Australian drought policy is focussed on providing relief from the immediate effects of drought on farm incomes, while enhancing the longer term resilience of rural livelihoods. Despite the socioeconomic nature of these objectives, the information systems created to support the policy have focussed almost exclusively on biophysical measures of climate variability and its effects on agricultural production. In this paper, we demonstrate the ability of bioeconomic modelling to overcome the moral hazard and timing issues that have led to the dominance of these biophysical measures. The Agricultural Farm Income Risk Model (AgFIRM), developed and tested in a companion paper, is used to provide objective, model-based forecasts of annual farm incomes at the beginning of the financial year (July-June). The model was then used to relate climate-induced income variability to the diversity of farm income sources, a practical measure of adaptive capacity that can be positively influenced by policy. Three timeless philosophical arguments are used to discuss the policy relevance of the bioeconomic modelling. These arguments are used to compare the value to decision makers of relatively imprecise, integrative information, with relatively precise, reductionist measures. We conclude that the evolution of bioeconomic modelling systems provides an opportunity to refocus the analytical support for Australian drought policy towards the rural livelihood effects that matter most to governments and rural communities.


Introduction Although obesity, hypercholesterolaemia and hypertension in midlife are risk factors for dementia in late life, dementia is associated with lower body mass index, cholesterol levels and blood pressures. It is unclear whether declines in these vascular risk factors are preceded by declines in cognitive function or vice versa. Methods Within the Leiden 85-plus Study, a prospective population-based study of 599 subjects aged 85 years, the authors annually measured body mass index, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, glucose levels and blood pressure, and assessed global cognitive function using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) during a 5-year follow-up. Results For the whole population who survived up to the age of 90 years, strong annual declines in MMSE score, body mass index, total cholesterol levels, glucose levels, and blood pressure, and an annual increase in HDL cholesterol levels were observed during the follow-up period (all p≤0.010). Annual changes in MMSE score from age 85 to 87 years were associated positively with annual changes from age 87 to 90 years in total and HDL cholesterol levels (p=0.002 and p=0.013), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (p=0.008 and p=0.048), but not BMI. Parameter value changes from age 85 to 87 years were not associated with changes in MMSE score from age 87 to 90 years. Discussion In old age, cognitive decline precedes declines in total cholesterol levels, HDL cholesterol levels and blood pressure, and not vice versa. Possibly, brain lesions in metabolic and blood pressure regulation centres cause dysregulation of lipid metabolism and blood pressure.


In Rouached et al. (2006) and Rouached and Godart (2007) the authors described the semantics of WSBPEL by way of mapping each of the WSBPEL (Arkin et al., 2004) constructs to the EC algebra and building a model of the process behaviour. With these mapping rules, the authors describe a modelling approach of a process defined for a single Web service composition. However, this modelling is limited to a local view and can only be used to model the behaviour of a single process. The authors further the semantic mapping to include Web service composition interactions through modelling Web service conversations and their choreography. This paper elaborates the models to support a view of interacting Web service compositions extending the mapping from WSBPEL to EC, and including Web service interfaces (WSDL) for use in modelling between services. The verification and validation techniques are also exposed while automated induction-based theorem prover is used as verification back-end.


In the wake of the financial crisis and Great Recession, the health of state and local pension plans has emerged as a front burner policy issue. Elected officials, academic experts, and the media alike have pointed to funding shortfalls with alarm, expressing concern that pension promises are unsustainable or will squeeze out other pressing government priorities. A few local governments have even filed for bankruptcy, with pensions cited as a major cause. Alicia H. Munnell draws on both her practical experience and her research to provide a broad perspective on the challenge of state and local pensions. She shows that the story is big and complicated and cannot be viewed through a narrow prism such as accounting methods or the role of unions. By examining the diversity of the public plan universe, Munnell debunks the notion that all plans are in trouble. In fact, she finds that while a few plans are basket cases, many are functioning reasonably well. Munnell's analysis concludes that the plans in serious trouble need a major overhaul. But even the relatively healthy plans face three challenges ahead: an excessive concentration of plan assets in equities; the risk that steep benefit cuts for new hires will harm workforce quality; and the constraints plans face in adjusting future benefits for current employees. Here, Munnell proposes solutions that preserve the main strengths of state and local pensions while promoting needed reforms.


A common problem encountered in hydraulic valves is a progressing deterioration of tightness of their water flow cutting-off seats. The seats are provided usually with a copper-alloy insert joined mechanically with cast-iron valve housing. The problem of unreliability of such joints can be solved by providing surface of the seat with a coating, deposited with the use of HVOF method and resistant to abrasive and cavitation wear. The tests were carried out for a sealing-draining seat insert made of CuZn39Pb2Al brass used to date and a specimen taken from the cast-iron valve housing which was the substrate for a plasma-sprayed coating of powder containing 86.1% Cr, 7.2% Ni, and 6.7% C. The coating, 345 ± 15 μm thick, was characterized with good quality of bonding with cast-iron substrate and high compactness of the material. The cavitation wear test on materials used in the study were carried out with the use of Vibra-Cell ultrasonic liquid processor (Sonics) equipped with a piezoelectric probe operating at the frequency of 20 kHz. Based on profilograms taken along a line crossing centers of cavitation craters, measurements of the height parameter Rt, and microscopic observations of surfaces it has been found that the coating plasma-sprayed onto substrate of nodular cast iron demonstrated higher resistance to cavitation compared to copper-alloy inserts used so far in cast-iron hydraulic valves. Cavitation craters on the material used typically for valve seats to date were more distinctly outlined and deeper compared to craters observed on the coating. Larger were also sizes of local tear-outs which resulted in larger difference between the peaks line and the valleys line.


IDIOPATHIC epilepsy is the most common neurological medical condition in dogs with an estimated prevalence of 0.6 per cent presenting to first-opinion practice in the UK (Kearsley-Fleet and others 2013). About two-thirds of dogs with idiopathic epilepsy are controlled with one or a combination of two medications. Phenobarbital remains the most commonly used first-line antiepileptic drug in dogs affected by idiopathic epilepsy, and achieves sufficient seizure control in about two-thirds of affected dogs when used as a single agent (Packer and others 2015, Tipold and others 2015). The phenobarbital doses used in individual epileptic dogs are largely modified based on the seizure frequency, phenobarbital serum levels and the drug side effects. Drug formularies generally advise a 12-hourly phenobarbital oral dosing regime (Plumb 2008, Ramsey 2014). This is based on the reported elimination half-life in dogs ranging from 12 to 125 hours, with an average of approximately two days. Oral phenobarbital (5-ethyl-5-phenylbarbituric acid) is absorbed within two hours after administration. Healthy dogs reached peak levels of phenobarbital in 3.8 and 4.6 hours when receiving 5.5 mg/kg orally once and 5.5 mg/kg/every 24 hours for …


With current Network Mobility (NEMO) Basic Support, all communications
to and from Mobile Network Nodes must go through the Mobile Router and
Home Agent (MRHA) tunnel when the mobile network is away. This results
in increased length of packet route and increased packet delay in most
cases. To overcome these limitations, one might have to turn to Route
Optimization (RO) for NEMO. This memo documents various types of Route
Optimization in NEMO and explores the benefits and tradeoffs in
different aspects of NEMO Route Optimization. This memo provides
information for the Internet community.


The aim of this study was to uncover the key determinants and indicators that have the potential to demonstrate the success level of higher education institutions (HEIs). Although some criteria and mechanisms for internal and external evaluation of HEIs are widely accepted, it is still necessary to adapt them and develop mechanisms for a more detailed institution-level performance assessment. This survey-based research empirically validated a model of key determinants and performance indicators of HEIs as perceived by teachers and teaching assistants from four major universities in Croatia (N = 619). In line with the current practice in Croatia, Strategy and quality planning, Organization and improvement of educational processes, Collaboration and scientific research, and Financial and other resources were extracted as key determinants. As expected with regards to performance indicators, the respondents deem enrolment and graduation rates of bachelor, master and doctorate studies as the most important indicators but also emphasize the importance of process-related indicators such as accreditation, standardization and cooperation. All HEIs in Croatia can evaluate this set of determinants and indicators according to their own context and use it to design and develop a comprehensive model for monitoring and tracking their performance and reporting to various stakeholders, and ultimately to implement an institution-wide performance management system.


Gold mineralization in the Hetai goldfield in South China is almost entirely confined to a series of steeply dipping ductile shear zones generated during Hercynian-Indosinian orogenesis of Sinian host rocks. Approximately half of the mineralization is in the form of disseminations in the mylonite and the remainder was clearly emplaced as a result of brittle deformation in einlets and as sulfide cement to brecciated mesoscopic quartz eins. Heaily influenced by the presence of disseminated mineralization, all publications on Hetai determine a major role for ductile deformation in the introduction of gold into the deposit. The brittle deformation is typically regarded as redistributing, within the host structures, the gold initially introduced as a result of ductile deformation mechanisms. Howeer, textures of the sulfides associated with the gold indicate an entirely postductile deformation timing as they display none of the features attributed to ductile deformation. During the eident brittle deformation phase, competence contrasts at the microscopic scale allowed fracturing to focus on the quartz-sericite domain boundaries of the mylonite foliation, thus permitting the introduction of auriferous fluid into the mylonite to create disseminated mineralization. The control exerted by preexisting structures is further reflected in the restriction of disseminated mineralization to the quartz domains, presumably because the sericite domains accommodated the deformation in a more distributed fashion. Seeral other lines of eidence support an origin of the Hetai deposit in an upper crustal regime. A similar style of disseminated mineralization, to that seen in the mylonite, surrounds microeinlet terminations in the brecciated quartz eins, as well as oerprinting pseudotachylite, which is associated with cataclasite. There are also large olumes of unmineralized mylonite indicating no connection between the intensity of strain and gold grade. We conclude that, in structurally controlled deposits, the textural category of disseminated gold mineralization can be generated either under entirely ductile or entirely brittle conditions, and that microtextural eidence has to be carefully analyzed to determine the mode of formation of a deposit.


This article deals with two epistolary novels: Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Hanan al-Shaykh's Beirut Blues, showing the similarities between the two works from the formal/structural point of view as well as pointing out the function of the letter form and its symbolic significance in each. It tackles the confessional nature of the letters and the way they help the two protagonists in achieving a better understanding of their positions, even though the letters written by both protagonists are for the most part one-sided, and do not receive responses as in regular correspondence. Introduction The epistolary form is one that has been employed by writers throughout the history of world literature, and not surprisingly, since letters are intimate and immediate modes of expression and communication (Singer 1). Books written in letter form, whether one letter or a series/exchange of letters, can be found among the works of historically varied writers such as Ibn Hazm (994-1064), Fanny Burney (1752-1840), and Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). This article deals with two contemporary novels written in letter form, depicting traumatic contexts--the legacy of slavery in the first, and civil war in the second: The Color Purple by Alice Walker; and Beirut Blues by Hanan al-Shaykh. (1) The events of The Color Purple take place in the American South, in Georgia, in 1909. The novel is written entirely in the epistolary form--mainly by Celie, the main protagonist. The first two thirds of the novel comprise letters that Celie writes to God giving Him a sketch of her miserable life, first as subject of torture by an alleged father who rapes her and gets rid of her two children and then as the sex object and servant of a husband to whom she is almost sold off. It is in this section that Celie shows the patriarchal oppression she and other women are exposed to. The remaining third of the novel is a set of letters written by/to Celie and her sister, Nettie, who now lives in Africa with the missionary couple she works with and to whom her sister's children were given. Even though the sisters write to one another, there is no communication between them as the letters either never arrive, or do arrive but too late. This part of the novel demonstrates Celie's transformation and liberation through the help of other women like Shug, the Blues singer she is in love with, and Nettie. The novel ends with a letter addressed to no one in particular that shows Celie at her happiest with the final family reunion--her sister and children having come back from Africa. Beirut Blues, also written in letter form, centers on wartime Beirut in 1985. Asmahan, the protagonist, writes ten letters to people, some of whom she knows and others she only knows of; she also writes letters to places and entities that show the impact of the civil war. Her first letter is addressed to her best friend, Hayat, who lives in Belgium, telling her about herself and her bitter feelings toward the war. The second letter is addressed to Jill Morrell, the friend of a war hostage Asmahan has never met, in an attempt to identify with the hostage and find refuge somewhere. This is followed by a letter to Naser, the protagonist's Palestinian ex-lover, in which Asmahan recollects some of their memories together and admits to having had other amorous adventures. The fourth letter is written to her Land in frustrated nostalgia and an attempt to find security in the past, embodied in her village. The following letter is addressed to the Blues singer, Billie Holiday, Asmahan's song idol, also reminiscent of a happy past. This is followed by an apologetic letter to Asmahan's grandmother whom she has let down by standing witness to her grandfather's love affairs. A letter then follows that is addressed to the Lebanese emigre, Jawad, the man Asmahan is sexually attracted to, and who symbolically embodies her hope of escape from Beirut. The eighth letter is written to War itself, showing Asmahan's ambivalent feelings towards it, wavering between hate, blame, and indifference. …


This thesis focuses on prejudice located at the intersections of sexuality and nationality. Drawing on mixed qualitative research sessions involving men who are 'LGBTI migrants' from African countries, and who are living in South Africa, the thesis offers three overarching points of focus. Firstly, it contextualises and critiques historical state structures and attitudes which shape understandings of identity in South Africa. Secondly, it analyses everyday experiences of xenophobia and homophobia, as experienced by 'LGBTI' people who have migrated to the country for a variety of reasons. Finally, it locates these experiences within the structures identified and, based on participant-led discussions, offers a framework for understanding and suggestions for meaningful intervention.

Using an overarching critical perspective of intersectionality and queer necropolitics I argue that contemporary South Africa fosters an image of inclusivity and exceptionalism that is vastly at odds with reality. In everyday spaces 'LGBTI migrants' are often forced to 'switch' between being either African or LGBTI. However, I argue that through journey-derived questioning of both Africanness and Queerness these processes of switching foreground hope and action. These are rooted in values of solidarity and community which extend, for fleeting moments, beyond labels and beyond geographic boundaries. Through a reconciled merging of these seemingly opposed subjectivities I argue that insight is offered into life beyond, yet within, national structures.

In this way the participants exhibit an 'African Queerness/Queer Africanness' which shifts them beyond necropolitical death and towards transcontinental life. I ultimately argue that this may be harnessed as a tool to intellectually, and practically, render Africa as a site of (African) queer potentiality. I suggest that LGBTI migrants, through their embodiment of a specific transcontinental future, are pioneers in revealing this potentiality.


Purpose
Some universities have a commitment to both academic education and sustainable development, and the sustainable development goals can support several sustainable actions that universities may take as principles and attitudes. From this perspective, the purpose of this study is to present environmentally sustainable practices at a federal university in Brazil and to analyze and discuss the potential environmental impacts associated with an environmentally sustainable practice implemented using life cycle assessment (LCA) and its benefits for the university's decision-makers.

Design/methodology/approach
To accomplish that, the study combines a description of environmentally sustainable practices at the 13 campuses of the Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR) in terms of education, water and electricity consumption, waste management and emissions. As a result of this analysis, one campus identified that a high volume of disposable plastic cups were being disposed of, for which the use of reusable plastic cups was introduced. In addition, an LCA study (ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2006) quantified the benefits of the introduction of said reusable plastic cups.

Findings
The results show that the university is working on environmentally sustainable initiatives and policies to become greener. At the same time, using a systematic LCA made it possible to measure that replacing disposable plastic cups for reusable ones reduced waste generation but increased water consumption on the campus. Faced with this, a sensitization was carried out to reduce water consumption. Finally, the current study provides lessons on the environmental performance to universities interested in sustainable practices, fostering perspectives for a better world. The findings of this study encourage organizations to accomplish environmental actions toward greener universities. The study shows that institutions need to be reflective and analytical about how even "greening" measures have impacts, which can be mitigated if necessary.

Practical implications
The sustainable practical implications were reported, and an LCA was conducted to assess potential environmental impacts of reusable plastic cups. It was identified that raw material production is the phase that generates most environmental impacts during the life cycle of the product, along with the consumer use phase, due to the quantity of water used to wash the reusable cups. In addition, the practical contributions of this study are to provide insights to institutions that aim to use environmental actions, i.e. suggestions of sustainable paths toward a greener university.

Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to investigate and discuss sustainable practices at UTFPR/Brazil. The study assessed one of the practices using a scientific technique (LCA) to assess the impacts of reusable plastic cups distributed to the students of one of the 13 campuses. Although there are other studies on LCA in the literature, the value of this study lies in expanding what has already been experienced/found on the use of LCA to assess environmental practices in university campuses.


Exocytosis, the fusion of intracellular vesicles with the plasma membrane, is fundamental to intercellular communication in multicellular organisms. This pathway facilitates the release or secretion of molecules from the cell. In addition, exocytosis is essential for delivery of resident proteins to the plasma membrane. There are two different pathways of exocytosis, constitutive and regulated exocytosis. Constitutive exocytosis occurs without regulation, e.g. pathways regulating the delivery of lipids and 'house-keeping' proteins to the plasma membrane or the secretion of antibodies and extra-cellular matrix components from the cell. In contrast, regulated exocytosis facilitates the controlled release of extra-cellular molecules or insertion of new membrane components only in response to a physiological signal. The most common signal for regulated exocytosis is an increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration. Several proteins function in exocytosis, and the membrane fusion step is widely believed to result from an interaction between SNARE (SNAP receptor) proteins on the vesicle membrane and plasma membrane. In neuroendocrine cells, these SNARE proteins are VAMP2, which is bound to vesicle membranes and syntaxin1A and SNAP25, which are associated with the plasma membrane. Several proteins have been implicated as SNARE regulators, such as NSF (N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor) and its cofactor α-SNAP, Munc18 and synaptotagmin. Another possible SNARE regulator is the cysteine string protein (CSP). CSPα was first identified in Drosophila melanogaster and was later identified in Torpedo as a possible Ca2+-channel regulator. Inactivation of the CSPα gene in Drosophila is lethal at an embryonic stage and in embryos synaptic vesicle exocytosis was decreased by ~50% at 22°C and was abolished at higher temperatures. These results provided strong evidence that CSPα has an important role in presynaptic neurotransmission. However, more recent work on CSPα null mice uncovered an important neuroprotective function for CSPα in brain, but also challenged the proposed function of CSPα in neuronal exocytosis, as no defect in this pathway was evident, at least in young animals. The only reported developmental abnormality of CSPα null mice was bilateral cryptorchidism, a failure of testicular descent during development. Interestingly, two additional CSP isoforms were recently identified in mouse and human testis, CSPβ and CSPγ. One consequence of the identification of CSPβ and CSPγ is that they may complicate analysis of CSPα knockout mice. Here, we have used a combination of techniques, cell systems and human brain samples to examine the function of CSPα in exocytosis, the expression of novel CSPα isoforms in testis, and expression changes of CSPα and its partner proteins in neurological disorders. Furthermore, we have initiated studies to examine how CSPα function is linked to cryptorchidism at the molecular level. My results show that CSPα depletion perturbs regulated exocytosis in neuroendocrine cells, but has no consistent effect…


To suggest that privacy is dead is not to revel in or encourage its demise, nor even to claim that it is not a desirable outcome, right, or valued policy. Rather, what this paper suggests is that in certain circumstances (increasingly on social media platforms) the privacy of users now stands in direct opposition to the stated goals and logic of the technology in question. One need not give up certain goals of privacy to recognize that business models of online companies like Facebook and Google are now entirely predicated upon the act of going public--there would be no Google search engine or Facebook social networking platform without the content, information, and demographic profiles uploaded, revised, updated, and shared by billions of users worldwide.

This paper then offers some initial thoughts on a theory of publicity, of going public in the social media age. If social media platforms are governed by ubiquitous surveillance and continuous uploading and sharing of personal information, opinions, habits, and routines, then privacy would seem only to be a hindrance to these processes. To ignore such clear mission statements, coupled with repetitive attempts to undermine, display, and obfuscate so-called privacy settings, would seem disingenuous at best, and willfully blind at worst. These online platforms profit from publicity and suffer from stringent privacy protocols--their whole raison d'etre is to learn as much as possible about users in order to aggregate and then sell such profiled and clustered information to advertisers and marketers. Can we really conclude that such businesses violate users' privacy when their platforms are in the first and last instance wired for ubiquitous publicity? Or more to the point, do privacy-based perspectives provide an adequate framework for understanding users' relationships with social media platforms and their parent companies?


Abstract. The task to compute 3D reconstructions from large amounts of data has become an active field of research within the last years. Based on an initial estimate provided by structure from motion, bundle adjustment seeks to find a solution that is optimal for all cameras and 3D points. The corresponding nonlinear optimization problem is usually solved by the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm combined with conjugate gradient descent. While many adaptations and extensions to the classical bundle adjustment approach have been proposed, only few works consider the acceleration potentials of GPU systems. This paper elaborates the possibilities of time and space savings when fitting the implementation strategy to the terms and requirements of realizing a bundler on heterogeneous CPUGPU systems. Instead of focusing on the standard approach of Levenberg-Marquardt optimization alone, nonlinear conjugate gradient descent and alternating resection-intersection are studied as two alternatives. The experiments show that in particular alternating resection-intersection reaches low error rates very fast, but converges to larger error rates than Levenberg-Marquardt. PBA, as one of the current state-of-the-art bundlers, converges slower in 50 % of the test cases and needs 1.5-2 times more memory than the Levenberg- Marquardt implementation.


Mathematics is of major importance in science subjects. Unfortunately, students struggle with applying mathematics in science subjects, especially physics. In this qualitative study we demonstrate that transfer of algebraic skills from mathematics in physics class can be improved by using pre-knowledge effectively. We designed shiftproblems involving instructional models to carry out small interventions in textbook problems. Shift-problems are feasible for teachers to adopt in teaching practice. To gain insight in the extent to which students improved their application of algebraic skills including basic skills and symbol sense behaviour, we selected three grade-10 physics students. In round one, the students solved algebraic physics problems as they appear in physics textbooks. Two weeks later in round two, the same problems were presented as shift problems to them where we activated prior mathematical knowledge by providing systematic rule-based algebraic hints at the start of these tasks. Algebraic skills were presented in a similar way to how these were learned in mathematics textbooks. We observed that students' problem-solving abilities increased from 48.5 % in the first to 81.8 % in the second round, indicating the effectiveness of how we implemented shift-problems. Furthermore, we discussed the implications of our results for the international science audience.


Purpose: This article aims to identify leaders' personality and competence traits that determine success for Polish small and medium-sized enterprises. Design/Methodology/Approach: Empirical data are selected from an experimental survey conducted by the Statistics Poland from December 2017 to January 2018 as part of the Determinants of Entrepreneurship Developments in the SMEs Sector project. We used 20959 surveys of enterprises in which the leader (an owner or a manager) played a dominant role. To test the dependence of measures of success (selected aspects of changes in enterprises) and assessments of the importance of personality and competence features of leaders, we built appropriate contingency tables and used the Pearson chi-square independence test. We also applied logistic regression and calculated the appropriate odds ratios. Findings: When estimating logistic parameters, we obtained a model with five statistically significant variables: beliefs about the possibility of achieving set goals; high aspirations and constant search for new challenges; passion and commitment; fluency in foreign languages; and knowledge of the company's market. Practical implications: The results of this research suggest for enterprises a need for pro-development activities in the field of managerial competencies.


We propose a new method to quickly and accurately predict 3D positions of body joints from a single depth image, using no temporal information. We take an object recognition approach, designing an intermediate body parts representation that maps the difficult pose estimation problem into a simpler per-pixel classification problem. Our large and highly varied training dataset allows the classifier to estimate body parts invariant to pose, body shape, clothing, etc. Finally we generate confidence-scored 3D proposals of several body joints by reprojecting the classification result and finding local modes. The system runs at 200 frames per second on consumer hardware. Our evaluation shows high accuracy on both synthetic and real test sets, and investigates the effect of several training parameters. We achieve state of the art accuracy in our comparison with related work and demonstrate improved generalization over exact whole-skeleton nearest neighbor matching.


Alcohol consumption during pregnancy places the fetus at risk for permanent physical, cognitive, and behavioral impairments, collectively termed fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). However, prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) outcomes vary widely, and growing evidence suggests that maternal nutrition is a modifying factor. Certain nutrients, such as iron, may modulate FASD outcomes. Untreated gestational iron deficiency (ID) causes persistent neurodevelopmental deficits in the offspring that affect many of the same domains damaged by PAE. Although chronic alcohol consumption enhances iron uptake and elevates liver iron stores in adult alcoholics, alcohol-abusing premenopausal women often have low iron reserves due to menstruation, childbirth, and poor diet. Recent investigations show that low iron reserves in during pregnancy are strongly associated with a worsening of several hallmark features in FASD including reduced growth and impaired associative learning. This review discusses recent clinical and animal model findings that maternal ID worsens fetal outcomes in response to PAE. It also discusses underlying mechanisms by which PAE disrupts maternal and fetal iron homeostasis. We suggest that alcohol-exposed, ID pregnancies contribute to the severe end of the FASD spectrum.


This Article reports on a breakdown in access to justice in bankruptcy, a system from which one million Americans will seek help this year. A crucial decision for these consumers will be whether to file a chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy. Nearly every aspect of their bankruptcies — both the benefits and the burdens of debt relief — will be different in chapter 7 versus chapter 13. Almost all consumers will hire a bankruptcy attorney. Because they must pay their attorneys, many consumers will file chapter 13 to finance their access to the law, rather than because they prefer the law of chapter 13 over chapter 7.
Attorneys charge about $1,200 to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy; their debt-laden clients must pay this amount upfront. Attorneys charge about $3,200 to file a chapter 13 bankruptcy, but clients can pay attorney fees over time as part of their cases. Chapter 7 and 13 bankruptcies also differ in the relief achieved. Almost all chapter 7 cases end with the debtor receiving a discharge of debts. In contrast, only around one-third of chapter 13 cases end in discharge.
This Article exposes the increasingly prevalent phenomenon of debtors paying nothing in attorneys' fees to file chapter 13. New data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, our original empirical national study, suggest that these "no money down" consumers are similar to those who use chapter 7. However, because they cannot afford to pay their attorneys up front, these "no money down" bankruptcy debtors suffer. They pay $2,000 more and have their cases dismissed at a rate 18 times higher than if they had filed chapter 7.
The two most significant predictors of whether a consumer files a "no money down" bankruptcy are a person's place of residence and a person's race. We could not identify legitimate ways that these factors correlate with debtors' needs for the substantive legal benefits of chapter 13. "No money down" bankruptcy can be a distortion in the delivery of legal help. We suggest reforms to how attorneys collect fees from consumer debtors that will reduce the potential conflict between clients' interests and attorneys' interests. The reforms will deliver access to justice and improve the functioning of the bankruptcy system.


The article examines Israel's successes and failures during the Second Intifada. It argues that Israel's advances came from an effective counterterrorism campaign involving a mix of military operations, defensive measures, and in particular improved intelligence gathering. Domestic resilience also proved strong in the face of a brutal terrorism campaign. Yet long-term victory remains elusive for Israel. Deterrence, always difficult against terrorist groups, is growing harder for Israel. Hamas's control of Gaza, and the mistrust and hatred sown during the Second Intifada, have hindered a political deal between Israel and moderate Palestinians. Much of what went into successful counterterrorism, notably the security barrier and the aggressive campaign of raids and arrests, does not jibe with most visions of what peace would look like and makes a deal harder to achieve. To make a peace deal work, Israeli counterterrorism must change, with measures including relocating parts of the security barrier, bolstering moderate Palestinian politicians, and working with, as opposed to undermining, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank.


Many people regard infertility as an unsuitable condition in which to run cross-over designs. Because if treatments are successful, then some women will become pregnant in the first period of treatment and if they become pregnant in
the first period they are very unlikely to be treated in the second period. If data from only one period are available, then it will not be possible to perform the
within-patient comparison. Hence, it could be argued, such designs are inherently unsuitable since they have a built-in tendency to produce missing data. To sum up this point of view, cross-over designs in infertility are likely to produce fewer data than one would wish and should be avoided. We see things differently, however. Suppose a parallel design is employed. If a couple is entered onto a parallel group design in infertility, they will have
been allocated to one or the other treatment only. If the woman fails to achieve pregnancy, having been given that treatment, what could then be more natural than to offer the couple the chance of trying another? If another treatment is tried, then will it not be appropriate to record the outcome? Hence, in the worst case one will have all the data one would have from a parallel group trial but
in practice one is likely to have more. How can more data be worse than less?Thus, to sum up our point of view, a cross-over trial is likely to produce more data than one would otherwise have had and should be encouraged.
A debate along these lines has been running for some years now, with some promoting and occasionally running cross-over trials and others criticising them for doing so. In this thesis we use the logistic random effects model to illustrate that the message that the crossover design should be avoided is not the correct one. Rather, when using the crossover design one should be sure to analyze it correctly. The study has found that treatment estimates obtained by allowing women to get pregnant twice has lower standard errors than treatment estimates obtained by conducting the realistic infertility trials. In the scenario involving no period effects the two treatment estimates are not biased. In the scenario involving period
effect, the standard errors of the treatment estimate obtained in the realistic data increases rapidly, while the standard errors of treatment estimate obtained by allowing women to get pregnant twice are not dissimilar from the standard errors obtained in the scenario involving no period effect. There is nothing wrong in conducting crossover designs in infertility provided appropriate statistical methods are employed. With the infertility crossover data set we can obtain not only conditional treatment estimates but also marginal estimates. Whereas in the parallel design we can only obtain marginal estimates.
The study has found that if the treatment estimate say theta, can be obtained using parallel design data set, then surely, theta can be obtained using the crossover design data set, but not vice versa. Moreover the treatment estimate theta obtained using the crossover data set will be more consistent than the treatment estimate obtained
using the parallel design. We recommend that crossover designs be used in infertility trials because it will surely benefit couples as couples will be have the
opportunity to try both treatments.


This study, the impact of budgeting and budgetary control on the performance of manufacturing company in Nigeria, was conducted using Cadbury Nigeria Plc, as case study. Since wants are plenty while resources are limited, every organisation tends to find means by which it can get what it wants with the limited resources at its disposal. Therefore, firms seek to adopt the concept of budgeting and budgetary control to satisfy their needs at the least possible cost and at the same time fulfill their stewardship obligations to the numerous stakeholders. We adopted a descriptive research design with data gathered through questionnaire administered to respondents. Non-parametric tool of chi square was employed to analyse the data. Hypotheses were tested and analysed on a 5% level of significance and it was revealed that budgeting is a useful tool that guides firms to evaluate whether their goals and objectives are actualised. Considering the changing environment in which firms now operate, it can be concluded that budget, which is a continous management activity, should adapt to changes in the dynamic business environment.


Acidic pH is a common characteristic of human tumours. It has a significant impact on tumour progression and response to therapies. In this thesis, we utilise mathematical modelling to examine the role of acidosis in the interaction between normal and tumour cell populations.

In the first section we investigate the cell–microenvironmental interactions that mediate somatic evolution of cancer cells. The model predicts that selective forces in premalignant lesions act to favour cells whose metabolism is best suited to respond to local changes in oxygen, glucose and pH levels. In particular the emergent cellular phenotype, displaying increased acid production and resistance to acid-induced toxicity, has a significant proliferative advantage because it will consistently acidify the local environment in a way that is toxic to its competitors but harmless to itself.

In the second section we analyse the role of acidity in tumour growth. Both vascular and avascular tumour dynamics are investigated, and a number of different behaviours are observed. Whilst an avascular tumour always proceeds to a benign steady state, a vascular tumour may display either benign or invasive dynamics, depending on the value of a critical parameter. Extensions of the model show that cellular quiescence, or non-proliferation, may provide an explanation for experimentally observed cycles of acidity within tumour tissue. Analysis of both models allows assessment of novel therapies directed towards changing the level of acidity within the tumour.

Finally we undertake a comparison between experimental tumour pH images and the models of acid dynamics set out in previous chapters. This analysis will allow us to assess and verify the previous modelling work, giving the mathematics a firm biological foundation. Moreover, it provides a methodology of calculating important diagnostic parameters from pH images.


In disaster scenarios, communication systems usually consist of heterogeneous nodes and partially damaged infrastructure. Communication is important for rescue teams and victims as well but a serious problem because normal network systems like wired or mobile radio Internet could be unreliable or simply not available. To deal with these problems, much effort has been spent on Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) and their specialties. Those networks are usually unsteady and highly mobile. Therefore, classical network services like the resolution of names to their corresponding local IP addresses is a big challenge. In this paper, we will compare different MANET-adapted name resolution approaches located in the Application and Network Layer by simulations using the Network Simulator 3 ( ns-3 ) and discuss their performance and fields of application.


This essay addresses the proliferation of constitutional issues involving the military chaplaincy. The authors query how the chaplaincy is consistent with the Establishment Clause of the Constitution's First Amendment and note that the answer generally derives from one or more of the following paradigms: (1) Establishment Clause history; (2) Public funding of religion; or (3) Governmental display of religious messages. They suggest that an adequate approach for Establishment Clause analysis of the military chaplaincy requires a different framework. To that end, Part I of this essay describes Katcoff v. Marsh, the most important decision on the constitutionality of the military chaplaincy. Part II turns to the contention that constitutional inquiry into the military chaplaincy should begin from the basic insight that the military chaplaincy exists for the primary purpose of accommodating the religious needs of military personnel. Thus, the chaplaincy bears a family resemblance to other types of religious accommodations, such as exemptions for religious entities from regulation of employment or land use, protections for religious exercises of prisoners or employees, and arrangements for the religious instruction of public school students. The Supreme Court has considered Establishment Clause challenges to a variety of religious accommodations and, despite the prevailing general sense of disorder in the universe of Religion Clause jurisprudence, the Court's accommodation decisions represent a surprisingly coherent model. These decisions suggest that religious accommodations must satisfy four, linked constitutional norms. First, is the accommodation a reasonable effort to relieve a government-imposed burden on religious practice? Second, do beneficiaries of the accommodation participate voluntarily? Third, is the accommodation available on a denominationally-neutral basis? Fourth, does the accommodation impose significant material burdens on third parties? In Parts III and IV, the authors apply those criteria to constitutional challenges affecting the military chaplaincy. Part III deals with constitutional challenges to the chaplaincy as a whole. The authors suggest that the institution of the chaplaincy itself should survive challenge, although specific practices of the institution have less certain constitutional footings. Part IV turns to particular challenges, such as the services' policies for hiring, promotion, and retention of chaplains. The authors also examine the services' regulation of particular aspects of chaplains' ministry, including the conduct of worship, prayer at official functions, and pastoral care. The authors attempt to show how the Establishment Clause standards for religious accommodations should guide the relevant inquiry and judgments and assert that consistent application of these standards will intelligently clarify and wisely resolve the current and heated controversies surrounding the military chaplaincy.


We propose in this paper an Eulerian finite element approximation of a coupled chemical fluid‐structure interaction problem arising in the study of mesoscopic cardiac biomechanics. We simulate the active response of a myocardial cell (here considered as an anisotropic, hyperelastic, and incompressible material), the propagation of calcium concentrations inside it, and the presence of a surrounding Newtonian fluid. An active strain approach is employed to account for the mechanical activation, and the deformation of the cell membrane is captured using a level set strategy. We address in detail the main features of the proposed method, and we report several numerical experiments aimed at model validation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We propose a novel decentralized feature extraction approach in federated learning to address privacy-preservation issues for speech recognition. It is built upon a quantum convolutional neural network (QCNN) composed of a quantum circuit encoder for feature extraction, and a recurrent neural network (RNN) based end-to-end acoustic model (AM). To enhance model parameter protection in a decentralized architecture, an input speech is first up-streamed to a quantum computing server to extract Mel-spectrogram, and the corresponding convolutional features are encoded using a quantum circuit algorithm with random parameters. The encoded features are then down-streamed to the local RNN model for the final recognition. The proposed decentralized framework takes advantage of the quantum learning progress to secure models and to avoid privacy leakage attacks. Testing on the Google Speech Commands Dataset, the proposed QCNN encoder attains a competitive accuracy of 95.12% in a decentralized model, which is better than the previous architectures using centralized RNN models with convolutional features. We conduct an in-depth study of different quantum circuit encoder architectures to provide insights into designing QCNN-based feature extractors. Neural saliency analyses demonstrate a high correlation between the proposed QCNN features, class activation maps, and the input Mel-spectrogram. We provide an implementation1 for future studies.


Topic models such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) have been extensively used for characterizing text collections according to the topics discussed in documents. Organizing documents according to topic can be applied to different information access tasks such as document clustering, content-based recommendation or summarization. Spoken documents such as podcasts typically involve more than one speaker (e.g., meetings, interviews, chat shows or news with reporters). This paper presents a work-in-progress based on a variation of LDA that includes in the model the different speakers participating in conversational audio transcripts. Intuitively, each speaker has her own background knowledge which generates different topic and word distributions. We believe that informing a topic model with speaker segmentation (e.g., using existing speaker diarization techniques) may enhance discovery of topics in multi-speaker audio content.


In ancient times, roving troubadours, actors, and storytellers traveled the land. When they came upon groups of people, they unfurled their rug and performed their plays. Time stopped and the audiences were transfixed in magical, timeless, unforgettable moments. When the play was over, they rolled up their rug and traveled on. Stagebridge has been creating such magic for the past quarter-century. Our troubadours walk with canes. Our actors have wrinkles. And our storytellers wear bifocals. They roam the deserts of the senior landscape and the hills and valleys where children spend their days. The caravan (a Dodge Caravan, that is) winds its way in search of appreciative audiences. Finding them, we unfurl our rug in a variety of venues: lunchrooms abuzz with elders eating, cramped living rooms in convalescent hospitals, cafeterias with noisy schoolchildren, passageways between stacks of books in libraries, and even occasionally on stages actually designed for theater. Audiences arrive curious, bored, tired, hyper, or upset that they have to stop eating or be quiet. But a silence falls quickly when the show begins. Audiences are stopped in their tracks by the sight of these "ancients" on their magic carpet. Elder audiences witness the enthusiasm of people their own age; younger audiences are shocked by people their great (or great- great) grandparents' ages doing things they never expected. Time stops. For those moments, the cafeteria walls dissolve into tar-off lands of adventure and mystery. The crowded living room fades into distant familiar places tucked away in collective memories. The actors take their audiences on journeys that stir up laughter, joy, hope, and memory. When they finish, the journey often continues for the audience. They touch the actors, ask questions, make comments, come up and tell their own stories. Finally, the rug is rolled up and the actors depart. The distant lands recede and the cafeteria or living room returns to normal. People are wheeled out, return to their classrooms, go back to their bingo games-but they are never the same. Since 1978, Stagebridge has been creating theater that brings old and young together. Based in Oakland, California, the company is the nation's oldest senior theater. Our mission has always been to make theater and storytelling an opportunity for older adults and ase these arts to bridge the generations. What began as a drama class at a senior center with five shy white-haired women has grown into a company of 100 members who average 70 years old. The theater continues to be run by the founders and supports an eight-person staff with grants from government, foundations, and corporations; donations from individuals; and earned revenues. It is just a few minutes until curtain time at the theater, where we are performing our Grandparents Tales play tor thousands of schoolchildren. The annual play brings to life popular children's books about grandparents and is performed by a cast ranging in age from 10 to 85. "Hurry up, the play's about to begin," calls the director to a dawdling nine-year-old in the bathroom. The girl turns to her and asks, "Can't they just rewind it?" Our concept of theater is changing-from the "live" collective world to the manufactured virtual variety that can be purchased in most stores and installed in the privacy of our own homes. …


Abstract. The Late Permian dicynodont Digalodon rubidgei Broom and Robinson, 1948, is redescribed based on reanalysis of the holotype and newly recognized referable specimens. Digalodon can be diagnosed by the presence of a long "beak" sharply demarcated from the caniniform process; an extremely tall zygomatic ramus of the squamosal, with a thickened, "folded-over" dorsal margin; raised parietal "lips" along the lateral edges of the pineal foramen; and a broad posterolateral expansion of the parietal, excluding the postorbital from the back of the skull roof. Inclusion of Digalodon in a recent analysis of anomodont phylogeny recovers it as a kistecephalian emydopoid, specifically as the sister taxon to the clade containing the remaining kistecephalians. Four definite specimens of Digalodon are known, but several additional specimens lacking tusks, the swollen pineal "lips", and a thickened zygoma may represent sexually dimorphic females or juveniles. Specimens of Digalodon are restricted to the central portion of the Karoo Basin, in the area around Graaff-Reinet, and are part of a characteristic fauna probably representing a limited time span.


Glucose deprivation can drive the acquisition of certain oncogenic mutations in human cancer cells. Mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes allow cancer cells to outgrow their neighboring healthy cells. What microenvironmental conditions provide a selective growth advantage to these cells? Yun et al. identify low glucose availability as a microenvironmental factor driving the acquisition of KRAS oncogenic mutations that allow cancer cells to survive and grow. In genetically matched colorectal cancer cells that differed only in the mutational status of the KRAS oncogene, mutant cells selectively overexpressed glucose transporter–1 and exhibited enhanced glucose uptake and glycolysis. When cells with wild-type KRAS were placed in a low-glucose environment, very few cells survived, but most of the survivors expressed high levels of glucose transporter–1 and a small percentage of the survivors had acquired new KRAS mutations. Thus, glucose deprivation may help to drive the acquisition of cell growth–promoting oncogenic mutations during tumor development. J. Yun, C. Rago, I. Cheong, R. Pagliarini, P. Angenendt, H. Rajagopalan, K. Schmidt, J. K. V. Willson, S. Markowitz, S. Zhou, L. A. Diaz Jr., V. E. Velculescu, C. Lengauer, K. W. Kinzler, B. Vogelstein, N. Papadopoulos, Glucose deprivation contributes to the development of KRAS pathway mutations in tumor cells. Science 325, 1555–1559 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Distributed collaborative applications are characterized by supporting groups' collaborative activities. This kind of applications is branded by physically distributed user groups, who cooperate by interactions and are gathered in work sessions. The effective result of collaboration in a session is the production of simultaneous and concurrent actions. Interactions are fundamental actions of a collaborative session and require being coordinated (synchronized) to avoid inconsistencies. We propose in the present work an event structure based model for coordination in a collaborative session, making possible interactions between participants and applications in a consistent way. The proposed model describes interdependencies, in the form of coordination rules, between different actions of the collaborative session actors.


The Ozark bass (Ambloplites constellatus) is endemic to the Upper White River Basin, and a limited amount of information exists on the Ozark bass population, including growth and mortality characteristics. The purpose of this study was to determine growth and mortality of Ozark bass in the Upper White River Basin, compare growth of Ozark bass to other Ambloplites species, and compare growth and mortality of Ozark bass between sample sites. Sampling occurred in Crooked Creek and in the Lower Wilderness Area (LWA) of the Buffalo River, with multiple collections from each body of water. Sampling occurred during summer 2013 via electroshocking from a boat. Length and weight data were recorded while sampling, and fish ages were determined through otolith retrieval. Ozark bass exhibited similar growth patterns to Shadow bass (Ambloplites ariommus); however, Rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris) grew faster and larger. Growth of Ozark bass appeared to be similar between Crooked Creek and the LWA of the Buffalo River until 5 years of age. After age 5, the growth of fish collected from the LWA of the Buffalo River slowed compared to 5 and older fish collected from Crooked Creek. Ozark bass of the LWA of the Buffalo River had an overall greater mortality rate than those in Crooked Creek; however, one of two sites sampled on Crooked Creek had a comparable fish mortality rate to that measured in the LWA of the Buffalo River. Results indicated that size-selected mortality may have occurred in the LWA of the Buffalo River and at least one location sampled in Crooked Creek, possibly due to fishing mortality and angler popularity at the sites. Data collected in this study were part of a long-term attempt by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to gather baseline data on the Ozark bass population and to determine the efficacy of current harvest regulations for that species in the Upper White River Basin. Baseline data will be used in the future to determine whether local fish populations respond to climate change or other impacts to the watershed. * Ashley R. Rodman is a 2014 graduate with a major in Environmental, Soil, and Water Science and a minor in Wildlife Habitat. † Kristofor R. Brye is the faculty mentor and a professor in the Department of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences.


Innate immunity is the first line of defense against viral infection and depends on the use of germline-encoded pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that detect pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). Virus recognition subsequently triggers an assortment of effector responses that are critical for clearing the invading pathogen. Among known antiviral pathways, autophagy, a biological process that mediates the degradation of cytoplasmic components, may be one of the most ancient. We previously demonstrated that autophagy is essential for resistance to the Rhabdovirus Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) in flies. However, the mechanism by which autophagy is triggered during VSV infection remained unclear. Through a targeted RNAi screen, I discovered that a previously uncharacterized Drosophila Toll receptor, Toll-7, is essential for restricting VSV replication in cells and adult flies. Moreover, Toll-7 was required to activate antiviral autophagy both in vitro and in vivo. Toll-7 interacted with VSV virions at the cell surface, demonstrating that Toll-7 is a bona fide PRR and the only known Toll receptor that physically associates with a pathogen. Taken together, these data have revealed Toll-7 as the link between VSV recognition and activation of antiviral autophagy. To investigate the range of Toll receptor-mediated antiviral immunity, I next challenged Toll receptor mutant flies with a panel of arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses). These studies revealed a critical in vivo role for Toll-7 in restricting infection with Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), a medically relevant pathogen in the bunyavirus family that causes disease in humans and livestock. Toll-7 mutant flies showed increased viral replication and mortality after RVFV infection due to impaired antiviral autophagy activation. Remarkably, autophagy was also required to restrict RVFV infection in mouse and human cells, demonstrating an evolutionarily conserved role for antiviral autophagy in flies and mammals. Autophagy activation using pharmacologic inducers of autophagy potently inhibited RVFV infection in flies and mammalian cells. Collectively, these data suggest that modulation of this conserved antiviral pathway may be a promising strategy for controlling RVFV infection, which lacks effective therapeutics and vaccines, in both mammals and the vector insect. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Immunology First Advisor Sara Cherry


The Na+-translocating NADH:quinone oxidoreductase (Na+-NQR) from the human pathogen Vibrio cholerae couples the exergonic oxidation of NADH by membrane-bound quinone to Na+ translocation across the membrane. Na+-NQR consists of six different subunits (NqrA-NqrF) and contains a [2Fe-2S] cluster, a noncovalently bound FAD, a noncovalently bound riboflavin, two covalently bound FMNs and potentially Q8 as cofactors. Initial crystallization of the entire Na+-NQR complex was achieved by the sitting-drop method using a nanolitre dispenser. Optimization of the crystallization conditions yielded flat yellow-coloured crystals with dimensions of up to 200×80×20 µm. The crystals diffracted to 4.0 Å resolution and belonged to space group P2(1), with unit-cell parameters a=94, b=146, c=105 Å, α=γ=90, β=111°.


The present study investigates the integrated ocean response to tropical cyclones (TCs) in the South Pacific convergence zone through a complete ocean heat budget. The TC impact analysis is based on the comparison between two long-term (1979-2003) oceanic simulations forced by a mesoscale atmospheric model solution in which extreme winds associated with cyclones are either maintained or filtered. The simulations provide a statistically robust experiment that fills a gap in the current modeling literature between coarse-resolution and short-term studies. The authors' results show a significant thermal response of the ocean to at least 500-m depth, driven by competing mixing and upwelling mechanisms. As suggested in previous studies, vertical mixing largely explains surface cooling induced by TCs. However, TC-induced upwelling of deeper waters plays an unexpected role as it partly balances the warming of subsurface waters induced by vertical mixing. Below 100 m, vertical advection results in cooling that persists long after the storm passes and has a signature in the ocean climatology. The heat lost through TC-induced vertical advection is exported outside the cyclogenesis area with strong interannual variability. In addition, 60% of the heat input below the surface during the cyclone season is released back to the oceanic mixed layer through winter entrainment and then to the atmosphere. Therefore, seasonal modulation reduces the mean surface heat flux due to TCs to about 3 × 10−3 PW in this region exposed to 10%-15% of the world's cyclones. The resulting climatological anomaly is a warming of about 0.1°C in the subsurface layer and cooling below the thermocline (less than 0.1°C).


The main topic of this paper is to present the scale and nature of congress tourism in Cracow in the years 2008 and 2009. Methodology: The empirical material for the analysis was the result of the research prepared and conducted in Cracow in 2009 by the researchers of the Tourism Department of the Cracow University of Economics. The questionnaire was addressed to owners of venues possessing the necessary infrastructure for business meetings in Cracow. The rate of return was 50.42%. Main contributions: The paper consists of two parts: the introduction, where theoretical issues are explained, the essence of congress tourism is presented and the location of congresses in the world is specified. The second part is of an empirical nature, in which the research results are presented. The analysis concerns a number of congresses in Cracow, the amount of their participants, the structure of the venues hosting congresses and the structure of revenues generated by congress tourism, as well as an institutional profile of clients ordering congresses in Cracow. Conclusions: The results obtained allow us to conclude that congresses in Cracow in the years 2008 2009 gathered 5% of all MICE tourism participants. Moreover, according to an opinion expressed by experts from the business tourism sector, the role of congress tourism is going to increase in the future.


Two different types cordierite/silicon carbide composite ceramic materials (KS 50 and KZ 50) were used for this investigation. Both materials were exposed to the water quench test from 950°C, applying various numbers of thermal cycles. When refractory samples are subjected to the rapid temperature changes crack nucleation and propagation occurs resulting in loss of strength and materials degradation. The formation of cracks decreases the density and elastic properties of material. Therefore, measuring these properties can directly monitor the development of thermal shock damage level. Dynamic Young modulus of elasticity and strength degradation were calculated using measured values of ultrasonic velocities obtained by ultrasonic measurements. Level of degradation of the samples was monitored before and during testing using Image Pro Plus program for image analysis. The capability of ultrasonic velocity technique and image analysis for simple and reliable nondestructive methods of characterization was presented in this investigation. It was found that both composite materials exhibit good thermal shock resistance.


The history of roving vehicles on other extraterrestrial bodies has become the breakthrough of space exploration. Mastering the challenges imposed by past missions requires vigorous technology developments carried out in terrestrial laboratories, where planetary mobile systems are fundamentally developed to acquire in-situ terrain recognition, measurements, and perform diverse operations autonomously in open extreme environments. In cooperation with different institutes of Lower Saxony, TU Braunschweig is engaged in developing engineering and scientific research of planetary rovers. This paper summarizes the project goals and latest activities, including the in-house production and characterization of lunar regolith simulant for mare and highland regions of the Moon. The conception of new printing techniques for lunar prototyping and In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) are presented, along a demonstrator mission that aims to validate in-situ manufacturing of regolith supported with robotic equipment. Rover wheels and a chassis suspension are developed to guarantee improved locomotion and mechanical stability. They will be verified and validated by means of a single wheel testbed to enhance novel design and development of exploration systems.


INTRODUCTION
Resistance to Acinetobacter baumannii is dramatically on the rise in Iran. Therefore, it is important to study resistance pattern among Acinetobacter isolates which is a common cause of nosocomial infections.

AIM
To investigate antibiotic resistance patterns and the role of resistant genes and biofilm formation in the induction of resistance among Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from burn wound and ventilator associated pneumonia infections.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Total 103 isolates such as 33 burn samples from Rasool Akram Hospital and 70 isolates from ventilated patients in Shahid Motahhari Hospital were identified with A. baumannii using biochemical method, and then identified to species level with PCR of gyrB and blaOXA-51 gene. Antibiotic sensitivity pattern for β-lactam and carbapenem antibiotics was assessed using Agar disc diffusion test and E-test. The presence of different carbapenemase and metalo-β-lactamase (blaOXA-51-like, gyrB, blaOXA-23-like, blaOXA-24-like, blaOXA-58, blaVEB, blaPER, blaGIM, blaSIM, blaIMP, blaVIM), extended-spectrum β-lactamases (blaTEM, blaSHV) and two insertion sequences genes (ISaba1, IS1113) was assessed. Biofilm formation of all isolates was then assessed. Chi-square analysis or Fisher's-exact tests were used for statistical analysis. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS
Colistin was the most effective antimicrobial agents, although 10.7% (11/103) of the isolates were resistant. The high rate of resistance to meropenem (93.2%) and imipenem (90.3%) was determined. Also, with exception of ampicillin-sulbactam, surprisingly the resistant rate was 28.2%, the resistance to β-lactam antibiotic was dramatically increased. Co-existence of two and three blaOXA genes was also determined. The blaOXA-58 was detected in only one isolate. The blaTEM and blaOXA-23 was the most prevalent Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamases (ESBL) gene. All isolates were biofilm producers.

CONCLUSION
Antibiotic resistance is increasing among A. baumannii isolates which is due to excessive use of antibiotics and also acquired resistant genes and biofilm production. Resistance to nearly all antimicrobial agents especially colistin as end choice for treatment of multiple drug resistance A. baumannii is a big concern.


While political speech - speech intended to influence political decisions - is afforded the highest protection under the First Amendment, adjudicative speech - speech intended to influence court decisions - is regularly and systematically constrained by rules of evidence, canons of professional ethics, judicial gag orders, and similar devices. Yet court decisions can be as important, both to the litigants and to society at large, as political decisions. How then can our practice of severely constraining adjudicative speech be justified as consistent with First Amendment principles? This Article attempts to answer that question in a way that is informative about both the adjudicative process and the nature of free speech under the First Amendment. I first explore, and reject, a number of possible theoretical justifications for the relative lack of protection afforded adjudicative speech. I then offer a more satisfactory explanation that relies in part on the connection between participation and political legitimacy. Restrictions on adjudicative speech, I argue, are necessary to preserve the opportunity for all litigants to fully and fairly participate in the decisionmaking process, and to maintain judicial subservience to general policies generated by processes (legislation, constitutional lawmaking, the common law) that are more politically legitimate than ad hoc judicial policymaking. I then apply this justification of adjudicative speech restrictions to several recent controversies involving adjudicative speech. I contend that Legal Services Corp. v. Velazquez, in which the Supreme Court invalidated a congressional ban on the use of Legal Services Corporation funds to challenge state welfare laws, was correctly decided; that court rules prohibiting the citation of unpublished opinions are unconstitutional; and that the Court was wrong to strike down Minnesota's regulation of judicial campaign speech in Republican Party v. White. Finally, the Article concludes by suggesting that the constraints regularly imposed on adjudicative speech, designed to preserve the political legitimacy of adjudication, imply the propriety of similar constraints on political speech where necessary to preserve the legitimacy of democratic politics. Thus I suggest that the regulation of campaign funding, mass media, and hate speech might be justifiable as means of promoting full and fair participation in political life.


Market productivity is often greater, and leisure and other household activities more enjoyable, when people perform them simultaneously. Beyond pointing out the positive externalities of synchronicity, economists have not attempted to identify exogenous causes that affect timing. We develop a theory illustrating conditions under which synchronicity will vary and identify three factors – the amount of daylight, the timing of television programming, and the benefits of coordinating work schedules across a large country – that can alter timing. Using the American Time Use Survey for 2003 and 2004, we first show using a natural experiment that abstracts from the impacts of daylight hours and television timing that an exogenous shock to time in one area leads its residents to alter their work schedules to coordinate more closely with people elsewhere. We then show that both television timing and the benefits of coordinating across time zones in the U.S. generally affect the timing of market work and sleep, the two most time-consuming activities people undertake. These impacts do not, however, differ greatly by people's demographic characteristics, suggesting that longitude and television establish social norms that affect everyone.


While researchers, institutional leaders, and policymakers have made significant progress towards increasing undergraduate student diversity in the United States, diversity in graduate education has been less often studied and a more challenging goal on which to make progress. This qualitative study explores the roles and work of graduate diversity officers (GDOs) in student recruitment activities with a focus on how race and issues of diversity manifest and influence this process. Interviews with fourteen GDOs at 11 different research universities in the United States highlight the phases in the graduate recruitment process, the manner in which diversity is considered at each stage, and GDOs' perceptions of their ability to shape this process. Findings suggest that GDOs are important institutional agents in diversification efforts; however, faculty engagement and broad institutional commitment are required to increase diversity in graduate education due to GDOs' often limited involvement in the admissions stage of the recruitment process, where race becomes the most salient in decision making.


This essay shall take a critical look at Philippine colonial history and will focus on the intellectual class as an elite group commanding social, economic, and political resources. By utilizing these, intellectuals as a group, were able to forge a Philippine society according to their conceptions, views, and beliefs of what such a society "ought" to be. Nation-building, tied to resource-access, combine what Shils refers to as the inevitable "vocation" of the intellectuals. Another central idea in this paper is that of Filipino nationalism and the role of Philippine intellectuals as nationalists. Because of the inherent and fundamental contradictions plaguing the lives of Filipino intellectuals - as initiators of protests against foreign dominance and as agitators for national independence, yet being products of the intellectual and cultural traditions and institutions of their foreign aggressors - throughout the modern history of their country they have often exhibited ambivalent, schizophrenic, and , rather confused understanding of nationalism. From protest, agitation, and pressure to cooperation, accommodation, and compromise, Filipino nationalist-intellectuals have articulated their beliefs, values, and conceptions about Filipino society which are consistent with the underlying European ideals of liberalism. Hence, the history of nationalist struggles in the modern period reveal intellectual sponsorship from the West. This paper discusses a historical perspective of the Filipino intelligentsia and Philippine nationalism.


Current knowledge about the services and supports needed to help individuals and families exit homelessness and maintain housing is incomplete. To date, there is limited research documenting which services are most effective, the best models of delivery, and recommended intensity and duration. The special issue of the Open Health Services and Policy Journal on The Future of Homeless Services seeks to advance the knowledge base underpinning the effective delivery of services and supports to help people exit homelessness. This article provides an overview of the eight articles that comprise the special issue. The special issue reviews the literature on homeless services in key areas as a step toward establishing the evidence base for best practices, outlining service strategies, and offering recommendations for future research.


The recent advent of methods for high-throughput single-cell molecular profiling has catalyzed a growing sense in the scientific community that the time is ripe to complete the 150-year-old effort to identify all cell types in the human body, by undertaking a Human Cell Atlas Project as an international collaborative effort. The aim would be to define all human cell types in terms of distinctive molecular profiles (e.g., gene expression) and connect this information with classical cellular descriptions (e.g., location and morphology). A comprehensive reference map of the molecular state of cells in healthy human tissues would propel the systematic study of physiological states, developmental trajectories, regulatory circuitry and interactions of cells, as well as provide a framework for understanding cellular dysregulation in human disease. Here we describe the idea, its potential utility, early proofs-of-concept, and some design considerations for the Human Cell Atlas.


Over 11 million undocumented persons reside in the United States, and there has been a heated debate over the impact of legislative or executive efforts to regularize the status of this population. This paper examines the determinants of earnings for undocumented workers. Using newly developed methods that impute undocumented status for foreign-born persons sampled in microdata surveys, the study documents a number of findings. First, the age-earnings profile of undocumented workers lies far below that of legal immigrants and of native workers, and is almost perfectly flat during the prime working years. Second, the unadjusted gap in the log hourly wage between undocumented workers and natives is very large (around 40 percent), but half of this gap disappears once the calculation adjusts for differences in observable socioeconomic characteristics, particularly educational attainment. Finally, the adjusted wage of undocumented workers rose rapidly in the past decade. As a result, there was a large decline in the wage penalty associated with undocumented status. The relatively small magnitude of the current wage penalty suggests that a regularization program may only have a modest impact on the wage of undocumented workers.


Much attention is currently devoted at upgrading our knowledge on biodiversity and functioning of deep water ecosystems. Information is constantly enriched by researchers, even from basins as the long-studied Mediterranean Sea. In such a perspective, we studied meiobenthic and nematode communities inhabiting muddy sediments from three different habitats at bathyal depths in the Strait of Sicily: a cold-water coral site (CS) in the Maltese Coral Province, a muddy bottom in the same area (MS), and a hydrocarbon imprinted pockmark site (PS) in the Gela Basin. The average meiofauna density at CS (1343 ind/10 cm 2 ) and MS (1804 ind/10 cm 2 ) is much higher than that reported in literature for similar habitats; it is also markedly more elevated than that recorded at PS (224 ind/10 cm 2 ). Although nematodes of the three sites show different abundances, they share similar assemblage structure. Nematodes (avg. 86%) and copepods (avg. 9.3%) were the most abundant meiofaunal taxa at all sites followed by annelids, kinorhynchs and turbellarians. Nematodes were composed by 21 families and 46 genera, with Terschellingia , as most abundant genus (12.4%), followed by Microlaimus (11%), Daptonema (11%), Thalassomonhystera (10.8%), Acantholaimus (9.5%) and Sabatieria (8.7%). The genera Thalassomonhystera , Terschellingia, Microlaimus , Daptonema , Chromadorita , Sabatieria , and Anticoma display a dominance in at least one station. The taxonomic structure of meiofaunal communities of the studied sites is rather similar but differences in relative abundance are evident.


Background: Nursing homes are core clinical placement arenas in nursing education. For a range of reasons, however, they are marginally staffed and face recruiting challenges. These issues threaten the educational quality of the nursing students' clinical placement, and these settings may thus be characterised as a marginal nursing home learning environment. In clinical placements, observing nursing care quality might be critical for nursing students' learning opportunities and for their motivation to pursue a nursing career. Thus, addressing clinical placement challenges in a marginal nursing home learning environment is of crucial importance to secure educational quality, future recruitment and quality in nursing care. Aim: To explore and describe final-year nursing students' situated learning experiences in a marginal nursing home learning environment. Methods: An exploratory-descriptive qualitative design (EDQ) using individual interviews for data collection. Eight third-year nursing students were individually interviewed by two researchers following their clinical placement in a marginal nursing home. Data were analysed using a thematic data analysis approach. Results: Four main themes emerged from the data analysis: the importance of being invited into the working community; the importance of being offered predictability in situated learning; the importance of being involved in professional dialogues; and the importance of being assigned co-responsibility combined with supportive mentoring. Conclusion: Findings reveal that having their clinical placement in a marginal nursing home learning environment offered students a range of learning and mentoring opportunities as well as mixed experiences and some challenges. Implications for practice and education: The marginal nursing home context as a learning environment challenges both the clinical and academic institutions to improve their professional collaboration. At a policy level, standards need to be set for both educational and nursing care quality in nursing homes.


The first decades of the twentieth century brought enormous change in Britain. Men's and women's roles came under scrutiny, class and social structures were transformed. This book casts new light on the notorious Bloomsbury Group and how the issues of their day influenced their interpretation and decoration of the home. Christopher Reed analyses the rooms designed by Bloomsbury artists as spaces in which to be modern. The book traces the development of Bloomsbury's domestic aesthetic from the group's influential promulgation of Post-Impressionism in Britain around 1910 through the 1930s. In detailed studies of rooms and environments created by Virginia Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Roger Fry, Reed challenges the accepted notion that these artists drifted away from modernism. He presents their work as an alternative form of modernism, later suppressed by sexist and homophobic attitudes that disparaged the decorative arts and domesticity in general, as well as Bloomsbury in particular. The aesthetic and ideological implications of the Bloomsbury interiors were international in scope, Reed argues, and these domestic designs served as an important marker along the route to modernity.


The major objective of this paper is to show that migrants are positively selected whether they are driven by economic factors or by non-economic factors, and whether they are motivated by pull factors or push factors. Using "five-year migration data" from the 1981 to 2001 censuses of Canada, we find that the education gradient of out-migration is apparent in every region, with the highly educated being more mobile than the less educated. However, the pattern is most pronounced in the Atlantic region, Quebec, and Manitoba/Saskatchewan, the regions experiencing poorer economic conditions and persistent net losses through migration. The three high-income provinces, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia not only experience lower overall net losses, but are also less likely to lose their better educated persons—even during bad economic times. Quebec emerges as a special case where economic as well as linguistic-political factors play an important role in governing the out-migration patterns of the better educated, particularly those belonging to the non-Francophone group.


Samples of moa eggshell fragments from eight sites throughout New Zealand were measured to investigate the usefulness of the graphed distribution of eggshell-thicknesses in reflecting the moa fauna of the site. Assuming larger moa species laid eggs with thicker eggshells, a frequency histogram of eggshell thicknesses for each site seems to mirror what is known (from bones) of the incidence and relative abundance of large and small moa species at the site. This is particularly so for North Island sites which had lower moa diversity than South Island sites. At North Cape and Tokerau Beach abundant thin eggshell (mode at 0.90-0.94 mm) was probably produced by Euryapteryx "curtus-gravis" and Pachyornis geranoides, and rarer thick eggshell (mostly 1.2-1.7 mm) by Dinornis novaezealandiae. At both Puketitiri and Castle Point there were broadly unimodal distributions of thin to medium-thickness eggshell, with thick eggshell almost absent. At Puketitiri the eggshell is assumed to be mainly from Anomalopteryx didiformis, and the slightly smaller P. geranoides, and averages thicker with a broader range than at Castle Point where the assumed identity of the eggshell lies with two small species (P. geranoides and Eu. "curtus-gravis"). At the four South Island sites the correlation to species is less clear. The modal thicknesses at Wairau Bar, Oamaru, Chatto Creek and Shag River are all in the range 1.15-1.44 mm and probably largely attributable to Eu. "curtus-gravis" which has a large form in the South Island and dominates the bones at all four sites. However, several other moas could have contributed the thinnest and thickest eggshells in most of the South Island samples. Archaeological sites had similar large ranges of eggshell-thickness to natural sites, suggesting that Maoris collected moa eggs from all available species and not just the largest ones. The study demonstrates the usefulness of eggshell-thickness histograms at particular sites as an adjunct to, or surrogate for, information on the relative abundance of moa bones, especially for North Island sites.


Scaling-up investment in energy efficiency is essential to achieving a sustainable energy future. Despite energy efficiency's recognised advantages as a bankable investment with immense climate change mitigation benefits, most of the energy efficiency potential remains untapped and the investment gap to achieve climate goals is tremendous. This report seeks to improve understanding as to why this is so, and what can be done about it.


The paper presents the results of a trilateral research project carried out jointly by German, Israeli, and Palestinian institutions. The overall objective of the project was to develop and adapt models and tools for resource-preserving transport planning in the West Bank and the adjacent areas. Because of its high dynamics and the particular political circumstances, broader socio-economic and political considerations needed to be included in the analysis of present conditions and the exploration of future developments in this area. Compared to other countries, transport planning in Palestine is much more linked to sensitive issues such as security, Israeli settlements, bypass roads and checkpoints, which cannot always be separated in a clean way. To evaluate different policy options for transport planning, a modelling system has been developed consisting of a GIS database, integrated transport and environmental models and network extensions tools. The paper presents the integrated database and the modelling system developed, describes the scenarios implemented and compares the outcomes of the model runs with respect to their environmental and social impacts.


Automatic algorithm configurators are important practical tools for improving program performance measures, such as solution time or prediction accuracy. Local search approaches in particular have proven very effective for tuning algorithms. In sequential local search, the use of predictive models has proven beneficial for obtaining good tuning results. We study the use of non-parametric models in the context of population-based algorithm configurators. We introduce a new model designed specifically for the task of predicting high-performance regions in the parameter space. Moreover, we introduce the ideas of genetic engineering of offspring as well as sexual selection of parents. Numerical results show that model-based genetic algorithms significantly improve our ability to effectively configure algorithms automatically.


The aim of this work was to develop a model suited for detailed studies of aerosol dynamics, gas and particle phase chemistry within urban plumes, from local scale (1× 1 km2) to regional scale. This article describes and evaluates the trajectory model for Aerosol Dynamics, gas and particle phase CHEMistry and radiative transfer (ADCHEM). The model treats both vertical and horizontal dispersion perpendicular to an air mass trajectory (2-space dimensions). The Lagrangian approach enables a more detailed representation of the aerosol dynamics, gas and particle phase chemistry and a finer spatial and temporal resolution compared to that of available regional 3D-CTMs. These features make it among others well suited for urban plume studies. The aerosol dynamics model includes Brownian coagulation, dry deposition, wet deposition, in-cloud processing, condensation, evaporation, primary particle emissions and homogeneous nucleation. The organic mass partitioning was either modeled with a 2-dimensional volatility basis set (2D-VBS) or with the traditional two-product model approach. In ADCHEM these models consider the diffusion limited and particle size dependent condensation and evaporation of 110 and 40 different organic compounds respectively. The gas phase chemistry model calculates the gas phase concentrations of 61 different species, using 130 different chemical reactions. Daily isoprene and monoterpene emissions from European forests were simulated separately with the vegetation model LPJ-GUESS, and included as inCorrespondence to: P. Roldin (firstname.lastname@example.com) put to ADCHEM. ADCHEM was used to simulate the ageing of the urban plumes from the city of Malm̈ o in southern Sweden (280 000 inhabitants). Several sensitivity tests were performed concerning the number of size bins, size structure method, aerosol dynamic processes, vertical and horizontal mixing, coupled or uncoupled condensation and the secondary organic aerosol formation. The simulations show that the full-stationary size structure gives accurate results with little numerical diffusion when more than 50 size bins are used between 1.5 and 2500 nm, while the movingcenter method is preferable when only a few size bins are selected. The particle number size distribution in the center of the urban plume from Malm̈o was mainly affected by dry deposition, coagulation and vertical dilution. The modeled PM2.5 mass was dominated by organic material, nitrate, sulfate and ammonium. If the condensation of HNO 3 and NH3 was treated as a coupled process (pH independent) the model gave lower nitrate PM2.5 mass than if considering uncoupled condensation. Although the time of ageing from that SOA precursors are emitted until condensable products are formed is substantially different with the 2D-VBS and two product model, the models gave similar total organic mass concentrations.


Observations of chlorophyll a concentration and phytoplankton assemblage were conducted during the summer of 1990 on 19 stations along two parallel transects across the Kuroshio Current front off the northeastern coast of Taiwan. The 0-100m seawater chlorophyll a content varied between 8.63 and 41.80mg•m^(-2) in August and between 8.88 and 94.70 mg•m^(-2) in September. High nitrate content, low temperature, high salinity and high chlorophyll a concentrations were observed at the stations along the front. The vertical distribution of chlorophyll a was characterized by a shallower subsurface maximum of between 0 and 25m in the station associated with the upwelling, while those of the non-upwelling stations were between 50-75m. Diatoms, Skeletonema costatum in August and Thalassionema nitzschioids in September, dominated the upwelled surface water because significant amounts of nutrients are supplied to surface of near-surface waters.


Background: When COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic, many countries imposed severe lockdowns that changed families' routines and negatively impacted on parents' and children's mental health. Several studies on families with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) revealed that lockdown increased the difficulties faced by individuals with ASD, as well as parental distress. No studies have analyzed the interplay between parental distress, children's emotional responses, and adaptive behaviors in children with ASD considering the period of the mandatory lockdown. Furthermore, we compared families with children on the spectrum and families with typically developing (TD) children in terms of their distress, children's emotional responses, and behavioral adaptation. Methods: In this study, 120 parents of children aged 5–10 years (53 with ASD) participated. Results: In the four tested models, children's positive and negative emotional responses mediated the impact of parental distress on children's playing activities. In the ASD group, parents reported that their children expressed more positive emotions, but fewer playing activities, than TD children. Families with children on the spectrum reported greater behavioral problems during the lockdown and more parental distress. Conclusions: Our findings inform the interventions designed for parents to reduce distress and to develop coping strategies to better manage the caregiver–child relationship.


The hope and promise of co-operative marketing were to return all profits fairly to the producers and to control the price of dairy products through collective market power. Soon the South Coast and West Camden Co-op opened its own selling floors in Sussex Street, Sydney. Illawarra and Shoalhaven farmers immediately withdrew their consignments from 'the system' and sent their produce instead to the fledgling co-operative. On Mondays and Thursdays steamers arrived from Wollongong, Kiama and Shoalhaven. Carrier after carrier had to be engaged to convey the butter, bacon and cheese sent from the South Coast to the Co-op's floor while many agents had nothing else to do but stand outside their doors and watch their business disappear, their carts returned empty from the wharf. The Co-op finished business on the evening of its opening day with all its consignments sold at a very good price. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Law Publication Details Mike Donaldson and Nick Southall, Illawarra Co-operatives: The First One Hundred Years, Flame Tree Community Food Co-op, Thirroul, 2014 , 40p. This book is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/2999 Illawarra
  Co-‐operatives The
  First
  One
  Hundred
  Years


OBJECTIVE
To examine and describe coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality and its pattern of change (trend) by sex, age, and area of residence (urban versus rural) in Tianjin, China, within the context of epidemiological transition, and compare it with current trends in the Americas and Europe.

METHODS
A total of 104 393 cases of CHD death in Tianjin occurring between 1999 and 2008 were monitored. Death due to CHD was coded using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) standards (ninth and tenth revisions). Standardized CHD mortality rates and their trends were analyzed by age, sex, and urban versus rural residence.

RESULTS
During the 10-year study period, the proportion of total deaths due to CHD in Tianjin increased significantly (from 16% to 24%) and age-standardized CHD mortality increased slightly (with no statistical differences), in contrast to CHD mortality trends in various countries in the Americas and Europe, which are declining. No difference was found in Tianjin's CHD mortality trend by sex. Overall CHD mortality was consistently higher among older age groups, males, and residents of urban areas. The proportion of CHD deaths occurring outside hospitals was 55.81%, with a declining trend over the study period. Rural areas had a higher proportion of outside-hospital CHD mortality than urban areas, but no difference was found across age groups.

CONCLUSIONS
From 1999 to 2008, CHD mortality in Tianjin varied by sex, age, and urban versus rural area of residence. Future research to identify CHD risk factors and the populations most vulnerable to the disease is recommended to help strengthen CHD prevention. Strategies for CHD control similar to those used in various developed countries in the Americas and Europe should be developed to reduce the CHD burden in China.


A practical guide to fashion illustration that includes all the key drawing techniques. Aimed at both professionals and fashion lovers, the book also explains how to represent the main textures, shapes and aesthetics of contemporary fashion in many different forms of media. Illustrated throughout with inspirational fashion sketches, period and modern.


We use the synthetic control method to analyze the effect of face masks on the spread of Covid-19 in Germany. Our identification approach exploits regional variation in the point in time when face masks became compulsory. Depending on the region we analyse, we find that face masks reduced the cumulative number of registered Covid-19 cases between 2.3% and 13% over a period of 10 days after they became compulsory. Assessing the credibility of the various estimates, we conclude that face masks reduce the daily growth rate of reported infections by around 40%.