Objective: Children with food allergy need special care. Therefore, parents of food allergic children usually seek information on the internet to improve their knowledge. However, the quality and accuracy of internet-based information may vary and misdirect parents in their daily practices. Materials and Methods: We aimed to investigate the habits of internet usage in the families reporting cow's milk protein allergy or multiple food allergy in their children. This study was conducted by using a web-based questionnaire that can be completed on the Internet in Facebook groups of families who stated that their children had diagnosis of food allergy. Results: A total of 458 (96% female) individuals with a mean age of 32.03 ± 4.49 years participated in our survey. Three hundred forty three (74.9%) participants reported that they have preferred the internet to get information associated with the complaints of their children before seeing a physician. Two hundred ninty five (64.4%) participants reported that the information obtained on the internet and the information provided by the physicians were sometimes contradictory. As regards the contradicting information, 147 (49.8%) participants reported that they relied on the information provided by the physicians, whereas, 43 (14.9%) reported that they relied on the information on the internet. In addition, 44.3% stated that they always or most of the time gave advice to other patients and their families on the internet. Conclusion: Considering that social media use is an unpreventable habit, online sources should include correct information for information-seeking parents and should possibly be supervised or be certified by health institutions and organizations.


Background: Some phenolic compounds are potential source for arginase inhibitor that can be used in management of disease associated with endothelial dysfunction. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the inhibitory effect on arginase and to determine total phenolic content of extracts from different parts of Melastoma malabathricum L. Methods: Each part were extracted with 70% ethanol by maceration. The extracts were mixed with bovine liver arginase and L-arginine as a substrate. The inhibitory effect of extracts were determined in vitro, by measuring its absorbance on 430 nm. Total phenolic content were determined with Folin-Ciocalteu 25% on 750 nm. Results: The 70% ethanol extract of M. malabathricum leaves at 100 μg/mL was found to have highest inhibition (81.26 ± 5.27 %) followed by flower 73.39 ± 9.39%, fruit 67.63 ± 7.61 and stem 61.61 ± 4.56%. The IC50 value of the most active extract was 62.43 μg/mL while the IC50 value of N-hidroksi-nor-L-arginin (nor-NOHA) acetate, an arginase inhibitor was found to be 3.91 μg/mL. Total phenolic content of 70% ethanolic extracts of M. malabathricum leaves, flower, fruit and stem was 15.9, 20.7, 6.44, and 6.29%. Conclusion: The 70% ethanol extract of M. malabathricum leaves exhibited the highest inhibition on arginase but highest total phenolic content was from flower part. Pearson correlation test showed no correlation p>0.05 between arginase inhibition and total phenolic content of the samples. Key words: Arginase, L-arginine, Melastoma malabathricum.


There have been disturbing press reports and articles on the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008. These accounts broadly wallow about the increase in the police powers of the state. They contend that the amendment grants legal sanction to online surveillance inexorably whittling down internet privacy. This article seeks to examine this prevalent notion. It discovers that legal provisions for online surveillance, monitoring and identification of data have been inserted in a narrow and defined class of circumstances governed by tenuous procedures. At first glance it may seem that these procedures and safeguards by themselves increase the right to privacy. However, on a deeper study it is revealed that they are found wanting due to the nature of internet communications. The article takes a comprehensive look at the state of online privacy in India arising out of the Information Technology Act, 2000.


The hill beech forests cover most of the woody area in the Doftana Valley. The present study refers, for the first time, to two beech forests typical to this belt, which belong to the phytocoenological associations Epipactieto-Fagetum (Resmeriţă, 1972), in the Lunca Mare area, and Hieracio rotundati-Fagetum (Vida 1983, Tauber 1987) in the Sotrile area, from floristic, structural, biomass and necromass accumulation point of view, within the framework of the vertical structure of biocoenosis. The limestone substratum, occasionally with small outcrops in the first beech forest, differs chiefly through the pH levels (6.34-5.67) from the siliceous substratum (pH 5.11-4.36) in the second beech forest. The layer of trees is dominated by Fagus sylvatica in both forests; this species is associated with Cerasus avium (4.5%), Acer pseudoplatanus (2%) and Sorbus torminalis (2%) in the first beech forest, and is monodominant in the second. Although the forest underwent selective cuts, more intense in the Lunca Mare area, the aboveground ligneous biomass reaches nowadays 222 t/ha in the Lunca Mare area compared to only 163 t/ha in the Sotrile area; the average height is 28.8ą2.49 m and 23.7ą1.12 m, respectively, and the diameter is 33.30ą7.9 cm and 31.60ą6.28 cm, respectively. The species of macrofungi, not very numerous during the study because of scarce precipitations (6 and 7 species, respectively), are predominant on the rhytidoma trees in the beech forest rooted on the limestone ground; in the Sotrile beech forest they are joined by mycorrhizal and parasite species. The layer of shrub is underdeveloped. The herbaceous layer is discontinuous, and includes, along herbs, small plants and saplings belonging to the ligneous species and to liana Hedera helix. The maximal value of the aboveground biomass of the layer is 317 kg/ha DM in the Lunca Mare area and 235 kg /ha DM in the Sotrile area. Bryophyta is present in large quantities, especially in the Sotrile area, where by May it represents up to 20% of the inferior layer's biomass; on the limestone ground they do not exceed 0.5%. The most frequent are on the soil surface: Polytrichum formosum, Pogonatum nanum, Hypnum cupressiforme, Tortella tortuosa at Sotrile and, respectively Metzgeria furcata var. ulvula, Leskea nervosa , Ctenidium molluscum at Lunca Mare. In the Lunca Mare area, the most relevant herbaceous species in the structure of the biomass are Viola reichenbachiana, Festuca drymeja, Sanicula europaea and Campanula trachelium; in spring there are also Erytronium dens-canis and Lathyrus vernus. In the Sotrile area these are: Luzula luzuloides, Carex digitata, Calamagrostis arundinacea and Hieracium transsylvanicum, in both spring and autumn. Hedera helix, present especially at the surface, is the most frequent and best represented in terms of biomass in both beech forests, and in particular in the Lunca Mare site. The species characteristic to the phytocoenological association and to the alliances where these beech forests are included are representative through their biomass for the Hieracio rotundati-Fagetum association, while the orchids species characteristic to associations present on the limestone ground, although very diverse and with a great number of individuals for this taxonomic group, are not representative, neither as frequency nor as biomass or density, compared to other herbal species with a larger coenotic value, which are included in the Epipactieto-Fagetum association. The necromass accumulated in the area analyzed decays slowly, varying greatly with surface and time. It averages 4492 kg/ha in the Lunca Mare area and 4134 kg/ha in the Sotrile area. The necromass is made mostly of fallen leaves, and, at least in the Lunca Mare area, the July values are amplified by vernal herb flora.


Study Design: This is a retrospective review of a prospective multicenter adult spinal deformity (ASD) database. Objective: To quantify the location and magnitude of sagittal alignment changes within instrumented and noninstrumented spinal segments and to investigate the factors associated with these changes after surgery for ASD. Summary of Background Data: Spinal realignment is one of the major goals in ASD surgery and changes in the alignment are common following surgical correction. Methods: Inclusion criteria: operative patients with age above 18, coronal Cobb angle ≥20 degrees, sagittal vertical axis (SVA) ≥5 cm, pelvic tilt ≥25 degrees, and/or thoracic kyphosis ≥60 degrees. Exclusion criteria: revision surgery 6 weeks postoperatively. Standard sagittal radiographic spinal deformity parameters were evaluated. Changes in sagittal parameters between 6 weeks and 2 years postoperatively were assessed within and outside instrumented segments. Associations between changes in sagittal alignment and age, preoperative SVA, rod diameters, rod material, presence of 3-column osteotomy, and the use of interbody fusions were evaluated. Patients were also stratified by >5- and >10-degree changes in alignment. Results: In total, 183 patients (male:29, female:154, average age: 56±14.8 y) met inclusion criteria. A total of 45(24.6%) patients had increase in pelvic tilt >5 degrees, 74(40.4%) had increase in pelvic incidence and lumbar lordosis (LL) >5 degrees, and 76 (41.5%) had increase in SVA >2 cm. Mean change of thoracic sagittal alignment was +8 degrees; 70 (60%) patients had increases of >5 degrees and 31 (27%) had increases of >10 degrees. Noninstrumented thoracic segments had significantly more increase than instrumented thoracic segments (P=0.02). Mean loss of LL was −6 degrees; 49(47%) patients had worsening >5 degrees and 13(13%) >10 degrees. Noninstrumented lumbar segments had significantly less loss of lordosis than instrumented segments (P<0.01). Risks for loss of LL were: age 65 years and above [odds ratio (OR) 9.4; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.5–25.2; P<0.01], preoperative SVA>5 cm (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.3–4.4; P<0.01), and lumbar interbody fusion (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.2–4.2; P<0.01). Smaller rods (4.5 mm) were associated with a lower probability of worsening LL compared with 5.5-mm rods (OR, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.04–0.58; P<0.01) and 6.0-mm rods (OR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.18–0.72; P<0.01). The presence of a 3-column osteotomy and rod material were not significant factors in alignment changes (P>0.05). Conclusions: After correction of ASD, increases in thoracic and decreases in lumbar alignment is common. Loss of thoracic sagittal alignment primarily occurs in noninstrumented thoracic segments, whereas instrumented lumbar levels in elderly patients ( above 65 y) with high preoperative SVA, interbody fusions, and larger rods have significantly higher rates of postoperative sagittal alignment changes in the lumbar spine.


This paper reports on an investigation into the potential for a thermoelectric generator (TEG) to improve the fuel economy of a mild hybrid vehicle. A simulation model of a parallel hybrid vehicle equipped with a TEG in the exhaust system is presented. This model is made up by three sub-models: a parallel hybrid vehicle model, an exhaust model and a TEG model. The model is based on a quasi-static approach, which runs a fast and simple estimation of the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. The model is validated against both experimental and published data. Using this model, the annual fuel saving, CO2 reduction and net present value (NPV) of the TEG's life time fuel saving are all investigated. The model is also used as a flexible tool for analysis of the sensitivity of vehicle fuel consumption to the TEG design parameters. The analysis results give an effective basis for optimization of the TEG design.


This paper studies the joint dynamics of real house prices and rents over the past decade. We build a dynamic general equilibrium stochastic life cycle model of housing tenure choice with fully speci?ed markets for homeownership and rental properties, and endogenous house prices and rents. Houses are modeled as discrete-size durable goods which provide shelter services, confer access to collateralized borrowing, provide sizeable tax advantages, and generate rental income for homeowners who choose to become landlords. Mortgages are available, but home-buyers must satisfy a minimum down payment requirement, and home sales and purchases are subject to lumpy ad- justment costs. Lower interest rates, relaxed lending standards, and higher incomes are shown to account for over one-half of the increase in the U.S. house price-rent ratio between 1995 and 2005, and to generate the pattern of rapidly growing house prices, sluggish rents, increasing homeownership, and rising household indebtedness observed in the data. The model highlights the importance of accounting for equilib- rium interactions between the markets for owned and rented property when analyzing the housing market. These general equilibrium e¤ects can either magnify or reverse the partial equilibrium e¤ects of changes in fundamentals on house prices, rents, and homeownership.


In recent years a heightened interest in the roles that women have played in the history of music has led to an increase in research about and recognition of women musicians. As a result, more written material is now available, including biographies, histories, bibliographies, and biographical dictionaries. The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers (1) includes the lives and works of 875 women composers of Western classical music throughout history. Aaron Cohen's International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (2) lists over 6,000 women composers. In December 2003, Macmillan plans to publish Women Composers: A Historical Anthology, a twelve-volume set of music by women from the ninth through the twelfth centuries. (3) Support for women in music has evolved in a number of arenas. Publishing companies, such as Hildegard Press, Leonarda Publications, ClarNan Editions, and Arsis Press have been established to promote music by women composers. A number of female symphony orchestras, such as the Women's Symphony of Boston, the Women's Symphony of New York, and the Women's Philharmonic Orchestra in San Francisco, feature works by women composers. (4) More women are now conducting symphony orchestras and are programming pieces written by women. (5) Organizations such as the League of Women Composers, American Women Composers, Inc., and the International Alliance of Women in Music have been created to support and promote women composers and musicians. (6) Women composers are growing in number and are receiving greater recognition. As early as 1979, American Women Composers estimated that approximately 1,200 women composers were actively writing in the United States. (7) In 1983 Ellen Taaffe Zwilich had the distinction of being the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music Composition for her Symphony No. 1. Colleges and universities report an increase in the number of women teaching composition, along with a rise in the number of women majoring in theory and composition. (8) As the number of women actively involved in composition grows and the availability of resources increases, to what extent does this information filter down to the classroom? Has instruction about women composers in college music history classrooms kept pace with the recent surge of research and information? As a result of the wealth of information about women composers that has become available in recent years, Women in Music courses are now being offered at a number of colleges and universities. In 1979, Jeannie Pool observed that Women in Music history courses were beginning to be offered in high schools, colleges, and conservatories. (9) Calvert Johnson, music professor at Agnes Scott College, a women's liberal arts college in Decatur, Georgia, maintains that great strides have been made in the advancement of women in music in the past ten years, not only on his campus, but at academic institutions across the nation. (10) The International Alliance of Women in Music Journal has featured a number of Women in Music syllabi in its "Educators' Enclave" section. (11) Although Women in Music courses are invaluable in educating musicians about the contributions of women to music, some educators feel that such a segregated, supplemental approach is not helpful. Margaret Wilkins and Caroline Askew do not agree with the "Women's Studies" approach. Instead, they prefer to integrate women's music alongside men's music in the music history curriculum. Wilkins and Askew say that "putting music into boxes labeled 'Men Only' and 'Women Only' is not the correct way to treat music." (12) They go on to state that music history classes "which fail to mention any of the women musicians of a period give an unbalanced and untrue picture of events as they really were." (13) Peggy Vagts notes that "some musicians are concerned that by talking about women composers as a separate group we may be dumping women into a sort of cultural ghetto. …


The article discusses the peer-review evaluation of the national scientific journals in the Polish research evaluation system. Our study examines all journals (N = 2212) that are indexed on the 2015 Polish Journal Ranking (the so-called "ministerial list"). It is the first edition of the Polish Journal Ranking in which the peer-review evaluation has been implemented. We have analyzed three dimensions of the evaluation (the formal, the bibliometric, and the peer-review one) in each of the three groups of sciences in which the journals are classified. We have found out that the journal evaluation that is based on the peer-review has fundamentally changed the final assessment of the journals in the group of the humanities. The results of the peer-review evaluation in this group are not related to the results of the formal and bibliometric evaluation. In the group of natural sciences and in the group of social sciences, the results of the peer-review evaluation correlate with the results of the formal and bibliometric evaluation. Moreover, the journals citation correlate with the results of the peer-review evaluation in the three groups of sciences: the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Our findings show that adding the third dimension to the evaluation of Polish scientific journals, i.e. peer-review, has resulted in significant transformations of the assessment results only for the humanities journals.


In this useful work, C. Kingsley Barrett offers an insightful commentary on the book of John. Barrett seeks to view John in light of a variety of contexts, including that in which it was written, and its implications for modern-day readers. The book includes detailed notes and commentary on each chapter of John's Gospel.


The electrochemical oxidation of methanol was investigated by using various ad-layer modified Au(111) electrodes in alkaline media in comparison to Au(111), polycrystalline Pd, and polycrystalline Pt electrodes. Catalytic activity of gold toward methanol oxidation has tended to increase in more alkaline media, as reflected in the oxidation peak in the concentration range of NaOH (0.1-3.0 M) studied here. The oxidation peak potential of methanol shifted to more negative potentials, indicating a pH-dependent surface reaction. Among the electrodes studied, single-crystal gold electrode surfaces modified with Pd and Pt ad-layers displayed the highest catalytic activity for methanol oxidation. Additional shifts of about 350 mV in the oxidation peak potential of methanol was observed for both ad-layer modified electrodes to more negative potentials compared to that of bare electrodes. The Pd and Pt ad-layer modified Au(111) electrode surfaces did not only supply a superior electrical contact, but also accelerated electron transfer, as shown by the increase in peak current and the positive shift in peak potential. This effect was supported by the doublelayer capacitance measurements of bare Au(111) and Pd ad-layer modified singlecrystal electrodes where the potential of zero charge changed from 15 to 5 mV.


Palynomorph and foraminiferal assemblages have been studied from the Upper Pliensbachian to Bathonian of a borehole section on the island of Anholt in the Kattegat, situated near the eastern margin of the Norwegian-Danish Basin. Palynomorphs were recorded throughout the succession and have been used for both biostratigraphical and palaeoenvironmental assessments. Foraminifera were recorded from only the lower part of the succession, where they proved useful for interpreting palaeoenvironments. Four palynomorph and three foraminiferal zones have been established. The interval encompasses a palaeoenvironmental transition from a marine, inner shelf setting to mainly terrestrial conditions. The Upper Pliensbachian-Toarcian boundary marks the beginning of a major regression, which continued through the Toarcian and Aalenian. Hence, it took place significantly earlier at Anholt than in the centre of the Norwegian-Danish Basin, where a lowering of sea level did not occur until the late Toarcian. The Jurassic succession on Anholt spans the Fjerritslev and Haldager Sand formations; biostratigraphical data indicate that the Lower-Middle Jurassic boundary is here located within the uppermost part of the Fjerritslev Formation. The Fjerritslev and Haldager Sand formational transition was previously considered to coincide with the Lower-Middle Jurassic boundary.


Thylacines have long fascinated both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Ancient rock art depictions and recent attempts to clone thylacines with DNA from preserved specimens are good examples of this interest, with the Australian Museum involved in both the documentation of thylacine rock art and DNA sequencing. In this paper we report on a curious rock drawing from a site within Wollemi National Park, NSW and another rock art panel with superimposed paintings from Arnhem Land, NT. Both sites were found in recent years and documented as part of larger regional studies. Val Attenbrow has long argued that we should be cautious when interpreting archaeological evidence and assigning age, so with this in mind we offer a scientific assessment of these rare and unusual thylacine-like images. We conclude that images of thylacines were likely made over both a longer period of time and across a more geographically diverse area than previously realized.


Smoking during pregnancy is a risk factor for various adverse birth outcomes. In order to develop effective interventions, insight is needed into the characteristics associated with pregnant women who smoke. Unknown is whether these characteristics differ for women who smoke daily and women who smoke occasionally. Our study sample, drawn from the DELIVER study (Sept 2009-March 2011), consisted of 6107 pregnant women in primary care in the Netherlands who were up to 34 weeks pregnant. The associations of thirteen socio-demographic or lifestyle-related characteristics with 'any smoking' , 'daily smoking' and 'occasional smoking' during pregnancy were tested using multiple binary logistic regression with general estimating equations (GEE). Characteristics most strongly associated with any smoking were low education (OR 10.3; 95% confidence interval (CI) 7.0-15.4), being of Turkish ethnicity (OR 3.9; 95%CI 2.3-6.7) and having no partner (OR 3.7; 95%CI 2.3-6.0). Women of Dutch ethnicity were three times more likely to smoke than those from Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries and non-religious women were much more likely to smoke than religious women. Low education was markedly more strongly associated with daily smoking than with occasional smoking (OR 20.3; 95%CI 13.2-31.3 versus OR 6.0; 95%CI 3.4-10.5). Daily smokers were more likely to be associated with other unfavorable lifestyle-related characteristics, such as not taking folic acid, being underweight, and having had an unplanned pregnancy. There is still much potential for health gain with respect to smoking during pregnancy in the Netherlands. Daily and occasional smokers appear to differ in characteristics, and therefore possibly require different interventions.


This paper presents crowdsourcing as a novel approach to reducing the grading burden of constructed response assessments. We find that the average rating of 10 workers from a commercial crowdsourcing service can grade student work cheaply ($0.35 per student response) and reliably (Pearson correlation with the teacher's gold-standard scores, ρ = 0.86 ± .04 for Grade 3 to ρ = .72 ± .07 for Grade 8). The specific context of our proof-of-concept dataset is 3rd-8th grade constructed response math questions. A secondary contribution of the paper is the development of a novel subsampling procedure, which allows a large data-collection experiment to be split into many smaller pseudo-experiments in such a way as to respect within-worker and between-worker variance. The subsampling procedure plays a key role in our calculation that the average of 10 workers' scores suffices to produce reliable scores.


Conformal Prediction is a framework that produces prediction intervals based on the output from a machine learning algorithm. In this paper we explore the case when training data is made up of multiple parts available in different sources that cannot be pooled. We here consider the regression case and propose a method where a conformal predictor is trained on each data source independently, and where the prediction intervals are then combined into a single interval. We call the approach Non-Disclosed Conformal Prediction (NDCP), and we evaluate it on a regression dataset from the UCI machine learning repository using support vector regression as the underlying machine learning algorithm, with varying number of data sources and sizes. The results show that the proposed method produces conservatively valid prediction intervals, and while we cannot retain the same efficiency as when all data is used, efficiency is improved through the proposed approach as compared to predicting using a single arbitrarily chosen source.


This chapter examines the semantic development of fortune in Modern French, charting its sociostylistic variation from the 18th to the 21st century. It focuses particularly on the increasing use of fortune in its current sense of 'rich/wealthy', and the negative reception of this new sense in most lexicographical works up until the 20th century. The study aims to show how this semantic innovation produced a lexical stylistic division, opposing a traditional usage (considered standard) to a 'neological' one (considered non-standard). Having undergone a shift of meaning from 'lucky/happy' to 'wealthy', fortune is currently most commonly understood as a euphemism for 'rich'.


The gills of ammocoetes of the Southern Hemisphere lamprey Geotria australis have been studied using light and electron microscopy. Emphasis has been placed on describing the structures and vessels involved in gaseous exchange, and on providing quantitative data for the water-blood barrier, including diffusion distance, diffusing capacity and the relative volumes of the component tissues. Although lamprey gills lie inside rather than outside the branchial skeleton as in gnathostomatous fishes. the morphology and ultrastructure of the gill filaments and secondary lamellae of G. australis larvae are very similar to those of teleost fishes. The extensive blood spaces within the secondary lamellae are enclosed by pillar cell bodies and pillar cell flanges which support two layers of epithelial cells. The outer surfaces of the epithelial cells are ridged and covered in a flocculent material which probably represents mucus. Differences were observed in the components of the water-blood barrier at the distal edges and at the surface of the secondary lamellae. At the distal edge, the lining of the marginal channel consisted of an endothelial cell rather than the pillar cell flanges which line the blood spaces of other regions. Based on light micrograph measurements, these differences result in a reduction in the arithmetic mean thickness of the water-blood barrier from 3.62 μm over the pillar cells to 2.22 μm over the marginal channel. Using values for the water-blood barrier obtained from light micrographs, the arithmetic and harmonic mean diffusing capacities were calculated as 1.1046 and 1.7589 ml O2min/mm Hg/Kg.


The vast expanses of rangeland on the Tibetan Plateau, which support the livelihood of c. 9.8 million local inhabitants, have experienced rapid climate warming over the past 50 years. At the same time, precipitation has increased in large parts of the Plateau but decreased in other parts, particularly in the northwest. These trends are predicted to continue into the future. However, their potential effects on rangeland quality remain unclear.
 We conducted a two‐factor field experiment in which we manipulated temperature (control or warming by 1.5–1.8°C) and precipitation (control or 50% reduction or increase in rainfall) in an alpine grassland on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, starting in 2011. From 2014 to 2016, we measured forage production and community composition, and in 2015 forage quality (crude protein, cell‐soluble contents, hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin and digestibility) was represented by seven abundant species.
 Overall, warming did not change total forage production at plant community level, but increased legume production and decreased non‐legume forb production. Increased and reduced precipitation enhanced and decreased forage production by 18.2% and 12.9% respectively. Increased precipitation in particular increased grass and sedge production, but not legume production.
 Forage quality showed species‐specific responses to the simulated climate changes. At community level, warming and reduced precipitation improved forage quality, which were mainly caused by a shift in community composition towards more legumes, rather than the direct effects of simulated climate changes. Meanwhile, increased precipitation did not reduce forage quality, despite the precipitation‐induced increase in forage production.
 Integrating forage production and quality into nutrient production as a measure of rangeland quality, we found that warming and increased precipitation additively improved rangeland quality, while reduced precipitation decreased it.
 Synthesis and applications. Rangeland quality, an important ecosystem provisioning service, will benefit from a warmer climate on the Tibetan Plateau in the regions with a predicted increase in precipitation, but not in those regions where precipitation might be reduced in the future. We suggest management strategies, including reseeding native legumes, establishing sustainable pastures and assisting the exchange of harvested forage, to cope with the challenges posed by these different climate change scenarios.


ABSTRACT Development of high-quality individualized education programmes (IEP) is vital for students with disabilities. Although legislations and literature provide guidelines for which components to be included in IEPs, there is limited research about whether these components are actually included in IEPs developed for students with disabilities served in inclusive classrooms in Turkey. In this study, we explored the extent to which IEPs include components required by laws and regulations in Turkey and those recommended by inclusive education literature and whether there was a relationship between student characteristics and percentages of legal or recommended components included in IEPs. We evaluated 206 IEPs obtained from 60 inclusive elementary schools located in 26 different cities. We developed an IEP Component Checklist to evaluate whether IEPs included legal requirements and recommended components. Descriptive findings of the study demonstrated that IEPs failed to include majority of legal requirements and recommended components. Correlational findings indicated that percentages of legal requirements or recommended components included in IEPs were not associated with student characteristics. Findings were discussed in relation to the extant literate and recommendations for future research and practice were provided.


OBJECTIVES
To explore changes in distribution of stage at diagnosis among individuals with oral and pharyngeal cancers over the past two decades and whether the changes differ by race.

METHODS
We obtained 1991-2008 cancer incidence data for nine anatomic sites of the oral and pharyngeal structure from the Florida Cancer Data System. These cancers were grouped into oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), pharyngeal SCC, and other head and neck cancers. Annual percent change was calculated for each group to characterize trends in age-adjusted cancer incidence over time by race and stage at diagnosis.

RESULTS
During 1991-2008, the overall age-adjusted oral SCC incidence was decreasing for both races, with a greater decline observed among Blacks. There was a large drop in incidence of regional-stage diagnoses among Blacks. For pharyngeal SCC, the age-adjusted incidence of localized- and regional-stage diagnoses was increasing for Whites during 1991-2008, with the largest increase in the incidence of regional-stage diagnoses. The percentage of localized-stage diagnoses was increasing for both races for oral SCC. A slight increase in percentage of localized-stage diagnoses was observed for Blacks for pharyngeal SCC, whereas no obvious change was observed among Whites.

CONCLUSIONS
Blacks continued to have lower percentages of localized-stage diagnoses than Whites for nearly all sites, but an increasing percentage of localized-stage diagnoses was observed for oral SCC among Blacks. For pharyngeal SCC, the increase in incidence among Whites was accompanied by an increasing percentage of late-stage diagnoses. Coordinated public health approaches with a special emphasis on screening underserved populations are needed.


Although a full-custom approach to the design of integrated circuits offers many advantages over other approaches, it is the most time-consuming design style of all. Much of this time is spent during the debug cycle, making changes to the layout of the circuit and then running a circuit extractor prior to simulating the design. This thesis introduces two new computer-aided design tools that drastically reduce the time spent in this debug cycle: a fast, new circuit extractor, and an operation called plowing for making changes to mask-level layout. Both tools have been implemented as part of the Magic IC layout system.
The circuit extractor is both incremental and hierarchical. It computes circuit connectivity and transistor dimensions, both internodal and substrate parasitic capacitance, and parasitic resistance. It is parameterized to work across a wide range of MOS technologies. The keys to its speed are a new mask-level extraction algorithm based on corner-stiching, and its ability to extract cells incrementally. The mask-level extractor is 3-5 times faster than the fastest previously published extractor, and computes significantly more information. Because the extractor is incremental, only a few cells must be re-extracted after typical changes to a layout. The above facts make it possible to re-extract incrementally a 36,000-transistor chip in under 10 minutes, an operation that used to take previous extractors hours to perform.
Plowing is a new operation for stretching and compacting parts of an IC layout. It allows designers to make topological changes to a layout while maintaining connectivity and layout rule correctness. Plowing can be used to rearrange the geometry of a subcell, compact a sparse layout, or open up new space in a dense layout. Unlike traditional compactors, plowing works directly on the mask-level representation of a layout. It uses a novel edge-based algorithm that works from a corner-stitched layout. This algorithm applies a collection of rules, parameterized by a technology file, to determine when edges must move.


Current scholarship is peppered with casual references to "sumptuary laws" whenever regulations of clothing or bodies are at issue. Too often, these references are incorrect, or at best incomplete. This Article is a careful consideration of the various regulations of attire and bodily markings from the Magna Carta in 1215 to the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789. This Article situates bodily regulation within Anglo-American constitutionalism, including nascent constitutional Tudor-era struggles between the monarch and Parliament, the status of colonial laws, the American Revolution, pre-constitutional slavery, and the formation of the Constitution, including a proposed "Sumptuary Clause."


A new method, based on the modified Enskog theory, is presented for the calculation of viscosity of some supercritical fluids, including refrigerants R152a and HFC-125 at high temperatures and pressures. For this purpose,new correlation functions for the calculation of the thermal pressure coefficient and co-volume have been derived. The extended corresponding-states method has been applied to derive a universal function for the reduced thermal pressure coefficient of different gases and refrigerants. It is shown that by using these accurate values for the thermal pressure coefficient and co-volume in the modified Enskog theory, it is possible to calculate the viscosity of supercritical fluids and refrigerants, without any density and temperature limitation. The accuracy of the calculated viscosity is about 0.3%, which is much better than in previous works.


Sixth Amendment jurisprudence has long sought to give practical form to the constitutional guarantee of a fair jury trial for the criminally accused. (1) Jury selection rules are designed to facilitate the impartial application of relevant law through the fact-finding function of a jury of one's peers. Until recently, courts have not addressed the potential conflict between jury selection rules and the possibility that a jury would be called upon to impose the federal death penalty even in states without the death penalty. Earlier this year, however, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit confronted the question of whether there is an insurmountable tension between the Constitution's guarantee of a trial by a jury of one's peers and the oath to uphold federal law over the law of the community from which the jury is drawn. (2) Although the Second Circuit discussed critical aspects of this new battle, it failed to hand down a clear decision on which future cases may dependably rely. Following the Second Circuit's decision in United States v. Fell, (3) a majority of the Second Circuit denied a petition for an en banc rehearing. (4) The exchange between Judge Raggi's concurrence and Judge Calabresi's dissent, however, heralded not only a new front in the constitutional battle over the federal death penalty, but also a larger debate about the nature of federalism in an age of seemingly unlimited federal power. Judge Raggi accepted the proposition that federal courts sitting in states without the death penalty should have the power to dismiss jurors who categorically oppose the death penalty. (5) Judge Calabresi's dissent, on the other hand, sought to craft a novel judicial rule that would render a state's death penalty laws binding on federal courts sitting within its boundaries. (6) Because both Supreme Court (7) and Second Circuit (8) precedent permit consideration of legal arguments sua sponte when the corresponding issues are properly presented, the court should have ruled on the difficult questions raised by Fell instead of denying the petition for an en banc rehearing and leaving the Sixth Amendment available as a potential vehicle for selective federalism. On November 26, 2000, Donald Fell and an accomplice brutally murdered Fell's mother and her companion in Rutland, Vermont. (9) After leaving the scene of the murder, the two men visited a local mall, where they kidnapped a fifty-three-year-old store clerk and stole the clerk's car. (10) Fell and the accomplice then drove to New York in the stolen car, stopped in a wooded area, and beat the clerk to death. (11) Because this last murder was part of an interstate kidnapping, the crime constituted a federal offense and became the subject of a federal prosecution. (12) Donald Fell (13) was found guilty by a jury of his peers and sentenced to death in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont. (14) In his appeal, Fell challenged his sentence on a number of grounds, including violation of certain provisions of the Federal Death Penalty Act (15) and errors in juror selection. (16) One of the alleged errors was the removal of Prospective Juror 64, who had expressed opposition to capital punishment. Fell argued that this juror had been excused based on her general opposition to capital punishment, even though she affirmed that she could consider and impose the sentence if called for by law. (17) If Prospective Juror 64 had been willing to consider and impose the death penalty, the juror's dismissal would have violated Supreme Court precedent as set forth in Witherspoon v. Illinois (18) and Wainwright v. Witt, (19) which allow a prospective juror to be seated despite general objections to the death penalty, if he can demonstrate that his personal views will not prevent him from following the law. The Second Circuit, however, has reasoned that voir dire "must [only] be sufficient to permit a trial judge to form 'a definite impression that a prospective juror would be unable to faithfully and impartially apply the law,'" (20) and the panel in Fell maintained that "responses that are ambiguous or reveal considerable confusion may demonstrate substantial impairment. …


Objectives
Intestinal dysfunction due to mucosal inflammation, known as environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), has been hypothesized to contribute to stunting in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Given that consensus is lacking on gold standard biomarkers for EED and on relationships with child linear growth, we examined three biomarkers of EED and height-for-age z-score (HAZ) among children under age five years in rural Odisha, India.

Methods
We conducted a sub-study within Gram Vikas MANTRA, a matched cohort study of a household-level water and sanitation intervention in Odisha, India. We collected stool samples and anthropometry data for children under age 5 (N = 209) in two rounds (October 2016 - January 2017 and July - October 2017). We analyzed stool samples for three biomarkers of EED: myeloperoxidase (MPO), neopterin (NEO), and α1-anti-trypsin (AAT). We assessed correlations between values and used linear regression to analyze associations between each biomarker and HAZ. All analyses were adjusted for relevant covariates and village-level clustering.

Results
Mean HAZ for children under 5 in our sample population was -1.52 (SD: 1.34). Median biomarker values (25th, 75th percentiles) were 1052.71 ng/ml (682.76, 3208.22) for MPO, 2104.21 nmol/L (1193.64, 3490.10) for NEO, and 0.406 mg/g (229.44, 743.78) for AAT. Correlations between the biomarkers were relatively low, with the highest correlation (ρ = 0.45) between MPO and AAT. We observed an inverse association between MPO and HAZ (β = -0.000027, P < 0.001) but no association between NEO and HAZ (β = 0.000031, P = 0.46) or AAT and HAZ (β = -0.000072, P = 0.52).

Conclusions
In our sample population, median values for NEO and AAT were similar to those from other studies of children in LMICs. MPO had substantially lower values than in other reports but was still strongly associated with HAZ. Previous studies have produced conflicting evidence on relationships between each biomarker of EED and HAZ. Our results contribute evidence that intestinal inflammation may play an important role in growth faltering in young children, possibly through mucosal dysfunction. MPO is a major component of the primary granules in neutrophils and hence reflects luminal neutrophillic infiltration. Priorities for a future research agenda on EED and growth will be discussed.

Funding Sources
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.


The chute aerator of a spillway is a structure in such a sense that air is, in the intense emulsification, entrained into the high-velocity water flow. Correctly predicting the air entrainment and two-phase flow pattern at the aerator would contribute to reliable spillway operation. Based on experimental data, 2D numerical simulations are preformed to predict streamwise air concentrations in the aerated flow, in which a two-fluid model is used. Depending on the air bubble size, relatively good agreement is seen with the experiments in the air cavity zone. The simulations give rise to higher air concentration downstream of the cavity, which is presumably due to underestimation of the interfacial forces in the two-fluid model.


Computer training is vital for improving user interaction with a system. Prior research on computer training indicates that behavior modeling is highly effective for computer skill acquisition and can be further improved by incorporating symbolic coding processes. Building upon dual coding theory, our study proposes two new coding strategies, imagery coding and procedural coding, and examines the effects of those alternative coding strategies on computer learning outcomes relative to textual coding in a modeling-based training context. A training program on a popular computer graphic application was offered in a university setting and attended by 190 trainees. The study results show that modeling-based training can be significantly improved by incorporating the proposed new coding approaches but the specific coding strategy should be carefully chosen depending on the target learning outcome.


This paper presents a methodology for the assessment of the distributed multi agent system. It requires apt attention to check as if multi agent system is performing well. In recent research performance is taken as a rate, queuing system or some measure without capturing all characterization of the multi agent system, there is a lag for the proper evaluation of multi agent system. Our methodology takes the generic characteristics of the distributed multi agent system which can affect the overall efficiency of the system, and spotted some performance metrics. These metrics depict the clear image to measure the efficiency of the distributed multi agent systems. It is a step by step technique; in initial step, some performance metrics are derived from the generic properties of the multi agent system. In second step, the graphical interaction model of the real time multi agent system is developed. The Course Management System (CMS) and the Remote Patient Monitoring Systems (RPMS) are two distributed multi agent systems, their interaction models are generated using log files in Java Agent Development Environment. In the final step; the function from the graph theory is taken to validate the performance metrics for the both multi agent system CMS and RPMS.


Should human enhancement be prohibited? Subsidized? Mandated? Taxed? This article is part of a symposium honoring one of my wonderful mentors: Einer Elhauge. It focuses on human enhancement. With advances in reproductive technologies, genetic screening, and concomitant calls for regulation of these things in America the time for discussing these issues has never been better.Part I offers a reconstructive taxonomy as to different kinds of enhancements, including incorporating one distinction (as to absolute and positional goods and positive and negative externalities) that has been the focus of Elhauge's own thinking. That said, one leitmotif of this Part is that "enhancement" as a category may not be particularly useful, especially if we accept there are not morally relevant differences in the biological vs. non-biological and treatment vs. enhancement distinctions, such that something like tutoring falls into the category of "enhancement." Part II offers a taxonomy of legal/regulatory interventions. Part III attempts to sketch and interrogate the major arguments offered against human enhancement, including by mapping these arguments onto the taxonomies developed in Parts I and II and showing to which kinds of enhancements they apply and what kinds of legal/regulatory interventions can accommodate some of the concerns they raise. Finally, Part IV focuses on a question that has received surprisingly scant attention: why enhancement is sought. I will argue that one key reason offered for enhancement, to improve the life of the enhanced in the case of enhancement through reproduction, cannot be sustained for reasons that mirror points I have made elsewhere on the opposite issue, the justification for preventing parents from reproducing in ways that "harm" their offspring.


Purpose: The point of departure of this exploratory study is the gap between the increasing importance of business model innovation (BMI) in science and management and the limited conceptual assistance available. Therefore, the study identi es and explores scattered BMI insights and deduces them into an integrative framework to enhance our understanding about this phenomenon and to present a helpful guidance for researchers and practitioners. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study identi es BMI insights through a literature-based investigation and consolidates them into an integrative BMI framework that presents the key elements and dimensions of BMI as well as their presumed relationships. Findings: The study enhances our understanding about the key elements and dimensions of BMI, presents further conceptual insights into the BMI phenomenon, supplies implications for science and management, and may serve as a helpful guidance for future research. Practical Implications: The presented framework provides managers with a tool to identify critical BMI issues and can serve as a conceptual BMI guideline. Research limitations: Given the vast amount of academic journals, it is unlikely that every applicable scienti c publication is included in the analysis. The illustrative examples are descriptive in nature, and thus do not provide empirical validity. Several implications for future research are provided. Originality/Value: The study's main contribution lies in the unifying approach of the dispersed BMI knowledge. Since our understanding of BMI is still limited, this study should provide the necessary insights and conceptual assistance to further develop the concept and guide its practical application.


This article provides the first comprehensive study of the use of ancient Greek and Roman allusions and motifs in the poetry of Yang Mu. By focusing on representative works from Yang's oeuvre, the study sheds light on how the poet's appropriations of Greco-Roman materials are a powerful and creative expression of his poetics as a whole. Going beyond the traditional model of influence study, the article proposes a theoretical framework of cross-cultural intertextuality, creative rewriting, and cultural translation.


Asynchronously communicating stochastic modules (SAM) are Petri nets that can be seen as a set of modules that communicate through buffers, so they are not (yet another) Petri net subclass, but they complement a net with a structured view. This paper considers the problem of exploiting the compositionality of the view to generate the state space and to find the steady-state probabilities of a stochastic extension of SAM in a net-driven, efficient way. Essentially we give an expression of an auxiliary matrix, G, which is a supermatrix of the infinitesimal generator of a SAM. G is a tensor algebra expression of matrices of the size of the components for which it is possible to numerically solve the characteristic steady-state solution equation /spl pi//spl middot/G=0, without the need to explicitly compute G. Therefore, we obtain a method that computes the steady-state solution of a SAM without ever explicitly computing and storing its infinitesimal generator, and therefore without computing and storing the reachability graph of the system. Some examples of application of the technique are presented and compared to previous approaches.


This paper reveals the concept of business groups in different countries by different researchers, discusses their common features and reveals peculiarities of formation of business groups, shows the heterogeneity of this phenomenon and its definition, draws the line between the definition of clusters that are common in USA and Great Britain, and a business group. An overview of business groups in the developing and developed countries is presented, by emphasising the positive and negative aspects of this business structure to country's economy, social and political life. The article discusses the shortcomings of the Lithuanian statistical data collection methods, and explores the origins of the Lithuanian business groups.


This is the first of two essays making "The Case for Internet Optimism." It was written by Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. These two essays appeared in the book, "The Next Digital Decade: Essays on the Future of the Internet" (2011), which was edited by Berin Szoka and Adam Marcus of Tech Freedom, a digital policy think tank in Washington, D.C. In these essays, Thierer identifies two schools of Internet pessimism: (1) "Net Skeptics," who are pessimistic about the Internet improving the lot of mankind; and (2) "Net Lovers," who appreciate the benefits the Net brings society but who fear those benefits are disappearing, or that the Net or openness are dying. In this first essay, Thierer focuses on the first variant of Internet pessimism, which is rooted in general skepticism about the supposed benefits of cyberspace, digital technologies, and information abundance. The proponents of this pessimistic view often wax nostalgic about some supposed "good 'ol days" when life was much better (although they can't seem to agree when those were). At a minimum, they want us to slow down and think twice about life in the Information Age and how it's personally affecting each of us. Occasionally, however, this pessimism borders on neo-Ludditism, with some proponents recommending steps to curtail what they feel is the destructive impact of the Net or digital technologies on culture or the economy. Thierer identifies the leading exponents of this view of Internet pessimism and their works. He traces their technological pessimism back to Plato but argues that their pessimism is largely unwarranted. Humans are more resilient than pessimists care to admit and we learn how to adapt to technological change and assimilate new tools into our lives over time. Moreover, Thierer questions whether we were really better off in the scarcity era when we were collectively suffering from information poverty. Generally speaking, despite the challenges it presents society, information abundance is a better dilemma to be facing than information poverty. Nonetheless, Thierer argues, we should not underestimate or belittle the disruptive impacts associated with the Information Revolution. He argues, however, that we need to find ways to better cope with turbulent change in a dynamist fashion instead of attempting to roll back the clock on progress or recapture "the good 'ol days," which actually weren't all that good.


Why do some forests produce biomass more efficiently than others? Variations in Carbon Use Efficiency (CUE: total Net Primary Production (NPP)/ Gross Primary Production (GPP)) may be due to changes in wood residence time (Biomass/NPPwood), temperature, or soil nutrient status. We tested these hypotheses in 14, one ha plots across Amazonian and Andean forests where we measured most key components of net primary production (NPP: wood, fine roots, and leaves) and autotrophic respiration (Ra; wood, rhizosphere, and leaf respiration). We found that lower fertility sites were less efficient at producing biomass and had higher rhizosphere respiration, indicating increased carbon allocation to belowground components. We then compared wood respiration to wood growth and rhizosphere respiration to fine root growth and found that forests with residence times <40 yrs had significantly lower maintenance respiration for both wood and fine roots than forests with residence times >40 yrs. A comparison of rhizosphere respiration to fine root growth showed that rhizosphere growth respiration was significantly greater at low fertility sites. Overall, we found that Amazonian forests produce biomass less efficiently in stands with residence times >40 yrs and in stands with lower fertility, but changes to long‐term mean annual temperatures do not impact CUE.


Moral outrage was the response of the Chinese press, when Cheng Kejie, one of the country's highest officials, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and former Governor of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was arrested on grounds of corruption on 25 April 2000. Cheng's arrest came amidst a spate of serious corruption cases that reached into the top echelons of China's state leadership (China Aktuell 2000). His case attracted wide public attention in national and international Chinese media because of his high office, the number of officials implicated, and the involvement of his lover Li Ping (dubbed the 'Jiang Qing of Guangxi' by the Hong Kong and overseas Chinese press) (Ming Pao 2000), daughter-in-law of his predecessor in the position of Governor of Guangxi, and for years the most influential woman in Guangxi. This was not just a case of a local official embezzling public funds, but a story of love and greed of a popular political leader, who had achieved much for his province. This was also not the story of an anonymous mistress, but of an ambitious, intelligent and attractive woman using the position of first her father-in-law then her lover to systematically and on a long-term basis exploit the powers vested in the office of provincial governor. The accusation against them focused on three crimes: appropriation and sale of real estate development and construction rights, sale of publicly subsidized goods at market prices and promotion of trusted allies into official positions of power. While the personal details of his deeds and his final execution in September 2000 fascinated the Chinese and Hong Kong press, his case also demonstrates how corruption works in China today (Hendrischke 2001).


There exists a scholarly debate on the cultural impact of globalization and how and to what extent it is affecting indigenous people in particular. Three theoretical standpoints can be discerned from the debate; the homogenization-perspective which holds that globalization is making world cultures more similar, the hybridization-perspective which emphasizes that it is fragmenting cultural boundaries and the differentiation-perspective which implies that globalization is augmenting differences and making humanity as a whole more diverse. As regards the cultural impact of globalization on indigenous peoples, many question marks can be raised. The objective of this research is to contribute to the debate by bringing to light the perspective of the indigenous movement in Ecuador, CONAIE. An analysis is made on how they perceive globalization affecting the maintenance of indigenous identities and culture among today's youth. That information is then used as a foundation to analyze CONAIE's level of success regarding their main objective; to preserve Ecuador's indigenous nationalities and peoples. The study, which has a qualitative ethnographic approach and is based on semi-structured interviews, was carried out during an eight weeks long field study in Quito and in San Pedro de Escaleras, Cuenca, Ecuador. The research has an abductive approach and the theoretical debate on globalization's cultural impact on indigenous peoples sets the analytical frame of the study. The three theoretical standpoints; globalization as homogenization, globalization as differentiation and globalization as hybridization play central roles in the analysis of the empirical material.The findings show that there are many elements that obstruct the maintenance of indigenous culture and identity among youth in contemporary Ecuador. There is a connection between youth being exposed to cultural globalization and that they lose cultural characteristics for the indigenous identity. Hybridization of identities due to globalization is presented as a possible factor to play a role in this. Indigenous youth tend to drop characteristics for the indigenous identity as they adopt features from the mestizo culture, in case they see no benefit in maintaining the former. This indicates that what ultimately might be at stake is cultural homogenization. Light is also shed on that CONAIE lacks strategies and possibilities to reinforce the indigenous identity among the youth that is in a process of identity change. The findings thus point at that despite efforts for cultural revival by the indigenous movement in Ecuador, the maintenance of rigid frontiers between the ethnically diverse nationalities in the country is threatened. Seen to a larger picture, this implies that globalization's impact on indigenous culture among youth is very difficult to counteract. It appears as if the move towards more cultural similarity in Ecuador cannot be hindered.


The architectural awareness and experience of space, and the creative use can profit greatly from certain aspects of "games" and the related technology. Here the author investigates a fascinating contribution of avant-garde art to the construction of space in the field of electronic games and arcades, beginning with New Babylon, moving through the radical suggestions of the 1960s and 1970s to the commercial and experimental examples of contemporary amusement arcades. Also considered are the virtual worlds of video games which are growing increasingly complex. The book reveals in a critical yet impressive way how important the element of "play" has become in today's digital architectonic designs. The Italian architect Alberto Iacovoni is one of the founding members of the Studio maO which specializes on architecture and media. He is also a member of the office for urban planning, Stalker.


Corrosion resistance behaviour of 12Cr martensitic s ainless steel was evaluated in different hydrochl ric acid and the acid chloride concentrations. Corrosion inhibit ion of the tested samples in 1M HCl was also evalua ted using potassium dichromate. The experiments were performe d at ambient temperature using potentiodynamic pola rization measurement. This paper reports the observed electr ochemical response of the experimental tests. Diffe rent concentrations of the test media were used with sod ium chloride addition. Tafel and polarization resis tance techniques were used to estimate the corrosion rate , the polarisation resistance and inhibition of the alloy samples tested. The results obtained showed some magnitude of corrosion susceptibility for the stainless steel at higher HCl concentrations and also in the acid chloride test m edia. Effective corrosion inhibition was also exhib ited on the tested samples.


Previous studies have infrequently addressed the dynamic interactions among social, technical, and organizational variables in open government data initiatives. In addition, organization level models have neglected to explain the role of management in decision-making processes about technology and data. This article contributes to addressing this gap in the literature by analyzing the complex relationships between open government data characteristics and the organizations and institutions in which they are embedded. We systematically compare the open data inception and implementation processes, as well as their main results, in three Spanish local governments (Gava and Rubi in Catalonia and Gijon in Asturias) by using a model that combines the technology enactment framework with some specific constructs and relationships from the process model of computing change. Our resulting model is able to identify and explain the significant role of management in shaping and mediating different interactions, but also acknowledges the importance of organizational level variables and the context in which the open data initiative is taking place.


SUMMARY Four experiments conducted over three seasons (2002–05) at the Crops Research Unit, University of Reading, investigated effects of canopy management of autumn sown oilseed rape (Brassica napus L. ssp. oleifera var. biennis (DC.) Metzg.) on competition with grass weeds. Emphasis was placed on the effect of the crop on the weeds. Rape canopy size was manipulated using sowing date, seed rate and the application of autumn fertilizer. Lolium multiflorum Lam., L.×boucheanum Kunth and Alopecurus myosuroides Huds. were sown as indicative grass weeds. The effects of sowing date, seed rate and autumn nitrogen on crop competitive ability were correlated with rape biomass and fractional interception of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) by the rape floral layer, to the extent that by spring there was good evidence of crop: weed replacement. An increase in seed rate up to the highest plant densities tested increased both rape biomass and competitiveness, e.g. in 2002/3, L. multiflorum head density was reduced from 539 to 245 heads/m2 and spikelet density from 13 170 to 5960 spikelets/m2 when rape plant density was increased from 16 to 81 plants/m2. Spikelets/head of Lolium spp. was little affected by rape seed rate, but the length of heads of A. myosuroides was reduced by 9% when plant density was increased from 29–51 plants/m2. Autumn nitrogen increased rape biomass and reduced L. multiflorum head density (415 and 336 heads/m2 without and with autumn nitrogen, respectively) and spikelet density (9990 and 8220 spikelets/m2 without and with autumn nitrogen, respectively). The number of spikelets/head was not significantly affected by autumn nitrogen. Early sowing could increase biomass and competitiveness, but poor crop establishment sometimes overrode the effect. Where crop and weed establishment was similar for both sowing dates, a 2-week delay (i.e. early September to mid-September) increased L. multiflorum head density from 226 to 633 heads/m2 and spikelet density from 5780 to 15 060 spikelets/m2.


ORGANOCATALYTIC DECOMPOSITION OF POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE USING TRIAZABICYCLODECENE This study focuses on the organocatalytic decomposition of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) using 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene (TBD) to form a diverse library of aromatic amides. The reaction scheme was specifically designed to use low reaction temperatures (>150C) and avoid using solvents during the reaction to provide a more environmentally friendly process. Of all the amines tested, PET aminolysis with aliphatic and aromatic amines demonstrated the best performance with yields higher than 72%. PET aminolysis with click functionalized and non-symmetric reagents facilitated attack on certain sites on the basis of reactivity. Finally, the performance of the PET degradation reactions with secondary amine and tertiary amine functionalized reagents yielded mixed results due to complications with isolating the product from the crude solution. Four of the PET-based monomers were also selected as modifiers for epoxy hardening to demonstrate the ability to convert waste into monomers for high-value applications. The glass transition temperatures, obtained using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of the epoxy composite samples treated with the PET-based monomers, were generally higher in comparison to the samples cured with the basic diamines due to the hydrogen bonding and added rigidity from the aromatic amide group. Developing these monomers provides a green and commercially viable alternative to eradicating a waste product that is becoming an environmental concern.


Summary form only given. Performing address lookup at a router has become a severe bottleneck. This is because increasing link speeds leave very little time to lookup an address, and an explosion in the number of hosts has led to a drastic increase in router table sizes. As a result, this problem has received widespread attention both in academia and in the industry. For destination-based routing, work on routing lookup has led to matching based on longest address prefixes, and several fast algorithms have recently been proposed to do address lookups. Important attributes that a look-up engine should possess are hardware implementability (for speed) and dynamic reconfigurability (because address tables are frequently updated). We consider the longest-prefix matching problem in which the end points of the interval corresponding to a prefix are stored at the leaves of a binary search tree. The novelty of our approach is that it considers the probabilities with which a leaf is accessed. Then the restriction to binary search procedures naturally confine us to alphabetic trees. Further, in order to bound the worst-case lookup time, the alphabetic trees need to be depth constrained. We present a fast algorithm for determining depth constrained alphabetic trees, and discuss its complexity and optimality properties. We will also describe its performance on actual address tables taken from routers in the backbone of the Internet.


Abstract. Herein, the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) aerosol extinction coefficient data is evaluated in the low aerosol loading period after 1996 as the first necessary step in a process that will eventually allow the production of a combined HALOE/SAGE II (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment) aerosol climatology of derived aerosol products including surface area density. Based on these analyses, it is demonstrated that HALOE's 3.46 μm is of good quality above 19 km and suitable for scientific applications above that altitude. However, it is increasingly suspect at lower altitudes and should not be used below 17 km under any circumstances after 1996. The 3.40 μm is biased by about 10% throughout the lower stratosphere due to the failure to clear NO2 but otherwise appears to be a high quality product down to 15 km. The 2.45 and 5.26 μm aerosol extinction coefficient measurements are clearly biased and should not be used for scientific applications after the most intense parts of the Pinatubo period. Many of the issues in the aerosol data appear to be related to either the failure to clear some interfering gas species or doing so poorly. For instance, it is clear that the 3.40 μm aerosol extinction coefficient measurements can be improved through the inclusion of an NO2 correction and could, in fact, end up as the highest quality overall HALOE aerosol extinction coefficient measurement. It also appears that the 2.45 and 5.26 μm channels may be improved by updating the Upper Atmosphere Pilot Database which is used as a resource for the removal of gas species otherwise not available from direct HALOE measurements. Finally, a simple model to demonstrate the promise of mixed visible/infrared aerosol extinction coefficient ensembles for the retrieval of bulk aerosol properties demonstrates that a combined HALOE/SAGE II aerosol climatology is feasible and may represent a substantial improvement over independently derived data sets.


What counts, or should count, as prostitution? In the criminal law today, prostitution is understood to involve the provision of sexual services in exchange for money or other benefits. But what exactly is a "sexual service"? And what exactly is the nature of the required "exchange"? The key to answering these questions is to recognize that how we choose to define prostitution will inevitably depend on why we believe one or more aspects of prostitution are wrong or harmful, or should be criminalized or otherwise deterred, in the first place. These judgments, in turn, will often depend on an assessment of the contested empirical evidence on which they rest. This article describes a variety of real-world contexts in which the "what counts as prostitution" question has arisen, surveys a range of leading rationales for deterring prostitution, and demonstrates how the answer to the definition question depends on the answer to the normative question. The article concludes with some preliminary thoughts on how analogous questions about what should count as sexual conduct arise in the context of consensual offenses such as adultery and incest, as well as non-consensual offenses such as sexual assault.


Abstract. Grown in water-limited environments, sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is often exposed to water deficits of varying extent and timing. One of the impacts of water stress on sorghum production is lodging; however, there has been no published study quantifying the temporal and spatial frequency and severity of lodging in grain sorghum in Australia. In this study, we investigated the frequency and severity of lodging, using a dataset of 83 advanced yield-testing trials of the sorghum pre-breeding program grown in the seven major sorghum-production environments in Australia over 14 summer growing seasons. Lodging occurred in most production regions but with varying frequency and severity. Lodging was significantly greater in regions that were more prone to water stress (e.g. Central Highlands in Queensland) and significantly lower in regions that were less likely to suffer from water stress (e.g. Liverpool Plains in northern New South Wale) compared with the overall average across regions. The severity of lodging also varied across regions, with the most severe lodging (>20%) occurring in Central Highlands and Western Downs in Queensland. In addition, seasonal patterns of lodging frequency and severity were also observed. Over the 14 growing seasons, the frequency of lodging varied from 0% to 100%, with the most severe lodging (>20%) observed in 2005, 2016 and 2017. The Southern Oscillation Index explained 29% of the seasonal variation in lodging frequency. The findings of this study clearly support a link between lodging incidence and water stress across regions and seasons. Our data also showed that although there was a substantial turnover of commercial hybrids during the period of this study, the level of resistance to lodging appeared not to have improved. It is possible that this is due to plant breeders trading off improvements in lodging resistance to increase grain yield.


Robust long-term positioning for autonomous mobile robots is essential for many applications. In many environments this task is challenging, as errors accumulate in the robot's position estimate over time. The robot must also build a map so that these errors can be corrected when mapped regions are re-visited; this is known as Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping, or SLAM. Successful SLAM schemes have been demonstrated which accurately map tracks of tens of kilometres, however these schemes rely on expensive sensors such as laser scanners and inertial measurement units. A more attractive, low-cost sensor is a digital camera, which captures images that can be used to recognise where the robot is, and to incrementally position the robot as it moves. SLAM using a single camera is challenging however, and many contemporary schemes suffer complete failure in dynamic or featureless environments, or during erratic camera motion. An additional problem, known as scale drift, is that cameras do not directly measure the scale of the environment, and errors in relative scale accumulate over time, introducing errors into the robot's speed and position estimates. Key to a successful visual SLAM system is the ability to continue operation despite these difficulties, and to recover from positioning failure when it occurs. This thesis describes the development of such a scheme, which is known as BoWSLAM. BoWSLAM enables a robot to reliably navigate and map previously unknown environments, in real-time, using only a single camera. In order to position a camera in visually challenging environments, BoWSLAM combines contemporary visual SLAM techniques with four new components. Firstly, a new Bag-of-Words (BoW) scheme is developed, which allows a robot to recognise places it has visited previously, without any prior knowledge of its environment. This BoW scheme is also used to select the best set of frames to reconstruct positions from, and to find efficient wide-baseline correspondences between many pairs of frames. Secondly, BaySAC, a new outlierrobust relative pose estimation scheme based on the popular RANSAC framework, is developed. BaySAC allows the efficient computation of multiple position hypotheses for each frame. Thirdly, a graph-based representation of these position hypotheses is proposed, which enables the selection of only reliable position estimates in the presence of gross outliers. Fourthly, as the robot explores, objects in the world are recognised and measured. These measurements enable scale drift to be corrected. BoWSLAM is demonstrated mapping a 25 minute 2.5km trajectory through a challenging and dynamic outdoor environment in real-time, and without any other sensor input; considerably further than previous single camera SLAM schemes.


Still in the early stages of development, conflict theory presents a growing interest in understanding the economic costs and benefits of conflicts. In this book, Mehrdad Vahabi analyses one type of conflict in particular: manhunting, or predation, in which a dominant power hunts down its prey and the goal of the prey is to escape and thus survive. This contrasts with traditional warfare, in which two (or more) powers enter into a conflict and the goal is to fight to win domination. The economics of escape casts light on costs and benefits of predatory activities, and explores the impact of violence as an impediment to developing countries with respect to assets structure. This book is unprecedented in its research and thought, and develops a new theory of predation in economics that makes a significant contribution to the field.


This paper proposes a novel scheme for image focusing by introducing a new focus measure based on self-matching methods. A unique pencil-shaped profile is identified by comparing the similarity between all patterns extracted around the same position in each scene. Based on this profile, a new criterion function called Complementary Pencil Volume (hereafter CPV) is defined to evaluate focused or defocused scenes based on similarity rate of self-matching, which visually represents the volume of a pencil-shaped profile. Among matching methods, Orientation Code Matching (hereafter OCM) is recommended due to its invariance with regards to illumination and contrasts. Several experiments using a telecentric lens are implemented to demonstrate the efficiency of proposed measures. Outstandingly, comparing Orientation Code Matching-based (hereafter OCM-based) focus measure with conventional focus measures shows that OCM-based focus measure is robust against changes of illuminations and contrast. Using this method, depth is measured by comparing the focused and defocused region in the scenes both under high and low illumination conditions.


Fuscoporia torulosa (Phellinus torulosus) is a typical polypore of thermophilous forests in Central Europe. In most cases the fungus forms basidiocarps on base or roots of various host trees (mainly Quercus), but sometimes the basidiocarps appear on stem heights of approx. 2 m. This extraordinary fructification pattern seems to be restricted to Pyrus as a host. The aim of this study was to compare such basidiocarps with those growing on the base of oak trees according to their DNA sequences to reveal a possible process of speciation. The so-called ITS region of nuclear ribosomal DNA was chosen for the study. Results did not reveal any significant differences between basidiocarps with the distinct fructification pattern, so all examined specimens belong to one species. The relation of Fuscoporia torulosa to Phellinus senex is discussed.


Globalisation may not lead to international competitiveness without consideration of the key reason for participation in the global economy and adoption of an approach that provides consistency. How do consumers determine the suitability of what if offered to them and be certain they're getting what they paid for? And how can suppliers be sure their offering is appropriate for their potential offshore markets? From BICSI's perspective, the answer is "standards".


Abstract The objective of this paper is to assess the main determinants and the policies that affect economic growth in the Western Balkan over the period 1994 to 2015. It employs techniques such as pooled OLS, fixed and random effects model, and Hausman-Taylor model with instrumental variables (IV). The study shows evidence of conditional convergence, indicating the need for an upward move in the steady state level. The results show that foreign direct investments, gross savings and domestic credit to the private sector have a positive effect on per capita growth. On the other hand, initial level of per capita growth, corruption, unemployment, and general government final consumption, have a negative relationship with per capita growth. The study also shows a puzzling result, that schooling is not a significant factor for growth in Western Balkans. The study also highlights the relevance of attracting more foreign direct investments and reduction in corruption.


This thesis analyses empirically the determinants of company performance. Its scope is restricted to private companies and to the issues of control, risk and incentives. Chapter two studies the effects of the private benefits of control on private British companies with limited liability. We hypothesise that companies in which existing owners would lose more control if they expanded, have smaller equity increases, are more highly levered and grow more slowly. Potential loss of control is measured as the difference in the probability of winning a vote for the largest owner before and after a hypothetical equity increase. The empirical results are broadly consistent with the hypotheses. Chapter three studies the influence of owners' underdiversification on the profitability of private US companies. Theory suggests that underdiversification increases the returns required for investment. We find a strong positive relationship between underdiversification (measured as the share of personal net worth invested), and profitability (measured as the return on equity). The analysis identifies two causes for this effect: higher required returns and higher effort. Chapter four studies the influence of owners' underdiversification on the financial structure of their companies. Higher underdiversification is related to a higher demand for loans, higher leverage and lower liquidity. Bank loans are therefore used as an alternative source of financing that reduces the exposure of the owner to company- specific risk caused by the equity investment. Chapter five studies the effects of the share of managerial ownership on performance and the determinants of this share for German private companies with limited liability. Ownership up to around 80 percent has a positive impact on performance (incentive effect), for higher ownership the effect becomes negative (entrenchment effect). The risk-aversion of owner-managers and signalling of company quality lead to a non-linear relationship between the company's riskiness and ownership.


Get comfortable with the fastest NoSQL database, its architecture, key programming patterns, infrastructure management, and more! Overview Complete coverage of all aspects of Cassandra Discusses prominent patterns, pros and cons, and use cases Contains briefs on integration with other software In Detail Apache Cassandra is the perfect choice for building fault tolerant and scalable databases. Implementing Cassandra will enable you to take advantage of its features which include replication of data across multiple datacenters with lower latency rates. This book details these features that will guide you towards mastering the art of building high performing databases without compromising on performance. Mastering Apache Cassandra aims to give enough knowledge to enable you to program pragmatically and help you understand the limitations of Cassandra. You will also learn how to deploy a production setup and monitor it, understand what happens under the hood, and how to optimize and integrate it with other software. Mastering Apache Cassandra begins with a discussion on understanding Cassandras philosophy and design decisions while helping you understand how you can implement it to resolve business issues and run complex applications simultaneously. You will also get to know about how various components of Cassandra work with each other to give a robust distributed system. The different mechanisms that it provides to solve old problems in new ways are not as twisted as they seem; Cassandra is all about simplicity. Learn how to set up a cluster that can face a tornado of data reads and writes without wincing. If you are a beginner, you can use the examples to help you play around with Cassandra and test the water. If you are at an intermediate level, you may prefer to use this guide to help you dive into the architecture. To a DevOp, this book will help you manage and optimize your infrastructure. To a CTO, this book will help you unleash the power of Cassandra and discover the resources that it requires. What you will learn from this book Write programs using Cassandras features more efficiently Learn how to get the most out of a given infrastructure and Improve performance, tweak JVM Manage clusters and perform housekeeping activities Keep an eye on Cassandra processes and machines that hold the data store get to know simple monitoring mechanisms, such as open sourced and proprietary ones Squeeze the value of the data that you hold in Cassandra Learn CQL 3 quickly and use Cassandra with Java, Python, NodeJS, Scala, and PHP Approach Mastering Apache Cassandra is a practical, hands-on guide with step-by-step instructions. The smooth and easy tutorial approach focuses on showing people how to utilize Cassandra to its full potential. Who this book is written for This book is aimed at intermediate Cassandra users. It is best suited for startups where developers have to wear multiple hats: programmer, DevOps, release manager, convincing clients, and handling failures. No prior knowledge of Cassandra is required.


Introduction: Higher prevalence and incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been reported in the Middle-East compared to other regions. Subclinical hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism have been shown to be related with increased risk for CVD. We aimed to investigate the relation of subclinical thyroid dysfunction with the incidence of CVD among an Iranian population. Materials and Methods: After excluding patients with overt hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism, a total of 3822 participants entered the study (44.1% men). According to their thyrotropin and free thyroxin levels, they were categorized into 3 groups: Euthyroid, subclinical hypothyroidism and subclinical hyperthyroidism. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the relation of subclinical thyroid dysfunctions with incident CVD. Results: Mean age (SD) of the participants was 46.4 (12.0) years. At baseline, no significant difference was observed in the frequency of prevalent CVD cases (n=197) between all groups. Since there was no significant interaction between prevalent CVD and thyroid function states with outcomes, participants with prevalent CVD were not excluded. A total of 387 CVD events occurred during a median follow-up of 11.2 years. Even in the age and sex adjusted model, no association was observed between different subclinical thyroid dysfunctions and incidence of CVD. The multivariable hazard ratios (95% CI) of subclinical hypothyroidism and subclinical hyperthyroidism for CVD events as compared with euthyroid state were 1.32 (0.85–2.07) and 0.89 (0.51–1.55), respectively. Conclusion: Both at baseline and in follow-up, no relation was observed between different subclinical thyroid dysfunctions and the prevalence and incidence of CVD.


The at-risk-of-poverty rate is one of the three indicators used for monitoring progress towards the Europe 2020 poverty and social exclusion reduction target. Timeliness of this indicator is critical for monitoring the effectiveness of policies. However, due in part to the complicated nature of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), estimates of the number of people at risk of poverty are published with a 2 to 3 year delay. This paper presents a method of estimating ('nowcasting') the current distribution of income between households, including the at-risk-of-poverty rate, using a tax-benefit microsimulation model (EUROMOD) based on the EU-SILC, combined with up-to-date macro-level statistics. The method is applied to 13 EU Member States experiencing differing economic conditions over the period, including those which have been affected comparatively little by the crisis as well as those which have suffered a major reduction in economic activity and employment.


Management has exclusive domain over a corporation's day-to-day affairs; shareholders play no role in ordinary business decisions. Thus, in a post-Citizens United world, management may cause a corporation to contribute to a Super PAC without any shareholder input. If a shareholder discovers the contribution and objects, her only options under state corporation law are to elect a new board, sell her shares or sue management for breach of fiduciary duty – i.e., "vote, sell or sue."Unfortunately, for most shareholders of publicly traded corporations, neither "vote" nor "sell" is an effective response a Super PAC contribution. Ousting the board is not an option due to the collective action problem. Selling one's shares also is no remedy because the stock market will already know of and have reacted to the contribution.But what about "sue"? Many corporate law scholars have summarily rejected this option, urging that management's decision to make the contribution would be protected by the business judgment rule. Yet, no such scholar has thoroughly analyzed this issue.Bucking this trend, two authors recently have urged that shareholders could successfully sue to challenge a corporate Super PAC contribution. However, these commentaries have been ignored in the law reviews and summarily panned in the blogosphere, leaving the idea largely unexamined. This Article remedies that oversight.After close scrutiny, one of the two theories proffered in these two papers – waste – is a sure loser in all but the most extreme circumstances. There is simply no good argument that a typical corporate Super PAC contribution meets the nearly-impossible-to-satisfy waste standard.By contrast, the second theory – self-dealing – may be viable if the candidate supported by the Super PAC advocates policies that favor the financial interests of management over those of most Americans. Yet, although self-dealing is a better theory than waste, it is nonetheless uncertain to succeed due to the attenuated causal connection between any Super PAC contribution and any potential financial benefit to management.As such, a shareholder derivative lawsuit challenging a Super PAC contribution faces long odds – unless, perhaps, she advances a theory other than waste or self-dealing.


The linear negative magnetic anomaly which stretches continuously for 110 km across the North Minch, extending slightly west of north from Loch Ewe, is interpreted in terms of an unusually wide dyke which does not reach the surface. Fourteen profiles taken from the aeromagnetic map have been interpreted using non-linear optimization, giving an excellent fit to a dyke having an average and fairly constant width of c. 1.1km. The depth to the upper surface of the interpreted dyke varies between 0.3 km and over 2 km. It is reversely magnetized in a direction consistent with a Tertiary or possibly earlier origin. The average magnetization is estimated to be 0.51 Am−1. A similar magnetic feature on the shelf to the north-west of the Butt of Lewis is also interpreted in terms of a reversely magnetized dyke, having a poorly-resolved width of about 0.8 km, a depth of about 0.7 km and a magnetization of 1.6Am−1. On seismic evidence, the Minch dyke appears to be post-Jurassic in age, and an early Tertiary age seems most likely for both dykes. It is suggested that they may be related either to the postulated large igneous pile of early Tertiary age which forms the Wyville-Thomson Ridge, or to the Skye centre. They appear to represent early Tertiary extension of the crust which is taken up by more numerous narrow dykes further south.


The main purpose of this study is to examine whether the relationship between exporting and productivity differs across firm sizes in the Malaysian manufacturing sector. A firm-level panel data from the Study on Knowledge Content in Economic Sectors in Malaysia (MyKE) is used in the study. Overall, exporters were found to be more productive than non-exporters. This productivity gap becomes less important as firms become larger. There is evidence that the selection process for exporting is binding only for small firms. Policies that are meant to encourage small firms to export need to focus on enhancing human capital and foreign ownership.


I present a model of international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), where FDI is comprised of greenfield FDI and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Working in a monopolistically competitive environment, merging firms do not reduce competition. Mergers are motivated by efficiency gains and transfer of technology and expertise. Following empirical evidence, I model greenfield investors as the more productive group relative to M&A firms, which are in turn more productive than exporters. The model has two symmetric countries and generates two-way flows of both M&A and greenfield FDI. Greater proximity to a market makes more firms choose greenfield FDI over M&A when investing there. Empirical evidence supports this result.


This SOP describes the procedure for generating cDNA from SARS-CoV-2 viral nucleic acid extracts and subsequently producing 400nt amplicons tiling the viral genome using V3 nCov-2019 primers (ARTIC). This is followed by library construction, equivolume pooling of samples and quantitation, prior to sequencing on the Illumina NovaSeq. It is adapted from the nCov-2019 sequencing protocol which can be found here: https://www.protocols.io/view/ncov-2019-sequencing-protocol-bbmuik6w.