when you have to go number 2 on mile 30 of a 50-mile run; preparing for trouble (building a fire, surviving in the heat and cold); running in thunderstorms. The book is written with an irreverent sense of humor and touches on topics that many running books don't get into. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports--books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes and sports enthusiasts, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.


The Information Systems around patents are complex, their study coupled with a creative vision of "out of the box", overcomes the strict basic functions of the patent. We have, on several occasions, guiding research around the patent solely-based on information, since the writing of new patents; invalidation of existing patents, the creation of value-added information and their links to other Information Systems. The traditional R&D based on heavy investments is one type of technology transfer. But, patent information is also, another powerful tool of technology transfer, innovation and creativity. Indeed, conduct research on the patent, from an academic viewpoint, although not always focusing only on financial revenue, can be considered as a form of "Non Practicing Entities" (NPE) activity, called rightly or wrongly "Patent Trolls". We'll see why the term "patent troll" for this activity is controversial and inappropriate. The research we will describe in this paper falls within this context. We show two case studies of efficient use of patent information in Emerging countries, the first concern the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil and the second, the oil industry in Algeria.


The aim of the present study was to compare graft survival and patient survival
between diabetic and non-diabetic patients in the Imam Khomeini Hospital Transplant Center, during
the years 2001 to 2011.
Materials & Methods: This study was a retrospective cohort study. We used Kaplan-Meier test to
calculate the patient and graft survival and t-test to compare continuous variables, Fisher exact test and
x2 test to compare categorical data.
Results: The mean duration of follow-up in patients with diabetes and nondiabetes was 37.09 ±53.15
and 34.49 ±62 months. five and 10 year patient survival rate among diabetic patients were 79 and
74.29%, while among non-diabetic patients were 89.28 and 81.01%, respectively. Five and 10 year
graft survival rate among diabetic patients were 80 and 59.04%, respectively, and among non-diabetic
patients were 84.35 and 77%.
Conclusion: In this study, patient survival rate in diabetic and non-diabetics were significantly
different (p=0/000), indicating the need for follow-up and ongoing management of diabetes after
transplantation. There was no significant difference between graft survival rate in diabetic patients
(p=0.243). The results showed transplantation is the best trapotic choice for diabetic patients.


The alarming rise in rates of Alzheimer's disease indicates that there is an immediate need for a solution. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014) Alzheimer's is currently the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Over 400,000 new cases are diagnosed each year and these numbers are only expected to rise (Centers for Disease Control, [CDC] 2014). One out of nine people are living with the disease and 84,000 people succumb to this disease every year in America; currently there is no cure or direct treatment plan for the disease (Alzheimer's Association, [AA] 2010; National Institute on Aging, [NIH] 2015). These numbers are very significant; almost a quarter of the population diagnosed dies every year. Being that Alzheimer's is a leading cause of death, its presence cannot be ignored. The lack of a cure encourages researchers to seek out protective interventions in order to decrease the risk of developing the disease in later life. The purpose of this study will be to assess the effect of physical activity in middle adulthood on delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease. This study will identify trends in ongoing physical lifestyle activities that reduce the entire population's chance of developing the disease in later life. This will contribute to previous research by focusing on prevention to reduce risk of cognitive decline and implementing a suggested intervention for middleaged adults that will decrease the likelihood of Alzheimer's being developed and help to delay the progression.


Political parties change their policy positions throughout the course of an election campaign. They reinforce some of their campaign statements by articulating them more prominently while simultaneously downplaying other issues that may harm their election results. Party statements in the media and the framing of the statements by the media are at the centre of election campaigns. The most promising way to assess the clarity and consistency of party-provided messages is a media content analysis. In this working paper, we introduce new data sets on ideological cohesion and ambiguity of party positions in the media coverage of nine European countries. The data sets are divided in different aspects: (i) parties talking about themselves; (ii) parties talking about other parties; (iii) journalists talking about parties. Each of these data sets further distinguishes between three different kinds of information: (i) party/journalist talking about an issue area; (ii) party/journalist talking about the valence of that issue area; (iii) party/journalist talking about general valence characteristics, such as the competence or performance of party leaders. These measures of party campaign contents, differentiating between policy-centred and leader-centred campaigns and media framing, may serve as a basis for several future studies focusing on election campaigns and media impact in a cross-national way.


BACKGROUND
Little is known about the impact of episodic treatment of herpes on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1).

METHODS
Women from Ghana and the Central African Republic who had genital ulcers were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of acyclovir plus antibacterials and were monitored for 28 days. Ulcer etiologies and detection of lesional HIV-1 RNA were determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Cervicovaginal HIV-1 RNA and herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) DNA and plasma HIV-1 RNA were quantitated by real-time PCR. Primary analyses included 118 HIV-1-infected women with HSV-2 ulcers (54 of whom were given acyclovir and 64 of whom were given placebo).

RESULTS
Acyclovir had little impact on (1) detection of cervicovaginal HIV-1 RNA (risk ratio [RR], 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8-1.2) at day 7 of treatment, (2) the mean cervicovaginal HIV-1 RNA load (-0.06 log(10) copies/mL; 95% CI, -0.4 to 0.3 log(10) copies/mL) at day 7 of treatment, or (3) the plasma HIV-1 RNA load (+0.09 log(10) copies/mL; 95% CI, -0.1 to 0.3 log(10) copies/mL) at day 14 of treatment. At day 7, women receiving acyclovir were less likely to have detectable lesional HIV-1 RNA (RR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.4-1.2) or cervicovaginal HSV-2 DNA (RR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.4-1.3), had a lower quantity of HSV-2 DNA (-0.99 log(10) copies/mL; 95% CI, -1.8 to -0.2 log(10) copies/mL), and were more likely to have a healed ulcer (RR, 1.26; 95% CI, 0.9-1.9).

CONCLUSION
Episodic therapy for herpes reduced the quantity of cervicovaginal HSV-2 DNA and slightly improved ulcer healing, but it did not decrease genital and plasma HIV-1 RNA loads.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00158483 .


Objective: To investigate the reliability and validity of a modified self-rated version of the ADL taxonomy targeting personal activities of daily living (P-ADL) for people with Parkinson's disease (PD).Background: People with PD develop ADL-difficulties early on. There is a need for a reliable and valid self-administered questionnaire targeting P-ADL.Methods: A postal survey was sent to 282 non-demented persons with PD; 191 responded of whom 158 (mean±SD age 70±9 years, 41% women, duration of disease 6±5.5 years) answered all items of the following questionnaires: the P-ADL taxonomy, the Parkinson's disease Activities of Daily Living Scale (PADLS), the Visual Analogue Scale of the EuroQoL-5-Dimensions Questionnaire (EQ-5DVAS), as well as demographic questions. The P-ADL taxonomy was analysed regarding corrected item-total correlations, reliability (Cronbach's alpha) and floor/ceiling effects; Spearman's rho (rs) was used to explore external validity relative to the PADLS and EQ-5D-VAS.Results: Item-total correlations were above 0.5 and Cronbach's alpha was 0.98. Floor effect was 15% and there was no ceiling effect. The P-ADL taxonomy correlated 0.75 with the PADLS and -0.63 with the EQ-5D VAS.Conclusions: In this PD sample, the modified and selfadministered version of the P-ADL taxonomy showed satisfying reliability and validity; these findings suggest a promising potential for use in clinical practice and research.


"Why am I talking to you about May '68?", asked the children's publisher Arthur Hubschmid at a conference in 2005, "well, it changed things for us radically, that's why". The years around May '68 are widely understood to have marked an important moment for children's literature, particularly picturebooks, in France. The late 1960s to the late 1970s are typically portrayed as a period of renewal, even revolution, in the ways people conceptualised children's picturebooks, which led to great experimentation and ebullition in the genre. Some even speak of the "May '68 of children's books". This essay argues that the visual transformation, and change in status of picturebooks, were also the product of a wider, political debate around children's books, and that we should take seriously the role of '68 in this narrative. Thus far, 68 has been a neat shorthand for scholars to paint these years as so exciting that even children's publishers could be hippie rebels. This period, I will argue, can also tell us a lot more about the history of the child in the cultural rebellions of the sixties, and how children and their culture became caught up in postwar social and cultural ideals and their counter cultural response. At the same time, understood as a form of cultural politics, the '68 of children's picturebooks provides a telling and distinct example of the different effects of '68.


Harry S. Truman's foreign policy on Palestine was presented from his entry into the White House in April, 1945 to de facto recognition of the State of Israel in May, 1948. A chronological presentation of the materials found in the Truman Papers, Department of State Bulletins, United Nations records, and New York Times, was followed except to bring harmony of presentation on a particular point of view or incident. Truman had humanitarian motives in mind for the displaced Jews of Europe while public opinion and a desire for votes made it possible for implementing a Jewish Homeland. The Harrison report led Truman to request the British Government to bring about the immigration of 100,000 Jews into Palestine. In an attempt to find a just solution, Britain and the United States formed the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry to investigate the situation. Truman, led by American public opinion and Congress to help the Jews, moved further into the Zionist position. Britain then turned the problem over to the United States, and Truman moved to the support of public opinion and created the State of Israel. Thus Truman in an attempt to solve the European refugee problem created the State of Israel as a refuge for European Jews, as a bulwark against communism in the Near East, as an important strategic and economic state in the Near East favoring the West, and as an attempt to fill a vacuum created by the termination of the British Mandate, all at the expense of Arab-American friendship.


In this article, we focus on designing an algorithm, named AdaBoostSVM, using SVM as weak learners for AdaBoost. To obtain a set of effective SVM weak learners, this algorithm adaptively adjusts the kernel parameter in SVM instead of using a fixed one. Compared with the existing AdaBoost methods, the AdaBoostSVM has advantages of easier model selection and better generalization performance. It also provides a possible way to handle the over-fitting problem in AdaBoost. An improved version called Diverse AdaBoostSVM is further developed to deal with the accuracy/diversity dilemma in Boosting methods. By implementing some parameter adjusting strategies, the distributions of accuracy and diversity over these SVM weak learners are tuned to achieve a good balance. To the best of our knowledge, such a mechanism that can conveniently and explicitly balances this dilemma has not been seen in the literature. Experimental results demonstrated that both proposed algorithms achieve better generalization performance than AdaBoost using other kinds of weak learners. Benefiting from the balance between accuracy and diversity, the Diverse AdaBoostSVM achieves the best performance. In addition, the experiments on unbalanced data sets showed that the AdaBoostSVM performed much better than SVM.


Abstract
This thesis comprises of a collection of essays that aim at enhancing our under-
standing of the underlying mechanics of leniency policies in antitrust.
In Chapter 1, we provide a systematic overview of the most in�uential contribu-
tions to the literature on collusion and leniency policies, with a focus on antitrust
law. The survey elucidates the e¤ects of leniency programmes on cartel formation
and cartel implementation.
In Chapter 2, we provide a model to investigate the impact of a leniency pro-
gramme on collusive �rms�incentives to keep or destroy hard incriminating evi-
dence. We show that �rms may willfully keep the hard evidence to facilitate the
implementation of the cartel. Firms are more inclined to keep the hard evidence
when a leniency programme is available. Finally, �rms are more likely to destroy
the hard evidence when the collusive pro�ts-�ne ratio increases.
In Chapter 3, we study the strategic interaction between a cartel and an an-
titrust authority whose evidence against the cartel is private information. Within
the framework of a signalling game, we explore the antitrust authority�s incentives
to reveal the strength of its evidence, before committing to its prosecutorial e¤ort.
We show that, despite its potentially feeble evidence, the antitrust authority
can exploit its informational lead and induce the cartel to self-report at an earlier
stage of the prosecutorial process. The more generous the leniency programme,
the easier it is to induce self-reporting by the cartel.
In Chapter 4, we provide a model to characterize the optimal leniency pro-
gramme when colluding �rms can invest resources to avoid detection. We show
that the optimal �ne discount rate depends positively on the severity of the �ne
and negatively on the probability of investigation and the cost of avoidance ac-
tivities. A leniency programme that ignores �rms�e¤orts to avoid detection may
result in under-deterrence.


The dugong (Dugong dugon) is a vulnerable marine mammal with large populations living in urban Queensland waters. A mark-recapture program for wild dugongs has been ongoing in southern Queensland since 2001. This program has involved capture and in-water sampling of more than 700 dugongs where animals have been held at the water surface for 5 min to be gene-tagged, measured, and biopsied. In 2008, this program expanded to examine more comprehensively body condition, reproductive status, and the health of wild dugongs in Moreton Bay. Using Sea World's research vessel, captured dugongs were lifted onto a boat and sampled out-of-water to obtain accurate body weights and morphometrics, collect blood and urine samples for baseline health parameters and hormone profiles, and ultrasound females for pregnancy status. In all, 30 dugongs, including two pregnant females, were sampled over 10 d and restrained on deck for up to 55 min each while biological data were collected. Each of the dugongs had their basic temperature-heart rate-respiration (THR) monitored throughout their period of handling, following protocols developed for the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus). This paper reports on the physiological response of captured dugongs during this out-of-water operation as indicated by their vital signs and the suitability of the manatee monitoring protocols to this related sirenian species. A recommendation is made that the range of vital signs of these wild dugongs be used as benchmark criteria of normal parameters for other studies that intend to sample dugongs out-of-water.


These self-portraits explore the artist's changing conception of self by presenting the self as a mutable entity without an essential core. The works also function as an index of the artist's self-image, which spans a wide range of moods, emotions and dispositions. Love Me is characterized by bold, emotive phantasmagorias that explore the artist as a monstrous entity, a beast motivated by primal drives and appetites. Self Portrait 1-3 also induces a primordial resonance through its references to tribal art. These sculptures present the artist as an idol or effigy with mystical properties. This particular investigation into the artistic self references the inflated artistic ego, and role it plays in giving the artist special, almost shamanic, powers. Self-Portrait comprises of drawings manipulated to produce a video animation that tracks the artist's perception of himself over a period of three years. This work reveals an ongoing interrogation of the relationship between self and artistic personae, which is evident in the animation that dramatizes the connections between the artist's paintings and drawings.


Cloud computing challenges existing regulatory paradigms in a variety of ways. This paper, which differentiates among cloud services, services hosted on cloud platforms and 'cloud-enhanced' services delivered with the aid of cloud-based storage, processing and other functions, seeks to identify and analyse challenges to existing regulation arising from the spread of cloud and cloud-hosted services and areas where new regulatory intervention may be necessary (especially to meet the competition and consumer protection obligations of telecommunications regulators). The paper further tries to distinguish between problems specific to the cloud (e.g. the IPR issues associated with content-matching for cloud-hosted content) and those that are simply more noticeable or less tractable there (e.g. issues of data location). The first part of the paper develops a framework for analysing these issues, taking into account i) cloud features (e.g. service, contractual and deployment models, B2B vs. B2C offerings); ii) specific mechanisms for creating or preventing citizen, consumer and competitive harm; and iii) regulatory mechanisms or relations (ex ante/ex post, rule- or principle-based, competition vs. utility). The regulatory issues can be divided among: a) bypass (where regulated activity escapes regulation by going 'via the cloud'); b) direct regulation (of cloud services); and c) indirect regulation (e.g. regulation of cloud-hosted services or use of telecom or direct cloud regulation to address issues arising in cloud-hosted or 'cloud-enhanced' services. The analysis identifies (for European telecom regulators) whether the issues require an extension of the existing mandate or duties and whether they are likely to be transitional (solved by market developments) or amenable to self- or co-regulation. This framework is populated by an inventory of issues and recommendations regarding such specific cases as customer mobility, data location and migration and the telecom regulatory implications of communications-as-a-service.The inventory of policy issues is divided between regulatory concerns arising from the statutory duties of telecoms regulators and implementation issues arising from the distributed and internationally peripatetic nature of the cloud. However, it raises more questions than it answers; while Section 4.2 indicates some areas where existing justifications for regulatory intervention can be applied to the cloud and Section 4.3 discusses how regulation may or may not work, it is useful to consider whether distributed and delocalised computing as a service calls for a reconsideration of the regulatory heritage of communications and/or broadcast content distribution.To partially address, this, the final section provides a prolegomena to an alternative theoretical analysis. It concentrates on economic regulation of cloud services, specifically cloud platform competition and neutrality. To the extent that computational services complement many forms of economic activity, it may be necessary to revise fundamental assumptions regarding market identification, quantification of market power and the appropriate locus of liability (whether regulatory or contractual). This is most obvious for location-based issues but applies as well to linkage between or potential conflict among different competition and consumer protection regulations. For instance, exclusive and transferable IPR protection for content or cloud-hosted applications may need to be recast in shared or networked cloud environments. It may be necessary to devise new forms of protection for economically-valuable personal, proprietary or private data, or at least to reconcile existing tensions between economic vs. fundamental rights and between individual and collective rights. As a final example, quality of service is important both to the efficiency of cloud service markets and to their contribution to the economy as a whole; the very different ways service and platform providers and different classes of users experience quality should engender new contract forms and mechanisms for matching parties and monitoring and enforcing contracts; but these have been slow to develop. The paper suggests extending the conventional two-sided markets approach (viewing public cloud providers as platforms) to differentiate e.g. situations where:• value is derived from a specific matching or relationship among individual users and service providers;• the value of participation for players on one side depends on an aggregate (e.g. distribution or number) of those on the other side or – eventually – the dynamic topology of their networked interaction; and• users and their demands and service providers and their outputs migrate from one platform to another – and where, in consequence, the layered network structure is critical to market structure and performance. This analysis can identify the implications of different deployment strategies, 'freemium' and pay-or-play models and predatory or collusive use of the cloud and cloud-based resources. Specifically, the value of engagement with (through) the cloud should be treated as a real option based on the totality of content and services available. From this, it is possible to derive the technical, allocational and innovation efficiency consequences or various market regimes and business models and to assess stakeholders' incentives to invest in shareable resources (including telecom infrastructures) and the platform operator or hosted developers' willingness to provide risk-management services (e.g. privacy as a service, processing of encrypted material). This naturally raises the issue of cloud neutrality as a generalisation of net or platform neutrality. While we remain convinced that the 'right kind' of differentiation is potentially valuable – or even essential to provision of certain services at particular stages of development – we feel that it is also valuable to consider the effects on cloud services of 'net neutrality' regulation binding on ISPs and the potential effects of more extensive 'cloud neutrality' regulation. This is a very broad topic; the discussion here is limited to quality of service discrimination (specifically latency) with reference to some promising specific application areas: algorithmic or high-frequency computer-based financial trading; supply chain data repositories; app ecosystems; and privacy of action and computational communication.


Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is an acquired GPI deficiency caused by somatic mutation of the PIGA gene in one or several hematopoietic stem cells. Recently, PNH caused by somatic mutation of one allele of the PIGT gene in combination with a germline mutation of the other allele was reported, showing that PIGA is not the only gene responsible for PNH, though other causes are rare. These mutant cells become GPI deficient, expand clonally and differentiate into all of the hematopoietic lineages. When GPI deficient erythrocytes increase in proportion, massive hemolysis occurs due to activated complement attack during infection. As the complement regulatory proteins such as CD59 and DAF are GPI anchored proteins, they are defective on GPI deficient erythrocytes and these abnormal erythrocytes are thereby left unprotected from complement attack. Hemolytic anemia, venous thrombosis, and bone marrow failure are thus the resulting triad of symptoms. Clonal expansion does not occur with PIGA deficiency alone. We hypothesize that PIGA deficient cells acquire a proliferative phenotype via additional gene mutations within the associated environment of bone marrow failure. This hypothesis will be explained by introducing recent reports.


Clothing damage analysis is a field in which the examination of stab cuts to clothing can reveal information about the stabbing implement and the actions used to cause such damage. This is particularly useful where the victim of the stabbing is still alive or when the deceased is in an advanced state of decomposition. In both situations, wound examination would not be useful due to the evidence being compromised by natural processes. In cases where the body is severely decomposed, the clothing can be the only source of evidence remaining; however, it is possible that insect activity may compromise any stab cuts that may be present.
This study recreates the effect that a decomposing body might have on any fabric, by wrapping the damaged cotton fabric around meat, and allowing the meat to decompose for two weeks. The following factors were explored; the presence/absence of blood on the edges of the damage; and whether the stab cut is exposed to the air or is face-down in the soil.
It was observed that after one week, the edges of the stab cuts were worn with the effect being enhanced after two weeks. It was also observed that the presence of blood increased the amount of wear, as did the presence of meat. The visual observations were also supported by measuring the depth of fraying of the edges of the stab cuts.


Background: Vision rehabilitation in elderly populations.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate potential factors affecting the visual quality and other parameters in the selection of appropriate intraocular lenses in cataract surgery for patients with senile cataract. In addition, we evaluated the type of intraocular lenses optimal for cataract surgeries in elderly patients and attempted to analyze the significance of visual rehabilitation without glasses to improve the quality-of-life of elderly patients who are unable to use glasses.

Method: We retrospectively investigated the records of 49 eyes from 49 patients who underwent cataract surgery for senile cataract during 2014–2015. Preoperative and postoperative pupil sizes were measured using The Oasis brand of pupillometer, and changes in the pupil size were statistically analyzed. Distribution of variables was analyzed using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. The Wilcoxon test was used for repeated measurements. Study data was analyzed using the SPSS 22.0 program.

Results: Of all patients, 32 were males and 17 were females (age, 48–81 years). A significant decrease in the pupil size was postoperatively noted (p < 0.05). The mean preoperative pupil size decreased to 4.1 ± 0.9 mm from 4.9 ± 1.0 mm during the first postoperative month.

Conclusion: Cataract is usually related to aging. Multifocal intraocular lenses (MIOLs) are not or only slightly affected by the pupil size and enable the elderly to meet their daily needs without depending on glasses and, thus, improve their quality-of-life after cataract surgery. Thus, we recommend MIOLs that function independent of pupil size as appropriate for cataract surgeries in elderly patients.


This cross-sectional study aimed to assess health providers' reported knowledge and practice competence regarding management of reproductive tract infections (RTIs) including sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Vientiane, Laos. All 272 health providers (medical doctors/assistants, midwives/nurses and drug sellers) working with RTI/STI patients in one urban and one rural district were invited to fill in a self-completed questionnaire including four written simulated case scenarios, and 93% participated in the study. Of 252 respondents, 34% scored below 50% regarding both the case scenarios and reported knowledge, and 87% gave inadequate advice regarding health education. Only 34% gave correct advice on contact tracing, 38% on counselling, 52% regarding compliance and 59% on condom promotion. Drug sellers scored lowest in all aspects of RTI/STI management. Urban respondents were more likely to report adequate knowledge. Continuous training in syndromic approach and supervision are recommended to improve the quality of RTI/STI management, particularly at private pharmacies and in rural areas.


National policies aimed at widening participation in higher education, together with financial pressures on universities and colleges to recruit internationally, have led to an increasingly diverse student population. However, the students at whom such policies tend to be aimed (often those from ethnic minorities) tend to achieve poorer results in UK universities both generally (Richardson, 2008) and specifically at the Open University (Richardson, 2009). This paper reports on a research project designed to investigate whether variations in students' writing skills might be responsible for the attainment gap between White and ethnic minority students (Erling, 2009).
Through this research, we aim to create a space where language and subject specialists collaborate to identify the type of language that is valued by assessors in a particular discipline and then to identify together to what extent students produce this language. The initial research process combined textual analysis with ethnographic investigation and was carried out by means of the MASUS procedure (Measuring the Academic Skills of University Students) (Bonnano and Jones 1997). The ethnographic dimension of the research involved the researchers familiarising themselves with course materials, attending tutorials, discussing texts with subject specialists and conducting interviews with students.
The results of the textual analysis indicate that students' use of language correlates with attainment. They also indicate that ethnic minority students are more likely to be deemed as needing academic writing support in producing the genres expected in the OU's assignment criteria. The analysis generated detailed descriptions of the features of highly valued academic style.
The ethnographic methods give insight into the complex range of factors that contribute to students' success and feelings of belonging within the university as well as other (non-academic) interests and goals which students may have.


The mannose-binding lectin from snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis agglutinin; GNA) was produced in Escherichia coli and purified as a functional protein after denturation/renaturation. Incorporation of the four extra C-terminal residues recently revealed from X-ray crystallographic data demonstrated that these residues increase binding to the glycoprotein carboxypeptidase Y. However, no differences in activities were observed in haemagglutination assays when compared to native GNA and toxicity towards rice brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens', BPH) in artificial diet bioassays was unaltered. Site-directed mutagenesis of the carbohydrate-binding site of GNA provided evidence of a direct correlation between the binding potential of GNA to BPH gut glycoprotein 'receptors' and the toxicity levels of GNA towards BPH nymphs. Functional recombinant plant lectins GNA and PHA (Phaseolus vulgaris agglutinin) were expressed in Pichia pastoris using native signal peptides or the Saccharomyces a-factor prepro-sequence to direct secretion. The a-factor prepro-sequence was inefficiently processed unless Glu-Ala repeats were added at the C-terminal end. In the latter case, removal of the Glu-Ala repeats was itself inefficient leading to recombinant lectins with heterogenous N-termini. In contrast, PHA expressed with the native signal peptide was secreted, correctly processed and fully functional. No expression of GNA from a construct containing the native GNA signal peptide was observed. The PHA-E signal peptide directed correct processing and secretion of both GNA and green fluorescent protein (GFP) when used in expression constructs in Pichia. A fusion protein containing both GNA and GFP (GNA-GFP) was expressed in Pichia pastoris. Simultaneous dual activities (i.e. carbohydrate binding and fluorescence) of recombinant GNA-GFP were demonstrated. Partial cleavage in the linker region resulted in co-purification of GNA which increased the binding activity of the fusion protein. Selective binding of GNA-GFP to haemocytes in the haemolymph of Lacanobia oleracea was observed, both in vitro and when the protein was fed to insects in diet.


This document describes the MRT format for routing information export.
This format was developed in concert with the Multi-threaded Routing
Toolkit (MRT) from whence the format takes it name. The format can be
used to export routing protocol messages, state changes, and routing
information base contents.


1. It has been shown that a single large bipolar nerve cell in the subumbrella epithelium of Aurellia is necessary and sufficient to conduct the contraction wave across a narrow bridge from one part of the bell to another. 2. This nerve impulse is accompanied by an electrical impulse of the kind usually recorded from the nerves of higher animals. 3. These nerve cells are concerned only with the excitation leading to a contraction wave. There must be other pathways for other transmitted excitation.


This Article calls attention to a difference between the implementation of state statutes and the implementation of federal statutes. When a state legislature enacts a statute, the state's courts naturally draw upon overarching doctrines of unwritten law to handle various questions that intersect with the statute but that the statute does not specifically address. Courts tend to think of those doctrines as operating directly rather than through incorporation into each individual statute. Especially after Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, however, the federal Supreme Court has felt pressure to adopt a different way of thinking about the interaction between federal statutes and the unwritten law. Erie raised the possibility that if a particular question lay beyond a federal statute's domain, judges might have to handle it according to a single state's version of the unwritten law. That result sometimes seemed inappropriate: there were certain questions that Congress was not in the habit of addressing, but that nonetheless seemed to have a federal character when they arose in connection with the implementation of a federal statute. To solve this potential problem, the Supreme Court began reading federal statutes to encompass various questions that might once have been thought to lie beyond their domains, and that were still thought to lie beyond the domains of analogous state statutes. This solution has continued to the present day. As a result, the Supreme Court routinely uses the rubric of statutory interpretation to handle questions that state courts treat as matters of unwritten law.To illustrate this phenomenon, the Article contrasts the choice-of-law doctrines that state courts use to determine the applicability of their own state's statutes with the "presumption against extraterritoriality" that the Supreme Court uses to answer the same question in connection with federal statutes. After exploring this contrast in detail, the Article surveys an array of additional examples that share a similar structure.The practical consequences of shoehorning general legal questions into the domains of individual federal statutes depend on the interpretive techniques that courts proceed to use to answer those questions. If courts hew closely to the literal language of the relevant statute, they may reach dramatically different results than traditional principles of unwritten law would suggest. Those differences will be muted if courts instead read individual federal statutes as implicitly incorporating background principles of unwritten law, or if courts develop canons of construction that approximate the same ideas. But even when courts use one of these latter techniques, the mechanism through which principles of unwritten law operate can have subtle but significant effects.


The transition to a digital, knowledge-based economy has seemingly
thrown the study of industrial spatial strategy into disarray: theory
rooted in the analysis of material flows appears insufficient for the study
of informational ones. However, this work will argue that many of the
basic, historical aspects of firm location identified by the pioneers of
spatial analysis remain profoundly relevant today because these enable
us to place the modern firm in an appropriate spatial and economic
context. We may then combine these fundamental insights with more
recent work on infrastructure flexibility, transactions, types of knowledge,
and the importance of face-to-face interaction to flesh out a
portrait of industrial location in the telecommunications age.
Direct evidence of these strategies in action has been difficult to
collect because so many of the inputs to, outputs from, and interactions
between firms are invisible. Moreover, traditional social science
approaches to data collection and analysis are unable to cope with the
flood of information that characterises advanced service economies.
The direct study of telecommunications data promises a new and massively
scalable way to visualise and explore these crucial connections,
but as yet there is little consensus on how to approach such data.
Using very large, but fine-grained data sets from a major British
telecommunications company and a large American telecommunications
company, and drawing upon the 'eigenplace' methodology
developed in collaboration with Francesco Calabrese of the SENSEable City Lab at M.I.T. (Reades et al., 2009; Calabrese et al., 2010), this work
explores the extent to which telecommunications flows—in terms of
their timing, volume, and geography—can be correlated with firm location
and industrial clustering. The finding of industrial 'signatures' in
telecommunications data provides evidence of informational strategies
at work, and sheds light on the likely future shape of urban and regional
economies.


Cardiac alternans is an important risk factor in cardiac physiology, and is related to the initiation of arrhythmia in a number of pathological conditions. However, the mechanisms underlying the generation of alternans remain unclear. In this study, we used a population of computational models of human ventricular electrophysiology based on the O'Hara-Rudy dynamic model to explore the effect of 11 key factors experimentally reported to be related to cardiac alternans. In vivo experimental datasets obtained from patients undergoing cardiac surgery were used in the calibration of an in silico population of models. The calibrated models in the population were divided into two groups (Normal and Alternans) depending on the occurrence of the alternans. Our results showed that there were significant differences in the following 6 ionic currents between the two groups: the fast sodium current, the L-type calcium current, the rapid delayed rectifier potassium current, the sodium calcium exchanger current, the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) calcium release flux, and the SR calcium reuptake flux.


A p-tert-butylphenyl substituted 4H-dithieno[2,3-b:3′,2′-e][1,4]thiazine was synthesized by twofold Buchwald–Hartwig coupling. The electronic properties (UV/Vis, cyclic voltammetry and spectroelectrochemistry) and the DFT- and TD DFT-calculated electronic structure reveal that the parent system and the radical cation and dication oxidation products are highly polarizable π-systems with strong charge transfer contributions. The radical cation and the dication were prepared by oxidation with antimony(V) pentachloride, giving stable deeply colored salts. EPR spectroscopy of the radical cation furnishes hyperfine coupling constants with the nitrogen nucleus and the α-thienyl protons. The dication is EPR silent and was structurally characterized by recording an NMR spectrum.


People living with cancer may experience both psychological distress and a sense of personal development. These two responses can be conceptualised using theories of post-traumatic stress (PTS) and post-traumatic growth (PTG), respectively. This hospice-based study investigated the range of experiences of people living with advanced cancer and of their partners, with consideration of how theories of PTS and PTG resonated with their accounts. Strategic sampling (n=11) was used to gather data from eight individuals living with advanced cancer and from three individuals caring for someone with the diagnosis. Q methodology was used to investigate the participants' subjective experiences. A set of 62 statements, informed by theories of trauma, were sorted by the participants according to the extent to which the individual statements were consistent with their personal experiences of living with cancer. The participants were then interviewed about their Q sorts, to consider the personal meanings that had informed their statement rankings. The Q sort data were factor analysed, and theories of PTS and PTG were used to aid the interpretation of four differing viewpoints: "Accepting and Growing," "Fearful yet Adapting," "Resigned and Grieving" and "Traumatised." These different expressions of the positive and negative feelings associated with living with advanced cancer are considered in relation to professional healthcare provision. The study recommends that future research involve a broader sample of individuals, including patients not accessing hospice care, the partners of this population and cancer healthcare professionals.


This study contributes to a meso (industry)-level understanding of the changing complexity of the general appropriability conditions in the digital era on the one hand, and the role of IPRs in that (appropriability) on the other hand, through a study of an industry sector – the Swedish video (computer) games industry – where digital distribution prevails and IPRs are important (copyrights in derivative works; trademarks in game titles).Combining analyses on EPO patent data, EUIPO trademark data, firm-level interviews and survey data, this study firstly identifies a paradoxical development: on the one hand, there is a clear digital take-off of IPRs' propensity, namely firms tend to be more active in registering trademarks and valuing their copyrights (firm size and technological platform matter though). On the other hand, the digital traits – digitally induced high levels of interactivities (between supply and demand) and the digital division of a product (in provisions) – provide strong protections (to the innovation) from a technical standpoint, which offsets the importance of IPRs. Then what are IPRs for, in a technologically tight appropriability regime? This study further identifies that the increase of the importance of IPRs is not derived from IPRs' protection function, but from their signalling function. In the digital era, new products easily disappear in the digital crowd, and IPRs can act as an important remedy by signalling the origin and quality of products as well as new innovations. This study provides a snapshot of the digital complexity pertinent to the issue of appropriability.


Veiling is considered a religious obligation among Muslim women. With respect to veil there are certain Ayat in the Holy Quran (saying of Almighty Allah) as well as Ahadith (saying of the Holy Prophet SAW) that confirmed veil as a religious obligation for Muslim women. For a long time Muslims ruled Indo-Pak Sub-continent influencing heavily on local society. Role of Sufia is another factor of the religious attitude of the people of the Pakistan.  But the slogan of modernization and imitation of the traditions of developed countries is a common issue now day that is spoiling the culture of non developed countries. As Pakistan is a country among those who remained a colony of the British who while leaving the region left behind some cultural elements that have been dominated in the society by the name of modernization and veil is one among these changing cultural aspects. Therefore, this study was designed to see the association of veil with religious obligation among university students in Pakistan.  The results of the study revealed that it has mixed trend towards the use of veil among university students in Pakistan. Key words: Veil, culture, religious obligation, the Holy Quran, modernization


In a Wireless Networked Control System (WNCS), several nodes or components of the system may communicate over the common network that connects them together. Thus, there may be communication taking place between the sensors and the controller nodes, among the controllers themselves, among the sensors themselves, among the actuator themselves, and between the controller and the actuator nodes. The purpose of this communication is to improve the performance of the control system. The performance may be a measurable quantity defined in terms of a performance criterion, as in the case of optimal control or estimation, or it may be a qualitative measure described as a desired behaviour.

Each node of the WNCS may act as a decision maker, making control as well as communication decisions. The presence of a network brings in constraints in the design of the control system, as information between the various decision makers must be exchanged according to the rules and dynamics of the network. Our goal is to quantify some of these constraints, and design the control system together with the communication system so as both do their best given the constraints. This work in no way attempts to suggest the best way to design a communication network that suits the needs of a particular control system, but some of the results obtained here may be used in conjunction with other results in forming an understanding as to how to proceed in the design of such systems in the future.

The work proposes a novel real-time communication protocol based on the Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) strategy, which has built-in tolerance against the network-induced effects like lost packets, assuring a highly deterministic and reliable behaviour of the overall networked control system, thus allowing the use of classical control design methods with WNCS. Determinism in the transmission times, for sending and for receiving, is assured by a communication schedule that is dynamically updated based on the conditions of the network and the propagation environment.

An advanced experimentation platform has been developed, called WiNC, which demonstrates the efficiency of the protocol with two well-known laboratory benchmarks that have very different dynamics, namely the three-tank system and the inverted pendulum system. Wireless nodes belonging to both systems are coordinated and synchronized by a master node, namely the controller node.

The WiNC platform uses only open source software and general-purpose (commercial, off-the shelf) hardware, thus making it with a minimal investment (low cost) a flexible and easily extendable research platform for WNCS. And considering the general trend towards the adoption of Linux as a real-time operating system for embedded system in automation, the developed concepts and algorithms can be ported with minimum effort to the industrial embedded devices which already run Linux.


The task of weakly supervised temporal sentence grounding aims at finding the corresponding temporal moments of a language description in the video, given video-language correspondence only at video-level. Most existing works select mismatched video-language pairs as negative samples and train the model to generate better positive proposals that are distinct from the negative ones. However, due to the complex temporal structure of videos, proposals distinct from the negative ones may correspond to several video segments but not necessarily the correct ground truth. To alleviate this problem, we propose an uncertainty-guided self-training technique to provide extra self-supervision signal to guide the weakly-supervised learning. The self-training process is based on teacher-student mutual learning with weak-strong augmentation, which enables the teacher network to generate relatively more reliable outputs compared to the student network, so that the student network can learn from the teacher's output. Since directly applying existing self-training methods in this task easily causes error accumulation, we specifically design two techniques in our selftraining method: (1) we construct a Bayesian teacher network, leveraging its uncertainty as a weight to suppress the noisy teacher supervisory signals; (2) we leverage the cycle consistency brought by temporal data augmentation to perform mutual learning between the two networks. Experiments demonstrate our method's superiority on Charades-STA and ActivityNet Captions datasets. We also show in the experiment that our self-training method can be applied to improve the performance of multiple backbone methods.


One important goal of black-box complexity theory is the development of complexity models allowing to derive meaningful lower bounds for whole classes of randomized search heuristics. Complementing classical runtime analysis, black-box models help us understand how algorithmic choices such as the population size, the variation operators, or the selection rules influence the optimization time. One example for such a result is the Ω(n log n) lower bound for unary unbiased algorithms on functions with a unique global optimum [Lehre/Witt, GECCO 2010], which tells us that higher arity operators or biased sampling strategies are needed when trying to beat this bound. In lack of analyzing techniques, almost no non-trivial bounds are known for other restricted models. Proving such bounds therefore remains to be one of the main challenges in black-box complexity theory. With this paper we contribute to our technical toolbox for lower bound computations by proposing a new type of information-theoretic argument. We regard the permutation- and bit-invariant version of LeadingOnes and prove that its (1+1) elitist black-box complexity is Ω(n2), a bound that is matched by (1+1)-type evolutionary algorithms. The (1+1) elitist complexity of LeadingOnes is thus considerably larger than its unrestricted one, which is known to be of order n log log n [Afshani et al., 2013].


The use of the blast-wave analogy, as an aid to the interpretation of experimental data on the motion of a fluid past an obstacle at hypersonic speeds, has led to the theoretical study of its role in an asymptotic expansion of the solution to the governing equations at large distances downstream of the body. In all attempts to set up such an expansion it has proved necessary to divide the flow régime into two parts, an outer part dominated by the blast wave and an inner part consisting of streamlines which, originally, pass close by the body. The matching of these two regions is apparently only possible if a certain integral vanishes. In the present paper a numerical integration, in one particular set of circumstances, is carried out to test the validity of the asymptotic expansion proposed. Formally, an unsteady problem is tackled, for ease of computation, but the steady analogue follows immediately and is of exactly the form discussed in the earlier investigations. It is found that the main results are in line with the theory and that the integral in question is indistinguishable from zero. However, a deeper investigation of the asymptotic expansion shows that, for an expansion of the type envisaged, an infinite set of integrals must each vanish. The next integral does not appear to be zero according to our computations but this result is not believed to be conclusive. Assuming that all the integrals do vanish, then it appears that the inner layer, which although inviscid, has many of the characteristics of a viscous boundary layer, has the additional, surprising property that it can exert no direct influence on the outer flow at large distances downstream of the body.


Following a decade-and-a-half stall, fertility in Rwanda dropped sharply between 2005 and 2010. Using a hierarchical age-period-cohort model, this paper finds that the drop in fertility is largely driven by cohort effects, with younger cohorts having substantially fewer children than older cohorts observed at the same age. An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition is applied on two successive rounds of the Demographic and Health Survey. The findings show that improved female education levels account for the largest part of the fertility decline, with improving household living standards and the progressive move toward non-agricultural employment being important secondary drivers. The drop in fertility has been particularly salient for the younger cohorts, for whom the fertility decline can be fully explained by changes in underlying determinants, most notably the large increase in educational attainment between 2005 and 2010.


Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory is a popular model used to explain the adoption of new technologies and to analyze the movement of innovations as they spread through a population. In the changed security environment since September 11th, 2001 (9/11), DOI becomes especially relevant. This systematic literature review offers synthesized findings on how controversy impacts the DOI process by looking to existing literature to discuss barriers, incentives, and lessons learned. Results demonstrated a diverse landscape of articles addressing controversial adoption; specifically, we see potential solutions; barriers, including a lack of transparency and limited accessibility for public assessment and dialogue before implementation; and incentives offered to adopters beyond benefits associated with the core function of the new technology itself. Finally, suggestions are provided in the area of future research, including the need for specific research to supplement and validate many of the findings from the larger field of DOI studies.


As I come to the end of my three-year stint as the President of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa, I look back and count my many blessings for the privilege afforded me to lead such an organisation. I give thanks to God for blessing me with the privilege of being of service to my fellow colleagues. By the time you read this, we will have met at Emperor's Place, Kempton Park, to deliberate the metamorphosis of our profession. Hopefully, we will turn out to be an extraordinarily beautiful butterfly. With the dedication and hard work of so many of you and the enthusiasm of young pharmacists and students, I have no doubt that we will turn into a beautiful butterfly: the end of the beginning of a new life for pharmacy.


This paper presents a case study of cracks and fractures in buildings in Lobatse in southeast Botswana on walls and floors of houses and on new roads. The worst cracking is on houses in Woodhall I and II townships built through the Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) programme, but other areas in town are affected. The average crack or fracture width is 10 mm, while the mode is 6 mm with a maximum width of 64 mm. Cracks are oriented in two principal directions: NE-SW and NWSE and large cracks trend NE-SW. The widths of the cracks were used to derive the severity and the rate of crack development because the severities of cracks ultimately affect the aesthetic appearance of the house, including its use and overall stability. All the visited homesteads in Woodhall I and II, more than 90% of them contained a cracked building, more than 85% of the cracks lengths were long; affecting the whole house and more than 20% of the cracks are classified as severe to very severe. Are the cracks caused by activities of far field stresses such as earthquakes, choice of building materials or is this a local phenomenon?


This article focuses on efforts to overcome the divide between state legality and local practices. It explores a pragmatic effort to deal with witchcraft accusations and occult-related violence in customary courts among the Miskitu people in Eastern Nicaragua, taking into account both indigenous notions of justice and cosmology, and the laws of the state. In this model, a community court (elected by the community inhabitants and supported by a council of elders), watchmen known as 'voluntary police' and a 'judicial facilitator' play intermediary roles. Witchcraft is understood and addressed in relation to Miskitu cultural perceptions and notions of illness afflictions, and disputes are settled through negotiations involving divination, healing, signing a legally binding 'peace' contract, a fine, and giving protection to alleged witches. This decreases tensions and the risk of vigilante justice is reduced. The focus is on settling disputes, conciliation and recreating harmony instead of retribution.


Abstract Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are known to exist in wild and domesticated animals, but little is know about behavioural defences that animals use to reduce the risk of acquiring STDs. Using comparative data and a phylogeny of primates, I investigated whether behaviours hypothesized to reduce STD transmission are correlated with measures of STD risk involving mating promiscuity and life-history traits. Comparative tests revealed no support for genital inspection as a means to identify and avoid infected individuals with genital inspection was performed more commonly by males than females and uncorrelated with mating promiscuity. Primate species characterized by increased promiscuity were not more likely to display genital self-grooming following mating. Similarly, males and females of these species were not more likely to urinate immediately after mating, counter to suggestions that urination flushes microorganisms from the urethra and surrounding genital areas. Finally, monogamy was not correlated with a slow life history, which differs from predictions that monogamy is a response to increased STD risk in long-lived animals. Tests involving monogamy remained unsupported after controlling for potentially confounding variables, and all tests yielded similar results in phylogenetic and nonphylogenetic tests. Few results were significant even before controlling statistically for multiple comparisons, but nonsignificance was unlikely due to low statistical power or poor data quality in all tests. Instead, the comparative patterns were consistent with theoretical models showing that precopulatory behavioural defences to STDs, such as mate choice, are unlikely to be fully effective. In addition, many putative behavioural defences to STDs in primates entail substantial fitness costs in terms of reproductive output, offspring quality and infanticide avoidance. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.


Innovative Intelligent Railways, In2Rail, is a European Horizon 2020 Project with the objective to enhance capacity, increase reliability and reduce Life Cycle Costs of European Railways. Bridges and Tunnels is the main focus in Work Package 4. The aim is to study, benchmark and further develop new Inspection Technologies in order to create more proactive maintenance procedures. In this paper some preliminary results are presented.


In analysing urban growth and change, economists assume that it makes little difference whether land or property is rented or owner-occupied. This paper argues that this is a false assumption, particularly in the case of housing. When property is rented the division between landlord and tenant separates the owner from the occupier. So if the demand for property in an area increases then landlords increase rents forcing renters to pay up or move. But for owner occupiers the increased demand increases the value of their property so that, as owners, they make a capital profit which cancels out the increased opportunity cost of occupying the property and significantly reduces, indeed virtually eliminates, the pressure to move. Thus owner occupation lengthens the adjustment process, possibly by decades. In theory, of course, they should move to downsize in order to readjust the risk element in their portfolio of investments, since they are now overinvested in housing. But they do not do this for a number of economic and psychological reasons which are developed in the paper building on ideas put forward in Evans (2004). So adjustment in the market depends on retirement or death and requires decades. In the meantime relative prices are out of equilibrium on a virtually permanent basis. One result, as in the Tokyo metropolitan area, may be increased sprawl. Another result, as in south east England, may be prices significantly higher than they would be otherwise as a large proportion of the older population continues to occupy properties that are unaffordable by younger families with similar incomes.


This paper contributes to the limited existing empirical evidence on assessing household participation in Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programmes in developing countries. We examine this issue for the case of the Sloping Land Conversion Programme (SLCP) in China, one of the largest PES schemes in the world, using household and village level data. Our analysis examines the determinants of both current and future participation in the SLCP and makes three key contributions. First, we show the importance of incorporating the influence of programme administrators in the observed participation outcome. Secondly, we use a novel latent class approach to account for heterogeneity in the determinants of the household decision over whether to sign up to a PES programme. Thirdly, the empirical analysis focuses on the impact of market imperfections that are prevalent in developing countries. We find significant differences between households with good access to markets and those facing market imperfections.


Automotive and avionics systems are complex, distributed, software-intensive systems-of-systems (SoS). Consequently, system integration is a central challenge in both domains. Important cross-cutting requirements aspects, such as security, authorization, and failure management, are best understood as properties of the interplay among sub-systems. Yet, traditional development processes address the integration challenge only late, at the level of implementation and deployment. Consequently, potentials for reuse within and across product lines are left unrealized. Furthermore, late integration leads to high calibration, configuration and redesign costs. Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) have emerged as a solution to the integration challenge. However, inappropriate application of SOA-principles results in a high degree of fragmentation and scattering of functionality-this leads to additional difficulties in requirements traceability and quality assurance. In this article, we give a comprehensive overview of these SOA-challenges, and present Rich Services as a hierarchical SOA blueprint and development process enabling SoS integration in a dependable way. Rich Services introduce services as hierarchical, partial interaction patterns; these interactions are then augmented with infrastructure elements to inject behaviors that address cross-cutting requirements aspects. Rich Services also seamlessly address the mapping from logical to deployment architectures. Using end-to-end failure management as an example, we illustrate the utility of Rich Services.


We exploit a targeted change in the health insurance offerings of a large employer to evaluate whether individuals are willing to pay more to keep their existing primary care doctor. Beginning in 2011, employees in one of the health insurance plans were given the option of choosing a new plan which had a lower premium in exchange for a more limited network of doctors. For individuals whose doctors were covered under both the old and new plans, we argue this new option strictly dominated, since all other aspects of insurance coverage remained identical and the option value of the larger network was close to zero. We use the choices of these employees to estimate the amount of non-switching due to inertia. Employees whose existing doctors were not covered under the new option had to decide whether to pay more to keep their current doctor. This setting allows us to identify the costs that individuals associate with switching doctors separately from inertia. We estimate that 22% of employees are initially inattentive and that 16% are inattentive a year later, even though they could save between $638 and $1,851 annually by switching to the new plan. A substantial fraction of individuals are willing to pay higher premiums to keep their doctor, even after controlling for inertia, with 35% of employees choosing to pay an average of over $100 extra per month to retain their doctors. These inertia and doctor switching costs vary by income, age, gender, family composition and prior health care utilization patterns. Our findings have important implications for the design of public and private health insurance offerings.


CONTEXT
The leg acts as a linear spring during running and hopping and adapts to the stiffness of the surface, maintaining constant total stiffness of the leg-surface system. Introducing a substance (eg, footwear) may affect the stiffness of the leg in response to changes in surface stiffness.

OBJECTIVE
To determine if the type of athletic footwear affects the regulation of leg stiffness in dynamic activities.

DESIGN
Repeated-measures design.

SETTING
Motion analysis laboratory.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Nine healthy adults (age = 28 +/- 6.8 years, mass = 71.6 +/- 12.9 kg) free from lower extremity injuries.

INTERVENTION(S)
Subjects hopped at 2.2 Hz on a forceplate under 3 footwear conditions (barefoot, low-cost footwear, high-cost footwear). Subjects ran on a treadmill at 2 speeds (2.23 m/s, 3.58 m/s) under the same footwear conditions.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)
Limb stiffness was calculated from forceplate data. Kinematic data (knee and ankle angles at initial contact and peak joint excursion after contact) were collected during running. We calculated 1-way repeated-measures (stiffness) and 2-way (speed by footwear) repeated-measures analyses of variance (running kinematics) to test the dependent variables.

RESULTS
A significant increase in leg stiffness from the barefoot to the "cushioned" shoe condition was noted during hopping. When running shod, runners landed in more dorsiflexion but had less ankle motion than when running barefoot. No differences were seen between the types of shoes. The primary kinematic difference was identified as running speed increased: runners landed in more knee flexion. At the ankle, barefoot runners increased ankle motion to a significantly greater extent than did shod runners as speed increased.

CONCLUSIONS
Footwear influences the maintenance of stiffness in the lower extremity during hopping and joint excursion at the ankle in running. Differences in cushioning properties of the shoes tested did not appear to be significant.


Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a form of chronic inflammatory arthritis associated with psoriasis and a multitude of other symptoms, most commonly arthritis, dactylitis, enthesitis and axial involvement. PsA is significantly heterogeneous, with a highly variable clinical course of PsA. Patients may experience significant or mild skin and joint symptoms, with some patients developing rapidly progressing joint destruction and skin symptoms. Despite the range of symptom severity, PsA is frequently associated with significantly impaired quality of life from joint destruction, as well as chronic pain and a range of comorbidities such as depression and cardiovascular disease. Currently, there are no definitive diagnostic tests for PsA, with diagnosis remaining challenging owing to the heterogeneous presentation and course of the disease. Presently, the CASPAR criteria are often used to aid rheumatologists in distinguishing PsA from other inflammatory arthritides. Treatment options for patients have been expanded over the last two decades with the emerging clinical utility of biological therapies. However, early identification and diagnosis of patients and effective disease control remain unmet medical needs within the PsA community. In addition, predicting response to treatment also remains a challenge to rheumatologists. This review highlights the current hurdles faced by healthcare professionals in the diagnosis and management of PsA patients and provides future action points for consideration by the members of the multidisciplinary team who treat PsA patients.


South Africa played a very important role at the dawn of the space-age because of its strategic position on the globe, being the first land mass over which satellites launched from the US, would pass. It is thus logical that America invested in tracking stations here. One such method was called Moonwatch where an "optical fence" was set up, detecting the satellite as it passed through it. However, this required a lot of manpower, which was supplied by keen volunteers who wanted to be part of the space age. Prof Peter Spargo, then a WITS student, was the youngest member of the Johannesburg Moonwatch and shares his memories of this experience here.


In 1946, the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) set forth the criteria for "formal" adjudication, requiring an administrative law judge to make the initial determination and the agency head to have the final word. That is the lost world. Today, the vast majority of agency adjudications Congress has created are not paradigmatic "formal" adjudications as set forth in the APA. It turns out that there is great diversity in the procedures by which federal agencies adjudicate. This new world involves a variety of less-independent administrative judges, hearing officers, and other agency personnel adjudicating disputes. But, like in the lost world, the agency head retains final decision-making authority.

In 2011, Congress created yet another novel agency tribunal — the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) — to adjudicate patent validity disputes between private parties. Questions abound concerning the PTAB's proper place in the modern administrative state, as its features depart from the textbook accounts of APA-governed "formal" adjudication. Many of these questions are working their way through the Federal Circuit and to the Supreme Court. Indeed, the Supreme Court recently held in Oil States Energy Services that PTAB adjudication does not unconstitutionally strip parties of their property rights in issued patents—while expressly leaving open many questions concerning the limits of administrative adjudication.

This Article situates PTAB adjudication within administrative law's larger landscape of agency adjudication. By surveying this new world of agency adjudication, we find that PTAB adjudication is not extraordinary. But we also identify one core feature of modern agency adjudication that is absent at the PTAB: the Director of the Patent and Trademark Office lacks final decision-making authority. To be sure, the Director has some power to influence outcomes: in the past, she has ordered rehearing of cases and stacked the board with administrative patent judges who share her substantive vision. But these second-best means of agency-head control raise problems of their own, including constitutional questions and inefficiencies in agency performance. This Article concludes by exploring alternative mechanisms that would remedy the lack of agency-head review at the PTAB.


This paper attempts to add to the understanding of what makes consumers more likely to become victims of fraud. More specifically, we sought to identify personal characteristics that were correlated with being more likely to become a victim. To do this, we conducted a survey using members of an Internet panel. Participants were shown two of six mock print advertisements that advertised products in one of three different product categories. The claims in three of the ads – one each for a weight-loss product, an employment opportunity, and a Caribbean vacation – were sufficiently outrageous that they would likely only be found in advertising for a fraudulent offering. The other three ads, which were for the same three products, contained only more-plausible claims for the products.Focusing on the likely-fraudulent ads, we identified several characteristics that were correlated with a person being susceptible to consumer fraud, which was defined as being very likely to purchase the likely-fraudulent product if the ad was real or finding the likely-fraudulent ad to be very credible. These characteristics included consumer literacy, skepticism, overconfidence, taking time to think about the answer to a question rather than accepting the immediate – but actually incorrect – answer, and willingness to take risks. We also found that many of the characteristics that affect consumers' evaluations of a likely-fraudulent ad also affect their evaluations of a more-plausible ad.


Purpose: Dose accumulation involves many computational procedures which may introduce error. The purpose of this study is to utilize a novel deformable dosimetry phantom to experimentally verify the total dose accumulated by 4D dose calculation algorithms. Methods: Lung phantom consisting of heterogeneous sponge material and tissue‐equivalent tumor. The sponge is enclosed in a latex cylinder, compressed by a piston to simulate the diaphragm motion. TLD‐100 thermoluminescent dosimeters were placed in the sponge and inside the tumor for 4D‐dosimetry verification. Three TLDs were used at each point for better statistics. A four phase 4DCT was taken for planning purposes. A 5‐beam 6MV 3D conformal plan was developed with 95% of the ITV receiving the prescribed dose of 200 cGy, which may help to maintain a linear TLD response. The plan was delivered under the same deformation pattern with the BrainLab Novalis system, and exported to Eclipse and Pinnacle for comparison. CT phase images were registered to end‐exhale (EE) phase, when sponge is maximally compressed, using a B‐Spline‐based algorithm. The resultant displacement vector field was output for dose mapping. Dose was warped to EE phase using an in‐house developed, subvoxel projection method and accumulated for comparison with the TLD measurements. Results: The tumor dose agreed very closely to the accumulated dose and was measured to be 0.5% lower with the TLDs. Another point of measurement was ∼2 cm from the tumor, near the edge of the field, and was measured 5.4% higher with the dosimeter. A point of high field gradient ∼5 mm from the tumor was measured 12.5% higher than calculated. Larger uncertainties in the TPS are expected in this gradient region. Dose warping improved the tumor dose calculation by 29.4%. Conclusion: The deformable phantom could be a valuable tool to verify the total dose calculated by adaptive treatment plans. The research was supported by NIH/NCI R01CA140341.


The Liberty State Park Development Corporation was formed to create public/private partnerships to develop this 750 acre urban park, which lies just 1750 feet from the Statue of Liberty. The Corporation will lease land from the state DEP, and will in turn lease the land to individual developers who will build such projects as a public golf course, a Science and Technology Center, an aquarium, and two full service marinas, all consistent with an existing master plan for the park. Approximately 83 million in state and federal funds have been used to date to develop about one-fifth of the park at its perimeter. The challenge is to get the first partnership project, a world class, full service, 600 slip marina, in place.


Kinetic study of co-oxidation of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) by pyridiniumfluorochromate (PFC) has been investigated in the presence of perchloric acid-water medium at 303 °K. The reaction was carried out in induced pseudo first order conditions. The rate of co-oxidation of IPA and EDTA was ten times greater than the combined rate of addition of both compounds separately. EDTA catalyzed the oxidation of IPA. Free radical test proved two electron transfer oxidation and product was Cr(III). Thermodynamic parameters and individual order have been determined. Energy of activation of co-oxidation is 42.52 kcal. mol -1 , while individually is 67.55 kcal. mol -1 for IPA & 69.71 kcal. mol -1 for EDTA. Suitable mechanism has been suggested.


Although one of the goals of research at universities and public research bodies is to contribute to the advancement of knowledge, these bodies are also expected to contribute to the innovations being developed in their own respective national or regional systems. The only way to satisfy both the industrial application of scientific results and their necessary dissemination throughout the scientific community at the same time is to previously protect the research activity under the various systems of industrial and intellectual property rights. Unfortunately, this precautionary step is quite uncommon amongst research groups in many countries, and specific action is therefore required of their umbrella institutions in order to ensure that such protection is implemented in an effective way. This article describes results of the experience since 1986 to promote the industrial protection of research at Spanish universities. To achieve this goal, a range of science policy initiatives were undertaken: training in processing patents for technicians involved in universities interface structures, cooperation with the Spanish Patents Office and other related bodies, encouragement for research groups to ensure the industrial protection of their results and support for researchers and public bodies in the patent registration procedure.


A number of prominent studies examine the long-run effects of neighborhood attributes on children by leveraging variation in neighborhood exposure through household moves. However, much neighborhood change comes in place rather than through moving. Using an urban economic geography model as a basis, this paper estimates the causal effects of changes in neighborhood attributes on long-run outcomes for incumbent children and households. For identification, we make use of quasi-random variation in 1990-2000 and 2000-2005 skill specific labor demand shocks hitting each residential metro area census tract in the U.S. Our results indicate that children in suburban neighborhoods with a one standard deviation greater increase in the share of resident adults with a college degree experienced a 0.4 to 0.7 standard deviation improvement in credit outcomes 12-17 years later. Since parental outcomes are not affected, we interpret these results as operating through neighborhood effects. Finally, we provide evidence that most of the estimated effects operate through public schools.


OBJECTIVE
Reducing surgical risks to the minimum in carotid endarterectomy has become crucial, especially with the results of recent clinical trials extending indications to asymptomatic patients. The use of the saphenous vein patch graft (SVPG) has been suggested to reduce early postoperative thrombosis and cerebral infarct as well as late recurrent stenosis. However, the exact risks and complications involved in this technique are not known.

METHODS
During a 23-year period (1972-1994), 2888 carotid endarterectomies with SVPG for primary carotid stenosis were performed by the Neurosurgical Cerebrovascular Service at the Mayo Clinic. The data from all patients were retrospectively analyzed, emphasizing postoperative complications related to SVPG.

RESULTS
There were five postoperative vein ruptures (0.17%), four cases of aneurysm formation, and three cases of deep infection necessitating surgical intervention. The vein patch ruptured in one male patient and four female patients (mean age, 69 yr). All ruptures occurred within 4 days of the primary operation, including two during the first 24 hours. All patients with rupture underwent emergency surgery and were found to have intact suture lines and tears in the middle of the grafts. Two patients recovered without deficits, one suffered major disability, and the other two died. Aneurysm of the patch developed in two male patients and two female patients (mean age, 71 yr). All of the patients developed painless pulsatile neck masses 1 to 9 years after the initial surgery; two also had recurrent ischemic symptoms. All of the patients with aneurysms underwent surgical correction without consequences.

CONCLUSION
Although the benefit of routine use of SVPG in carotid endarterectomy is still the focus of debate, this analysis showed that its use adds a small but definite risk of serious complications related to inherent weakness of the venous tissue. If a surgeon chooses to use a patch graft, our recommendation is for use of a synthetic material rather than vein.


Medullobastoma is an uncommon caudal fossa tumor. The imaging features of medullobastoma in the dog are poorly described. In this report, the magnetic resonance (MR) appearance of a cerebellar medullobastoma in a dog is described. The MR features were similar to medulloblastomas in adult humans, with the tumor arising laterally and extending to the surface of the cerebellar hemisphere. Correct localization of medulloblastoma may be difficult and it should be considered as a differential for both extra- and intra-axial caudal fossa masses.


Abstract

Objective – This paper is based on a national survey conducted in late 2013 by the authors, then co-moderators of the Visible Minority Librarians of Canada (ViMLoC) Network of the Canadian Library Association (CLA). It is a first survey of its kind, aiming to capture a snapshot of the demographics of the visible minority librarians working in Canadian institutions. The authors hoped that the data collected from the survey and the analysis presented in this paper would help identify the needs, challenges and barriers of this group of librarians and set future directions for ViMLoC. The authors also hoped that the findings would be useful to library administrators, librarians, and researchers working on multicultural issues, diversity, recruitment and retention, leadership, library management, and other related areas.

Methods – An online survey questionnaire was created and the survey invitation was sent to visible minority librarians through relevant library association electronic mail lists and posted on ViMLoC's electronic mail list and website. The survey consisted of 12 questions: multiple-choice, yes/no questions, and open-ended. The survey asked if the participants were visible minority librarians. If they responded "No," the survey closed for them. Respondents who did not identify themselves as minority librarians were excluded from completing the survey.

Results – Of the 192 individuals that attempted, 120 who identified themselves as visible minority librarians completed the survey. Of these, 36% identified themselves as Chinese, followed by South Asian (20%) and Black (12%). There were 63% who identified themselves as first generation visible minorities and 28% who identified themselves as second generation. A total of 84% completed their library degree in Canada. Equal numbers (38% each) identified themselves as working in public and academic libraries, followed by 15% in special libraries. Although they are spread out all over Canada and beyond, a vast majority of them are in British Columbia (40%) and Ontario (26%). There were 38% who identified themselves as reference/information services librarians, followed by "other" (18%) and "liaison librarian" (17%). A total of 82% responded that they worked full time. The open-ended question at the end of the survey was answered by 42.5% of the respondents, with responses falling within the following broad themes: jobs, mentorship, professional development courses, workplace issues, general barriers, and success stories.

Conclusions – There are at least 120 first, second, and other generation minority librarians working in (or for) Canadian institutions across the country and beyond. They work in different kinds of libraries, are spread out all over Canada, and have had their library education in various countries or in Canada. They need a forum to discuss their issues and to have networking opportunities, and a mentorship program to seek advice from other librarians with similar backgrounds who have been in similar situations to themselves when finding jobs or re-pursuing their professional library degrees. Getting support from and working collaboratively with CLA, ViMLoC can be proactive in helping this group of visible minority librarians.


Sandstone intrusions are found in all sedimentary environments but have been reported most commonly from deep-water settings. They also appear to be more frequently developed in tectonically active settings where applied tectonic stresses facilitate development of high fluid pressures within the sediments. A variety of mechanisms have been cited as triggers for clastic intrusions. These include seismicity induced liquefaction, application of tectonic stresses, excess pore fluid pressures generated by deposition-related processes and the influx of an overpressured fluid from deeper within the basin into a shallow sand body. The formation of sandstone dykes and sills is investigated here by considering them as natural hydraulic fractures. When the seal on an unconsolidated, overpressured sand body fails the resulting steep hydraulic gradient may cause the sand to fluidize. The fluidized slurry can then inject along pre-existing or new fractures to form clastic intrusions. The scale and the geometry of an intrusive complex is governed by the stress state, depth and pre-existing joints or faults within the sedimentary succession, as well as the nature of the host sediments. For the simplest tectonic setting, where the maximum stress in a basin is vertical (gravitational loading), small irregular intrusions commonly result in the formation of sills at shallow depths within a few metres of the surface, whereas at greater depth dykes and sills forming clastic intrusion networks are more typical. A simple relationship is derived to calculate the maximum burial depth at which a dyke–sill complex forms as a function of the source-bed to sill height, the bulk density of the surrounding sediments, and the ratio of the vertical to horizontal effective stresses, K0. When applied to three examples of large-scale dyke–sill complexes developed within Paleocene and Eocene deep-water reservoir sand bodies of the North Sea, maximum burial depths in a range of 375 to c. 500 m, 450–700 m and 550–850 m are estimated for intrusion of each of the three complexes.


In this paper we establish a mathematical framework for a range of inverse problems for functions, given a finite set of noisy observations. The problems are hence underdetermined and are often ill-posed. We study these problems from the viewpoint of Bayesian statistics, with the resulting posterior probability measure being defined on a space of functions. We develop an abstract framework for such problems which facilitates application of an infinite-dimensional version of Bayes theorem, leads to a well-posedness result for the posterior measure (continuity in a suitable probability metric with respect to changes in data), and also leads to a theory for the existence of maximizing the posterior probability (MAP) estimators for such Bayesian inverse problems on function space. A central idea underlying these results is that continuity properties and bounds on the forward model guide the choice of the prior measure for the inverse problem, leading to the desired results on well-posedness and MAP estimators; the PDE analysis and probability theory required are thus clearly dileneated, allowing a straightforward derivation of results. We show that the abstract theory applies to some concrete applications of interest by studying problems arising from data assimilation in fluid mechanics. The objective is to make inference about the underlying velocity field, on the basis of either Eulerian or Lagrangian observations. We study problems without model error, in which case the inference is on the initial condition, and problems with model error in which case the inference is on the initial condition and on the driving noise process or, equivalently, on the entire time-dependent velocity field. In order to undertake a relatively uncluttered mathematical analysis we consider the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equation on a torus. The case of Eulerian observations—direct observations of the velocity field itself—is then a model for weather forecasting. The case of Lagrangian observations—observations of passive tracers advected by the flow—is then a model for data arising in oceanography. The methodology which we describe herein may be applied to many other inverse problems in which it is of interest to find, given observations, an infinite-dimensional object, such as the initial condition for a PDE. A similar approach might be adopted, for example, to determine an appropriate mathematical setting for the inverse problem of determining an unknown tensor arising in a constitutive law for a PDE, given observations of the solution. The paper is structured so that the abstract theory can be read independently of the particular problems in fluid mechanics which are subsequently studied by application of the theory.


We examined spatial and temporal variations in particulate organic matter (POM) dynamics over a fringing coral reef (Ningaloo Reef) in Western Australia during the austral autumn and spring. Total POM concentrations generally did not differ between seasons or reef zones, but the composition of POM, in terms of carbon isotope ratios (δ13C‐POM), carbon to nitrogen ratios (C : N), and fatty acids, changed consistently in water flowing across the reef. Both δ13C‐POM and C : N increased from the fore reef to the reef flat and lagoon, −23.0‰ to −20.1‰ and 7.31 to 8.34, respectively. Average rates of net POM uptake by the reef community were highest over the reef crest (4 to 30 mmol N m−2 d−1 and 6 to 130 mmol C m−2 d−1), with a Bayesian isotope model confirming independent measurements of high uptake rates of allochthonous POM (oceanic phyto‐ and zooplankton). In contrast, over the reef flat, net release of POM was observed (−4 to −5 mmol N m−2 d−1 and −50 mmol C m−2 d−1), with gross release rates (estimated as −6 to −8 mmol N m−2 d−1 and −30 to −90 mmol C m−2 d−1) indicating that the release of autochthonous POM may be of similar magnitude to allochthonous uptake. Examining POM dynamics in terms of gross fluxes reinforces the dependence of coral reef systems on oceanographic processes for allochthonous POM supply, as well as highlighting the potential for autochthonous POM production to supply nutrients to benthic and pelagic communities downstream.


The glass transition behavior of hyperbranched polymer (HBP) molecules with suspensions of silica and glass particles up to the concentrated regime (25 vol %) was analyzed by modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC). The reversing and nonreversing components of the MDSC signal were measured on suspensions of untreated and silylated particle of size in the nanometer and micrometer ranges. The heat capacity step (ΔCp) at the glass transition of the HBP was found to be independent of silica loading for microparticles, whereas it decreased with increasing particle amount in the case of nanoparticles. A similar behavior was observed for the enthalpy relaxation. These changes in chain dynamics and the progressive suppression of aging were attributed to immobilization effects of the HBP at the surface of the particles, which became detectable only in the case of a very high specific surface. The immobilized HBP fraction was assumed to form a shell of constant thickness around individual particles and was calculated from the ΔCp at the transition. In the case of untreated particles with a silanol surface, the immobilized shell was formed by HBP molecules H-bonded to the particles. The thickness of the shell was found to be equal to 1.9 nm, which corresponded to half the size of the HBP. In the case of methacrylsilane-treated silica, the immobilized shell thickness was found to be equal to 1.3 nm, which corresponded to a monolayer of covalently bound silane. © 2010 American Chemical Society.


The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) did a trial implementation of a quality assurance (QA) specification for asphalt concrete during the 1989 paving season. To assess the QA specification, data from both non-QA and QA projects built that year were compared. Based on these results, the QA projects were evaluated as having improved quality. Subsequently, the QA specification was fully implemented within WSDOT.


DBELA is a Displacement-Based Earthquake Loss Assessment methodology for urban areas which relates the displacement capacity of the building stock to the displacement demand from earthquake scenarios. The building stock is modeled as a random population of building classes with varying geometrical and material properties. The period of vibration of each building in the random population is calculated using a simplified equation based on the height of the building and building type, while the displacement capacity at different limit states is predicted using simple equations which are a function of the randomly simulated geometrical and material properties. The displacement capacity of each building is then compared to the displacement demand obtained from an over-damped displacement spectrum, using its period of vibration; the proportion of buildings where damage exceeds each specified threshold value can thus be estimated. DBELA has been applied using the Turkish building stock following the collection of a large database of structural characteristics of buildings from the northern Marmara region. The probabilistic distributions for each of the structural characteristics (e.g., story height, steel properties, etc.) have been defined using the aforementioned database. The methodology has then been applied to predict preliminary damage distributions and social losses for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality for a Mw 7.5 scenario earthquake.


Expressive writing (EW) can be an effective way to alter maladaptive emotional reactions to stressful life events, although little is known about how pre-adolescents may benefit from it. In this quasi-experimental study, we compared measures of depression, anger, forgiveness, positive and negative affect in pre-adolescents before and after EW in both an experimental group undergoing the EW paradigm and a control group (N=138). No significant effects between control and experimental groups were found for the considered variables, except for positive and negative affect. We suggest potential reasons accounting for these results. Given that the theorised mechanisms involved in the EW paradigm include executive functioning abilities, it is possible that preadolescents may not be able to benefit from it, due to not fully developed executive functioning skills. Our results provide useful information in order to better design future studies and prevention/intervention programmes to be implemented with preadolescents.