OBJECTIVES
Application of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation over acupuncture points (Acu-TENS) is a noninvasive intervention that has recently been shown to alleviate dyspnea in patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This case report aims to explore the role of Acu-TENS in patients diagnosed with COPD during the acute exacerbation.

STUDY DESIGN
The study design was a case report.

SETTING
The study was conducted in an inpatient setting.

SUBJECT
The subject was a 74-year-old man admitted to the hospital due to acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD).

INTERVENTION
Treatment consisted of application of TENS on EX-B1 (Dingchuan) for 45 minutes.

OUTCOME MEASURES
Oxygen saturation, heart rate, and dyspnea score were measured before, immediately after, and 45 minutes after Acu-TENS intervention. Other than the physiologic measures, 10 mL of venous blood was taken from the cubital vein for assessment of β-endorphin level, white blood cell count, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and C-reactive protein (CRP) level before and immediately postintervention.

RESULTS
Postintervention, improved oxygen saturation, and reduction in heart rate and dyspneic sensation were observed accompanied by a raised blood β-endorphin level but the level of white blood cell count, TNF-α, and CRP remain unchanged.

CONCLUSIONS
Application of 45 minutes Acu-TENS appeared to alleviate symptoms in a patient with AECOPD. The role of adjunctive Acu-TENS therapy during acute exacerbation warrants further investigation.


A mythology is associated with the death penalty in this country - and also with death row. It is a mythology rooted in the depravity of the offenses committed by these inmates, and our mixed fascination and revulsion toward those who have perpetrated such misdeeds. It is a mythology enhanced by expectations of the certain malevolence of persons under a sentence of death. American correctional policy towards death-sentenced inmates, however, is ostensibly guided by science, sound data, and "legitimate peneological interest" - not mythology. A segregated death-row is a near ubiquitous characteristic of this correctional policy. Central to the death row segregation rationale are assumptions that the nature of their capital offenses renders death-sentenced inmates at much greater risk to assault and injure correctional personnel and other inmates in prison, and that this risk is amplified by their having "nothing to lose." Accordingly, death sentenced inmates have been widely viewed as requiring extraordinary security procedures - procedures that result in far more draconian living conditions. Most death rows in the United States keep the inmate in an individual cell for 22 or 23 hours out of each day; restrict access to books, visits, telephone, and programs; limit showers and exercise; and require that any movement include shackling, often both on the ankles and at the waist. Astoundingly, the risk-driven assumptions undergirding segregated death rows and their associated intensive security procedures have not been based on demonstrated necessity. Whether death row reflects a legitimate penological interest in risk management, or embodies a conventional but erroneous wisdom rooted in the mythology of these prisoners and the ritual of the death row units that contain them, was without illumination. That darkness no longer exists. After over a decade of disciplinary data had been collected by the Missouri Department of Corrections, Cunningham, Reidy, and Sorensen undertook a comparative examination of the prevalence and frequency rates of violent institutional misconduct among the death-sentenced, life-without-parole, and term sentenced inmates who had been confined in PCC between 1991-2002. This analysis demonstrated that, far from being a disproportionate menace to institutional order, death-sentenced inmates had rates of violent institutional misconduct that were equivalent to inmates sentenced to life-without-parole, and were only a fraction of the rate of violence of parole-eligible prisoners. The risk-driven assumptions of death row were resoundingly debunked, leaving only mythology as a correctional rationale.


This paper revisits the effects of a country`s institutional framework on individual firms` behavior, in particular focusing on their propensity to comply with legal rules. The theoretical model presented here suggests that these effects may be of paramount significance contrary to the recently popularized paradigm arguing that differences across countries have ceased to matter much. This paper`s empirical strategy consists of explaining the variation in measures of non-compliance with legal rules and employs a rich dataset based on thousands of firms from dozens of countries. We find that most of the variation emanates from country-wide differences in institutional quality, although some firm characteristics play a role as well. Our conclusion is that countries still matter in providing institutional infrastructure, which determines to a large extent the context within which firms operate.


This study proposes a managerial accounting research design that bridges a gap between firm productivity based on frontier techniques and strategic management. In doing so, it operationalizes the theoretical frameworks based on the endogenous components of across-firms heterogeneous resources and routines, which are fundamental for firm performance. The design focuses on industry-level benchmarking to analyze changes in performance and organizational knowledge investments, and proposes some indicators for firm-level strategic benchmarking. An analysis of a 12-year panel of the U.S. technology hardware and equipment industry illustrates the usefulness of the proposals. Findings reveal wider gaps between better and worse performers following economic distress. Increasing intangibles stocks is positively associated with changes in frontier benchmarking, while enhancing R&D spending is linked to frontier shifts. The discussion develops managerial interpretations suitable for control and reward systems.


In this study, we gauge the impact of social interactions on individual retirement preferences. A survey including self-assessments and vignette questions shows that individual preferences are affected by preferences and actual retirement behavior of the social environment. Retirement from paid work depends on the retirement age of relatives, friends, colleagues and acquaintances. Information and advice provided by the social environment play a role in the retirement decision. A majority of respondents would postpone retirement when their social environment retires later. A one year increase in the social environment's retirement age leads to an average increase of three months in the individual retirement age. In addition, people tend to stick more to the state pension age than to other retirement ages, which suggests a norm about retirement at the state pension age.


ABSTRACT The gap between treatment utilization and treatment need for substance use disorders (SUDs) remains a significant concern in our field. While the growing call to bridge this gap often takes the form of more treatment services and/or better integration of existing services, this perspective proposes that more effective labels for and transparent descriptions of existing services would also have a meaningful impact. Adopting the perspective of a consumer-based health-care model (wherein treatments and services are products and patients are consumers) allows us to consider how labels like Addiction-focused Medical Management, Medication-Assisted Treatment, Medication-Assisted Therapy, and others may actually be contributing to the underutilization problem rather than alleviating it. In this perspective, "Medication-Assisted Therapy" for opioid-use disorder (OUD) is singled out and discussed as inherently confusing, providing the message that pharmacotherapy for this disorder is a secondary treatment to other services which are generally regarded, in practice, as ancillary. That this mixed message is occurring amidst a nationwide "opioid epidemic" is a potential cause for concern and may actually serve to reinforce the longstanding, documented stigma against OUD pharmacotherapy. We recommend that referring to pharmacotherapy for SUD as simply "medication," as we do for other chronic medical disorders, will bring both clarity and precision to this effective treatment approach.


Sanford and Fawcett (1980) developed an approach for increasing informed public opinion called consequence analysis, in which more thoughtful, better informed opinions appeared to result from a procedure in which respondents were asked to consider, elaborate, and evaluate the multiple consequences of a public policy decision. In this partial replication, 43 persons responded to an internet-based instrument that tested the effects of an online consequence analysis procedure. The results indicated that the procedure produced significant changes in stated opinions in the direction of opinions more consistent with the science of behavior, supporting the initial findings of Sanford and Fawcett, but also that many respondents did not complete the on-line instrument. Implications for further research, and the possible substantial importance of the consequence analysis procedure for expanding "self-reflective society" are explored.


This incisive interpretation of American foreign policy ranks as a classic in American thought. First published in 1959, the book offered an analysis of the wellsprings of American foreign policy that shed light on the tensions of the Cold War and the deeper impulses leading to the American intervention in Vietnam. William Appleman Williams brilliantly explores the ways in which ideology and political economy intertwined over time to propel American expansion and empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The powerful relevance of Williams's interpretation to world politics has only been strengthened by recent events in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. Williams allows us to see that the interests and beliefs that once sent American troops into Texas and California, or Latin America and East Asia, also propelled American forces into Iraq.


Research on North American prairie stream communities has lagged behind other regions. We examined the ecosystem significance of the macroinvertebrate community of riffle/run habitats in Kings Creek, a 2nd-order tallgrass prairie stream at Konza Prairie Biological Station (Kansas, USA), by estimating secondary production, benthic organic matter standing stocks, and resource consumption and egestion by functional groups. Annual mean standing stock macroinvertebrate biomass was 2.3 g ash-free dry mass (AFDM)/m2, annual production was 19.7 g AFDM m-2 y-1, and the annual community production/biomass (P/B) ratio was 8.6. Macroinvertebrate production was higher than published estimates for forested streams of similar size, but much lower than that of a Sonoran desert stream. Distribution of production among functional groups was 30% for collector-gatherers, 9% for collector-filterers, 20% for scrapers, 23% for shredders, and 18% for predators, resembling estimates from some forested streams with the exception of higher scraper production. Although detritivorous groups were productive in this prairie stream, they appeared food limited. Consumption estimates indicated shredders and collector-gatherers annually ingested ∼80% and ∼240% of coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM) and fine particulate organic matter (FPOM) standing stocks, respectively. Thus, re-ingestion and/or diet shifts may be common, particularly among collector-gatherers, and the FPOM pool must turn over rapidly. Invertebrate predators also consumed a sizeable portion (∼52%) of prey, whereas scrapers (∼21%) and filterers (<1%) consumed relatively small portions of their respective resources, suggesting top-down influences on these groups. This study indicates that, during a period of relatively stable flow in this prairie stream, macroinvertebrate production and functional structure were roughly intermediate between North American forested and desert systems. Our results underscore the value of secondary production estimates for examining invertebrate communities in an ecosystem context.


GABA is the primary inhibitory transmitter of the adult hypothalamus, synthesized by many neurons and found in 50% of the presynaptic boutons. GABA causes a decrease in Ca2+ in mature hypothalamic neurons in vitro by depressing cellular activity through opening Cl- channels. Despite the early expression of GABAA receptors in the embryonic hypothalamus (E15), the cellular function of GABA in the developing hypothalamus has received little attention. In the present study the role of GABA in modulating intracellular Ca2+ in developing hypothalamic neurons was studied with fura-2 digital imaging. GABA (0.5- 500 microM) applied to embryonic hypothalamic neurons elicited a dramatic and rapid increase in intracellular Ca2+ This Ca2+ rise could be completely blocked by the GABAA antagonist bicuculline (20 microM) and persisted in the presence of tetrodotoxin (1 microM). The Ca2+ elevation induced by GABA was greater than that of equimolar concentrations of the excitatory transmitter glutamate in early development. The number of E15 neurons that responded to GABA with a Ca2+ rise increased during the first few days of culture, reaching 78% after 4 d in vitro. The Ca2+ rise was 87% blocked by cadmium (100 microM) and 85% blocked by nimodipine (1 microM), indicating that the mechanism of Ca2+ increase was primarily via L-type voltage operated Ca2+ channels. Addition of bicuculline to synaptically coupled cultures caused a significant decrease in Ca2+ 4–10 d after culturing, indicating hypothalamic neurons were secreting GABA at an early age of development, and that sufficient GABA was released to elicit an increase in Ca2+. This effect was seen even after blocking all glutamatergic activity with glutamate receptor antagonists. In contrast, GABA elicited no Ca2+ rise in older neurons (> 18 d in vitro), and the action of bicuculline reversed and caused a large increase in Ca2+ in spontaneously active neurons. Similar findings were obtained in cultures enriched in GABAergic neurons from the suprachiasmatic nucleus. To determine if the Ca2+ stimulating role of GABA on developing neurons was restricted to the hypothalamus and a few other regions, or whether it might exist throughout the brain, we examined the Ca2+ responses in cultured olfactory bulb, cortex, medulla, striatum, thalamus, hippocampus, and colliculus. The majority (75%) of developing neurons from each region showed a Ca2+ rise in response to GABA. Together these data suggest that GABA elevates Ca2+ in developing, but not mature, neurons from the hypothalamus and all other brain regions examined.


The method of covariate adjustment is often used for estimation of total treatment effects from observational studies. Restricting attention to causal linear models, a recent article (Henckel et al., 2019) derived two novel graphical criteria: one to compare the asymptotic variance of linear regression treatment effect estimators that control for certain distinct adjustment sets and another to identify the optimal adjustment set that yields the least squares estimator with the smallest asymptotic variance. In this paper we show that the same graphical criteria can be used in non-parametric causal graphical models when treatment effects are estimated using non-parametrically adjusted estimators of the interventional means. We also provide a new graphical criterion for determining the optimal adjustment set among the minimal adjustment sets and another novel graphical criterion for comparing time dependent adjustment sets. We show that uniformly optimal time dependent adjustment sets do not always exist. For point interventions, we provide a sound and complete graphical criterion for determining when a non-parametric optimally adjusted estimator of an interventional mean, or of a contrast of interventional means, is semiparametric efficient under the non-parametric causal graphical model. In addition, when the criterion is not met, we provide a sound algorithm that checks for possible simplifications of the efficient influence function of the parameter. Finally, we find an interesting connection between identification and efficient covariate adjustment estimation. Specifically, we show that if there exists an identifying formula for an interventional mean that depends only on treatment, outcome and mediators, then the non-parametric optimally adjusted estimator can never be globally efficient under the causal graphical model.


Purpose - This paper investigates the intellectual capital disclosure trends and disclosure category differences of top 20 listed firms in a developing nation, Sri Lanka, and moderately developed nation, Singapore. The aim of this study is to highlight the differences in IC disclosure practice between developing and developed nations. Design/Methodology/Approach - The study investigates the top 20 firms by market capitalization listed on the Colombo stock exchange in 1998 to 2000. Using the content analysis method, it reviews the annual reports of these firms to determine intellectual capital disclosure trends in Sri Lanka. It then compares these findings with a similar unpublished study undertaken in Singapore during the same period (Cheng, Fok & Low, 2002). Findings - The study identified IC disclosure differences between Sri Lankan and Singapore firms, and suggest reasons for differences from country perspectives. The paper highlights the need for a uniform methodology in intellectual disclosure framework to establish consistent disclosure practices. Practical Implications - This study highlights the need to establish a uniform methodology for financial disclosure under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) that can mobilize globally uniform disclosure intellectual capital disclosure practices. Originality/Value - This study offers insights into comparative trends in intellectual capital disclosure practices between a moderately developed and a developing country.


The research interests of the Resources and Environment Area span the basic environmental resources -- water, air, mineral resources, and land. The existing Tasks within the Area concentrate on certain important aspects of these fields. The Task "Environmental Problems of Agriculture," which is associated with the Food and Agriculture Program as well as the Resources and Environment Area, deals with soil and water-related impacts of agriculture.

Agricultural activity requires from one quarter to one third of the ice-free land surface in the world, and has become a major factor influencing natural resources and the environment. The development of agriculture has caused and will continue to cause both beneficial and detrimental environmental consequences, but more often these effects are unfavorable. At IIASA, the environmental impacts of agriculture are studied at different levels of spatial resolution, from the field to the global level. The impacts are also studied from various time perspectives. This paper assesses changes in soil erosion due to agriculture throughout the world. The time span covered stretches from the preagricultural period to the present, and on to the future, when all arable lands might be cultivated.


Soil salinity (high levels of water‐soluble salt) and sodicity (high levels of exchangeable sodium), called collectively salt‐affected soils, affect approximately 932 million ha of land globally. Saline and sodic landscapes are subjected to modified hydrologic processes which can impact upon soil chemistry, carbon and nutrient cycling, and organic matter decomposition. The soil organic carbon (SOC) pool is the largest terrestrial carbon pool, with the level of SOC an important measure of a soil's health. Because the SOC pool is dependent on inputs from vegetation, the effects of salinity and sodicity on plant health adversely impacts upon SOC stocks in salt‐affected areas, generally leading to less SOC. Saline and sodic soils are subjected to a number of opposing processes which affect the soil microbial biomass and microbial activity, changing CO2 fluxes and the nature and delivery of nutrients to vegetation. Sodic soils compound SOC loss by increasing dispersion of aggregates, which increases SOC mineralisation, and increasing bulk density which restricts access to substrate for mineralisation. Saline conditions can increase the decomposability of soil organic matter but also restrict access to substrates due to flocculation of aggregates as a result of high concentrations of soluble salts. Saline and sodic soils usually contain carbonates, which complicates the carbon (C) dynamics. This paper reviews soil processes that commonly occur in saline and sodic soils, and their effect on C stocks and fluxes to identify the key issues involved in the decomposition of soil organic matter and soil aggregation processes which need to be addressed to fully understand C dynamics in salt‐affected soils.


Porous Silicon (PS) layers were prepared by electrochemical etching in a single-tank cell on the surface of single-crystalline p-type (100) silicon wafers, using hydrofluoric acid (HF) and ethanol (C2H5OH) in the volume ratio of 1:2. The surface and cross-section morphologies of the PS were observed from images obtained using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Likewise, the porosity of the PS sample was determined using the parameters obtained from SEM images by geometrical method. SEM images indicated that, the pores were surrounded by a thick columnar network of silicon walls. This porous silicon layer can be considered as a sponge like structure. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern showed the growth of PS layer on silicon wafer and the grain size of the PS layer was found to be around 60.2 nm. The effective refractive index of porous silicon was calculated using Effective Medium Approximation (EMA) analysis. The optical properties of PS were investigated using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Photoluminescence (PL). The surface chemical bonds of the PS were observed by FTIR and the band gap of the PS sample was obtained from PL spectra. The efficiency of ethanol gas sensing properties of PS was investigated at room temperature. The sensor was found to operate with maximum efficiency at a concentration of 100 ppm hence, this PS material can be used as an effective sensor element to detect ethanol vapour. © 2014 Elixir All rights reserved ARTICLE INF O Articl e h istory: Received: 30 August 2013; Received in revised form: 25 July 2014; Accepted: 8 August 2014;


BACKGROUND AND AIM
The literature on cancer patients agrees that most of the cancer patients' needs often remain unmet. How are these different needs perceived by patients, relatives and professionals? The present research has tried to make a contribution by analysing evidences of the needs, especially unmet, that different actors attribute to a cancer patient.

METHOD
A total of 42 Italian participants (76.2% women) took part in the study. Patients, relatives, physicians, nurses, social care assistants and volunteers participated separately in six focus groups. Three face-to-face interviews were conducted with psychologist, general practitioner and social worker. All focus groups/interviews were processed through an analysis of thematic content.

RESULTS
The results showed a priority given to the need for information, and also the importance of psychological and social support needs, confirming that they remain unmet. Differences between participants are visible by looking at the needs cited more frequently. For example, the oncologists are more sensitive to information needs related to the illness and its treatment, while the social worker cited the need for social, economic and legal assistance more frequently. The nurses highlighted the need for continuity of care, and the psychologists underlined the importance of psychological support, while the relatives cited the need of support both from and for families.

CONCLUSIONS
RESULTS suggested that a comprehensive approach that addresses medical and psychosocial factors is needed. Cancer patients must be provided with a multidisciplinary survivorship care plan that addresses information related to their long-term care and identifies available psychological and social services.


Globally, the goal of education in the developing world has moved from "Education for All," which was one of the Millenium Goals of the United Nations, to focus on "Quality Education" as Sustainable Development Goal 4, formulated by the same United Nations. As the number of children going to school all over the world increased and the expected results of the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger materialised, governments and NGOs alike soon realised that the term "education" covers a wide range of activities and ways of schooling, not all of which contribute equally and in all circumstances to the continuing development goals of any particular country or region. Sustainable development can be attained only when individuals and groups have and are able to use the tools and can adapt to local circumstances. Education should provide learners with those tools and only education that does provide them and prepares its learners for their futures can be called "quality education." Rethinking how "education" can be put to use strategically for long term gain therefore assumes the utmost importance, and the focus must then turn to the quality of education. Good and sustainable education is understood to be education that prepares its participants for both social and professional life by equipping them with appropriate knowledge and skills. Hence the title of this volume: Education for Life in Africa.


Widespread, rapid, drought‐, and infestation‐triggered tree mortality is emerging as a phenomenon affecting forests globally and may be linked to increasing temperatures and drought frequency and severity. The ecohydrological consequences of forest die‐off have been little studied and remain highly uncertain. To explore this knowledge gap, we apply the extensive literature on the ecohydrological effects of tree harvest in combination with the limited existing die‐off ecohydrology research to develop new, relevant hypotheses. Tree mortality results in loss of canopy cover, which directly alters evaporation, transpiration, and canopy interception and indirectly alters other watershed hydrologic processes, including infiltration, runoff, groundwater recharge, and streamflow. Both die‐off and harvest research suggest that for most forests, water yield can be expected to increase following substantial loss of tree cover by die‐off. We hypothesize that where annual precipitation exceeds ∼500 mm or water yield is dominated by snowmelt, watersheds will experience significantly decreased evapotranspiration and increased flows if absolute canopy cover loss from die‐off exceeds 20%. However, recent observations suggest that water yield following die‐off can potentially decrease rather than increase in drier forests. To reliably predict die‐off responses, more research is needed to test these hypotheses, including observations of multiple water budget components and the persistence of ecohydrological effects with the post‐die‐off successional dynamics of tree recruitment, understorey growth, and interactions with additional disturbances. With die‐off, mitigation and restoration options are limited and costly, necessitating societal adaptation; therefore, die‐off ecohydrology should be a high priority for future research. Published in 2011. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.


The proliferation of social media has the ability to considerably impact stakeholders' perspective of an organization's brand. Due to this relationship, social media analysis is crucial to executing informed brand communication strategies. In October 2016, the brand communication strategies of the National FFA Organization were focused on promoting the 89th National FFA Convention. A large portion of these efforts and resources were dedicated towards the utilization of social media. This study was designed as a content analysis of the National FFA Organization's social media presence during the dates of the convention. The goal was to identify the prominent themes of communication and the alignment of these themes with the organizational brand. Conversations on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat yielded a total of 344 posts for evaluation. The results indicated the presence of seven predominate themes: recognition, connectivity, appreciation, spirit, service, influence, and support. The researchers suggest opportunities exist for closer alignment between published social media content and the defined organizational and event brands. Specific attention should be placed on event-specific theme promotion. Renewed efforts to increase interactivity will allow for stakeholders to take part in the brand co-building process. It should be ensured that all communications are an accurate reflection of the brand's image, connections, and reputation.


Data mining has informally been introduced as large scale search for interesting patterns in data. It is often an explorative task iteratively performed within the process of knowledge discovery in databases. In this process, interactive visualization techniques are also successfully applied for data exploration. We deal with the synergy of these two complemental approaches. Whereas datamining typically relies on strategies for systematic search in large hypotheses spaces guided by the autonomous evaluation of statistical tests, interactive visualization activates the visual capacities of an analyst to identify patterns that may also stimulate the further direction of the exploration process. We demonstrate some possibilities to combine these approaches for the area of data mining in document collections. Document Explorer is a system that offers various preprocessing tools to prepare collections of text or multimedia documents which are available in distributed environments (e.g. Internet and Intranet) for data mining applications, and includes data mining methods based on searching for patterns like frequent sets or association rules. Keyword graphs are used in this system as an highly interactive technique to present the mining results. The user can operate on the visualized results, either to redirect the data mining process, to filter and structure the results, to link several graphs, or to browse into the document collection. Thus in the keyword graphs, the relations between interesting sets of keywords are presented (the sets may also be regarded as retrieval queries to be posed to the collection) and made operable to the analyst.


Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in programming by demonstration. As end users have become increasingly sophisticated, computer and artificial intelligence technology has also matured, making it feasible for end users to teach long, complex procedures. This paper addresses the problem of learning from demonstrations involving unobservable (e.g., mental) actions. We explore the use of knowledge base inference to complete missing dataflow and investigate the approach in the context of the CALO cognitive personal desktop assistant. We experiment with the Pathfinder utility, which efficiently finds all the relationships between any two objects in the CALO knowledge base. Pathfinder often returns too many paths to present to the user and its default shortest path heuristic sometimes fails to identify the correct path. We develop a set of filtering techniques for narrowing down the results returned by Pathfinder and present experimental results showing that these techniques effectively reduce the alternative paths to a small, meaningful set suitable for presentation to a user.


Rate-pegging has been in place in NSW for more than thirty years with broad support from all sides of politics. However, in late 2008 the NSW Government commissioned IPART to report on the adequacy of rate-pegging. IPART produced a Draft Report and then a Final Report, which has not yet been released by the NSW Government. Nevertheless, the NSW Government has made some changes to local government finance by way of capping developer charges, allowing IPART to make annual rate-pegging determinations, and enabling IPART to consider special variations in rate-pegging. Against this background, this paper considers the principles and practice of rate-pegging in NSW, the rationale for rate-pegging and counter-arguments on its desirability, as well as its economic effects on NSW local government finance relative to other Australian local government jurisdictions.


Orientation: Globally, people engage in work and sell their services to an organisation in exchange for compensation. This compensation can have a significant effect on employees' attitude towards their work, resulting in either job satisfaction or job dissatisfaction. A high level of job satisfaction can increase organisational effectiveness and, subsequently, the organisation's performance, whereas job dissatisfaction can cause employees to be less motivated, which can in turn decrease their productivity, effectiveness and individual performance.Research purpose: This study was conducted with the aim to investigate undergraduate students' perceptions of the factors affecting job satisfaction.Motivation for the study: Currently, there is a paucity of published research on the views of undergraduate students on the factors affecting job satisfaction.Research approach/design and method: The study took a positivistic research approach, and a quantitative design was used. A stratified quota sampling technique was employed to select the respondents for the study; a certain quota was met in terms of race, gender and faculty of study. In total, 270 undergraduate students participated in the study.Main findings: The empirical results indicated no significant association between the demographic variables (previous work experience, gender, race and field of study) and almost all occupational dimensions of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. However, medium to large positive relations were measured between the dimensions of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. It was evident from the study that all the dimensions measured are considered important for obtaining job satisfaction in the workplace.Practical and managerial implications: It is important for managers to get an understanding of the views of young people on work-related issues in order to create an understanding of young people's needs and aspirations, as they are the future permanent labour force, managers and leaders of a country.Contribution/value-add: The study brought to light the views of undergraduate students on the factors affecting job satisfaction.


Effects of close-up dietary energy strategy and prepartal dietary monensin on production and metabolism in Holstein cows The objective of this study was to evaluate the inclusion of 22 g/ton of monensin (M) in a single group diet (controlled energy-high fiber, CE) and a two-group diet (CE during the far-off and a high energy diet during closeup, CU) during the dry period (DP) on production and metabolism in the first 84 days postpartum. The CE diet was formulated for a dietary energy concentration of 1.30 Mcal NEL /kg DM and the CU diet for 1.49 Mcal NEL /kg DM. A total of 102 cows (70 multiparous and 32 primiparous) were assigned randomly to 1 of the 4 treatments in a 2 (CE or CE/CU DP feeding strategy) × 2 (inclusion of 0 or 22 g/ton of M) factorial arrangement. After calving, all cows received a lactation diet formulated for a dietary energy concentration of 1.70 Mcal NEL /kg DM and 14 g/ton of M. Liver samples were obtained of a subset of mature cows at -10 and 7 d relative to calving. Dry matter intake (DMI) was not affected by the inclusion of M or diet fed during the far-off period, but was 1.7 kg greater during the closeup period for cows that were fed the CU diet than cows fed CE (P < 0.001). None of the treatments affected DMI, body weight, or body condition score during the 84 d of lactation. Neither of the feeding strategies affected milk yield, milk component yields, percentage of milk protein, or fat-corrected milk except that percentage of milk fat was higher for CU than for CE (P = 0.03). The inclusion of M increased lactose content (P < 0.01) and yields of lactose (P = 0.03), fat (P = 0.01), total solids (P = 0.03), and FCM (P = 0.01), and tended to increase milk yield (P = 0.06). Fat, protein, and total solids contents were not affected by the inclusion of M. Cows that were fed CE had greater NEFA concentrations prepartum (P < 0.01) but lower NEFA postpartum (P = 0.05). The inclusion of M during the DP did not affect prepartum or postpartum NEFA and BHBA concentrations. Concentrations of total lipid, triglyceride, and glycogen in liver of mature cows were not affected by treatments. . Feeding a diet of higher dietary energy density for 21 d before calving did not benefit production or metabolism. The CU treatment increased milk fat content, but it was probably due to the higher NEFA concentration. The inclusion of M in the DP increased yields of milk fat, lactose, total solids, and FCM.


From the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of World War One, the Swiss economy grew to be among the most advanced in the world. Economists however have not yet completely determined the reasons for Switzerland's economic success. One source of this success may have been the Swiss banking system. This article explores the link between Swiss banks and Swiss economic development using historical analysis and time series econometric techniques. The evidence suggests that Switzerland's banks contributed to Swiss economic success and that Switzerland's universal banks in particular contributed to the country's industrial development.


The violence on child in an intra-familial medium is a reality of current society we are living in. The social impact of domestic violence is extended because it affects not only the victims but also the witness persons knowing about the domestic violence ituations. The protection and promotion frame of children rights can be achieved by implementing parental education programs. In this paper, we reviewed the actual stage of the researchers in Romania on the family violence phenomenon on the child, highlighting the categories of risk factors which influence the phenomenon's dynamics. With regard to these factors, we defined the parental education and we presented the different levels of necessary intervention in the parental education programs.


The embryos of intertidal and estuarine crabs are clustered on the ovigerous seta of the female, where they are ventilated for 2-4 weeks by the female's abdomen. When the embryonic development is complete, hatching occurs and zoea larvae are released into the water. This study indicates that the crab hatch water (i.e., the filtered medium into which zoeas were released) contains at least two kinds of active substance: OHSS (ovigerous-hair stripping substance) and a proteolytic enzyme. Both factors were separated by gel filtration. Powdered fragments of egg capsule were digested by proteinase, suggesting that this enzyme actually acts on the egg capsule. But this activity was at a very low level compared with casein digestion. The proteinase might be digesting the thin, sticky layer enclosing the embryo and would not act on the thick, tough layer constituting the main component of the egg capsule. Therefore, a proteolysis of such low activity could not be expected to cause the egg capsule to rupture.


Drift of pesticides can be a significant health hazard, particularly in areas where agricultural land is adjacent to a school, retirement home, or other populated area. Off-target drift of pesticides depends on many atmospheric variables, both mechanical and thermal. While non-atmospheric variables, such as applicator nozzle size, height of application, and particle size, can be controlled by the applicator to reduce drift potential, understanding how atmospheric conditions set a framework for drift potential enables applicators to choose to spray when the weather conditions would minimize drift. Specifically, atmospheric stability plays an important role in the near-ground concentration of sprays downwind of the spray site; stable conditions confine spray near the surface if the application occurs near the surface. This project investigates the efficacy of using Pasquill stability classes as a simple way to estimate surface boundary layer stability conditions in the field. Wind speed and a qualitative insolation estimate (strong, moderate, or slight) are used to determine the Pasquill stability class. A series of case studies conducted under varying Pasquill stability classes near Winnsboro, Louisiana, provides data to test the efficacy of Pasquill stability classes as drift predictors. Results suggest that the Pasquill stability estimates give applicators a useful method for estimating downwind dispersion and drift under a wide range of atmospheric conditions, thereby improving their ability to make informed decisions to reduce the risk of off-target drift.


We present a common probabilistic framework for kernel or spline smooth- ing methods, including popular architectures such as Gaussian processes and Support Vector machines. We identify the problem of unnormalized loss func- tions and suggest a general technique to overcome this problem at least ap- proximately. We give an intuitive interpretation of the effect an unnormalized loss function can induce, by comparing Support Vector classification (SVC) with Gaussian process classification (GPC) as a nonparametric generalization of logistic regression. This interpretation relates SVC to boosting techniques. We propose a variational Bayesian model selection algorithm for general nor- malized loss functions. This algorithm has a wider applicability than other previously suggested Bayesian techniques and exhibits comparable perfor- mance in cases where both techniques are applicable. We present and discuss results of a substantial number of experiments in which we applied the vari- ational algorithm to common real-world classification tasks and compared it to a range of other known methods. The wider scope of this thesis is to provide a bridge between the fields of probabilistic Bayesian techniques and Statistical Learning Theory, and we present some material of tutorial nature which we hope will be useful to researchers of both fields.


The United States is facing a challenge on repairing aging civil infrastructures because of limited resources allocation. The international roughness index (IRI) is a key quantity of road inspection data to aid officials in prioritizing road maintenance decisions, which allows them to be efficient with their resources. IRI measures both the road roughness and riders' comfort level. This paper introduces a probabilistic method that analyzes probability density function (PDF) of acoustic data collected from a vehicle-mounted microphone to estimate IRI. An analysis of noise source is conducted to support the accuracy of the approach. Compared to existing approaches, the present method is more economical, easier to install, and requires less space. Curves of probability density function (PDF), which show the probability of each sound pressure occurring over a stretch of road, are used to estimate IRI based on the principle that a probability distribution concentrates at low sound pressures over smooth roads and at high sound pressures over rough roads. This method is validated using data collected by a test vehicle that was driven around an engineered test track. Primary conclusions are: (1) the Weibull distribution performs better than normal and lognormal distributions; (2) the optimal Weibull distribution parameter is identified; and (3) the method performs well when applied to different pavement designs, namely, Superpave, Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA), and Open Grade Friction Coarse (OGFC).


Background Disadvantaged older adults living in non-family situations in Toronto are more likely than older adults living in family situations to have less economic security, less social support, and less choice in housing. Older adults who live in poverty and are precariously housed are more likely to be chronically ill, to live with multiple illnesses, to have poor nutrition, high stress and loneliness, all of which are strongly associated with the determinant of health social exclusion. The aim of this study is to: 1) evaluate the level of social disadvantage and exclusion experienced by low-income older adults 65 years of age and older living alone or in non-family situations; 2) assess the level of dependency on government and community services (support services) to maintain a reasonable standard of living (minimize effects of social exclusion); and 3) identify consequences of social exclusion not addressed by current available services. Methods Fifteen male older adult members of the Good Neighbours' Club in downtown Toronto were interviewed. Semi-structured questionnaires assessed barriers to, utility of, and perceived impact of support services available to disadvantaged older adults living in the central core of southeast Toronto. Results Support services for income, housing, food security, social support, and health care do mitigate the effects of social exclusion in the study participants. Data gathered from interviews identified factors that counter the efforts by support services to increase social inclusion in this population. Conclusions Support services reduce social isolation experienced by these older adults. Evidence of the detrimental impact of low financial literacy suggests a need to design and implement training programs to build the older adults' capacity to manage their own finances effectively, and resist falling victim to financial fraud.


Most publications claim that a massive northern hemisphere glaciation started around 3 Ma. In the case of Greenland there are evidences that the large ice sheet existed prior to this period. New seismic data off East Greenland combined with results from ODP legs indicate a pronounced middle miocene unconformity along the entire shelf between 72°N and 80°N. The stratigraphic interpretation does not allow to distinguish between glacial and non-glacial sediments. The change to strongly prograding units represents an important change in glacial dynamics that led to more strongly erosional ice advances. The unconformity might be a consequence of sea level changes, glacial erosion or both.Glacial sequences were analysed along the entire East Greenland margin and show differences between north and south. A strong prograding character of glacial sediments are visible north of the Jan-Mayen Fracture zone. Dominating aggradational sequences south of 72°N let assume the glaciation and glacial erosion was more massive in the north.Results from detailed analyses of glacial sediments along the East Greenland margin will be introduced.


Traditionally farmers use diverse crops, trees and wild plant species, livestock and aquatic species to sustain/enhance their livelihood. The use of diverse species and varieties enhances their adaptability and resilience capacity to changing environmental and economic conditions. Genetic diversity is a key element in farmers' livelihood strategies particularly in areas under high ecological, climatic and economic stresses and risks. Global food security has become increasingly dependent on a limited number of varieties of a few major crops and in the wake of climate change, such a situation makes farmers more vulnerable with regard to their nutrition and income security. This paper aims to discuss the conceptual framework of on-farm/in situ conservation in adapting and mitigating climate change through an integrated system of diversified food production and land use. The role of on-farm/in situ conservation of crops is discussed along with its complementary advantages over ex situ conservation. Empowerment of farming communities is essential for effective in situ/on-farm conservation as the process encourages local level decision making on management of genetic resources. The paper also highlights community-based biodiversity management as a methodology to realize in situ/on-farm conservation through strengthening farmer seed systems, and promoting climate resilient integrated home garden production systems, especially underutilized crop species and carbon rich farming that support climate change actions. Implementation of biodiversity management approaches will require conducive policy environment in order to be truly effective and sustainable. Some relevant recommendations on how to best proceed towards a viable in situ/on - farm conservation system are also proposed.


Accessibility is a very important criterion to make online learning inclusive to students with different abilities. According to Burgstahler, Corrigan and McCarter (2004) unless design of the courses are accessible to all students, including those with disabilities, the ultimate goal of distance learning to make education available to everyone cannot be accomplished. However, accessibility is rarely a priority for online course developers and students with disabilities are not considered as a large group (Treviranus & Roberts, 2006). This exploratory case study investigated the experiences of the students with visual impairment in online learning environments with regards to media used in their courses with the intent of providing suggestions for accessible media design. Media included text, visuals (pictures, diagrams, charts, and graphs), audio, and multimedia (video and animation) used in online learning environments. This study used a purposive sampling technique and participants who are visually impaired, who had an online course experience, and who are older than 18 years old were included in the study. A semi-structured interview protocol was developed and participants were asked about challenges they experienced and what worked well for them in terms of media in online learning environment. Because of the lack of scientific research examining design of online learning for students with visual impairment, this dissertation fills an important research gap and also makes contributions to the field of Instructional Design and Technology by providing students' perspectives and suggestions for accessible design.


Aim: To develop a methodology for producing patient-specific scaffolds that mimic the annulus fibrosus (AF) of the human intervertebral disc by means of combining MRI and 3D bioprinting. Methods: In order to obtain the AF 3D model from patient's volumetric MRI dataset, the RheumaSCORE segmentation software was used. Polycaprolactone scaffolds with three different internal architectures were fabricated by 3D bioprinting, and characterized by microcomputed tomography. Results: The demonstrated methodology of a geometry reconstruction pipeline enabled us to successfully obtain an accurate AF model and 3D print patient-specific scaffolds with different internal architectures. Conclusion: The results guide us toward patient-specific intervertebral disc tissue engineering as demonstrated by a way of manufacturing personalized scaffolds using patient's MRI data.


The continued expansion in population of established cities leads to rural encroachment, this rural encroachment results in a decline in the chief barrier against malodours, that of distance. Associated to the population growth is an increased demand upon primary industries to produce greater quantities of food stuffs to satisfy the consumers. Intensive livestock practices are one of the most effective ways to produce the quantity and consistent quality of livestock produce that is in increasing demand from the general population. However the operation of most intensive livestock operations results in an environmental impact that is often difficult to monitor and assess; that of their odour output. The production of broilers (meat chickens) is one example of intensive livestock practice that is under increasing pressure to minimise the impact that it has upon the surrounding environment with respect to odour production. Understanding the emissions from intensive livestock practices is the only way to develop guidelines for operators in order to minimise or at least understand the emissions of their facilities at different production cycle times. The Australian Poultry Cooperative Research Centre (P-CRC) is funding a significant project that is investigating the odour and dust emissions from typical mechanically (tunnel) ventilated poultry houses; one of the aspects of this project is the analysis of non-methane volatile organic compounds. The NMVOC analysis will be performed by collecting pumped sorbent tubes and subsequent assay using thermal desorption – gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) and also thermal desorption – gas chromatography – mass spectrometry and olfactometry (TD-GC-MS/O.) The simultaneous detection using mass spectrometry and olfactometry allows for the odorants within the matrix to be identified and subsequently prioritised.


This research aims to analyze age-related differences in the psychological impact of the Covid-19 confinement situation in a Spanish sample. A longitudinal study (N= 1,041) was conducted through an online survey with two measurements: at two and five weeks after the declaration of the alarm state in Spain. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depressive symptoms, spiritual well-being and perceived loneliness were evaluated by screening tests. Means and their confidence intervals (95%) were calculated for all variables in the study, for the three age groups: 18-30, 31-59, 60-80. Linear mixed models with random slopes (Time nested to Subjects) were calculated for each variable. The results indicate that the psychological impact caused by the pandemic persists over time, and even increases in some of the variables studied. The older age group (60-80 years) shows the least impact and the greatest well-being. They presented less depressive, anxious and PTSD symptoms and less loneliness. These results may be explained by the greater resilience of this group to recover from adverse situations, in addition to having a greater number of coping strategies.


Unlike its application for atherosclerotic plaque analysis, Raman microspectroscopy was sporadically used to check the sole nature of bioapatite deposits in stenotic aortic valves, neglecting the involvement of accumulated lipids/lipoproteins in the calcific process. Here, Raman microspectroscopy was employed for examination of stenotic aortic valve leaflets to add information on nature and distribution of accumulated lipids and their correlation with mineralization in the light of its potential precocious diagnostic use. Cryosections from surgically explanted stenotic aortic valves (n=4) were studied matching Raman maps against specific histological patterns. Raman maps revealed the presence of phospholipids/triglycerides and cholesterol, which showed spatial overlapping with one another and Raman-identified hydroxyapatite. Moreover, the Raman patterns correlated with those displayed by both von-Kossa-calcium- and Nile-blue-stained serial cryosections. Raman analysis also provided the first identification of carotenoids, which co-localized with the identified lipid moieties. Additional fit concerned the distribution of collagen and elastin. The good correlation of Raman maps with high-affinity staining patterns proved that Raman microspectroscopy is a reliable tool in evaluating calcification degree, alteration/displacement of extracellular matrix components, and accumulation rate of different lipid forms in calcified heart valves. In addition, the novel identification of carotenoids supports the concept that valve stenosis is an atherosclerosis-like valve lesion, consistently with their previous Raman microspectroscopical identification inside atherosclerotic plaques.


An investigation into the use of different amphiphiles and improvements in the analytical frequency of the microemulsification-based method (MEC) are described. The results are important for improving the understanding of the method (recently proposed by our group) and the development of attractive screening analysis platforms. MEC ensures precise determination with the naked eye, providing a powerful alternative to other point-of-use experiments. Herein, the influence of different surfactant-based amphiphiles (AP) on MEC analytical performance was exhaustively evaluated for the first time, including ionic (sodium dodecylsulphate, SDS, and cetyl trimethylammonium bromide, CTAB) and neutral (triton X-100, TX-100, and tergitol NP-9, TNP-9) surfactants. The analytical performance was investigated for each of the APs in three dispersion compositions according to precision, linearity, robustness, and accuracy, which were obtained for the determination of ethanol (% v/v) in water and commercial alcoholic beverages. The data obtained for TNP-9 showed poor robustness as a function of deviations in the oil phase volume and ionic strength. Additionally, CTAB exhibited unsatisfactory robustness as a function of temperature changes. In summary, TX-100 and SDS in regions A and B, and CTAB in region A, gave the best analytical performance in the determination of ethanol in alcoholic beverages. Furthermore, a new experimental mode was developed to increase the capacity of MEC for rapid analysis of various samples. This procedure was based on semi-quantitative analyses using a 96-deep-well plate (DWP) and a multichannel micropipette to prepare the dispersions. This assembly allowed naked-eye screening analysis of up to 12 samples with a resolution of eight concentration ranges in a single run without subjective uncertainties, even after storing the DWP at 4 °C for at least five weeks. This approach has advantages including rapidity, simplicity, portability, and low cost, making it a promising alternative for continuous quality control in many industrial processes.


In this paper, we have considered a recently reported 2-layer non-DHT-based structured P2P network. It is an interest-based system and consists of different clusters such that peers in a given cluster possess instances of a particular resource type. It offers efficient data look-up protocols with low latency. However, the architecture lacks in one very important aspect: it is assumed that no peer in any cluster can have more than one resource type, and this could be a very hard restriction practically. This is true for all interest-based works existing in the literature. Therefore, in the present work, we have addressed this issue of generalizing the architecture to overcome this restriction and so far, have come up with some significant initial results. Work is being on to complete the generalization process. We have identified some of our previously reported data look-up protocols that will need to be modified in order to accommodate the new findings toward the generalization and while doing so, we aim at keeping the data look-up latencies of these probable modified protocols unchanged. In addition, our objective is to consider security in communication in the generalized architecture as well. To achieve it, we aim at using mainly public key-based approach for the different look-up protocols reported earlier, because results obtained so far in this direction indicate that the required number of public-private key pairs will be much smaller than the number of symmetric keys if symmetric key-based approach is used.


Abstract Recent European studies suggest that fathers' leave-taking may contribute to parental relationship stability. Paternity leave-taking may signal a commitment by fathers toward a greater investment in family life, which may reduce the burden on mothers and strengthen parental relationships. This study uses longitudinal data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) to analyze the association between paternity leave-taking and relationship stability in the United States. Results indicate that paternity leave-taking, and taking relatively short leaves (i.e. two weeks or less) in particular, is associated with greater relationship stability. These findings increase our understanding of the potential benefits of paternity leave, and can inform policy decisions that aim to increase family stability.


In India, the legal status of Muslim women within the family is a topic of considerable controversy and debate. It is a complex issue that has implications for matters of not only gender justice, but also religious freedom, minority rights, and state policy regarding the accommodation of difference. Whereas the Constitution of India guarantees equality rights to all women, irrespective of religious affiliation, Muslim personal law, argues Vrinda Narain, explicitly discriminates on the basis of an individual's sex and religion. Narain begins with an analysis of the historical development and contemporary expression of Muslim personal law within a constitutional framework and examines the assertion that women's rights are a divisive force preventing the evolution of larger collective rights. She contends that an interrogation of the dominant religious ideology is necessary to prevent legislation from binding Muslim women to an essentialist notion of identity, thereby denying them the possibility of challenging Muslim tradition. Eloquently written and substantially researched, Gender and Community combines feminist analysis, post-colonial and critical race theory with legal analysis to critically assess issues of gender equality, minority rights and the accommodation of difference. It offers a fresh look at the conceptualization of women as the markers of cultural community in Muslim India and advocates a perspective that seeks to unite the recognition of women's rights with respect for group integrity. These issues are significant not only for Muslim women in India, but also in the broader context of cultural diversity in pluralist democracies and the choices to be made by states in accommodating difference.


The Symposium on Educational Advances in Artificial Intelligence (EAAI-13) seeks to advance the AAAI goal of improving the teaching and training of AI practitioners. The symposium provides a venue for both researchers and educators to discuss pedagogical issues and share resources related to teaching AI and using AI in education across a variety of curricular levels (K-12 through postgraduate training).


Objective
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common parenchymal lung disease. Patients with IPF sometimes develop acute exacerbation (AE), which predicts a poor prognosis. To evaluate the predictors of 90-day mortality of AE in patients with IPF based on the new 2016 criteria.

Materials and Methods
Sixty-five patients with AE were studied retrospectively between January 2001 and December 2016 at Okinawa Chubu Hospital.

Results
The mean age of the patients was 74 years, with 40 (61.5%) men and 25 (38.5%) women. Among our cohort, 37 were current or ex-smokers, with a mean exposure of 32.4 pack-years. The mean grade of the modified Medical Research Council breathlessness scale was 2.8, and the mean duration of dyspnea prior to admission was 6.5 days. Clubbed fingernails were present in 29% of patients. Triggered AE occurred in 12 (18%) of patients. Patients with triggered AE had more extensive ground-glass opacity and higher consolidation scores than the idiopathic AE group (7.3 vs. 4.2, p=0.01). The triggered group had shorter survival than the idiopathic group (1.4 vs. 11.4 months, p=0.094). Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), ΔLDH, and the ratio of partial pressure of oxygen to the fraction of inspiratory oxygen ratio were strong predictors of 90-day mortality. Hazard ratios were 1.003 (p=0.004), 1.004 (p=0.02), and 0.994 (p=0.010), respectively.

Conclusion
Compared with idiopathic AE, triggered AE in patients with IPF had more extensive infiltration and tended toward shorter survival. Serial trends of serum LDH >2 weeks can help predict prognosis of AE in patients with IPF.


Learning and becoming are understood as emergent from participation in practices at the intersection of formal and informal science education. What learners value, engage in, and transform is understood as entangled with who they have been, think they are, and yet aim to become, calling for an intersectional lens to any analysis of learning and identity in science. Who one is and can become in science, given recognition by others as a science person, is political and a product of intersecting patterns of racism and sexism, to name two key dimensions, which are not additive but instead form a symbiotic relationship. Intersectionality foregrounds the structural, political, and representational of an oppressive system at work and is a lens essential to an equity- and social justice–driven conceptualization of science education at the intersection of formal and informal educational venues. Critical transdisciplinarity facilitates the unpacking of what science is and what kind of science a science person engages in, and it can move studies beyond paralyzing ideologies and meritocracies that undermine full participation in science by youth of color, for instance. Engagement with intersectionality, critical transdisciplinarity, and the political can make rightful presence a shared goal to work toward among science educators and researchers, a much-needed commitment in the informal science education field. Community-based educational spaces (CBES) challenge deficit discourses of youth and, instead, aim to build on youths' funds of knowledge and identities through empowering practices. Identity work is approached through a grounding in practice theory, which calls for a focus on the figuring of worlds, lives, and identities. Becoming somebody in science is presented as a creative act by youth, who challenge what science is and who can become somebody in science. Actions by youth can make evident desirable identities that result in the "thickening" of their affinities with science, a process also charged by emotions. That is, intersectionality can be experienced as emotionally taxing, while agency and transformation by youth may result in positive emotions. A mobile view of learning and identity in science, captured by the notion of wayfinding, calls to attention hybridity, intersectionality, and critical transdisciplinarity. That grounding can move the study of learning and becoming in science beyond a binary vision of formal and informal science education while also making it political. A deeper commitment and engagement with social justice work in studies of learning and identity in CBES, a process well captured by the notion of rightful presence, could become a common goal to work toward in the vast field of science education, both formal and informal.


It can be paternalistic to force people to choose. Although many people insist on drawing a bright line between active choosing and paternalism, that line is often illusory. Calling for active choosing is a form of libertarian paternalism if people are permitted to opt out of choosing in favor of a default (and in that sense not to choose). By contrast, calling for active choosing is a form of nonlibertarian paternalism insofar as people are actually required to choose. These points have implications for a range of issues in law and policy, suggesting that those who favor active choosing, and insist on it, may well be overriding people's preferences and thus running afoul of John Stuart Mill's Harm Principle (for better or for worse).


The general topic of this book is the metaphysics of the subject in Kantian transcendental philosophy. A critical appreciation of Kant's achievements requires that we be able to view Kant's positions as transformations of pre-Kantian philosophy, and that we understand the ways in which contemporary philosophy changes the letter of Kantian thought in order to be true to its spirit in a new philosophical horizon. Descartes is important in two respects. One the one hand, he institutes a philosophical movement which can be said to culminate in Kant; on the other hand, Descartes is one of the major opponents against whom Kant argues in establishing his own position. In either case, the Cartesian cogito is a central concern. Wilfred Sellars restates and transforms Kantian positions in the context of contemporary philosophy after the "linguistic turn", using the Platonic metaphor that thought is similar to discourse.


Rapid technological advances in microelectronics, networking, and computer science have resulted in an exponential increase in the number of cyber-physical systems (CPSs) that enable numerous services in various application domains, e.g., smart homes and smart grids. Moreover, the emergence of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) paradigm has led to the pervasive use of IoT-enabled CPSs in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, as a side effect, the number of potential threats and feasible security attacks against CPSs has grown significantly. In this paper, we introduce a new class of attacks against CPSs, called dedicated intelligent security attacks against sensor-triggered emergency responses (DISASTER). DISASTER targets safety mechanisms deployed in automation/monitoring CPSs and exploits design flaws and security weaknesses of such mechanisms to trigger emergency responses even in the absence of a real emergency. Launching DISASTER can lead to serious consequences for three main reasons. First, almost all CPSs offer specific emergency responses and, as a result, are potentially susceptible to such attacks. Second, DISASTER can be easily designed to target a large number of CPSs, e.g., the anti-theft systems of all buildings in a residential community. Third, the widespread deployment of insecure sensors in already-in-use safety mechanisms along with the endless variety of CPS-based applications magnifies the impact of launching DISASTER. In addition to introducing DISASTER, we describe the serious consequences of such attacks. We demonstrate the feasibility of launching DISASTER against the two most widely-used CPSs: residential and industrial automation/monitoring systems. Moreover, we suggest several countermeasures that can potentially prevent DISASTER and discuss their advantages and drawbacks.


ABSTRACT This article focuses on the theoretical-methodological question of how to identify reform-induced changes in school mathematics. The issue arose in our project The Evolution of the Discourse of School Mathematics (EDSM), in which we studied transformations in high-stakes examinations taken by students in England at the end of compulsory schooling. We have adopted a conceptualisation that draws on social semiotics and on a communicational approach, according to which school mathematics can be thought of as a discourse. Methods of comparing examinations of different years developed on the basis of this definition enable identification of subtle disparities that are nevertheless significant enough to make an important difference in students' vision of mathematics, in their performance and, eventually, in their ability to cope with problems that can benefit from the use of mathematics. In this article, we present these methods and argue that they have wider application for comparative studies of school mathematics.


Within a number of Western nation-states, internal national minorities are advancing demands for political recognition and a measure of autonomy short of full independence. General acceptance of democratic ideals places pressure on these states to accede to such demands and devolve political power to national minorities. This thesis examines the consequences that this process implies for political and social cohesion in nationally diverse states; does the formal political recognition of national diversity facilitate the integration of the state? Can nationally diverse societies generate and maintain the bonds of social solidarity that are necessary if they are to bind together effectively? Part One of the thesis examines these issues from a theoretical perspective; drawing on a range of existing analyses, from both classical and contemporary literature, the concepts of state, nation, sovereignty, self-determination and social cohesion are subject to detailed examination with a view to understanding how they shape the political demands of national minorities and what the most implications of these demands are. Part Two aims at further interrogating these theoretical claims through an empirical analysis of the Scottish devolution in 1999, established in 1999, and the impact it has on political and social cohesion in Britain. This involves an investigation into the historical development of a distinct Scottish nation, its evolving relationship with the British state and the concept of 'Britishness', and the factors accounting for the rise of Scottish nationalism in the second half of the twentieth century. Finally, the devolution settlement itself is made the central focus of analysis, and the questions of its impact on the future political stability of Britain as a single state and on the social cohesion of British society are examined with reference to existing literature on devolution, survey data provided by the British and Scottish Social Attitude surveys, and an analysis of significant discourses of nationbuilding in the speeches of a number of important political figures.


A common problem with teleconferences is awkward turn-taking-particularly 'collisions,' whereby multiple parties inadvertently speak over each other due to communication delays. We propose a model for teleconference discussions including the effects of delays, and describe tools that can improve the quality of those interactions. We describe an interface to gently provide latency awareness, and to give advanced notice of 'incoming speech' to help participants avoid collisions. This is possible when codec latencies are significant, or when a low bandwidth side channel or out-of-band signaling is available with lower latency than the primary video channel. We report on results of simulations, and of experiments carried out with transpacific meetings, that demonstrate these tools can improve the quality of teleconference discussions


You do not need to be a conspiracy theorist to conclude that from 1 April the NHS in England will never be the same again. The changes ushered in by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 are different in both scope and intent from anything to which the NHS has previously been subjected. The politics of reform and the desire among many influential government figures, notably the policy minister Oliver Letwin, to dismantle the NHS, should not be underestimated.1 What other reason can there be to explain the government's stubborn resolve to railroad its proposals through a largely supine parliament? But, as Lucy Reynolds from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine puts it, this will be a quiet rather than a big bang, and for a time few using the NHS will probably notice any difference.2 If her analysis is correct, and it is well grounded in evidence, this is all part of the plan or, to be more accurate, plot.3

Behind the NHS brand and logo a gradual and insidious hollowing out of what has up until now been a largely publicly provided service will get underway …


Purpose This paper fills the gap between defining and measuring the productive limits of a machine or system, and the impact of various assumptions about the productive potential of the nature and informativeness of capacity cost management systems. The authors focused on the various ways in which multi-dimensional limits (for example, time, space, volume and/or value-creating ability) can be used to define productive capacity. Specifically, this research suggests that the limits used in establishing the capacity cost management system restricts the amount and nature of the information the system is capable of providing to management.Justification Two reasons are identified for studying the impact of capacity measurements on organizations. First, firms which make the best use of their resources can be expected to outperform their competitors. The second arises from the potential structuration effect of capacity metrics. Such an investigation makes capacity a visible, and hence an actionable, construct.Design/Methodology To explore these issues, a combination of analytics and qualitative field research methodology was used. The measurement dimensions were developed by analyzing the different reports, baseline measures, and metrics included in the various capacity models as suggested by the literature. These analytics were enriched with observations obtained from field research.Findings Maximizing the value created within an organization starts with understanding the nature and capability of all the companys resources. The outcome is the identification of capacity systems specifically suited for particular types of operations, both manufacturing and service. Practical implications Such frameworks would allow organisations in developing economies, to make visible, the drivers of waste and productivity and to identify the primary assumptions and implications of various capacity limits.


In this paper, I argue that the term 'loyalty', as it is used in the context of fiduciary duties, has two senses: one, technical, in which 'loyalty' stands for the requirement that fiduciaries act only in the best interests of their principals. In this thin sense of the concept, the duty to be loyal embodies a 'juridical' moral duty, i.e. a duty to act in a certain way which can be legitimately enforced by the state. The other 'thick' sense of 'loyalty' implies a specific emotional and intellectual orientation towards one's principals. It is an attitude towards another person in which selfless action comes easily, and exploitation of weakness is unthinkable. By invoking this rich concept of loyalty the courts of equity advise fiduciaries that the serious commitment they took upon themselves calls for the adoption of an unusual disposition. A detached and purely instrumental approach to her relationship with the principal may get the fiduciary to abide by her legal duties. But this unique position of great power over other people, combined with an information gap that renders detection of abuse quite unlikely, generates a temptation for wrongdoing that can be very hard to overcome. And this is true even for an honest, well-intentioned fiduciary. Cultivating a sense of loyalty to the principal is therefore the right step for a conscientious fiduciary. The paper seeks to show that the recommendation to adopt a stance of fully-fledged loyalty can be incorporated into a Kantian analysis of the fiduciary duty. The fiduciary position is a space of selflessness – an arena where morally commendable actions are naturally called for. It would have been a great drawback for the interpretation of loyalty suggested here if it meant that the fiduciary who adopts it thereby gives up all the moral bildung potential of the fiduciary relationship. But, as we saw, such narrow reading of the Kantian framework, according to which loyalty cannot motivate morally praiseworthy actions, is unwarranted. Kant himself encourages his readers to make a strategic decision to cultivate these emotions which may help them perform their duty, and instil harmony in their inner landscape. The loyal fiduciary is a perfect example of an agent who is acting in accordance with this recommendation: given the great difficulty of resisting the temptation to use her position to benefit herself, she engages in emotional self-coaching which aims to nurture a sense of loyalty to her principal that will make it emotionally difficult for her to work behind his back. Her concrete actions out of loyalty are thus informed by a policy which she adopts out of deep respect for the moral law together with an acute awareness of our shortfalls as human beings. This combination of commitment to the moral law with humbleness is what makes the loyal fiduciary a morally virtuous agent.


The pose estimation method based on geometric constraints is studied. The coordinates of the five feature points in the camera coordinate system are calculated to obtain the pose of an object on the basis of the geometric constraints formed by the connective lines of the feature points and the coordinates of the feature points on the CCD image plane; during the solution process, the scaling and orthography projection model is used to approximate the perspective projection model. The initial values of the coordinates of the five feature points in the camera coordinate system are obtained to ensure the accuracy and convergence rate of the non-linear algorithm. In accordance with the perspective projection characteristics of the circular feature landmarks, we propose an approach that enables the iterative acquisition of accurate target poses through the correction of the perspective projection coordinates of the circular feature landmark centers. Experimental results show that the translation positioning accuracy reaches ±0.05 mm in the measurement range of 0-40 mm, and the rotation positioning accuracy reaches ±0.06o in the measurement range of 4o-60o.


The Dutch approach toward the consumption and trade of drugs has yielded the country a stereotypical image of a too liberal nation. But how did this image develop and to what extent has it influenced Dutch on drug policies? This article goes back to the 1970s to analyze these questions in the context of the first European collaboration around drug policies, with the creation of the Pompidou Group—Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs. The analysis draws on archival data and literature. Results show that the emergence of the Dutch stereotype of a "drugs paradise" was formed well before the shift in the national Opium Act in 1976 and the existence of coffee shops and was closely connected with the different national and international framing of a drug problem in the 1970s. The Dutch approach was seen as contributing to the increased availability of drugs in other European countries, while fighting the supply of drugs remained the dominant solution for the "drug problem" in the Pompidou group. Dutch policy makers perceived stereotypes as a problem and have indeed influenced the Netherlands to take more conciliatory positions regarding drug policies with the intention to protect the national image. This included trying to keep a low profile regarding their liberal cannabis policies and a high profile as a serious drug trade crime fighter. Consequently, despite the image of a drugs paradise, the Dutch political positions around drugs contained elements of both leniency and strict law enforcement.


Spectroscopic data are of essential value for understanding the excitation mechanisms in luminescent and laser materials. Special attention has been devoted to the investigation of upconversion-induced luminescence, partly because of the availability of near-infrared pump sources for the excitation of visible luminescence and laser emission and partly because these mechanisms can introduce a loss channel for devices emitting in the infrared region. Typical upconversion processes are pump excited-state absorption (ESA) and energy-transfer upconversion (ETU). For the interpretation of short-wavelength luminescence, it is often assumed that the order n of the upconversion process, i.e. the number n of pump photons required to excite the emitting state, is indicated by the slope of the luminescence intensity versus pump power in double-logarithmic representation. However, a saturation of upconversion luminescence with rising pump power was already observed 30 years ago.
We show theoretically by assuming the simplest possible rate-equation model that the experimentally observed decrease in power dependence of an upconversion luminescence with rising pump power is purely determined by the competition between linear decay and upconversion processes for the depletion of the intermediate excited states. An upconversion luminescence which is excited by the subsequent absorption of n photons has a dependence on absorbed pump power P which may range from Pn in the limes of infinitely short lifetimes of the intermediate excited states down to P1 for the upper state and less than P1 for the intermediate states in the limes of infinitely strong upconversion rates. Whereas the upper limes is valid universally, the lower limes for the intermediate states depends on whether the excitation is achieved via ETU or ESA and whether the states decay predominantly via ground-state luminescence or multiphonon relaxation into the next lower-lying state. These results allow for the interpretation of a measured power dependence of multiphoton-excited luminescence with respect to the order of the process and its physical origin and strength.
We have verified experimentally the convergence into both limes by upconversion luminescence in Cs3Lu2Cl9:1% Er3+ and Cs3Er2Cl9.


Why is the computer more alluring to boys than it is to girls? One answer to this question is drawn from a social psychological model of human interaction. Social psychological research indicates that the expectations an individual has about another person can shape his or her interaction with that person. We hypothesized that, in a similar manner, the expectations software designers hold about the users of the software they design are central in determining the way the software they design interacts with the user. In order to test this notion, we had 43 educators with programming experience design software for either boys, girls, or students, and found that programs for girls were classifiable as "learning tools" while programs for both boys and students were most like "games." These differences occur as a function of the designers' expectations of the characteristics of potential users of the program, and result in sex stereotyped software. We conclude that it is not the computer, or even the software, that is at the root of the sex bias in software, but the expectations and stereotypes of the designers of the software.


Food Scientists and Technologists (FST and if satisfaction was linked to geography, degree in progress, anticipated degree, anticipated work place or anticipated job responsibility. An on-line survey was completed by 267 students in over 20 countries using a 5-point Likert scale to evaluate satisfaction. Responses were analyzed by the Friedman or Kruskal Wallis tests for more than two groups, otherwise by the Wilcoxon Signed Rank or Mann-Whitney tests. There were no differences in Overall Satisfaction with technical and soft skills training. Among soft skills, training in Working with Others and Being Responsible were more often rated "Excellent" and students were more satisfied with their training than with Solving Problems , Communication and Positive Attitude . Students anticipating a job with high responsibility were more satisfied with overall soft skill training and with 3 of the 5 specific soft skills. Among technical skills, students were more satisfied with improvement in basic sciences ( Microbiology , Chemistry , Processing , Safety ), and those in Northern Europe were more satisfied with overall technical training. These data show variations in perception and/or efficacy of technical and soft skill training in Food Science programmes and underline the need for separate attention to the incorporation of soft skill training into the design of FS&T courses.


This Article is the first comprehensive treatment of the constitutional jurisprudence of the Marshall Court (1801–1835) from the perspective of originalism. Until recently, there seemed to be no need for such a study. Early originalists, who wrote in the late 1960s and early 1970s, assumed that constitutional adjudication had been originalist until at least the Lochner Era. With the move from intentionalism to textualism in the 1980s, originalists came to understand their movement as an innovation and a reaction against the perceived excesses of the Warren and Burger Courts. Originalists no longer claimed that originalist methodology informed nineteenth-century constitutional adjudication.

Recently, however, originalists have revived earlier claims that constitutional adjudication in the United States has always been originalist. This Article maintains that such claims are doubly misleading. First, the Marshall Court invoked the Framers' intentions but never undertook any investigation into those intentions. Second, this rhetorical intentionalism by no means predominated as the Marshall Court's governing interpretive approach. Rather, that approach was eclectic. Historical reasoning, common law precedent, and ipse dixit pronouncements predominated in the constitutional adjudication of the Marshall Court and throughout the Early Republic.

Both contemporary originalism and contemporary non-originalism have much in common with the interpretive approach of the Marshall Court. All begin their inquiries with an examination of the constitutional text. However, the two core dogmas of contemporary originalism, which Larry Solum has described as 1) the fixation thesis and 2) the constraint principle, were rarely relevant to the Marshall Court's inquiries. The constitutional text rarely provided clear constraints on the Court's discretion because, to borrow language from New Originalists, their cases arose in the "zone of construction" where original meaning "runs out." Justices chose among plausible arguments about the Constitution's meaning. At key points, the Justices simply declared what the law was, not without justification, but also not based on evidence of the Framers' intent or the original meaning of the constitutional text.


Maximizing the joint dependency with a minimum size of variables is generally the main task of feature selection. For obtaining a minimal subset, while trying to maximize the joint dependency with the target variable, the redundancy among selected variables must be reduced to a minimum. In this paper, we propose a method based on recently popular minimum Redundancy-Maximum Relevance (mRMR) criterion. The experimental results show that instead of feeding the features themselves into mRMR, feeding the covariates improves the feature selection capability and provides more expressive variable subsets.


South Pacific university-based journalism school publications were innovative newspaper publishers from 1975 onwards and among early pioneers of online publishing in the mid-1990s. Several publications have become established long-term with viable economic models and have had an impact on Oceania's regional independent publishing. All have been advocates of a free press and freedom of expression under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among early trendsetters were Uni Tavur, Liklik Diwai in Papua New Guinea, and Wansolwara and Pacific Journalism Online in Fiji. Wansolwara and its online edition was also the flagbearer for independent publishing under the pressure of two coups d'etat in 2000 and 2006 in Fiji. All newspapers have contended with censorship in various forms. Now Wansolwara has embarked on a publishing partnership with a leading post-coup Fiji daily newspaper. This article analyses the independent media published by communication studies educational programmes in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. It examines how a variety of niche publishing formula have boosted independent coverage and issues-based journalism on wide-ranging topics such as human rights, news media facing censorship and freedom of information.


This paper goes beyond the commonly held concerns of Internet safety, such as cyberbullying. Instead, it explores the ethical dilemmas we face as teachers when using social media, in particular social networks, in the classroom. We believe old ideas of respect and culture of care for children and young people need to be reconstructed around new media. This paper draws on the authors' experience in teaching with, and researching students' use of, social media in the classroom. In this paper we explore the ethical issues of consent, traceability, and public/private boundaries. We tackle the complex issue of the rights around virtual identities of the students followed by a discussion on the ethics of engaging students in public performance of curriculum and their lives. Finally we discuss the ethical dilemma involved in recognising and responding to illicit activity. While we reflect on our own response to these dilemmas and propose a dialogic process as the way forward, we also return to the argument that the e ethical choices are dilemmas in which most, if not all, options are unpalatable or impracticable.


This study focuses on how civil society organisations deploy Web 2.0 technologies for transnational social advocacy, the context of this technology use, and the effect of this adoption in achieving organisational goals. It analyses the effectiveness of these technologies in an attempt to understand the strategic intent in deploying these social media services. The reciprocal impact of this technology adoption on civil society organisations' roles, structure, and orientation was also investigated. The technologies targeted for study are those commonly described as Web 2.0 social media including social networking sites, blogs, podcasts and wikis amongst others. While the literature points to many studies relating to the use of the Internet for advocacy it also suggests that emerging technologies have not been studied in any detail. In particular there are no recent studies that investigate Web 2.0 technologies. These studies have the potential to provide new perspectives to current theoretical frameworks. This study is designed as part case study and part exploratory. The research adopts an interdisciplinary approach using both qualitative and quantitative methods. A survey of South African civil society organisations painted a picture of the extent of adoption of Web 2.0 social services across South African civil society, and detailed the reasons, and the benefits both perceived and actual of such adoption. The global environmental justice organisation, Greenpeace is used as a case study. The organisation's major goal is to advocate for changes in environmental policy and behaviour, has been at the forefront of environmental issues since its inception, and has used the mass media as an effective campaigning tool. The key findings that emerged in the South African context was that of a sector that has a lowlevel of knowledge of social media services and an accompanying low level of adoption. This is partly explained by factors at a national level including macro-economic policies, and a low level of Internet penetration and ICT readiness. Using Greenpeace as a case study revealed that while social media-led activism is increasingly being seen as strategic, there is a level of organisational introspection that is required to precisely determine how traditional CSOs can exploit social media while maintaining their core values and traditions. Social media is not a panacea for the issues confronting activism in an increasingly connected world, but rather is seen as complementing traditional advocacy with its ability to coordinate, synchronise and document campaigns.


This paper studies the feasibility of ASEAN+3 Monetary Union by investigating the homogeneities of the countries. Utilizing techniques of cluster analysis on two sets of criteria, the Optimum Currency Area (OCA) and the adjusted Maastricht Treaty (MTC), reveals that homogeneities of ASEAN+3 are low and the immediate formation of a monetary union would entail serious potential costs. Furthermore, our findings suggest that grouping differ between pre-crisis and post-crisis periods which could be due to the different impact of the crisis on the economic structure of these countries.


Objective To determine whether Mexican Americans have an increased incidence of non-insulin-dependent (type II) diabetes mellitus relative to non-Hispanic whites. Currently, no study has reported on the incidence of this disorder in Mexican Americans. Research Design and Methods We determined the 8-yr incidence of type II diabetes in 617 Mexican Americans and 306 non-Hispanic whites who participated in the San Antonio Heart Study, a population-based study of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Forty Mexican Americans (6.5%) and 6 non-Hispanic whites (2%) developed type II diabetes, as defined by World Health Organization criteria. The age-adjusted ethnic odds ratio (OR; Mexican Americans/non-Hispanic whites) for diabetes incidence was 8.13 (95% confidence interval [C1] 1.10–59.9) in men and 3.62 (95% CI 1.37–9.55) in women. We adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, body mass index, and level of educational attainment with multiple logistic regression analyses. Results Mexican Americans continued to show a statistically significant increase in diabetes incidence (OR 2.72, 95% CI 1.02–7.28). Obesity and age were also positively related to diabetes incidence in this analysis (P < 0.001). In addition, subjects with at least some college education had a lower incidence of diabetes than those with less than a high school education (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.26–0.99). Conclusions The incidence of type II diabetes in Mexican Americans is greater than in non-Hispanic whites, a difference that is not explained by ethnic differences in obesity, age, or level of educational attainment.