A small but growing body of literature reports associations between pesticide exposures during pregnancy and characteristics of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) or actual autism diagnosis.1,2,3 A study published this month in EHP adds to the weight of this evidence, reporting an increased risk of ASD diagnosis among children whose mothers lived during pregnancy near fields where pesticides were applied.4

The case–control study included 486 children diagnosed with an ASD, 168 diagnosed with delayed development, and 316 controls from the ongoing Childhood Autism Risks from Genes and Environment (CHARGE) study, which was launched in 2003. The researchers assessed timing and extent of pesticide applications within 1.75 km of each mother's residence from 3 months before conception through the time of delivery. These data came from California's Pesticide Use Report, which since 1990 has documented pesticide applications to farmland, golf courses, cemeteries, and other sites down to the square mile.5

A new study suggests agricultural pesticides may be appropriate candidates for further study as autism risk factors.

The study examined the association between prenatal proximity to fields where organophosphate, pyrethroid, or carbamate pesticides were applied and later diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders including ASDs and developmental delays. The authors found the strongest associations between ASDs and application of nonspecified organophosphates during the third trimester as well as one specific organophosphate, chlorpyrifos, during the second trimester. They also report statistically significant associations between ASDs and pyrethroid application both preconception and during the third trimester, as well as an association between carbamate application and developmental delay, although this estimate was based on a small number of cases.4

The new research supports associations reported in previous work, says Kirsten Brandt, a senior lecturer at the School of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development at University of Newcastle, United Kingdom, who was not involved in the study. First author Janie Shelton, a graduate student in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California, Davis, says the most important finding was the association between chlorpyrifos and ASDs. The compound is banned for residential use but is one of the most commonly used agricultural chemicals, she says, noting that pesticides can drift beyond buffer zones around the point of application and into homes and workplaces.6

Importantly, however, the study is limited by restrospective data collection and a lack of biological samples collected during gestation. Other limitations include the inability to account for other potential sources of exposure (for instance, pesticides used in the home) as well as multiple exposures, and the possibility of reporting errors in the Pesticide Use Report. It also can be difficult to attribute associations to any specific time window during pregnancy, because exposures may span trimesters—a ubiquitous problem in studying gestational exposures.

Additionally, "It is always a concern when cases and controls have been recruited by different means," says Philippe Grandjean, an adjunct professor of environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved in the study. "For example, there are far fewer controls than cases from Southern California." However, the authors weighted their analysis to at least partially account for differences in the case and control populations.4

Despite the limitations, Grandjean adds, "The researchers must be praised for having been able to link data on pesticide usage to geocoded residences during pregnancy." Joseph Braun, an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Brown University, describes the work as "the cutting edge of research into environmental determinants of autism." Braun also was not involved in the study.

Despite the study's limitations, it provides new directions for exploration. "Until about five years ago, virtually all research on autism assumed that the disease was entirely genetic in origin, and that environmental exposures did not play a role," says Robert Wright, director of the Division of Environmental Health at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research. "Rising rates of autism and failure to find genetic causes despite a multitude of very large genetic studies has led to a major shift in focus in the field. … These chemicals are a solid lead that needs to be followed."


Recent advances in Structure-from-Motion not only enable the reconstruction of large scale scenes, but are also able to detect ambiguous structures caused by repeating elements that might result in incorrect reconstructions. Yet, it is not always possible to fully reconstruct a scene. The images required to merge different sub-models might be missing or it might be impossible to acquire such images in the first place due to occlusions or the structure of the scene. The problem of aligning multiple reconstructions that do not have visual overlap is impossible to solve in general. An important variant of this problem is the case in which individual sides of a building can be reconstructed but not joined due to the missing visual overlap. In this paper, we present a combinatorial approach for solving this variant by automatically stitching multiple sides of a building together. Our approach exploits symmetries and semantic information to reason about the possible geometric relations between the individual models. We show that our approach is able to reconstruct complete building models where traditional SfM ends up with disconnected building sides.


 Abstract —The provision of service differentiation is an important aspect that has to be considered for the definition of next-generation networks due to the high heterogeneity of the traffic that will dominate the networks in a near future. This is particularly important in the context of the optical burst switching, which is emerging as one of the strong candidate technologies for the next-generation optical Internet. Preemptive contention resolution schemes are very effective solutions for providing service differentiation in such networks, however they cannot be applied together with the just-in-time signaling protocol because of the great loss in efficiency in terms of wavelength utilization and maximum achieved throughput that results when the number of preemptions becomes too large. This paper presents a preemption based service differentiation solution that is suitable for the just-in-time optical burst switching paradigm as it keeps the preemption probability (i.e., the probability of observing a preemption when a contention occurs) low. Within the proposed technique, bursts are created at their ingress node and combined into chains, arranging them in order of decreasing priority. Then, a conventional preemption scheme is adopted at core nodes to handle contentions. An analytical study is presented and some traffic scenarios are analyzed by simulation to evaluate the performance of the proposed


The study of the pupa of this species is of special interest for the same reason as that given in the case of the larva, which was descriptionbed in my previous article in vol. II of this journal, pp. 165-175. Here too there are a number of characters of a generalized nature, but on the other hand there are some specialized structures which are adaptations to special conditions. Apart from these special developments, the pupa, like the larva, may be used as a suitable example of how a pupa should be studied in order to give a scientific comparison between the pupae of different groups and species.


This book describes the development of international human rights law. The main difference today is that individuals receive protection as individuals independent from their affiliation with a nation, as compared to the traditional consideration that only states had rights under international law. The law of humanitarian intervention first suggested that states do not receive unlimited discretion in their behavior under international law. The first chapter describes the earliest treaties and agreements giving rise to the current status of international law, such as the League of Nations and the International Labor Organization.


ABSTRACT Although no mangrove species are native to the Hawaiian Archipelago, both Rhizophora mangle and Bruguiera sexangula were introduced and have become naturalized. Rhizophora mangle has spread to almost every major Hawaiian island, but B. sexangula has established only on O'ahu, where it was intentionally introduced. To examine the possibility that differences in propagule characteristics maintain these patterns of distribution, we first reviewed the literature on surface currents around the Hawaiian Islands, which suggest that propagules ought to disperse frequently from one island to another within 60 days. We then tested the ability of propagules of the two species to float for periods of up to 63 days and to establish under two light intensities. On average, R. mangle propagules floated for longer periods than those of B. sexangula, but at least some propagules of both species floated for a full 60 days and then rooted and grew for 4 months under relatively dense shade. A large percentage (~83%) of R. mangle propagules would be expected to float beyond 60 days, and approximately 10% of B. sexangula propagules also would have remained afloat. Therefore, it seems likely that factors other than flotation ability are responsible for the failure of B. sexangula to become established on other Hawaiian islands.


As the population ages, so the prevalence of chronic heart failure (CHF) will rise. The majority of CHF patients in the future will be elderly, yet most of our current evidence for the management of this serious condition arises from trials that have largely excluded older patients. As a consequence, older patients who may derive the greatest benefit from treatments known to reduce morbidity and mortality in CHF, are often denied such treatments. The effects on quality of life of both the syndrome of CHF and its treatment in older CHF patients must be borne in mind, as must issues of compliance, prevalence of comorbidity, and requirement for physical and emotional support. We review the current epidemiology of CHF, and focus on the applicability and use of contemporary non-pharmacological and pharmacological therapy to older patients with CHF. The potential use of devices and surgery in older CHF patients is also discussed.


BACKGROUND
Data continue to accumulate supporting a proatherogenic role for oxidized low-density lipoprotein (Ox-LDL). Antioxidant micronutrients such as ascorbate, alpha-tocopherol, and beta carotene, levels of which can be favorably manipulated by dietary measures without side effects, could be a safe approach in inhibiting LDL oxidation. In fact, in vitro studies have shown that all three antioxidants can inhibit LDL oxidation. The present study was undertaken to ascertain both the safety and antioxidant effect of combined supplementation with alpha-tocopherol, ascorbate, and beta carotene on LDL oxidation.

METHODS AND RESULTS
The effect of combined supplementation with alpha-tocopherol (800 IU/d) plus ascorbate (1.0 g/d) and beta carotene (30 mg/d) on copper-catalyzed LDL oxidation was tested in a randomized, placebo-controlled study in two groups of 12 male subjects over a 3-month period. Blood samples for the lipoprotein profile, antioxidant levels, and LDL isolation were obtained at baseline and at 3 months. Neither placebo nor combined antioxidant therapy resulted in any side effects or exerted an adverse effect on the plasma lipoprotein profile. Compared with placebo, combined antioxidant therapy resulted in a significant increase in plasma ascorbate and lipid standardized alpha-tocopherol and beta carotene levels (2.6-, 4.1-, and 16.3-fold, respectively). At baseline, there were no significant differences in the time course curves and kinetics of LDL oxidation as evidenced by the thiobarbituric acid reacting substances (TBARS) assay and the formation of conjugated dienes. However, at 3 months, combined supplementation resulted in a twofold prolongation of the lag phase and a 40% decrease in the oxidation rate. The combined antioxidant group was also compared with a group that received 800 IU of alpha-tocopherol only. Although the combined antioxidant group had significantly higher ascorbate and beta carotene levels than the group supplemented with alpha-tocopherol alone, there were no significant differences between the two groups with respect to LDL oxidation kinetics.

CONCLUSIONS
Combined supplementation with ascorbate, beta carotene, and alpha-tocopherol is not superior to high-dose alpha-tocopherol alone in inhibiting LDL oxidation. Hence, alpha-tocopherol therapy should be favored in future coronary prevention trials involving antioxidants.


Despite the claims regarding the potential disruptiveness of subtitling for audiovisual processing, existing empirical evidence supports the idea that subtitle processing is semi-automatic and cognitively effective, and that, in moderately complex viewing scenarios, dubbing does not necessarily help viewers. In this paper we appraise whether the complexity of the translated audiovisual material matters for the cognitive and evaluative reception of subtitled vs. dubbed audiovisual material. To this aim, we present the results of two studies on the viewers' reception of film translation (dubbing vs. sub-titling), in which we investigate the cognitive and evaluative consequences of audiovisual complexity. In Study 1, the results show that a moderately complex film is processed effectively and is enjoyed irrespective of the translation method. In Study 2, the subtitling (vs. dubbing) of a more complex film leads to more effortful processing and lower cognitive performance, but not to a lessened appreciation. These results expose the boundaries of subtitle processing, which are reached only when the audiovisual material to be processed is complex, and they encourage scholars and practitioners to reconsider old standards as well as to invest more effort in crafting diverse types of audiovisual translations tailored both to the degree of complexity of the source product and to the individual differences of the target viewers.


The concepts of interconnectedness and multiplexity resonate globally in contemporary higher education, legal practice, and in citizens' social and economic experience, where engagement takes place daily over distances mediated by information and communications technology. meanwhile, literature regarding student transition identifies student engagement as a key to their retention – yet Australia's universities are struggling to compete with our students' employment and caring obligations. Is it possible for lecturers to retain an engaging presence with our students who are more likely than ever before to be distant from campus? How might we provide opportunity and experience to our students, beyond their own community and campus? Is it possible, or even desirable, for us to compete with texting, facebook and other social media used by our students within and without the physical classroom? In this paper, the authors explore the world of blogging and micro blogging (twitter) as a means of mediating engagement with students, lawyers, academics and other interested and interesting people around the world. Through the use of auto-ethnographic case studies of their own experiences with blogging and micro blogging tools, the authors propose that far from being a distraction from student learning, these tools have the potential to open up an international professional collaborative space beyond the physical classroom, for both academics and our students, from their first year experience through to practical legal training and continuing professional development.


We report on a rapid survey of five communal-area conservancies in Namibia to understand initial impacts on community-based conservation of national and international policies for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Namibia's Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) programme has been growing for over 30 years, with high economic reliance on tourism and conservation hunting. We review the interrelationships between COVID-19, CBNRM, tourism and hunting, and discuss our findings under eight interlocking themes: 1) disruption to management and regular operational processes of conservancies, including 2) effects on conservancy wildlife patrolling and monitoring; 3) losses of revenue and cash flow in conservancy business operations; 4) impacts on Joint-Venture Partnerships; 5) impacts on employment opportunities and local livelihoods; 6) effects on community development projects and social benefits, including 7) disruption to funded projects and programmes; and 8) lack of technical capacity regarding communication technologies and equipment. In our conclusion we discuss tensions between an assumption that normal business can or will be resumed, and calls for the COVID-19 pandemic to create an opportunity for global choices away from 'business-as-normal'. It is too early to tell what mix of these perspectives will unfold. What is clear is that communal-area conservancies must derive benefits from conservation activities in their areas that are commensurate with their role as key actors in the conservation of Namibia's valuable wildlife and landscapes.


This paper presents a directional transform scheme for coding interprediction errors in block-based hybrid video coding. It proposes a two-layer transform structure, where the first layer uses discrete wavelet transform to compact the residue energy to the LL band and then the second layer uses 2-D nonseparable directional transforms to deal with the arbitrary edge directions in the four subbands. By doing this, the edges in a macroblock are efficiently compacted to a few coefficients and at the same time the overhead used to indicate the transform directions is affordable. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme provides peak signal-to-noise ratio gain up to 0.46 dB, compared with H.264/AVC High Profile.


Information modelling and knowledge bases are now essential, not only to academics working in computer science, but also wherever information technology is applied. This book presents papers from the 26th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases (formerly the European Japanese Conference – EJC), which took place in Tampere, Finland, in June 2016. The conference provides a platform to bring together researchers and practitioners working with information modelling and knowledge bases, and the 33 accepted papers cover topics including: conceptual modelling; knowledge and information modelling and discovery; linguistic modelling; cross-cultural communication and social computing; environmental modelling and engineering; and multimedia data modelling and systems. All papers were improved and resubmitted for publication after the conference. Covering state-of- the-art research and practice, the book will be of interest to all those whose work involves information modelling and knowledge bases.


Abstract A new fault-associated paleokarst and cave fill has been discovered in north-central Illinois, emplaced in Ordovician limestones. The paleokarst preserves many original solution features, such as oriented grooves, pendants, and half tubes. Many of the ancient cave passages have rounded bottoms and flat roofs. Together these suggest that the original elliptical, phreatic cave passages grew upward by paragenesis, in which the floor of the cave is protected from dissolution by the presence of sediment, while the ceiling of the cave grows upward by dissolution. The fill is dated as Moscovian (Middle Pennsylvanian) based on palynological data and can be correlated with the Tradewater Formation. The fills are composed of a fining-upward sequence of relatively unindurated clastic sediments that contain well-preserved plant fossils, most notably voltzialean conifer and cordaite remains, representative of vegetation living in well-drained areas. Many of the macrofossils are fragmentary but charcoalified and, along with the megaspores, are uncompressed and preserve exceptional morphological and anatomical data. The presence of abundant charcoal in the fills, as well as diagnostic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, indicates significant wildfire activity in this area during this interval.


ABSTRACT Online threats by terrorist groups are viewed as a special type of discourse that sends menacing explicit messages, expressing not only an intention to cause a direct physical harm to the threatened, but also to show a commitment to destroy public property or cause a change of system or government. This study applies critical discourse analysis with some insights from pragmatics to analyze the discourse-pragmatic contents of terror threats by two terrorist groups in Nigeria—Boko Haram and Ansaru. Explicit and implied threats are examined from seven online publications by these groups written between 2009 and 2012. This study shows that terror threats by Nigerian terrorist groups are intertextually and ideologically related to threats associated with Al Qaeda and global jihad, which also goes further to establish their strong link and influence with other terror groups around the world. The findings also show that the structure of terror threats is significantly different from the conventional formula for verbal threats.


Abstract The purpose of the study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of word callers related to the concepts of reading fluency and reading comprehension. To this end, second-grade students (N = 408) completed a series of reading fluency and reading comprehension assessments, and their teachers (N = 31) completed word caller nominations and a questionnaire regarding their concepts related to these issues. Our findings suggested that teachers often overnominated children as word callers. Further, questionnaire data indicated a great deal of ambiguity and inconsistency exists regarding teachers' understanding and use of the term word caller. By contrast, teachers seemed to possess a veridical understanding of the related terms reading fluency and reading comprehension.


The incorporation of new representations into the mental lexicon has raised numerous questions about the organisational principles that govern the process. A number of studies have argued that similarity between the new L3 items and existing representations in the L1 and L2 is the main incorporating force (Hall & Ecke, 2003; Herwig, 2001). Experimental evidence obtained through a primed picture-naming task with L1 Polish-L2 English learners of L3 Russian supports Hall and Ecke's Parasitic Model of L3 vocabulary acquisition, displaying a significant main effect for both priming and proficiency. These results complement current models of vocabulary acquisition and lexical access in multilingual speakers.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a 4-week auricular point acupressure (APA) treatment on chronic low back pain (CLBP) outcomes and examine the day-to-day variability of CLBP in individuals receiving APA for CLBP over 29 days.

DESIGN
This was a prospective, randomized controlled trial (RCT). Data were collected at baseline, during each of the four office visits for APA treatment, after the completion of the 4-week intervention, and 1 month after the last treatment. A daily diary was given to each participant to record his or her APA practices, analgesic use, and pain intensity.

INTERVENTIONS
APA was used to manage CLBP. The participants received one APA treatment per week for 4 weeks.

PATIENTS AND SETTING
Sixty-one participants with CLBP were randomized into either a real APA or sham APA treatment group. Participants were recruited from primary care offices and clinics or through the Research Participant Registry at the University of Pittsburgh.

RESULTS
Among participants in the real APA group, a 30% reduction of worst pain was exhibited after the first day of APA treatment, and continuous reduction in pain (44%) was reported by the completion of the 4-week APA. This magnitude of pain reduction reached the clinically significant level of improvement reported in other clinical trials of chronic pain therapies. Analgesic use by participants in the real APA group also was reduced compared with use by participants in the sham group.

CONCLUSION
This study shows that APA is a promising pain management strategy that is not invasive and can be self-managed by participants for CLBP. Given the day-to-day fluctuation in ratings, the tighter ecologic assessment of pain scores and other treatment parameters are an important pragmatic aspect of the design of chronic pain studies.


Spectacular exposures of the world's largest megacrystic garnets (to 35 cm diameter) occur in a coarse-grained amphibolite at the Barton Garnet Mine in the Adirondack Highlands (Gore Mountain, New York State, USA). Over the years, numerous geologists have concluded that the large size of the garnets resulted from an influx of fluids during ca. 1050 Ma upper amphibolite facies metamorphism of a ca. 1155 Ma olivine metagabbro. The presence of fluids under such mid-crustal pressure-temperature conditions is anomalous and warrants explanation. Evidence indicates that the fluids were introduced along, and close to, a steep border fault that juxtaposes charnockite against the garnet ore at the southern margin of the mine. Granitic pegmatites and quartz veins are present in the border zone and locally intrude the garnet ore.

Geochronology has played a critical role in resolving the genesis of the Gore Mountain garnets. Over the past 20 yr Sm-Nd and Lu-Hf techniques have been used to date the crystallization of the garnets as 1049 ± 5 Ma, an age that coincides with the termination of the contractional phase of the Ottawan orogeny, the onset of extensional orogen collapse, and the emplacement of the Lyon Mountain Granite. New U-Pb zircon age determinations of 1045 ± 7.5 (Barton Garnet Mine) and 1055 ± 7.4 (New York State Route 3 near Cranberry Lake) for Lyon Mountain granite pegmatites directly associated with megacrystic garnet amphibolites corroborate the synchronicity of emplacement of Lyon Mountain magmas and the growth of the garnet megacrysts.

It is argued that during the ca. 1050 Ma extensional collapse of the Ottawan orogen, fluids gained access to extensional fault networks and interacted with country rocks. We further suggest that increasing temperature due to advected heat from Lyon Mountain Granite carried the Gore Mountain megagarnet amphibolite into granulite facies conditions that resulted in reactions between hornblende and garnet that produced orthopyroxene and calcic plagioclase intergrowths, both as symplectites and coarsely textured pods developed in pressure shadows. Geothermal modeling of garnet zoning in metapelites ([Storm and Spear, 2005][1]) and oxygen isotope zoning in titanite ([Bonamici et al., 2011][2]) require a short period of rapid cooling ca. 1050 Ma, which we interpret to be related to the extensional collapse of the Ottawan orogen at that time ([Rivers, 2008][3]; [McLelland et al., 2010a][4], [2010b][5]). Reconnaissance of the southern and central Adirondacks reveals that a number of megacrystic garnet occurrences similar to those at Gore Mountain are present in areas that contain both metagabbros and megacrystic garnet amphibolites, and we propose that all of these formed during orogen collapse, intrusion of Lyon Mountain Granite, and fluid-related alteration at high temperature.

 [1]: #ref-51
 [2]: #ref-5
 [3]: #ref-45
 [4]: #ref-37
 [5]: #ref-38


California now has more trees than at any time since the late Pleistocene. This green landscape, however, is not the work of nature. It's the work of history. In the years after the Gold Rush, American settlers remade the California landscape, harnessing nature to their vision of the good life. Horticulturists, boosters, and civic reformers began to "improve" the bare, brown countryside, planting millions of trees to create groves, wooded suburbs, and landscaped cities. They imported the blue-green eucalypts whose tangy fragrance was thought to cure malaria. They built the lucrative "Orange Empire" on the sweet juice and thick skin of the Washington navel, an industrial fruit. They lined their streets with graceful palms to announce that they were not in the Midwest anymore. To the north the majestic coastal redwoods inspired awe and invited exploitation. A resource in the state, the durable heartwood of these timeless giants became infrastructure, transformed by the saw teeth of American enterprise. By 1900 timber firms owned the entire redwood forest; by 1950 they had clear-cut almost all of the old-growth trees. In time California's new landscape proved to be no paradise: the eucalypts in the Berkeley hills exploded in fire; the orange groves near Riverside froze on cold nights; Los Angeles's palms harbored rats and dropped heavy fronds on the streets below. Disease, infestation, and development all spelled decline for these nonnative evergreens. In the north, however, a new forest of second-growth redwood took root, nurtured by protective laws and sustainable harvesting. Today there are more California redwoods than there were a century ago. Rich in character and story, Trees in Paradise is a dazzling narrative that offers an insightful, new perspective on the history of the Golden State and the American West.


We present a probabilistic model for joint representation of several sensory modalities and action parameters in a robotic grasping scenario. Our non-linear probabilistic latent variable model encodes relationships between grasp-related parameters, learns the importance of features, and expresses confidence in estimates. The model learns associations between stable and unstable grasps that it experiences during an exploration phase. We demonstrate the applicability of the model for estimating grasp stability, correcting grasps, identifying objects based on tactile imprints and predicting tactile imprints from object-relative gripper poses. We performed experiments on a real platform with both known and novel objects, i.e., objects the robot trained with, and previously unseen objects. Grasp correction had a 75% success rate on known objects, and 73% on new objects. We compared our model to a traditional regression model that succeeded in correcting grasps in only 38% of cases.


Our claim in this paper is that not being identified as the data source might cause harm to a person or group. Therefore, in some cases the default of anonymisation should be replaced by a careful deliberation, together with research subjects, of how to handle the issues of identification and confidentiality. Our prime example in this article is community participatory research and similar endeavours on indigenous groups. The theme, content and aim of the research, and the question of how to handle property rights and ownership of research results, as well as who should be in charge of the research process, including the process of creating anonymity, should all be answered, before anonymity is accepted.


My thesis explores the political economy of trade protection in India. The first essay
outlines the political economy of trade protection in India. My second essay asks: Has
Protection really been for Sale in India? To answer this question, I use a unique dataset
to explain the political economy of trade protection since liberalisation. The traditional
Grossman and Helpman (1992) (GH henceforth) model of Protection for Sale (PFS henceforth)
is used with a new measure of political organization. I undertake cross-sectional
analysis for several years from 1990-2007 and use the pooled dataset. The third essay
outlines the modified PFS framework that introduces a new measure of lobbying effectiveness
to analyse how heterogeneity in lobbying affects trade protection. The underlying
framework is based on the idea that government preferences or the market structure of the
industry can influence lobbying effectiveness. The empirical evidence provides estimates
on effectiveness and examines its determinants. The fourth essay explores: Is Protection
still for Sale with Lobbying Effectiveness? I undertake an estimation of the modified PFS
model against the conventional results presented in my second essay. I examine if differences
in lobbying effectiveness can explain the variation in tariff protection levels across
Indian manufacturing sectors and construct a direct measure of lobbying effectiveness for
Indian manufacturing. Finally, I include additional political factors of importance to Indian
trade policy. The fifth essay asks: Join Hands or Walk Alone? I examine the factors that
affect the choice of lobbying strategy of Indian manufacturing firms for trade policy and
consider the exclusive use of a single strategy, to lobby collectively (Join hands) and lobby
individually (Walk Alone), along with the possibility of a dual strategy i.e. a combination
of collective and individual lobbying using information from a primary survey across 146
firms. The results are new for India and reveal the overall preference of a dual lobbying
strategy.


There is considerable evidence that enforcement efforts can increase tax compliance. However, there must be other forces at work because observed compliance levels cannot be fully explained by the level of enforcement actions typical of most tax authorities. Further, there are observed differences, not related to enforcement effort, in the levels of compliance across countries and cultures. To fully understand differences in compliance behavior across cultures one needs to understand differences in tax administration and citizen attitudes toward governments. The working hypothesis is that cross-cultural differences in behavior have foundations in these institutions. Tax compliance is a complex behavioral issue and its investigation requires the use of a variety of methods and data sources. Results from laboratory experiments conducted in different countries demonstrate that observed differences in tax compliance levels can be explained by differences in the fairness of tax administration, in the perceived fiscal exchange, and in the overall attitude towards the respective governments. These experimental results are shown to be robust by replicating them for the same countries using survey response measures of ?tax morale.?


It is possible to identify in the works of Thomas Aquinas an analogy between teaching and commanding, as these are two ways of moving someone to do something. Teaching is moving someone in the order of intellect as commanding is moving him in the order of will. This motion does not deny, but implies the natural capacity of a free and rational agent to move himself, because both teaching and commanding consist in a communication of a rational form to an intellect. Although this motion is a form of causality, in both cases the principal agent is the one that is moved by other. Since metaphysically speaking, teaching and commanding are forms of putting order into rational agents which do not affect their freedom, this analogy allows us to explain the possibility of a government over free people and the pedagogical function of law. Finally, primacy of intellect over will implies that every action of one man over another is founded on a certain type of teaching.


Individuals are considered the weakest link when it comes to securing a personal computer system. All the technological solutions can be in place, but if individuals do not make appropriate security protection decisions they introduce holes that technological solutions cannot protect. This study investigates what personal characteristics influence differences in individual security behaviors, defined as behaviors to protect against security threats, by adapting Protection Motivation Theory into an information security context. This study developed and validated an instrument to measure individual security behaviors. It then tested the differences in these behaviors using the security research model, which built from Protection Motivation Theory, and consisted of perceived security vulnerability, perceived security threat, security self-efficacy, response efficacy, and protection cost. Participants, representing a sample population of home computer users with ages ranging from 20 to 83, provided 279 valid responses to surveys. The behaviors studied include using anti-virus software, utilizing access controls, backing up data, changing passwords frequently, securing access to personal computers, running software updates, securing wireless networks, using care when storing credit card information, educating others in one's house about security behaviors, using caution when following links in emails, running spyware software, updating a computer's operating system, using firewalls, and using pop-up blocking software. Testing the security research model found different characteristics had different impacts depending on the behavior studied. Implications for information security researchers and practitioners are provided, along with ideas for future research.


An important step in the development of value alignment (VA) systems in artificial intelligence (AI) is understanding how VA can reflect valid ethical principles. We propose that designers of VA systems incorporate ethics by utilizing a hybrid approach in which both ethical reasoning and empirical observation play a role. This, we argue, avoids committing "naturalistic fallacy," which is an attempt to derive "ought" from "is," and it provides a more adequate form of ethical reasoning when the fallacy is not committed. Using quantified modal logic, we precisely formulate principles derived from deontological ethics and show how they imply particular "test propositions" for any given action plan in an AI rule base. The action plan is ethical only if the test proposition is empirically true, a judgment that is made on the basis of empirical VA. This permits empirical VA to integrate seamlessly with independently justified ethical principles.


MATHER, ELIZABETH RING IRELAND (3 April 1891-10 Nov. 1957) was a leader in civic and cultural activities and dedicated to making Cleveland a more beautiful city. She founded the Garden Center of Greater Cleveland (see CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN), funded the development of a master plan for rebuilding the UNIVERSITY CIRCLE area into a cultural center, supervised beautification of the grounds surrounding the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART, and organized relief projects and work programs during the Great Depression. Born in Saginaw, Michigan to Clark and Lizzie Palmer Ring, Elizabeth left Saginaw at age 14 and travelled extensively with her family. She was educated at The Miss Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. On 8 Jan. 1913 she married James Duane Ireland and had one child, James Jr. They left Duluth in 1918 for Cleveland where Ireland became a partner in the M.A. Hanna Co. He died in 1921. In 1929 she married industrialist William Gwinn Mather. The union produced no children. He died in 1951. As the first president of the Garden Center of Greater Cleveland in 1930, Mather guided the center into becoming one of the nation's leading horticulture institutions. In 1931 she was named the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury's first woman foreman. Seeking to improve the well-being of others, Mrs. Mather promoted a vegetable relief garden project during the Depression which benefitted over 40,000 people. She worked as a social worker at Rainbow Hospital for Crippled Children and made generous contributions to Western Reserve University, The CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, and TRINITY CATHEDRAL. In 1954 she established the ELIZABETH RING AND WILLIAM GWINN MATHER FUND to promote Cleveland interests. In 1957 she provided the monies needed to create the University Circle Development Foundation and to hire an urban-planning firm to design the Circle area. An Episcopalian, she is buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.


This paper deals with identifying important regions in the articulatory trajectory based on the physical properties of the trajectory. A method to locate critical time instants as well as the key articulator positions is suggested. Acoustic-to-Articulatory Inversion using linear and non-linear regression isperformed using only these critical points. The accuracy of inversion is found to be almost the same as using all the data points.


Abstract Coiled cephalopods constitute a major part of the Paleozoic nekton. They emerged in the Early Ordovician but nearly vanished in the Silurian. The Emsian appearance of ammonoids started a story of evolutionary success of coiled cephalopods, which lasted until the end-Permian extinction event. This story is investigated by using a taxonomic database of 1346 species of 253 genera of coiled nautiloids and 1114 genera of ammonoids. The per capita sampling diversities, the Van Valen metrics of origination and extinction, and the probabilities of origination and extinction were calculated at stage intervals. The outcome of these estimations largely reflects the known biotic events of the Paleozoic. The polyphyletic, iterative appearance of coiled cephalopods within this time frame is interpreted to be a process of adaptation to shell-crushing predatory pressure. The evolution of the diversity of coiled nautiloids and ammonoids is strongly correlated within the time intervals. Once established, assemblages of coiled cephalopods are related to changes in sea level. The general trends of decreasing mean (or background) origination and extinction rates during the Paleozoic are interpreted to reflect a successive stabilization of the coiled cephalopod assemblages. Different reproduction strategies in ammonoids and nautiloids apparently resulted in different modes of competition and morphological trends. Significant morphological trends toward a stronger ornamentation and a centrally positioned siphuncle characterize the evolution of Paleozoic nautiloids.


There have been many initiatives to strengthen weather and climate information and services across Africa in the last decade or so, with numerous valuable outcomes. However, it is commonly observed that availability and uptake of information and services is still relatively low and that this represents a threat to social and economic development.
The "mainstreaming" of weather and climate information into decision making is recognised to be a multi-disciplinary process involving components that include, inter alia, climate science and information services, translational science (developing appropriate communication approaches and delivery channels) as well as issues of governance to incentivise service delivery and use (as, for example, exists for weather services to the aviation sector). Considerable research has been conducted to improve capabilities in some aspects of these individual components, including pilot projects, generally of sub-national scale, to improve interaction and mutual understanding between climate information providers and users. The UN-led Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) is now providing important guidance for new programmes and fostering and promoting government recognition of the benefits of climate services. However, there has as yet been no major large scale Africa-focussed initiative to comprehensively address the various barriers to progress in an integrated way and to consider also their interactions and dependencies. There is a growing consensus that this lack of a holistic approach lies behind currently limited progress in uptake of weather and climate services.
The need for an innovative, holistic approach forms the central motivation behind DFID's consideration of a new intervention – Climate Information and Services for Africa (CIASA1). CIASA aims to achieve a step change in use of weather and climate information in Africa by addressing, at scale and in an integrated and coordinated way, the very diverse barriers to uptake and use of weather and climate services. Current planning is for a 4-year programme (as Phase 1 and including inception) disbursing £35 million to operational and research investments. It is anticipated that further phases of CIASA may follow. In November 2014 DFID procured a Met Office-led team to scope, analyse options and support design of the CIASA programme. The team comprised weather and climate experts from the UK and Africa as well as representatives from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), and experts in the fields of climate communication and development. This report presents the results of the scoping study and summarises DFID's selection of preferred intervention options for Phase 1.
The CIASA scoping comprised three main phases. Firstly, the Met Office-led Scoping Team developed a set of evidenced-based options for intervention themes and activities, working from DFID guidance in the scoping Terms of Reference and from the Inception meeting. Secondly, the Scoping Team worked together with DFID and other partners to refine the intervention options identified, develop a programme outline, raise options for a regional focus and to consider appropriate mechanisms of delivery and governance for the programme. In the third phase DFID conducted a formal appraisal, independent of the Scoping Team, to select preferred options for region, delivery and governance. Working on DFID selections, the Scoping Team then developed a draft framework for programme monitoring and evaluation.


This paper introduces the concept of a "transitional subject". It is the name for a new cultural type by reference to Donald Winnicotts famous concept of a "transitional object". Such an object, a teddy bear or a piece of cloth, allows an infant to let go of the mother and to develop a more independent existence. Being transformed into a mental structure the transitional object enables the imagination of the child to create new things. The "transitional subject" however concerns the imagination of the present security-institutions. Any passenger, customer or visitor of the cyberspace leaves his data at airports, railway stations, public spaces etc. and allows secret services to establish a database to profile disquieting persons. Following David Riesman's analyses of different cultural types, the tradition-directed, the inner-directed und the other-directed, the transitional subject is data-directed. In comparison with tradition-directed protagonists like the pilgrims in Dante's Divina Commedia or the inner-directed wanderer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the transitional subject like the disquieter Edward Snowdon is described as a data-directed multi mobile passenger in transit spaces. However, the legal fictions of modern states force this representative of our political reality to carry the mask of the 18th century.


The article investigates the potential role of conceptual modeling for policymaking. It argues that the use of conceptual schemas may provide an effective understanding of public sector information assets, and how they might be used to satisfy the needs of constituencies, thus having a public as well as social value. The article first defines the information assets of public administration, and goes on to consider the role of conceptual modeling for eliciting social value with regard to open data, using as a case study open data concerning hospitals in the United States, Canada, and Italy. An interpretive framework is outlined to support public managers for choosing the data sets to be "opened," thereby exploiting public sector information assets under a social value perspective.


Composite Indicators (CIs), are a common measurement and benchmarking tool that are used to reflect and measure multidimensional concepts such as digital divides, individual's well-being and more. Measurement iterations produce a series of time-oriented data, which stakeholders as well as the general public might be interested to interpret. Visualization of a CI is highly recommended in order to ease interpretation, and many CI websites use radial solutions to visualize CIs. Yet it is unclear how to visualize the temporal dynamics in radial diagrams. Static solutions, mapping time to small multiples might be challenging due to screen space issues. Dynamic solutions are appealing, yet, there is no clear empirical evidence on benefits of dynamic time coding in radial diagrams. In this paper, we compare static vs. dynamic time mapping using two radial CI visualization methods. The popular Radar chart technique is compared to the innovative Flower chart as used in the well-known OECD Better Life index. We compare users' performance and preferences empirically under formal task taxonomy, adjusted to CI tasks. Results indicate that in general, static time encoding was more effective than dynamic encoding. Still, an in depth analysis showed that the dynamic approach is a feasible and sometimes even better solution for important CIs tasks, leveraged by the fact that users seem to like and enjoy it.


In this article, I will first show the historical development of this theological approach within the Brazilian and Latin American evangelical spheres through the work of the Latin American Theological Fraternity – a movement founded in 1970 that maintained historic evangelical values (i.e. a high view of Scripture, the necessity of conversion) whilst also taking Latin America's great social needs into account. Nurtured by thinkers such as Rene Padilla (Ecuador), Orlando Costas (Puerto Rico), Samuel Escobar (Peru), and later Valdir Steuernagel (Brazil), the movement has not only responded to the concerns raised by Liberation theologians, but it has also influenced the direction of the Lausanne Movement – an expression of global evangelicalism. Secondly, I will discuss how missao integral has found its way into the missional 'bloodstream' and become a central value for some Brazilian and Latin American missions organisations, including Missao Antioquia (1975) and PM International (1984). Finally, based on 55 interviews conducted in 2009–2010 with Brazilian workers and mission leaders focusing on the Arab world, I will show how Brazilian workers are demonstrating missao integral through their ministries and also why this approach is relevant in the Arab-Muslim world.


The atmosphere can be regarded as a heat engine converting solar heat into the mechanical energy of wind, which in turn generates waves on the surface of the sea, so that both wind and wave energy can readily be traced back to the solar input. Wind energy used to be a major source of power, but gave way to the much cheaper and more reliable source presented by coal. Looking to the future, we can certainly make much better windmills (15 % efficiency was perhaps the best in the past) but the improvement in size/cost ratio with increasing size drives one to large structures. A preference for disaggregated supply is needed to put even medium sized aerogenerators into the running, and a house-by-house supply would require quite sizeable structures. Really big structures, especially on the favoured hill top sites, would raise environmental questions that might drive one to off-shore locations, though of course these may well involve increased costs. Vertical axis as well as horizontal axis machines are being studied. Isolated locations, where the competition is less severe, might offer the first chance of economic viability without going to very large sizes. Wave energy has the great merit of being dependent on a non-local supply. In particular, the longer waves with their high energy content may originate hundreds or even thousands of miles from the scene of exploitation, and so the system has a steadiness much greater than might be expected. Indeed, the U.K. is located in one of the World's most favourable positions. Engineering exploitation is made difficult by the need for the apparatus to survive the wildest conditions and by the fact that, in many devices, the input is a large force with small displacement, a form of power for which there is little practical experience in its utilization. A variety of devices are being supported so as to establish where we should concentrate our effort. The potential size of the resource and its seasonal phasing in line with demand make this a most essential field of renewable development.


OBJECTIVES
Rapidly alternating or mixed mood states in bipolar disorder are associated with a particularly high risk for suicidal behavior. Are individuals with these patterns of illness more likely to develop suicidal intentions, or are they less able to resist them? This analysis examines the specific contribution of rapid switching and other variables to the relative likelihood of having or acting on self-reported suicidal thought and action, in a large group of individuals with bipolar disorder.

METHODS
The analysis included 1574 family members with bipolar disorder interviewed for a multi-site bipolar disorder genetic linkage study. Two models were tested, using the same set of demographic and clinical data points as independent variables. One model tested the influence of rapid switching and other variables on self-reported suicidal thought or action (i.e., suicidality), while the other tested the influences on suicidal action only among those who reported a history of suicidality.

RESULTS
Over 75% of subjects had contemplated suicide and 38% reported a history of suicidal behavior. A history of rapid switching was associated with higher likelihood of a history of suicidality, as was panic disorder. Familial suicidal behavior, as well as drug abuse, increased the likelihood of suicidal action among suicidal individuals, but did not increase the likelihood of becoming suicidal. Female sex, early age at onset, and several demographic factors were associated with both facets of suicidality.

CONCLUSIONS
Factors associated with high acuity of distress, such as panic attacks and unstable moods, appear to enhance the risk of suicidality in general. Factors that affected the threshold for action without increasing suicidality overall can also be seen as markers of impulsive decision-making. Of the two distinct kinds of suicidal risk, the latter - the likelihood of action given intent - appears to be the more familial.


Previous radiolarian zonations for the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene of Japan are reviewed in terms of species identification and age determinations. With adoption of a consistent identification scheme, a remarkably uniform succession of radiolarian assemblages is evident throughout Southwest Japan. Sufficient species range into higher northern latitudes (Hokkaido, eastern Russia) to permit the establishment of a single radiolarian zonation for the Northwest Pacific. The new zonation consists of six Late Cretaceous and two Paleocene interval zones: Theocampe urna zone (Tu, Coniacian), Dictyomitra koslovae zone (Dk, Santonian to earl Campanian), Amphipyndax tylotus zone (At, late Campanian), Pseudotheocampe abschnitta zone (Pa, early Maastrichtian), Clathrocyclas gravis zone (Cg, mid-Maastrichtian), Lithostrobus wero zone (Lw, early Paleocene), Buryella foremanae zone (Bf, mid-Paleocene). Zone Dk may be subdivided into Santonian and early Campanian subzones based on the first appearances of Archaeospongoprunum hueyi gr., Protoxiphotractis perplexus and Lithocampe wharanui. Previous workers' recognition of an Amphipyndax pseudoconulus or A. enesseffi assemblage in Japan is found to be erroneous. Careful examination of illustrations of the A. pseudoconulus-tylotus complex reveals that A. pseudoconulus s.s. (= A. enesseffi of Foreman 1966) is very rare in Japan and restricted to the late Campanian, its first appearance coinciding with that of A. tylotus.


The Avoidable War details how World War II, its destruction, and its consequences could have been avoided. This original interpretation of history provides insights into ways of preserving peace that can guide contemporary diplomacy. Volume 1 of The Avoidable War chronicles three converging streams that brought Europe to crisis in the summer of 1935: the growing military might of Nazi Germany; Mussolini's ambition to build a new Roman Empire in East Africa; and a massive mobilization of British public opinion in favor of peace, disarmament, and collective security through the League of Nations. Volume 2 brings the story to a close, detailing the tragic denouement of this crisis. While Hitler prepared to absorb Austria and remilitarize the strategically critical Rhineland, Pierre Laval, French foreign minister and later premier, labored to convert Italy into France's partner, with Britain, in containing Germany. When Italian aggression in Abyssinia led to League of Nations sanctions championed by Britain, the issue became: Abyssinia or Austria, Africa or Europe? Brody argues that the celebrated Hoare-Laval pact was a wise and practical arrangement to resolve the Abyssinian war which, while it rewarded aggression, preserved Italy as an ally in the vital task of containing Germany. Hoare-Laval was, of course, rejected by the massive moral indignation of the British public. When German troops entered the Rhineland in March 1936 and Britain declined to respond to desperate French pleas, the balance of political and military power had decisively shifted, establishing the fundamental conditions for the debacle of 1940. This unhappy tale invites the reader to reflect upon the conflict between a foreign policy based upon moral values as exemplified by Lord Cecil and a policy based upon interests and political realities, the guidelines of Pierre Laval. These considerations remain basic issues of foreign policy at the turn of the century.


Standardized interfaces and shared components are critical for realizing the potential of mobile-device–enabled health care delivery and research. Chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, and obesity account for 46% of global disease burden (1). The traditional model of episodic care in clinic and hospital-based settings is suboptimal for improving chronic disease outcomes (2). Mobile communication devices, in conjunction with Internet and social media, present opportunities to enhance disease prevention and management by extending health interventions beyond the reach of traditional care—an approach referred to as mHealth (3). However, mHealth is emerging as a patchwork of incompatible applications ("apps") serving narrow, albeit valuable, needs, and thus could benefit from more coordinated development (4). A public-private partnership to define and instantiate an "open" mHealth architecture (described below), in the context of economic incentives and enabling policies, could support medical discovery and evidence-based practice about managing and preventing chronic disease.


The authors here describe manual small incision cataract surgery (MSICS) by using topical anesthesia with intracameral 0.5% lignocaine, which eliminates the hazards of local anesthesia, cuts down cost and time taken for the administration of local anesthesia. Aims To evaluate the patients' and surgeons' experience in MSICS using topical anesthesia with intracameral lignocaine in terms of pain, surgical complications, and outcome. Settings and Design Prospective interventional case series. Materials and Methods Ninety-six patients of senile cataract were operated by MSICS under topical anesthesia with intracameral lignocaine using "fish hook technique." The patients and the single operating surgeon were given a questionnaire to evaluate their experience in terms of pain, surgical experience, and complications. Statistical Analysis Used Statistical analysis software "Analyseit." Results There were 96 patients enrolled in the study. The mean pain score was 0.7 (SD ± 0.97, range 0–5, median 0.0, and mode 0.0). Fifty-one patients (53%) had pain score of zero, that is, no pain. Ninety-one patients (˜95%) had a score of less than 3, that is, mild pain to none. All the surgeries were complication-free except one and the surgeon's experience was favorable in terms of patient's cooperation, anterior chamber stability, difficulty, and complications. The ocular movements were not affected, and hence, the eye patch could be removed immediately following the surgery. Conclusions MSICS can be performed under topical anesthesia with intracameral lignocaine, which makes the surgery patient friendly, without compromising the outcome.


The depth and breadth of the East Asian financial crisis has added a sense of acute urgency for some concrete and credible measures by policy-makers to revitalise the Japanese economy. While steps to be taken for the long-run competitiveness and economic revitalisation of the Japanese economy are clear (with the only doubt being about whether and how effectively they will be implemented), those needed to boost aggregate demand in the shortrun are far less obvious. Given the near-zero nominal interest rates in Japan, most observers argue that an expansionary monetary policy would be ineffective. However, as with Krugman (1998a,b), we argue that once a distinction is made between real and nominal interest rates, it is logically possible for monetary policy to be effective in raising demand if it is able to create inflationary expectations. This could probably be effected through explicit announcements by the Bank of Japan of the intention to target a certain inflation rate in the future.


Anyone with a computer has heard of viruses, had to deal with several, and has been struggling with spam, spyware, and disk crashes. This book is intended as a starting point for those familiar with basic concepts of computers and computations and who would like to extend their knowledge into the realm of computer and network security. Its comprehensive treatment of all the major areas of computer security aims to give readers a complete foundation in the field of Computer Security. Exercises are given throughout the book and are intended to strengthening the readers knowledge - answers are also provided. Written in a clear, easy to understand style, aimed towards advanced undergraduates and non-experts who want to know about the security problems confronting them everyday. The technical level of the book is low and requires no mathematics, and only a basic concept of computers and computations. Foundations of Computer Security will be an invaluable tool for students and professionals alike.


While culture plays a central role in ethnic entrepreneurship, extant research offers a limited understanding of this aspect. This paper investigates the impact of cultural values on Vietnamese ethnic entrepreneurs in Germany. We conducted five case studies with Vietnamese ethnic entrepreneurs. Based on the case studies, we identified four distinct types of cultural values that have a crucial impact on the entrepreneurial activities of the observed Vietnamese entrepreneurs in Germany: i) Family involvement, ii) Cautiousness in entrepreneurial decision-making, iii) Assertiveness in front of the community and iv) Cordiality of service. The study offers an initial insight into the role of cultural values in entrepreneurial decision-making processes of ethnic entrepreneurs and recognizes a reciprocal effect between cultural values and the balance of embeddedness.


Background and Aim: Transforming government hospitals into autonomous units improved hospitals. This study was performed to evaluate the responsiveness of board of trustees hospital according to the world bank's organizational reform model (Preker Model) in isfahan city. Materials and Methods: The study was a qualitative research method. In this research, depth and semi-structured interviews were carried out and purposive sampling was used. The study population were top managers of Amin and Alzahra hospitals. Sampling was started with the first participant until saturated level of information, participants completed the 8 cases. Results: According to interviews, the current role and contribution of nonuniversity institutions (e.g. municipalities representatives) in hospital board of trustees is neither bold nor transparent. These hospitals can address minimum changes in their mechanisms of accountability after developing board of trustees. Conclusion: It is rational for hospitals as they undergo organizational reform and developing board of trustees, to have more rights for decision making. Further more, their accountability mechanism should change accordingly.


ABSTRACT Translation occupies a central place in current theories of world literature, but it is not the only way in which texts circulate beyond their original cultural and temporal contexts to become world literature. This article explores the shifting relationship between language and territory, contrasting modern languages as territorially bound by the nation-state with pre-modern cosmopolitan languages that transcended territorial location. Drawing upon the complex translation process of the works of Aristotle from the Abbasid translation movement of the eighth through 10th centuries to the multiple print editions of competing translations of Aristotle's works published in Venice in the 16th century, the article argues that world literature often results from the confluence of the broad reach of a cosmopolitan language and the mobility of translation.


The effectiveness of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) modeling hinges on the quality of practices employed through the process, starting from early problem definition all the way through to using the model in a way that serves its intended purpose. The adoption and implementation of effective modeling practices need to be guided by a practical understanding of the variety of decisions that modelers make, and the information considered in making these choices. There is still limited documented knowledge on the modeling workflow, and the role of contextual factors in determining this workflow and which practices to employ. This paper attempts to contribute to this knowledge gap by providing systematic guidance of the modeling practices through the phases (Planning, Development, Application, and Perpetuation) and steps that comprise the modeling process, positing questions that should be addressed. Practice-focused guidance helps explain the detailed process of conducting IWRM modeling, including the role of contextual factors in shaping practices. We draw on findings from literature and the authors' collective experience to articulate what and how contextual factors play out in employing those practices. In order to accelerate our learning about how to improve IWRM modeling, the paper concludes with five key areas for future practice-related research: knowledge sharing, overcoming data limitations, informed stakeholder involvement, social equity and uncertainty for knowledge sharing, overcoming data limitations, informed stakeholder involvement, social equity, and uncertainty management. results that crucial to play and successfully implementing IWRM. This paper attempts to contribute to improving the implementation of an IWRM modeling project by providing practical and fit-for-context guidance of the practices employed through the various modeling phases and steps. These practices explain the details of employing IWRM modeling.


'A Quick Guide to Human Resource Testing' is a quick reference guide for human resource (HR) practitioners who use or plan to use assessment instruments in any context. It includes explanations, tips, case studies and suggestions to help practitioners get the most out of their HR testing. Those in charge of recruiting and selecting new staff face a decision-making process that needs to be responsible in its implementation and to produce a positive and wide-ranging outcome. The cost of a wrong selection decision has been estimated to be anywhere between one and a half times and five times the salary of the job in question. Studies have shown that appropriate assessment tools enhance the chances of making good selection and recruitment decisions. Testing is also important to the HR practitioner in a variety of other contexts, including team building, change management and ongoing organisational needs. Good practice and appropriate use of tests are as vital to these areas as they are in the selection and recruitment of staff.


This thesis aims to re-categorize Chinese independent films from a region-based perspective as a critical response to existing literature on Chinese independent films. This thesis analyzes three independent films made in three different regions of China in order to investigate regional Chinese independent cinema as a recently rising phenomenon: respectively, Jia Zhangke's Xiaowu (1997) made in Shanxi Province, Ying Liang's Taking Father Home (Bei yazi de nanhai, 2006) in Sichuan Province, and Robin Weng's Fujian Blue (Jinbi huihuang, 2007) in Fujian Province. By using Bakhtin's concept of chronotope (literally time-space) as the fundamental framework and exploring the many aspects of it, I will develop three major theoretical points to study selected regional Chinese independent films: first, chronotope enables the evaluation of texts of Chinese independent films; second, the documentary impulses prevailing Chinese independent films serve as the chronotopic linkage between the world in the film text and the world the film text represents; three, the mediation function as one aspect of chronotope is characterized by the negotiation between regional Chinese independent films and many social relations, for example, filmmakers, casting, audiences. This thesis also explores many issues related to Chinese independent films, for example: How do we value the unique film practice of Chinese independent filmmakers instead of viewing them as a unified whole? How do we relate Chinese independent films as aesthetic practices to the region-specific reality they are embedded in? How can Chinese independent cinema as a social practice play an effective role in society? The exploration of these questions does not only enlighten new research perspectives on Chinese independent films, but also provide reflections on the geographical, cultural and social diversity of Chinese regions.


Jets have been studied in high energy heavy ion collisions by measuring the angular correlation between particles at high transverse momentum. Differences in the yield and shape of the angular correlations as a function of system size give information on the medium produced in the collision. Such modifications can be used to infer the presence of a Quark-Gluon Plasma phase, wherein parton degrees of freedom are manifest over nuclear rather than nucleonic scales. In the present work, two-particle correlations were studied in \(d+Au\) and \(Au+Au\) collisions at \(\sqrt{s_{NN}}\) = 200 GeV measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The technique was extended to include pseudo-rapidity, permitting jets to be characterised in two-dimensions, and enabling the jet shape to be studied in greater detail. Corrections were developed for the incomplete detector acceptance and finite two-track resolution. Both unidentified and identified particle correlations were studied, using charged tracks and neutral strange particles \(\Lambda , \overline{\Lambda}\) , and \(K^0_{Short}\) reconstructed from their characteristic \(V\)0 decay topology. The focus of the analysis was the correlation peak centred at zero azimuthal separation, which is significantly enhanced in central \(Au+Au\) collisions compared to lighter systems. The modified peak was found to comprise a jet-like peak broadened in the pseudo-rapidity direction, sitting atop a long range pseudo-rapidity correlation. The former is suggestive of jet modification by the medium, and the latter may indicate a medium response to jets. Correlations with identified particles indicated the modified same side peak may in part be formed from particles originating from the underlying event.


OBJECTIVES: To estimate the relations between exposure to both tobacco smoke and crocidolite and the incidence of various histological types of lung cancer. METHODS: In 1979 all former workers from the Wittenoom asbestos industry who could be traced were sent a questionnaire on smoking history. Of 2928 questionnaires sent, satisfactory replies were received from 2400 men and 149 women. Of the men, 80% had smoked at some time and 50% still smoked. Occupational exposure to crocidolite was known from employment records and follow up was maintained through death and cancer registries in Australia with histological diagnoses obtained from the relevant State Cancer Registry. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of tobacco and asbestos exposure on incidence of different cell types of lung cancer in a nested case-control design. RESULTS: Between 1979 and 1990, 71 cases of lung cancer occurred among men in this cohort: 27% squamous cell carcinoma, 31% adenocarcinoma, 18% small cell carcinoma, 11% large cell carcinoma, and 13% unclassified or indeterminate. Two of the classified cases and one unclassified case had never smoked. The incidence of both squamous and adenocarcinoma types of lung cancer were greatest in ex-smokers and in those subjects with the highest levels of exposure to crocidolite. After adjustment for smoking habit, the increase in incidence of lung cancer with increasing exposure to crocidolite was greater for squamous cell carcinoma than for adenocarcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study have shown significant exposure-response effects for exposure to crocidolite, and both adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the lung. They also provide some further evidence against the theory that parenchymal fibrosis induced by asbestos is a necessary precursor to asbestos induced lung cancer.


We study a class of semi-implicit Taylor-type numerical methods that are easy to implement and designed to solve multidimensional stochastic differential equations driven by a general rough noise, e.g. a fractional Brownian motion. In the multiplicative noise case, the equation is understood as a rough differential equation in the sense of T.~Lyons. We focus on equations for which the drift coefficient may be unbounded and satisfies a one-sided Lipschitz condition only. We prove well-posedness of the methods, provide a full analysis, and deduce their convergence rate. Numerical experiments show that our schemes are particularly useful in the case of stiff rough stochastic differential equations driven by a fractional Brownian motion.


A second generation anti-ErbB2 ImmunoRNase, called Erb-hcAb-RNase, was obtained by the fusion of Erb-hcAb, a human compact anti-ErbB2 antibody, with human pancreatic ribonuclease (HP-RNase or RNase 1).
We show herein that Erb-hcAb-RNase retains the enzymatic activity of human pancreatic RNase and specifically binds to ErbB2-positive cells with an affinity comparable to that of the parental Erb-hcAb. Moreover, this novel immunoRNase is endowed with an effective and selective antiproliferative action for ErbB2-positive tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo. Its antitumor activity is more potent than that of the parental Erb-hcAb as the novel immunoconjugate has acquired RNase-based cytotoxicity in addition to the inhibitory growth effects, antibody-dependent and complement-dependent cytotoxicity of the compact antibody.
Erb-hcAb-RNase could be a promising candidate for the immunotherapy of ErbB2-positive tumours as it combines the advantages of the first generation scFv-based immunoRNase with those of a fully functional antibody


Purpose Many proteins in the lens undergo extensive posttranslational modifications (PTMs) with age, leading to alterations in their function. The extent to which lens gap junction proteins, Cx46 and Cx50, accumulate PTMs with aging is not known. In this study, we identified truncations in Cx46 and Cx50 in the human lens using mass spectrometry. We also examined the effect of truncations on channel function using electrophysiological measurements. Methods Human lenses were dissected into cortex, outer nucleus, and nucleus regions, and fiber cell membranes were subjected to trypsin digestion. Tryptic peptides were analyzed by liquid chromatography (LC)–electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (ESI/MS/MS). Effects of truncations on channel conductance, permeability, and gating were assessed in transfected cells. Results Cleavage sites were identified in the C-terminus, the cytoplasmic loop, and the N-terminus of Cx46 and Cx50. Levels of C-terminal truncations, which were found at residues 238 to 251 in Cx46 and at residues 238 to 253 and 274 to 284 in Cx50, were similar in different lens regions. In contrast, levels of truncations in cytoplasmic loop and N-terminal domains of Cx46 and Cx50 increased dramatically from outer cortex to nucleus. Most of the C-terminally truncated proteins were functional, whereas truncations in the cytoplasmic loop did not result in the formation of functional channels. Conclusions Accumulation of cytoplasmic loop and N-terminal truncations in the core might lead to decreases in coupling with age. This reduction is expected to lead to an increase in intracellular calcium and a decrease in levels of glutathione in the nucleus. These changes may ultimately lead to age-related nuclear cataracts.


Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings are often contaminated by artifacts, i.e., signals with noncerebral origin that might mimic some cognitive or pathologic activity, this way affecting the clinical interpretation of traces. Artifact rejection is, thus, a key analysis for both visual inspection and digital processing of EEG. Automatic artifact rejection is needed for effective real time inspection because manual rejection is time consuming. In this paper, a novel technique (Automatic Wavelet Independent Component Analysis, AWICA) for automatic EEG artifact removal is presented. Through AWICA we claim to improve the performance and fully automate the process of artifact removal from scalp EEG. AWICA is based on the joint use of the Wavelet Transform and of ICA: it consists of a two-step procedure relying on the concepts of kurtosis and Renyi's entropy. Both synthesized and real EEG data are processed by AWICA and the results achieved were compared to the ones obtained by applying to the same data the "wavelet enhanced" ICA method recently proposed by other authors. Simulations illustrate that AWICA compares favorably to the other technique. The method here proposed is shown to yield improved success in terms of suppression of artifact components while reducing the loss of residual informative data, since the components related to relevant EEG activity are mostly preserved.


At the heart of any great work of literature is a story. William Shakespeare's plays are no exception. They tell the stories of kings and queens, of ghosts and witches, of romance and passion. But to get to the stories at the heart of the Bard's plays, the reader must first work through Shakespeare's language, a task often too demanding for younger readers (and for many adults). This new paperback edition brings ten of Shakespeare's greatest plays to life. E. Nesbit, the classic British children's author, shakes off the burdensome complexity of Shakespeare's language and tells the stories at the core of the plays with a generous sprinkle of wit and humor. Her graceful, vivid retellings, written in highly accessible and lucid prose, are the perfect introduction to Shakespeare's work. All of these major works are included in this anthology: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, As You Like It, The Winter's Tale, and Twelfth Night. The text is illustrated with dramatic black-and-white photographs from contemporary productions of the plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Stratford Festival (Ontario, Canada), and the Folger Library's Shakespeare Theater. Also included is an afterword by Peter Hunt, a leading scholar of children's literature. These retellings of the classic tales of one of the world's greatest playwrights remind us that it is never too early for Shakespeare.


India's success story in services is well documented at the national level, but similar literature does not exist for India's states. In this paper, we bridge this gap in research by looking at India's services growth at the sub-national level and in doing so, also challenge existing literature by arguing that this growth has positive implications for income distribution. The first interesting finding is that even as per capita income is not converging across India's states, per capita services are and we provide evidence for this both in terms of traditional measures of sigma- and beta-convergence and more recent panel unit root tests. Secondly, not only is external demand an important determinant of services value added at the state level, but this demand also emanates from all over the country rather than being concentrated in the neighbouring or richer states. This suggests that the benefits from services growth are being distributed more widely than may be perceived.


A series of substituted piperazine salts have been synthesized and tested for antimicrobial activity. The antimicrobial activity was tested against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. The study indicates that some of these derivatives showed significant activity against tested microbes. Based on the reported results, it may be concluded that an electronegative group is very vital in eliciting the desired biological effect.


The benefit of enterprise architecture (EA) managementis directly coupled to the underlying conceptualization of the enterprise. This conceptualization should reflect the goals pursued by the EA management endeavor and focus on the areas of interest of the involved stakeholders. Whereas this statements often goes as a matter of course, an enterprise willing to develop such a goal-adequate conceptualization, finds itself confronted with a plethora of different approaches typically proposing a one-size-fits-it-all model, which neglects the subject of enterprise-specificity. These models are typically described in an object-oriented manner utilizing concepts like class, property, and relationship. Specific aspects relevant in the area of EA management, such as temporality, property-dependency, and cross-cutting aspects are more often than not neglected in this approaches. In this paper, we addresses the challenge of conceptualizing cross-cutting aspects in EA modeling. Cross-cutting aspects refer to EA-related concepts, like goals or projects, which may exert influence on other concepts of the EA model. Therefore, the state-of-the-art in EA conceptualization is revisited resulting in the identification of four cross-cutting aspects of EA modeling: goals, lifecycles, projects, and standards. Along these aspects we raise questions concerning a suitable alternative modeling language for EA conceptualizations and discuss options of future research.


The concept of outsourcing is not new, especially in the corporate world. It has been going on from the 1900s till date. The basic idea behind outsourcing is to fully utilize one's competitive advantage to gain greater market share, increased productivity and more profits. Globalization is the integration of business activities across geographical and organizational boundaries. Globalization is doing business with a worldwide focus rather than doing business in an international market with the focus from a home-country viewpoint. (Goldin and Reinert, 2007). Globalization is a mixture of international, offshore and global activities and involves a general progression from the domestic to the global. (Cable, 1999).Thus countries like America and other developed countries outsources many of its white and blue collar jobs to third world countries in hopes of gaining greater amounts of profit and market share. This report evaluates the strategies adopted by the General Electric during the recession and the primary causes for outsourcing, starting from monetary gains, intellectual rights, political stability, allocation of resources at cheaper rates and so much more.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether damage to the optic radiation (OR) in multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with optic nerve injury and visual dysfunction.

DESIGN
Case-control study.

SETTING
Referral center.

PARTICIPANTS
Ninety referred patients with MS and 29 healthy volunteers.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Magnetic resonance imaging indices along the OR were reconstructed with diffusion tensor tractography. Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and visual acuity at high and low contrast were measured in a subset of the MS group (n = 36).

RESULTS
All tested magnetic resonance imaging indices (fractional anisotropy [FA]; mean, parallel, and perpendicular [lambda( perpendicular)] diffusivity; T2 relaxation time; and magnetization transfer ratio) were significantly abnormal in patients with MS. Mean retinal nerve fiber layer thickness was significantly correlated with FA (r = 0.55; P < .001) and lambda( perpendicular) (r = -0.37; P = .001). The retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in the nasal retinal quadrant was also specifically correlated with FA and lambda( perpendicular) in the synaptically connected contralateral OR. In individuals with less severely damaged optic nerves (mean retinal nerve fiber layer thickness >80 mum), letter acuity scores at 2.5% contrast were correlated with OR-specific FA (r = 0.55; P = .004), lambda( perpendicular) (r = -0.40; P = .04), and magnetization transfer ratio (r = 0.54; P = .01), as well as the fraction of OR volume made up of lesions (r = -0.69; P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS
Fractional anisotropy and lambda( perpendicular) are potentially useful quantitative magnetic resonance imaging biomarkers of OR-specific damage in MS. Such damage is associated with retinal injury and visual disability.


This article originally appeared in the March 2010 Trial Techniques and Tactics Committee Newsletter. While the benefits of the internet to litigation are undeniable, the potential negative implications are equally clear. Indeed, the impartiality of the judicial system is lost where discovery materials are posted online, causing cases to be tried in the court of public opinion. A similar risk is posed where extrajudicial statements concerning ongoing litigation are splashed across the internet. When published online, discovery materials are often taken out of context and extrajudicial statements are almost always biased. The resulting slanted presentation of facts creates a significant risk of prejudicing the jury pool, causes unnecessary court battles, and implicates the right to a fair trial. This predicament begs the question: what can attorneys do when opposing counsel publishes discovery materials and extrajudicial statements on the internet? The answer involves a careful balance between the fight to free speech and the fight to a fair trial. However, the United States Supreme Court is clear that attorneys and parties are not defenseless in such situations. Although the relevant decisions do not involve internet publications, the rationale behind those cases is nevertheless applicable to situations where opposing counsel uses the internet as a weapon in litigation. UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT CASES I. Supreme Court Cases Regarding the Publication of Discovery Materials In Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, (1) the United States Supreme Court unanimously upheld restrictions on the release of information gained "only by virtue of the trial court's discovery processes." In Seattle, the Court addressed the issue of whether a litigant's freedom comprehends the fight to disseminate information that he has obtained pursuant to a court order that both granted him access to that information and placed restraints on the way in which the information might be used. (2) The Court held that where "a protective order is entered on a showing of good cause as required by Rule 26(c), is limited to the context of pretrial civil discovery, and does not restrict the dissemination of the information if gained from other sources, it does not offend the First Amendment." (3) The Court reasoned that "in all civil litigation, petitioners gain the information they wish to disseminate only by virtue of the trial court's discovery processes." (4) The Court further reasoned, because "[a] litigant has no First Amendment right of access to information made available only for purposes of trying his suit ... continued court control over the discovered information does not raise the same specter of government censorship that such control might suggest in other situations." (5) Moreover, it noted that restraints placed on discovered, but not yet admitted, information are not a restriction on a traditionally public source of information. (6) Pretrial depositions and interrogatories are not public components of a civil trial and, in general, they are conducted in private as a matter of modern practice. (7) In reality, much of the information that surfaces during pretrial discovery may be unrelated, or only tangentially related, to the underlying cause of action. (8) Likewise, in U.S. v. Aguilar, (9) the Supreme Court stated that protective orders may be imposed in connection with information acquired through civil discovery without violating the First Amendment. II. Supreme Court Cases Regarding the Publication of Extrajudicial Statements In Gentile v. State Bar of Nevada, (10) the Supreme Court discussed the threat posed by extrajudicial statements made by attorneys regarding pending cases when it addressed the constitutionality of a ban which implicated the ability of counsel to speak freely about a pending case. The Court reasoned, "[b]ecause lawyers have special access to information through discovery and client communications, their extrajudicial statements pose a threat to the fairness of a pending proceeding since lawyers' statements are likely to be received as especially authoritative. …


For bacterial typing to be useful, the development, validation and appropriate application of typing methods must follow unified criteria. Over a decade ago, ESGEM, the ESCMID (Europen Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases) Study Group on Epidemiological Markers, produced guidelines for optimal use and quality assessment of the then most frequently used typing procedures. We present here an update of these guidelines, taking into account the spectacular increase in the number and quality of typing methods made available over the past decade. Newer and older, phenotypic and genotypic methods for typing of all clinically relevant bacterial species are described according to their principles, advantages and disadvantages. Criteria for their evaluation and application and the interpretation of their results are proposed. Finally, the issues of reporting, standardisation, quality assessment and international networks are discussed. It must be emphasised that typing results can never stand alone and need to be interpreted in the context of all available epidemiological, clinical and demographical data relating to the infectious disease under investigation. A strategic effort on the part of all workers in the field is thus mandatory to combat emerging infectious diseases, as is financial support from national and international granting bodies and health authorities.


In this paper, we apply the ARFIMA-GARCH model to the realized volatility and the continuous sample path variations constructed from high-frequency Nikkei 225 data. While the homoskedastic ARFIMA model performs excellently in predicting the Nikkei 225 realized volatility time series and their square-root and log transformations, the residuals of the model suggest presence of strong conditional heteroskedasticity similar to the finding of Corsi et al. (2007) for the realized S&P 500 futures volatility. An ARFIMA model augmented by a GARCH(1,1) specification for the error term largely captures this and substantially improves the fit to the data. In a multi-day forecasting setting, we also find some evidence of predictable time variation in the volatility of the Nikkei 225 volatility captured by the ARFIMA-GARCH model.


This study presents the folk medical beliefs and practices described in the Chicano Heritage Collection of the University of California at Los Angeles. Dr. Roeder explores the role of storytelling, particularly the narration of personal experience stories, in the communication of folk medical traditions and beliefs. She shows how ethnic traditions, individual choice of medical treatment, and Mexican American awareness of both are influenced by the experiences of immigration and of life as a minority, confronted by differing majority beliefs and practices. The 103-page appendix on medicinals is useful independently.


Rice pollen and seed development are directly related to grain yield. To further improve rice yield, it is important for us to functionally annotate the genes controlling pollen/seed development and to use them for rice breeding. Here we first carried out a genome-wide expression analysis with an emphasis on genes being involved in rice pollen and seed development. Based on the transcript profiling, we have identified and functionally classified 82 highly expressed pollen-specific, 12 developing seed-specific and 19 germinating seed-specific genes. We then presented the utilization of the maize transposon Dissociation (Ds) insertion lines for functional genomics of rice pollen and seed development and as alternative germplasm resources for rice breeding. We have established a two-element Activator/Dissociation (Ac/Ds) gene trap tagging system and generated around 20,000 Ds insertion lines. We have subjected these lines for screens to obtain high and low yield Ds insertion lines. Some interesting lines have been obtained with higher yield or male sterility. Flanking Sequence Tags (FSTs) analyses showed that these Ds-tagged genes encoded various proteins including transcription factors, transport proteins, unknown functional proteins and so on. They exhibited diversified expression patterns. Our results suggested that rice could be improved not only by introducing foreign genes but also by knocking out its endogenous genes. This finding might provide a new way for rice breeder to further improve rice varieties.


The microstructure homogeneity and variability in mechanical properties of 316L stainless steel components fabricated using selective laser melting (SLM) have been investigated. The crack free, 99.9% dense samples were made starting from SS316L alloy powder, and the melt pool morphology was analysed using optical and scanning electron microscopy. Extremely fast cooling rates after laser melting/solidification process, accompanied by slow diffusion of alloying elements, produced characteristic microstructures with colonies of cellular substructure inside grains, grown along the direction of the principal thermal gradient during laser scanning. In some areas of the microstructure, a significant number of precipitates were observed inside grains and at grain boundaries. Micro hardness measurements along the build direction revealed slight but gradual increase in hardness along the sample height. Uniaxial tensile tests of as manufactured samples showed the effect of un-melted areas causing scatter in room-temperature mechanical properties of samples extracted from the same SLM build. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) varied from 458MPa to 509MPa along with a variation in uniform elongation from 3.3% to 14.4%. The UTS of a sample exposed to the Cl^− rich corrosion environment at 46^oC temperature revealed a similar strength as of the original sample, indicating good corrosion resistance of SLM samples under those corrosion conditions.


Production of meat and processing of meat products is a very significant part of the food industry. In order to secure economic growth and development, especially in the meat industry, it is very important to provide free competition for the business entities that operate within it. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to measure market concentration using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), in order to determine the competition level in the Serbian market. Furthermore, the HHI should provide evidence of any business entities that hold monopolistic or oligopolistic positions on the market. Moreover, another aim of this study was to define to what extent business entities in the Serbian meat industry export products and goods to international markets. The 350 companies that reported the highest revenues during 2013-2017 and which are registered in this sector were studied.


BNCT is a radiotherapeutic method for cancer treatment that uses tumor-targeting 10B-compounds. BNCT for cutaneous melanoma using BPA, a phenylalanine derivative, was first initiated by Mishima et al. in 1987. This article reviews the radiobiological basis of melanoma control and damage to normal tissues as well as the results of clinical studies. Experimental studies showed that the compound biological effectiveness (CBE) values of the 10B (n, α)7Li reaction for melanoma control ranged from 2.5 to 3.3. The CBE values of the 10B (n, α)7Li reaction for skin damage ranged from 2.4 to 3.7 with moist desquamation as the endpoint. The required single radiation dose for controlling human melanoma was estimated to be 25 Gy-Eq or more by analyzing the 50% tumor control dose data of conventional fractionated radiotherapy. From the literature, the maximum permissible dose to human skin by single irradiation was estimated to be 18 Gy-Eq. With respect to the pharmacokinetics of BPA in patients with melanoma treated with 85–350 mg/kg BPA, the melanoma-to-blood ratio ranged from 2.1–3.8 and the skin-to-blood ratio was 1.31 ± 0.22. Good local tumor control and long-term survival of the patients were achieved in two clinical trials of BNCT conducted in Japan.