The nature of quantitative research in information systems has been dominated by variance theories. Variance theories comprise constructs or variables and propositions or hypotheses linking them. Typically, researchers identify independent variables and a dependent variable and collect data to verify the hypothesized relationship between the two sets of variables. One of the major shortcomings of such an approach is that the temporal dimension is often lost because data are collected at a given point in time. In this paper, we present a research method that operationalizes process theory. Process theory recognizes that variables change over time and interact with each other. This approach is particularly useful to study the conversion of IT investments into IT assets, or the conversion of IT assets into organizational value. This conversion process, which is often subsumed into the black box that lies between the input (independent) variables and output (dependent) variable in variance theories, is recognized and formalized in process theory. We show how systems dynamics modeling can be used to operationalize process theory in the context of IS use. We demonstrate how we can study complex IS problems by developing dynamic hypotheses and then using systems dynamics modeling. The approach that we employ incorporates both qualitative (soft) and quantitative aspects and complements variance theory. We conclude by highlighting the contribution of this approach and the study results to both theory and research. Specific theoretical contributions lie in developing and communicating archetypal patterns of IS use as well as the ability to incorporate the effects of feedback in the context of IS use. An important contribution to research lies in the ability to explicitly relate IS use to productivity. The implication of such contributions to both theory and research is that practitioners can benefit from directly applicable results, especially when it comes to deciding management policies and strategies.


The prediction of noise arising from an construction activities represents a problem when a number of different processes are carried out at different times in the course of the working day. These typically involve the use of powerful machines that have correspondingly high sound power levels[1]. The nature of the sources, coupled with the limited opportunities for the screening of neighbouring sensitive locations from the noise generated, means that complaints often arise from such activities. Problems can be avoided if noise levels arising from these activities can be controlled to comply with the noise limits specified by the local authority at the planning stage. This requires the application of a suitable noise prediction technique, however, the noise experienced at a receiver is affected by factors such as movement of machinery around the site, the operational characteristics of the machinery, distance from the site, ground cover, screening and meteorological conditions. At the planning stage the data regarding these factor are very granular
Current prediction procedures give the typical equivalent noise level (Leq) corresponding to the working day. However, this quantity yields no information regarding the temporal or statistical variation in noise levels arising from site operations. Although Leq, because of its relative ease of use for prediction purposes, has become a preferred unit for environmental noise measurements and standards, the importance of temporal variations on subjective response was recognized in the early days of environmental noise research and a number of complex noise units were proposed which involved temporal parameters. The temporal variation of environmental noise has also been recognized in contemporary work on soundscape where measurements of short Leq are often made and sometimes presented in the form of statistical data[3]. This chapter dealt with the basis of a prediction using stochastic techniques namely Monte Carlo and probability technique.


The history of the American West is being transformed by exciting new ideas, new questions, new scholarship. For many years this field was dominated by popular images of the lone cowboy and the savage Indian, and by Frederick Jackson Turner's concept of the frontier as a steadily advancing source of democracy and social renewal. But now historians and even the merchants of popular culture are reshaping our views of the frontier and the West by taking up a rich array of new subjects, including the stories of diverse peoples as well as the history of the land itself. A new generation of scholars is reformulating the broader questions also: What was the significance of the frontier in American history? What are the bases of western identity? What themes connect the twentieth-century West to its more distant past? The transformation of western history continues to be an open-ended, turbulent process. The original essays in this volume are reports from the frontier of change. In their diverging assumptions and conclusions, they reflect the vitality of this field. They succeed when they make the case for new questions and suggest possible answers. They advocate no single agenda. But taken together they well represent the passion and high craft with which scholars are creating a new western history.


In this paper we study the effect of different degrees of employment protection on absenteeism, paying attention to differences between workers moving from protected jobs to insecure jobs, on the one hand, and workers moving from insecure to secure jobs, on the other hand. Using a large representative sample of Italian workers, we show that workers' reaction in terms of sickness leave is not symmetric: losing protection (bad news) is more effective than gaining it (good news). We claim that this asymmetry is consistent with the behavior of financial markets responding to good and bad news. In our case, workers react in a more prudential way to improvements in their employment status ("wait and see" strategy), while they do immediately adjust to worsening job security by showing off healthy behavior.


This Master's thesis seeks to consider the impacts of institutional distance regarding IPR protection on Foreign direct investment's (FDI) internationalization strategies. Estimated at approximately US$ 1.8 trillion in 2015 and sitting at its highest level since the global economic and financial crisis in 2008 (UNCTAD, 2016), FDI flows are fast becoming a focal issue of global business. Developing Asia, for example, has emerged as the world's largest FDI recipient region in the world, which has attracted a wide and public attention. China, in particular, is the largest recipient of FDI among the emerging economies. In 2014, it overtook the US as the most popular destination for multinational enterprises (MNEs). To date, most academic interest has focused on how the institutional environment of the host country affects both the overall volumes of FDI (e.g., Lee & Mansfield, 1996; Smarzynska Javorcik, 2004), and the modes of entry strategy (e.g., McCalman, 2004; Dikova & Witteloostuijn, 2007). However, other areas of research also consider institutional distance, and the magnitudes and asymmetric effects of institutional distance (e.g., Cuervo-Cazurra & Genc, 2011; Phillips, Tracey, & Karra, 2009; Zaheer et al., 2012). In this context, this thesis, uses China as a sample of FDI recipient to seek to understand how the directions of institutional distance affect FDI's flows and MNEs' choice of entry mode into the host country. In particular, the research questions being addressed in this study are: (1) How does the bidirectional distance between home and host country regarding IPR protection affect FDI's inflows to China? and (2) How does this bidirectional distance regarding IPR protection influence MNEs' choice of entry mode?  Using a quantitative research design, two dependent variables are examined in this study: FDI inflows and entry mode (wholly-owned subsidiaries (WOS) versus joint ventures (JVs)). Using the institutional theory as its theoretical underpinning, this study hypothesizes that IPR distance between home and host countries negatively affects FDI inflows to the host market. It also hypothesizes that IPR distance is positively related to MNEs' choice of WOS as an entry mode as opposed to JVs. Both hypotheses build on the new notion regarding the directions of institutional distance that MNEs' strategies and behaviours are divided into positive and negative directions. This consideration of directions of institutional distance differs to that of the general institutional approach, which typically clusters all regulative, normative and cognitive pillars within the institutional distance. However, this research focuses on the single regulative distance of IPR protection. Using the 691 collected observations of FDI flows to China from 2006 to 2012, hypothesis 1 was tested by employing the estimation techniques of panel linear regression. To further assess hypothesis 2, 801 instances of foreign market entry of FDI in China between 2008 and 2012 were analysed by logistic regression.   From the panel linear regression model, the empirical results show that the larger the distance of IPR protection between home and host countries, the fewer the flows of FDI that entered into China. Such results are consistent with previous mainstream literature suggesting that greater institutional distance significantly diminishes the MNEs' intentions to invest (e.g., Du, 2009; Berry et al., 2010). Moreover, logistic regression for hypothesis 2 reveals that IPR distance appears to be significantly and positively associated with the choice of WOS. This means that the tendency of MNEs from countries with a higher distance of IPR protection to enter China's market by means of WOS (as opposed to JVs) will decrease. This result is in line with previous studies that note that larger institutional distance is associated with a lower level of equity ownership mode, such as JVs over WOS (e.g., Xu et al., 2004; Xu & Shenkar, 2002; Estrin et al., 2009).   The greatest takeaway from this study is that it advances knowledge about the impact of the directions of IPR distance and provides new opinions on the debate around the asymmetric effect of institutional distance on internationalization decisions. This study also offers practical implications for both firm managers and public policy makers.


Favorable tax treatment and management flexibility make tax partnerships very popular. For starters, tax partnerships, unlike tax corporations, are not subject to entity-level taxes. Partnership taxable income flows through to the partners, and the partners report their shares of partnership taxable income on their individual tax returns. Partnership tax allocation rules determine the partners' shares of partnership taxable income. Those rules rely upon the alluring concept of partners' interests in a partnership. It seems intuitive that partners would know their interests in a partnership and be able to allocate partnership taxable income accordingly. This Article illustrates, however, that the concept is illusory and that it undermines the tax allocation rules, crippling the effectiveness of partnership taxation. Some partners therefore allocate partnership income to reduce their overall tax liability and unfairly deplete government revenue. The Article attributes the concept's allure and illusion to path dependency and tax myopia—partnership tax experts expend considerable effort mastering difficult rules, which they cling to, and they focus narrowly on the tax aspects of those rules. The Article introduces three correlatives to end the myopia and improve the tax allocation rules: (1) economic items and tax items; (2) state law and tax law; and (3) economic interests and partners' interests in a partnership. The Article illustrates that aspects of the current rules are tax-centric (i.e., economic results follow tax allocations) and illusory. The rules' tax-centricity may create unintended legal consequences for unsuspecting partners; their illusion creates opportunities for tax abuse. After illustrating the current rules' shortcomings, the Article recommends fundamental reform of the partnership tax allocation rules. It recommends a move to item-specific economic-centric rules that will eliminate the unintended legal and economic consequences of the current rules and curb tax abuse.


New half-sandwich R-II-[9]aneS(3) complexes ([9]aneS(3) = 1,4,7-trithiacyclononane), namely [RuCl2(PTA)([9]aneS(3))] (4), [RuCl(PTA)(2)([9]aneS(3))][OTf] (5), [RuCl(en)([9]aneS(3))][OTf] (6), [RuCl(enac)([9]aneS(3))][OTf] (7), [RuCl(bipy)([9]ane-S-3)][OTf] (8), and [Ru(dmso-S)(bipy)([9]aneS(3))][OTf](2) (9) [PTA = 1,3,5-triaza-7-phosphaadamantane; enac = 1,2-bis-(isopropyleneimino)ethane; OTf = CF3SO3-] were prepared from Ru-[9]aneS(3)-dmso precursors and structurally characterized, both in solution and in the solid state by X-ray crystallography. Some of them are analogs of known cytotoxic organometallic Ru-II-(eta(6)-arene) and Ru-II-(eta(5)-cyclopentadienyl) compounds, in which the aromatic fragment is replaced by the sulfur macrocycle 1,4,7-trithiacyclononane, while the rest of the coordination sphere is left unchanged. Similarly to the aromatic analogs for which data are available, in aqueous solution the Ru-[9]aneS(3) complexes (with the exception of 5) hydrolyze a chloride (or a dmso in the case of 9) to give the corresponding aquo species. This process is rapidly reversed in the presence of free chloride, and coordination of phosphate is likely to occur to the aquo species in phosphate buffered solutions at physiological pH. Preliminary in vitro tests performed on complexes 4-6 against the mouse adenocarcinoma cancer cell line (TS/A) and the human mammary normal cell line (HBL-100) showed that, in general, the Ru-[9]aneS(3) compounds have a cytotoxicity comparable to that of the corresponding organometallic analogs. These results suggest that the aromatic fragment of the piano-stool Ru-II compounds is not an essential feature for the in vitro anticancer activity, and it might be effectively replaced by another face-capping ligand with a low steric demand, such as [9]aneS(3). ((c) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2005)


Within the prevailing post-9/11 climate, veiled Muslim women are commonly portrayed as oppressed, 'culturally dangerous' and 'threatening' to the western way of life and to notions of public safety and security by virtue of being fully covered in the public sphere. It is in such a context that manifestations of Islamophobia often emerge as a means of responding to these 'threats'. Drawing from qualitative data elicited through a UK-based study, this article reflects upon the lived experiences of veiled Muslim women as actual and potential victims of Islamophobia and examines the impacts of Islamophobic attacks upon victims, their families and wider Muslim communities. Among the central themes we explore are impacts upon their sense of vulnerability, the visibility of their Muslim identity, and the management of their safety in public. The individual and collective harms associated with this form of victimisation are considered through notions of a worldwide, transnational Muslim community, the ummah, which connects Muslims from all over world. We conclude by noting that the effects of this victimisation are not exclusively restricted to the global ummah; rather, the harm extends to society as a whole by exacerbating the polarisation which already exists between 'us' and 'them'.


1024x768 Trees and shrubs are disappearing fast in anthropogenic landscapes of Uganda. In order to promote their conservation on-farm, there is need to involve farmers. Farmers' involvement in tree/shrub management requires a clear understanding of the households' needs that trees can satisfy, the priority species to satisfy these needs, as well as tree management practices and challenges that hinder tree planting. This study was carried out to satisfy these information needs and to also determine species that are locally threatened. The study was conducted in selected villages of Arua and Kiruhura districts between June and October 2012 using an ethnobotanical approach. Our results indicate that farmers value tree products to satisfy household welfare needs of accessing food (edible fruits), generating income, and accessing construction wood. The species are multi-purpose, and the most preferred are Eucalyptus spp., Mangifera indica L., Persea americana Mill., Carica papaya L., Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck, Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam., Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck, Annona senegalensis Pers., Pinus spp., and Tectona grandis L.f. Most farmers maintain trees on their land in courtyards, backyard gardens, or crop fields and ranches. Tree species are threatened by destructive harvesting and clearing land for agriculture. The key challenges to intensification of tree cultivation are livestock damage, land shortage, drought, and lack of financial resources. Farmers suggested that in order to strengthen tree planting, they should be provided with inputs including seedlings, chemicals, and tools. In conclusion farmers prefer exotic tree species to satisfy household needs. Intensification of tree management will need to address a number of challenges identified in this study. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE


Unprecedented growth in rooftop solar energy development is drawing increased attention to the issue of solar access. To operate effectively, solar panels require un-shaded access to the sun's rays during peak sunlight hours. Some landowners are reluctant to invest in rooftop solar panels because they fear that a neighbor will erect a structure or grow a tree on nearby property that shades their panels. Existing statutory approaches to protecting solar access for such landowners vary widely across jurisdictions, and some approaches ignore the airspace rights of neighbors. Which rule regime for solar access protection best promotes the efficient allocation of scarce airspace, within the constraints of existing law? This Article applies Calabresi and Melamed's "Cathedral" framework of property rules and liability rules to compare and analyze existing solar access laws and to evaluate a model solar access statute recently drafted under funding from the US Department of Energy. Surprisingly, the Article concludes that a statute implementing the Cathedral model's seldom-used "Rule Four" is best suited for addressing solar access conflicts.


This document presents the outcome of two modules developed for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO): 1) a forecast model which uses machine learning and text downloads to predict outbreaks and intensity of internal armed conflict. 2) A decision making module that embeds these forecasts into a model of preventing armed conflict damages. The outcome is a quantitative benchmark which should provide a testing ground for internal FCDO debates on both strategic levels (i.e. the process of deciding on country priorities) and operational levels (i.e. identifying critical periods by the country experts). Our method allows the FCDO to simulate policy interventions and changes in its strategic focus. We show, for example, that the FCDO should remain engaged in recently stabilized armed conflicts and re-think its development focus in countries with the highest risks. The total expected economic benefit of reinforced preventive efforts, as defined in this report, would bring monthly savings in expected costs of 26 billion USD with a monthly gain to the UK of 630 million USD. Reference Details 2236 Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2022/13 Janeway Institute Working Paper Series Published 15 June 2022


Some personal reminiscences of experiences in the electrical industry are recorded in this article by ``the father of electric traction'' who has dug in ``the mines of the motors'' for 3 score years. From his courageous pioneering efforts great systems of electrical transportation have grown. It is entirely fitting that these experiences, which are so interwoven in the history of the electrical engineering profession, be recorded on the occasion of the Institute's 50th anniversary by a past-president whose entrance into the profession antedates the Institutes by a decade.


Neuroticism is a robust personality trait that constitutes a risk factor for psychopathology, especially anxiety disorders and depression. High neurotic individuals tend to be more self-critical and are overly sensitive to criticism by others. Hence, we used a novel resting-state paradigm to investigate the effect of criticism on functional brain connectivity and associations with neuroticism. Forty-eight participants completed the NEO Personality Inventory Revised (NEO-PI-R) to assess neuroticism. Next, we recorded resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) during two sessions. We manipulated the second session before scanning by presenting three standardized critical remarks through headphones, in which the subject was urged to please lie still in the scanner. A seed-based functional connectivity method and subsequent clustering were used to analyse the resting-state data. Based on the reviewed literature related to criticism, we selected brain regions associated with self-reflective processing and stress-regulation as regions of interest. The findings showed enhanced functional connectivity between the clustered seed regions and brain areas involved in emotion processing and social cognition during the processing of criticism. Concurrently, functional connectivity was reduced between these clusters and brain structures related to the default mode network and higher-order cognitive control. Furthermore, individuals scoring higher on neuroticism showed altered functional connectivity between the clustered seed regions and brain areas involved in the appraisal, expression and regulation of negative emotions. These results may suggest that the criticized person is attempting to understand the beliefs, perceptions and feelings of the critic in order to facilitate flexible and adaptive social behavior. Furthermore, multiple aspects of emotion processing were found to be affected in individuals scoring higher on neuroticism during the processing of criticism, which may increase their sensitivity to negative social-evaluation.


Until recently, it has been assumed that mathematics transcends language factors. This belief is so pervasive that many bilingual education policies have promoted mathemathics as one subject that can be taught in the students' weaker or second language (Khisty, 1993). Such is the case in the Philippines. Mathematics teachers are observed to distance themselves from issues concerning language use in their classrooms in the belief that mathematics and language learning do not mesh. But communication in the classroom is largely facilitated through language, and meaning is mediated through communication. Thus, contrary to the popular notion that mathematics and language lie at the opposite ends of a spectrum, they are in fact complementary: language is a major vehicle for content learning in the same manner that engaging in meaningful content is a vehicle for language learning.


Two of the main features of today complex software systems like pervasive computing systems and Internet-based applications are distribution and openness. Distribution revolves around three orthogonal dimensions: (i) distribution of control|systems are characterised by several independent computational entities and devices, each representing an autonomous and proactive locus of control; (ii) spatial distribution|entities and devices are physically distributed and connected in a global (such as the Internet) or local network; and (iii) temporal distribution|interacting system components come and go over time, and are not required to be available for interaction at the same time. Openness deals with the heterogeneity and dynamism of system components: complex computational systems are open to the integration of diverse components, heterogeneous in terms of architecture and technology, and are dynamic since they allow components to be updated, added, or
removed while the system is running.
The engineering of open and distributed computational systems mandates for the adoption of a software infrastructure whose underlying model and technology could provide the required level of uncoupling among system components. This is the main motivation behind current research trends in the area of coordination middleware to exploit tuple-based coordination models in the engineering of complex software systems, since they intrinsically provide coordinated components with communication uncoupling and further details in the references therein.
An additional daunting challenge for tuple-based models comes from knowledge-intensive application scenarios, namely, scenarios where most of the activities are based on knowledge in some form|and where knowledge becomes the prominent means by which systems get coordinated. Handling knowledge in tuple-based systems induces problems in terms of syntax - e.g., two tuples containing the same data may not match due to differences in
the tuple structure - and (mostly) of semantics|e.g., two tuples representing the same information may not match based on a dierent syntax adopted. Till now, the problem has been faced by exploiting tuple-based coordination within a middleware for knowledge intensive environments: e.g., experiments with tuple-based coordination within a Semantic Web middleware (surveys analogous approaches). However, they appear to be designed to tackle the design of coordination for specic application contexts like Semantic Web
and Semantic Web Services, and they result in a rather involved extension of the tuple space model.
The main goal of this thesis was to conceive a more general approach to semantic coordination. In particular, it was developed the model and technology of semantic tuple centres. It is adopted the tuple centre model as main coordination abstraction to manage system interactions. A tuple centre can be seen as a programmable tuple space, i.e. an extension of a Linda tuple space, where the behaviour of the tuple space can be programmed so as to react to interaction events. By encapsulating coordination laws within coordination media, tuple centres promote coordination uncoupling among coordinated components. Then, the tuple centre model was semantically enriched: a main design choice in this work was to try not to completely redesign the existing syntactic tuple space model, but rather provide a smooth extension that { although supporting semantic reasoning { keep the simplicity of tuple and tuple matching as easier as possible.
By encapsulating the semantic representation of the domain of discourse within coordination media, semantic tuple centres promote semantic uncoupling among coordinated components.
The main contributions of the thesis are: (i) the design of the semantic tuple centre model; (ii) the implementation and evaluation of the model based on an existent coordination infrastructure; (iii) a view of the application scenarios in which semantic tuple centres seem to be suitable as coordination media.


The Value of Science in Space Exploration provides a rigorous assessment of the value of scientific knowledge and understanding in the context of contemporary space exploration. It argues that traditional spaceflight rationales are deficient, and that the strongest defense of spaceflight comes from its potential to produce intrinsically and instrumentally valuable knowledge and understanding. It engages with contemporary epistemology to articulate an account of the intrinsic value of scientific knowledge and understanding. It also parleys with recent work in science policy and social philosophy of science to characterize the instrumental value of scientific research, identifying space research as an effective generator of new knowledge and understanding. These values found an ethical obligation to engage in scientific examination of the space environment. This obligation has important implications for major space policy discussions, including debates surrounding planetary protection policies, space resource exploitation, and human space settlement. Whereas planetary protection policies are currently employed to prevent biological contamination only of sites of interest in the search for extraterrestrial life, it contends that all sites of interest to space science ought to be protected. Meanwhile, space resource exploitation and human space settlement would result in extensive disruption or destruction of pristine space environments. The overall ethical value of these environments in the production of new knowledge and understanding is greater than their value as commercial or real commodities, and thus, exploitation and settlement of space should be avoided until the scientific community adequately understands these environments.


We investigate the construction of well-diversified high-conviction equity portfolios using the Portfolio Diversification Index (PDI). This paper is the first to investigate the out-of-sample properties of the PDI. Our research applies a novel portfolio selection algorithm to maximize the PDI of a portfolio of stocks in the S&P 500 Index over the period 2000 to 2009. We construct equally-weighted, well-diversified portfolios consisting of 5 to 30 stocks, and compare these with randomly selected portfolios of the same number of stocks. Our results indicate that investors using our algorithm to maximize the PDI can improve the diversification of high-conviction equity portfolios. For example, a portfolio of 20 stocks constructed using the algorithm with the PDI behaves out-of-sample as if it contains 10 independent stocks, i.e. a PDI score of 10. This is a significant improvement over the PDI score of 7 that occurs with a randomly selected portfolio. Our research is robust with respect to the number of stocks in the investment portfolio and the time period under consideration.


Call for Papers: Transmission in Optically Transparent Core
Networks

Guest Feature Editors

Dan Kilper and Rich Jensen, Coordinating Associate Editors
Klaus Petermann and Miroslav Karasek, Guest Feature Editors

Submission deadline: 20 July 2007

Optically transparent networks in which optical transport signals are routed uninterrupted
through multiple nodes have long been viewed as an important evolutionary step in fiber
optic communications. More than a decade of research and development on transparent network
technologies together with the requisite traffic growth has culminated in the recent
deployment of commercial optically transparent systems. Although many of the traditional
research goals of optical transmission remain important, optical transparency introduces new
challenges. Greater emphasis is placed on system efficiency and control. The goal of minimizing
signal terminations, which has been pursued through increasing reach and channel
capacity, also can be realized through wavelength routing techniques. Rather than bounding
system operation by rigid engineering rules, the physical layer is controlled and managed by
automation tools. Many static signal impairments become dynamic due to network reconfiguration
and transient fault events. Recently new directions in transmission research have
emerged to address transparent networking problems. This special issue of the Journal of
Optical Networking will examine the technologies and theory underpinning transmission in
optically transparent core networks, including both metropolitan and long haul systems.

Scope of Submission
The special issue editors are soliciting high-quality original research papers related to transmission
in optically transparent core networks. Although this does not include edge networks
such as access or enterprise networks, core networks that have access capabilities
will be considered in scope as will topics related to the interworking between core and edge
networks. The core network topics suitable for inclusion in this feature issue are:

Optically transparent system design issues, transmission experiments, and field trials
Optically transparent network architectures and topologies
Dispersion management in reconfigurable and mesh systems
Optically transparent network device and sub-system performance, design, characterization
and control, including: amplifiers, transmitters, receivers, switches, add/drop multiplexers
Transient and fault management
Physical layer system control
Monitoring and compensation to support transparency
Wavelength routing and planning as they relate to physical layer transmission
Hardware cost and configuration optimization for optically transparent networks

To submit to this special issue, follow the normal procedure for submission
to JON and select "TTCN" in the features indicator
of the online submission form. For all other questions relating to this feature
issue, please send an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com, subject line "TTCN."
Additional information can be found on the JON website: http://www.osa-jon.org/journal/jon/author.cfm.
 Submission Deadline: 20 July 2007


OBJECTIVE
To develop a model for adjusting patients' reports of behavioral health care experiences on the Experience of Care and Health Outcomes (ECHO) survey to allow for fair comparisons across health plans.

DATA SOURCE
Survey responses from 4,068 individuals enrolled in 21 managed behavioral health plans who received behavioral health care within the previous year (response rate = 48 percent).

STUDY DESIGN
Potential case-mix adjustors were evaluated by combining information about their predictive power and the amount of within- and between-plan variability. Changes in plan scores and rankings due to case-mix adjustment were quantified.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
The final case-mix adjustment model included self-reported mental health status, self-reported general health status, alcohol/drug treatment, age, education, and race/ethnicity. The impact of adjustment on plan report scores was modest, but large enough to change some plan rankings.

CONCLUSIONS
Adjusting plan report scores on the ECHO survey for differences in patient characteristics had modest effects, but still may be important to maintain the credibility of patient reports as a quality metric. Differences between those with self-reported fair/poor health compared with those in excellent/very good health varied by plan, suggesting quality differences associated with health status and underscoring the importance of collecting quality information.


Heavy-lifting machines such as cranes are widely used at ports, construction sites, and manufacturing plants in a variety of material-transporting applications. However, cranes possess inherent flexible dynamics that make fast and precise operation challenging. Most cranes are driven by human operators, which adds another element of complexity. The goal of this thesis is to develop controllers that allow human operators to easily and efficiently control machines with flexible dynamics. To improve the ease of human operation of these machines, various control structures are developed and their effectiveness in aiding the operator are evaluated. Cranes are commonly used to swing wrecking balls that demolish unwanted structures. To aid the operator in such tasks, swing-amplifying controllers are designed and their performance are evaluated through simulations and experiments with real operators. To make maneuvering of these machines in material-transporting operations easier, input-shaping control is used to reduce oscillation induced by operator commands. In the presence of external disturbances, input shaping is combined with a low-authority feedback controller to eliminate unwanted oscillations, while maintaining the human operator as the primary controller of the machine. The performance and robustness of the proposed controllers are thoroughly examined via numerical simulations and a series of experiments and operator studies on a small-scale mobile boom crane and a two-ton dual-hoist bridge crane.


The introduction of artificial light at night (ALAN) into natural and urbanised landscapes is a known and highly pervasive disruptor of invertebrate communities. However, the effect of variation in intensity and spectra of ALAN on invertebrate communities inhabiting different spatial niches is little understood. Further, the remarkable ability of ALAN to continue to disrupt biodiversity even in chronically illuminated urban landscapes is not often acknowledged. Here, we simultaneously sampled airborne and ground-dwelling invertebrate assemblages under and between urban street lights to explore the effects on community composition and abundance of (a) proximity to decadal (i.e. long-illuminated) nocturnal street lighting and (b) variation in the spectral output of light. The two assemblages responded differently. For airborne invertebrates, night-time abundance doubled, and night-time assemblage composition was significantly different for traps under, compared with between, street lights. These differences in abundance were not affected by street light intensity, and were absent in day samples, suggesting that even weak ALAN may be causing short-term redistribution of nocturnal invertebrates. Further, the abundance (but not composition) effects of ALAN on airborne invertebrates increased when the street lights emitted a higher proportion of short-wavelength light. In contrast, for ground-dwelling invertebrates, we found only marginal effects of proximity and spectrum of lighting on abundance and no effect on assemblage composition. However, more intense street lighting reduced abundance and altered composition at traps both under and between lights. Synthesis and Applications. Public lighting managers must consider ALAN impacts on invertebrate communities not only when introducing ALAN to naive environments, but also when changing lighting in areas that are highly urbanised and exposed to decades of ALAN. Further, lighting proposals and environmental monitoring of invertebrate communities must take into account the effects on both ground-dwelling and airborne assemblages, as these may respond very differently to the presence, intensity and spectrum of ALAN.


Despite advanced techniques of stent placement which cause fewer traumas to the vessel walls; as well as introduction of drug-eluting stents which result in the least induction of immune response, in-stent restenosis (ISR) is still one of the common and severe complications after PCI and stent placement. Intimal hyperplasia following immuno- inflammatory response of the arterial wall to balloon injury has been proposed as main mechanism of ISR. In a prospective study, we assessed the predictive role of Interleukin (IL)-18 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF- α) as pro-inflammatory cytokines and IL-10 as anti-inflammatory cytokine and high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs- CRP) for ISR. 128 patients (mean age=59±10.2, female/male: 41/87)who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and stent implantation. Venous blood samples were obtained before and 24 hours after PCI. IL- 18, IL-10, TNF-αand hs-CRP levels were determined. We followed the patients for24months and measured the incidence of ISR via angiography. Results were compared between ISR and non-ISR patients. 20 patients (15.6%) developed ISR. Serum level of IL-18, TNF-α and hs-CRP have been increased in all patients 24 hours after PCI. Serum level of IL-18 at 24-hours was not different between ISR and non-ISR patients (p=0.239), while serum level of IL-10 was significantly higher in non-ISR group (p<0.001). IL-18/IL-10 was significantly higher in ISR patients than in non-ISR patients (p<0.001). IL-18/IL-10 can be applied as predictive factors for ISR.


the UNEP Evaluation Office has conducted an evaluation of UNEP's Disasters and Conflicts (D&C) Sub?programme covering the period 2006?2011. The evaluation aimed at assessing the strategic relevance and performance of the Sub?programme to determine results achieved and analyse the factors and processes affecting sub?programme performance across its four main intervention areas: post?crisis environmental assessments, post?crisis environmental recovery, environmental cooperation for peace building and disaster risk reduction.


Abstract Folds associated with normal faults are potential hydrocarbon traps and may impact the connectivity of faulted reservoirs. Well-calibrated seismic reflection data that image a normal fault system from the Inner Moray Firth basin, offshore Scotland, show that folding was preferentially localized within the mechanically incompetent Lower–Middle Jurassic pre-rift interval, comprising interbedded shales and sandstones, and within Upper Jurassic syn-rift shales. Upward propagation of fault tips was initially inhibited by these weak lithologies, generating fault propagation folds with amplitudes of c. 50 m. Folds were also generated, or amplified, by translation of the hanging wall over curved, convex-upward fault planes. These fault bends resulted from vertical fault segmentation and linkage within mechanically incompetent layers. The relative contributions of fault propagation and fault-bend folding to the final fold amplitude may vary significantly along the strike of a single fault array. In areas where opposite-dipping, conjugate normal faults intersect, the displacement maxima are skewed upwards towards the base of the syn-rift sequence (i.e. the free surface at the time of fault initiation) and significant fault propagation folding did not occur. These observations can be explained by high compressive stresses generated in the vicinity of conjugate fault intersections, which result in asymmetric displacement distributions, skewed towards the upper tip, with high throw gradients enhancing upward fault propagation. Our observations suggest that mechanical interaction between faults, in addition to mechanical stratigraphy, is a key influence on the occurrence of normal fault-related folding, and controls kinematic parameters such as fault propagation/slip ratios and displacement rates.


For machine translation, a vast majority of language pairs in the world are considered low-resource because they have little parallel data available. Besides the technical challenges of learning with limited supervision, it is difficult to evaluate methods trained on low-resource language pairs because of the lack of freely and publicly available benchmarks. In this work, we introduce the FLORES evaluation datasets for Nepali–English and Sinhala– English, based on sentences translated from Wikipedia. Compared to English, these are languages with very different morphology and syntax, for which little out-of-domain parallel data is available and for which relatively large amounts of monolingual data are freely available. We describe our process to collect and cross-check the quality of translations, and we report baseline performance using several learning settings: fully supervised, weakly supervised, semi-supervised, and fully unsupervised. Our experiments demonstrate that current state-of-the-art methods perform rather poorly on this benchmark, posing a challenge to the research community working on low-resource MT. Data and code to reproduce our experiments are available at https://github.com/facebookresearch/flores.


In our companion papers, we managed to derive a connection formulation of Lorentzian general relativity in D + 1 dimensions with compact gauge group SO(D + 1) such that the connection is Poisson-commuting, which implies that loop quantum gravity quantization methods apply. We also provided the coupling to standard matter. In this paper, we extend our methods to derive a connection formulation of a large class of Lorentzian signature supergravity theories, in particular 11 D SUGRA and 4 D, N = 8 SUGRA, which was in fact the motivation to consider higher dimensions. Starting from a Hamiltonian formulation in the time gauge which yields a Spin(D) theory, a major challenge is to extend the internal gauge group to Spin(D + 1) in the presence of the Rarita–Schwinger field. This is non-trivial because SUSY typically requires the Rarita–Schwinger field to be a Majorana fermion for the Lorentzian Clifford algebra and Majorana representations of the Clifford algebra are not available in the same spacetime dimension for both Lorentzian and Euclidean signatures. We resolve the arising tension and provide a background-independent representation of the non-trivial Dirac antibracket *-algebra for the Majorana field which significantly differs from the analogous construction for Dirac fields already available in the literature.


An exosome-delivered and cancer cell–derived microRNA increases vascular permeability and promotes metastasis. Exosomes are vesicles released from cells and contain proteins and RNAs. Exosomes modify the behavior of the cells that internalize them, which can be either near to or far from the releasing cell. Exosomes derived from cancer cells may contain factors that influence the local tumor microenvironment or spread to distant sites to influence cells at potential sites of metastasis. Zhou et al. report that both metastatic breast cancer cell lines and noncancerous mammary epithelial cell lines released exosomes that could be taken up by primary human microvascular endothelial cells (HMVECs), but only exosomes released by the metastatic cells or RNAs isolated from these exosomes induced the HMVECs to migrate. The microRNA miR-105 was present in greater abundance in exosomes derived from three different metastatic breast cancer cell lines compared with those released from noncancerous or nonmetastatic cells and was transferred to recipient HMVEC cells through exosomes. Ectopically expressing miR-105 in HMVECs or adding exosomes from the metastatic breast cancer cell lines reduced the abundance of ZO-1, a known target of this miRNA and a component of tight junctions. Transfecting HMVECs with an inhibitor of miR-105 before incubation with the exosomes prevented ZO-1 down-regulation. Exosomes from the metastatic breast cancer cell lines also increased the permeability of HMVEC monolayers, allowing both fluorescently labeled dextran and cancer cells to pass through in transwell assays. Injection of exosomes from the metastatic breast cancer cell lines into mice also increased miR-105 abundance, reduced ZO-1 abundance in endothelial cells, and increased vascular permeability in lung and brain. Ectopic expression of miR-105 in a breast cancer cell line that exhibits only moderate metastatic potential increased the ability of these cells to invade the lung and brain when xenografted into mice. In mice with tumors established by metastatic breast cancer cell lines with high miR-105 expression, treating the animals with an inhibitor of miR-105 reduced the size of the primary tumor, decreased the number of lung and brain metastases from the primary tumor, reduced vascular permeability, and increased ZO-1 abundance in vascular endothelial cells compared to xenografted mice not treated with the inhibitor. Exosomes containing miR-105 were present in blood samples from breast cancer patients, and the abundance of circulating miR-105 positively correlated with metastatic disease, whereas the abundance of ZO-1 in tumors and vascular endothelial cells negatively correlated with metastatic disease. Thus, miR-105 might be both a target for treating metastatic breast cancer and a biomarker of metastatic potential. W. Zhou, M. Y. Fong, Y. Min, G. Somlo, L. Liu, M. R. Palomares, Y. Yu, A. Chow, S. T. F. O'Connor, A. R. Chin, Y. Yen, Y. Wang, E. G. Marcusson, P. Chu, J. Wu, X. Wu, A. X. Li, Z. Li, H. Gao, X. Ren, M. P. Boldin, P. C. Lin, S. E. Wang, Cancer-secreted miR-105 destroys vascular endothelial barriers to promote metastasis. Cancer Cell 25, 501–515 (2014). [PubMed]


Context: Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) has two main histological types: diffuse and focal. Heterozygous paternally inherited ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations (depending upon whether recessive or dominant acting and occurrence of somatic maternal allele loss) can give rise to either phenotype. However, the relative proportion of these two phenotypes in a large cohort of CHI patients due to paternally inherited heterozygous ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations has not been reported. Objective: The purpose of this study is to highlight the variable clinical phenotype and to characterise the distribution of diffuse and focal disease in a large cohort of CHI patients due to paternally inherited heterozygous ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations. Design: A retrospective chart review of the CHI patients due to heterozygous paternally inherited ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations from 2000 to 2013 was conducted. Results: Paternally inherited heterozygous ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations were identified in 53 CHI patients. Of these, 18 (34%) either responded to diazoxide or resolved spontaneously. Fluorine-18 L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine positron emission tomography computerised tomography ( 18 F DOPA-PET CT) scanning in 3/18 children showed diffuse disease. The remaining 35 (66%) diazoxide-unresponsive children either had pancreatic venous sampling (nZ8) or 18 F DOPA-PET CT (nZ27). Diffuse, indeterminate and focal disease was identified in 13, 1 and 21 patients respectively. Two patients with suspected diffuse disease were identified to have focal disease on histology. Conclusions: Paternally inherited heterozygous ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations can manifest as a wide spectrum of CHI with variable 18 F DOPA-PET CT/histological findings and clinical outcomes. Focal disease was histologically confirmed in 24/53 (45%) of CHI patients with paternally inherited heterozygous ABCC8/KCNJ11 mutations.


Objective: To monitor the immune function of thyroid cancer patients and analyze its clinicopathological correlation.
Methods: The distribution of circulating lymphocyte subpopulations and serum cytokine (IFN-γ, TNF-α, TGF-β, and IL-10) levels in 59 Papillary Thyroid Cancer (PTC) patients, 33 goiter patients, and 50 healthy controls were measured by flow cytometry and ELISA.
Results: The percentages of CD3+ T lymphocytes and CD3+CD4+/CD3+CD8+ ratio in PTC patients decreased obviously. While the percentages of CD4+CD25+CD127low Tregs in PTC patients increased apparently, but it had no relationship with clinical characteristics. Serum TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-10, but not TGF-β levels in PTC patients were significantly higher than that in healthy controls. The inclusion of these four cytokines improved the classification efficacy among the three groups.
Conclusion: It is apparent that the immune function is compromised in thyroid cancer patients. Combined detection of serum cytokines could help distinguish patients with thyroid disease and healthy individuals.


The synthesis of hydroxyelemane 5 from (R)-carvone and its utilization as a common synthetic scaffold to produce structurally diverse germacrane and guaiane sesquiterpenes are described. A highly enantio- and stereoselective biomimetic tandem oxy-Cope/ene rearrangement was used as the key reaction to access the 10-membered macrocyclic core of germacranes and the condensed 5-7 carbocycles of guaiane sesquiterpenes. Additionally, reactions of furanoguaianes under acidic or oxidizing reagents have been investigated, and preliminary results of these conversions are presented.


This study explored contribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to the sustainable development of the Nigerian and Ghanaian economies. The investigation was prompted by the apparent evidence of rising FDI inflows in the last two decades, which has failed to improve both nations' sustainable development drive significantly. The study employed the ordinary least square (OLS) econometric technique to test the effect of FDI inflows on sustainable development indicators using annual times series data from 2000 to 2018 obtained from both countries' World Development Indicators (WDI) for the period covering the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) era and the earlier stages of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations (UN). The findings revealed that Ghana performed better than Nigeria on social sustainability, measured in terms of education and healthcare indicators. However, on environmental and economic sustainability, Nigeria fared better. A percentage increase in FDI inflow to both countries enhances economic growth and economic sustainability by 0.30 percent. However, study indicated that the positive impact is statistically insignificant. This reveals that the difference in economic growth and economic sustainability in both countries is not accounted for by FDI.


Using the economic freedom index and the newly developed KOF-index of globalization, it is shown that the Scandinavian welfare states have experienced faster, bigger and more consistent increases in these areas, compared to the smaller European and the so called liberal welfare states. The market economy and globalization hence do not pose threats to these welfare states, but are instead neglected factors in explaining their survival and good economic performance. Big government decreases the economic freedom index by definition, but the welfare states compensate in other areas, such as legal structure and secure property rights.


PURPOSE
Patients with the floppy eyelid syndrome have chronic papillary conjunctivitis with easily everted upper eyelids and a soft, pliant upper tarsus. The purpose of this study is to describe the clinical features and the histopathologic correlate in a group of patients with floppy eyelid syndrome.

METHODS
The authors examined eight patients with floppy eyelid syndrome, four of whom underwent surgical management with horizontal eyelid shortening. Eyelid tissue from these patients was examined using light microscopy, electron microscopy, and immunohistochemistry and compared with controls with unrelated eyelid or orbital disorders.

RESULTS
Clinical findings included obesity or eye rubbing, lash ptosis, and, less commonly, blepharoptosis. Two patients had documented sleep apnea with abnormal sleep electroencephalogram. Light microscopy of the surgical specimens showed chronic conjunctival inflammation, papillary conjunctivitis, and meibomian gland abnormalities, including granuloma formation. Verhoeff's modified elastin stain demonstrated a marked decrease in the amount of elastin fibers in tarsus from patients with floppy eyelid syndrome compared with controls. Immunohistochemical staining for elastin also showed a marked decrease of tarsal elastin in floppy eyelid patients compared with controls. In contrast, immunohistochemical stains showed that the distribution of collagen types I and III was similar between patients with floppy eyelid syndrome and controls. Electron microscopy demonstrated that tarsal collagen was comparable in patients and controls, and that there was a reduced amount of tarsal elastin in floppy eyelid syndrome compared with controls.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings demonstrate that tarsal elastin is decreased in the floppy eyelid syndrome, which may contribute to the laxity of the tarsus in this disorder.


I am growing old myself, but there are few things I remember so well as the days of my youth. I have a most distinct recollection of the joys and the sorrows, the hopes and the fears, the temptations and the difficulties, the mistaken judgments and the misplaced affections, the errors and the aspirations, which surround and accompany a young man's life. If I can only say something to keep some young man in the right way, and preserve him from faults and sins, which may mar his prospects both for time and eternity, I shall be very thankful.


World globalisation drives companies to undertake international expansion with the aim of retaining or growing their businesses. When companies globalize, managers encounter new challenges in making international marketing strategy (IMS) decisions, which are influenced by perceived cultural and business distance between their home- and foreign country. Telkom Indonesia International (Telin) was formed by Telkom Indonesia (i.e. the state-owned company in the telecommunication industry in Indonesia) to engage in international business within a global market. The central question in this study is to what extent do managers' perceived cultural and business distance between home- and foreign country influence their IMS decisions? A mixed research strategy will be employed by applying qualitative and quantitative methods concurrently. The data collection will involve interviews with CEOs and managers, alongside a web survey to 55 managers of Telkom's. Results suggest important consequences for IMS decisions and emphasizes the need for dialogue on perceptions of cultural and business characteristics of countries.


The Chandra X-ray observatory has discovered dozens of resolved, kiloparsec-scale jets associated with powerful quasars in which the X-ray fluxes are observed to be much higher than the expected level based on the radio-optical synchrotron spectrum. The most popular explanation for the anomalously high and hard X-ray fluxes is that these jets do not decelerate significantly by the kiloparsec scale, but rather remain highly relativistic (Lorentz factors Γ ∼ 10 ?> ). By adopting a small angle to the line of sight, the X-rays can thus be explained by inverse Compton upscattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons (IC/CMB), where the observed emission is strongly Doppler boosted. Using over six years of Fermi monitoring data, we show that the expected hard, steady gamma-ray emission implied by the IC/CMB model is not seen in PKS 0637-752, the prototype jet for which this model was first proposed. IC/CMB emission is thus ruled out as the source of the X-rays, joining recent results for the jets in 3C 273 (using the same method) and PKS 1136-135 (using UV polarization). We further show that the Fermi observations give an upper limit of δ < 6.5 ?> for the four brightest X-ray knots of PKS 0637-752, and derive an updated limit of δ < 7.8 ?> for knots A and B1 of 3C 273 (assuming equipartition). Finally, we discuss the fact that high levels of synchrotron X-ray emission in a slow jet will unavoidably lead to a level of angle-integrated TeV emission which exceeds that of the TeV BL Lac class.


Chloroethenes such as tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) are among the most prevalent contaminants in groundwater. Because of their low aqueous solubility, PCE and TCE are often present as dense non aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) that can act as a long term source of groundwater contamination. In situ enhanced bioremediation is an attractive technology for removal of PCE and TCE. It relies on a process called dehalorespiration in which dehalogenating bacteria reduce PCE to ethene, which is a harmless compound for the environment. Enhanced bioremediation is achieved by stimulating the activity of these specialized bacteria through the addition of an electron donor. This method has been widely used for remediation of chlorinated ethene plumes for more than thirty years and recent studies have indicated that it is a promising technology for bioremediation of source zone. However, application of source zone bioremediation is still a significant technical challenge. One of the main issues is groundwater acidification due to dechlorination and fermentation processes thereby inhibiting activity of dehalogenating micro-organisms. Objective of this project is to develop an efficient buffering strategy for source zone remediation. Utilisation of silicate mineral as buffering agent has been investigated through geochemical modeling and batch experiment. A methodology to select appropriate silicate minerals for pH control based on their kinetics properties and field characteristics has also been developed. A geochemical model, done with the chemical speciation code Phreeqc, including transport phenomena has been implemented to assess the influence of silicate dissolution on acidity. Preliminary results have demonstrated that certain minerals belonging to aluminosilicate (nepheline) and magnesium iron silicate (olivine) present kinetics fast enough to neutralize acidity typically produced during bioremediation of DNAPL source zone. Experimental studies including mineral dissolution and reductive dechlorination by bacterial culture are currently performed to validate the results of this model.


The efficiency, safety, and effectiveness of strength training programs are paramount for sport conditioning. Therefore, identifying optimal doses of the training variables allows for maximal gains in muscular strength to be elicited per unit of time and also for the reduction in risk of overtraining and/or overuse injuries. A quantified dose-response relationship for the continuum of training intensities, frequencies, and volumes has been identified for recreationally trained populations but has yet to be identified for competitive athletes. The purpose of this analysis was to identify this relationship in collegiate, professional, and elite athletes. A meta-analysis of 37 studies with a total of 370 effect sizes was performed to identify the dose-response relationship among competitive athletes. Criteria for study inclusion were (a) participants must have been competitive athletes at the collegiate or professional level, (b) the study must have employed a strength training intervention, and (c) the study must have included necessary data to calculate effect sizes. Effect size data demonstrate that maximal strength gains are elicited among athletes who train at a mean training intensity of 85% of 1 repetition maximum (1RM), 2 days per week, and with a mean training volume of 8 sets per muscle group. The current data exhibit different dose-response trends than previous meta-analytical investigations with trained and untrained nonathletes. These results demonstrate explicit dose-response trends for maximal strength gains in athletes and may be directly used in strength and conditioning venues to optimize training efficiency and effectiveness.


We developed a photoinduced synthesis method for fabricating metal nanoparticles (NPs) embedded on the surfaces of metal oxide nanowires (NWs) to form hierarchical nanostructures. The process consisted of two steps: (1) the preparation of a metal oxide NW backbone structure, and (2) the photoinduced synthesis of metal NPs on the backbone structure. ZnO NWs were first prepared and reduced to form metal oxide NWs. UV light was used to generate electron–hole pairs at the metal oxide NW surface. The excited electrons successfully reduced Ag ions in solution to form Ag NPs on the ZnO NW surfaces without introducing contamination or side-reactions. The surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) properties of the hierarchical materials were investigated for various Ag nanostructure morphologies. The SERS activity revealed an outstanding enhancement factor of 6.36 × 1011. A range of glucose solution concentrations was detected using the SERS method in conjunction with the hierarchical materials. The hierarchical materials were deployed in a microfluidic system to sequentially detect distinct molecules as they flowed through the channel. The photoinduced synthesis process required only simple, low-cost, and environmentally benign fabrication conditions.


This article aims to assess happiness among young people aged 18–29 years in 2009 and 2014, using a multidimensional Happiness Index among Youth (HIY), based on the Survey of Young People in Egypt (SYPE). Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis are applied to examine the robustness and efficiency of the index. A multinomial model is used to study the main determinants of happiness among young people. The main results of the study are that young men are happier than young women. The educational level of the head of household has a positive, significant effect on happiness.


Background Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonorrhea) remains an important cause of reproductive and obstetric complications. There has been limited population-based research to evaluate the association between maternal gonorrhea and adverse birth outcomes. Methods A population-based retrospective cohort study was conducted of women with singleton pregnancies in Washington State from 2003 to 2014 using linked birth certificate and birth hospitalization discharge data. The exposed cohort consisted of women with gonorrhea diagnosed during pregnancy. The unexposed group, defined as pregnant women without gonorrhea, was selected by frequency-matching by birth year in a 4:1 ratio. Logistic regression was used to determine crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) for the association of maternal gonorrhea and adverse birth outcomes. Results Women with gonorrhea during pregnancy (N = 819) were more likely to be younger, black, single, less educated, multiparous, and smokers compared with women without gonorrhea (N = 3276). Maternal gonorrhea was significantly associated with a 40% increased odds (adjusted OR, 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0–1.8) of low birth weight infants compared with women without gonorrhea when adjusted for marital and smoking status. Maternal gonorrhea was associated with a 60% increased odds (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.3–2.0) of small for gestational age infants compared with women without gonorrhea. Conclusions This analysis showed that pregnant women with gonorrhea were more likely to have low birth weight infants, consistent with prior literature, and provided new evidence that maternal gonorrhea is associated with small for gestational age infants. These findings support increased public health efforts to prevent, identify, and treat gonorrhea infection during pregnancy.


Abstract. Modern cities will have a catalytic role in regulating global economic growth and development, highlighting their role as centers of economic activity. With urbanisation being a consequence of that, the built environment is pressured to withstand the rapid increase in demand of buildings as well as safe, resilient and sustainable transportation infrastructure. Transportation Infrastructure has a unique characteristic: it is interconnected and thus, it is essential for the stakeholders to be able to capture, analyse and visualise these interlinked relationships efficiently and effectively. This requirement is addressed by an Asset Information Management System (AIMS) which enables the capture of such information from the early stages of a transport infrastructure construction project. Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographic Information Science/Systems (GIS) are two domains which facilitate the authoring, management and exchange of asset information by providing the location underpinning, both in the short term and through the very long lifespan of the infrastructure. These systems are not interoperable by nature, with extensive Extract/Transform/Load procedures required when developing an integrated location-based Asset Management system, with consequent loss of information. The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight regarding the information lifecycle during Design and Construction on a Highways Project, focusing on identifying the stages in which loss of information can impact decision-making during operational Asset Management: (i) 3D Model to IFC, (ii) IFC to AIM and (iii) IFC to 3DGIS for AIM. The discussion highlights the significance of custom property sets and classification systems to bridge the different data structures as well as the power of 3D in visualizing Asset Information, with future work focusing on the potential of early BIM-GIS integration for operational AM.


Philip Booth's letter followed in the Winter 1958 issue. Boom recently recalled the incident: Asked, these years later, to comment on a 1957 "Letter to the Poetry Editor," I had to ask back to Chicago what all this was about. By the time the present editor sent me copies of both Paul Carroll's "Notes on Some Young Poets" and my published response, I'd found in old notebooks that Carroll had that year published my poem "Mores," which was one of the earliest poems in what would become my second book (1961), and probably catalyzed "Was a Man." Both poems now seem to me to have to do with issues that Carroll's "Notes" and my "Letter" were more or less about. However thin these slices of the mid-1950s are, they make considerable sense. Whatever the poems of any of us have come to in the long run, Desnos or no, this Chicago Review glance proves one thing absolutely: all of us were nothing if not young. Concord, Massachusetts October 7, 1957 Dear Mr. Carroll: I want to call you on that "gray-flannel poets" piece. I didn't see the Western Review anthology (and wasn't in it), so I don't pretend to defend whatever poets were there, nor do I want to wish myself out of your own listing or defend myself from the tag. I don't like it, be sure, but what really bothers me is your promiscuous grouping of poets who are so various. I agree with you that there's too much "able, academic, anemic" verse floating its way into publication, and I'm damn well for the kind of guts that seem to me to be represented in Isabella Gardner's poem. If I were clearer what you meant by "adventure" and "gaudiness" I might vote for these things too. But to set these virtues up against the multiple strawman of your list does seem to me to be dubiously honest, and disastrously un-useful. What Nelson Algren gets said about critics on page 97 seems to me to apply here, as a matter of fact. Your list of gray flannel poets live on very different streets, I'd think: Hecht and Merrill are highly elegant, Hollander sometimes appears in the guise of university-wit, for instance, and Hall seems to write from a mind committed to scholarly disciplines. And so on. Maybe these literary addresses seem to you to rate flannelizing them (or others), but I can't in any case see how Merwin gets measured by the same tape. That he is brilliant I agree, but Green with Beasts is unlike any other book on your list: it's full of the riskiest kind of symbolic poems (like "The Station" or "The Mountain"). …


An "inverted classroom" is a teaching environment that integrates the use of technology with active learning by exploration. In such a teaching environment, the class contact time is used for learning by doing whereas passive teaching is done out of class through the use of some communication medium (video lectures, or web-based content). The aim of this study is to investigate the inverted class room pedagogy in teaching undergraduate computer science course. Its primary objective is to help in bridging the gap of knowledge pertaining to use of technology and its effectiveness within the context of undergraduate computer science education. The course selected for this study is that of Data Structures offered at undergraduate level at a Pakistani university. This study employs the use of the Quasi-Experiment, two groups (Control and Treatment) – Pre-test and Post-test design model of experimentation. Key deductions of this study are that use of inverted class room pedagogy has positive impact on the learning outcomes. Students, who were participants of this experiment, showed a higher knowledge gain than their control group counterparts. This difference is especially pronounced in the areas of problem solving and programming ability. The results from this study can be used to transform other traditional computer science courses to inverted form. Inverted class room pedagogy shows the potential to address issues of student disinterest, lack of motivation and lagging attendance.


Abstract Holtite, approximately (Al,Ta,□)Al6(BO3)(Si,Sb3+,As3+)Σ3O12(O,OH,□)Σ3, is a member of the dumortierite group that has been found in pegmatite, or alluvial deposits derived from pegmatite, at three localities: Greenbushes, Western Australia; Voron'i Tundry, Kola Peninsula, Russia; and Szklary, Lower Silesia, Poland. Holtite can contain >30 wt.% Sb2O3, As2O3, Ta2O5, Nb2O5, and TiO2 (taken together), but none of these constituents is dominant at a crystallographic site, which raises the question whether this mineral is distinct from dumortierite. The crystal structures of four samples from the three localities have been refined to R1 = 0.02-0.05. The results show dominantly: Al, Ta, and vacancies at the Al(1) position; Al and vacancies at the Al(2), (3) and (4) sites; Si and vacancies at the Si positions; and Sb, As and vacancies at the Sb sites for both Sb-poor (holtite I) and Sb-rich (holtite II) specimens. Although charge-balance calculations based on our single-crystal structure refinements suggest that essentially no water is present, Fourier transform infrared spectra confirm that some OH is present in the three samples that could be measured. By analogy with dumortierite, the largest peak at 3505-3490 cm-1 is identified with OH at the O(2) and O(7) positions. The single-crystal X-ray refinements and FTIR results suggest the following general formula for holtite: Al7-[5x+y+z]/3(Ta,Nb)x□[2x+y+z]/3BSi3-y(Sb,As)yO18-y-z(OH)z, where x is the total number of pentavalent cations, y is the total amount of Sb + As, and z ≤ y is the total amount of OH. Comparison with the electron microprobe compositions suggests the following approximate general formulae Al5.83(Ta,Nb)0.50□0.67BSi2.50(Sb,As)0.50O17.00(OH)0.50 and Al5.92(Ta,Nb)0.25□0.83BSi2.00(Sb,As)1.00O16.00(OH)1.00 for holtite I and holtite II respectively. However, the crystal structure refinements do not indicate a fundamental difference in cation ordering that might serve as a criterion for recognizing the two holtites as distinct species, and anion compositions are also not sufficiently different. Moreover, available analyses suggest the possibility of a continuum in the Si/(Sb + As) ratio between holtite I and dumortierite, and at least a partial continuum between holtite I and holtite II. We recommend that use of the terms holtite I and holtite II be discontinued.


The algorithm used to transform velocity signals from beam coordinates to earth coordinates in an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler relies on the assumption that the currents are uniform over the horizontal distance separating the beams. This condition may be violated by (nonlinear) internal waves, which can have wavelengths as small as 100 − 200m. In this case, the standard algorithm combines velocities measured at different phases of a wave and produces horizontal velocities that increasingly differ from true velocities with distance from the ADCP. Observations made in Massachusetts Bay show that currents measured with a bottom-mounted upward-looking ADCP during periods when short-wavelength internal waves are present differ significantly from currents measured by point current meters, except very close to the instrument. These periods are flagged with high error velocities by the standard ADCP algorithm. In this paper we use measurements from the four spatially diverging beams and the backscatter intensity signal to calculate the propagation direction and celerity of the internal waves. Once this information is known, a modified beam-to-earth transformation that combines appropriately lagged beam measurements can be used to obtain current estimates in earth coordinates that compare well with point-wise measurements.


In the study of language learning, researchers sometimes ask how languages in contact are related. They compare the linguistic features of the languages, how the mental grammars of each language sub-system are represented, put to use in performance, and how they interact. Within a linguistic family, languages can be closely related or distantly related, an interesting factor, for example, in understanding bilingualism and second language development. Dialects, on the other hand, are considered to be variants of the same language. While there is no way to always draw a sharp line between the categories of language and dialect, it is necessary to distinguish between the two kinds of language variation by the application of uniform criteria. The distinction between dialect and language is important for designing bilingual instructional programs, both for students who already speak two languages and for beginning second language learners.


Recent empirical work shows that inconsistent results based on choice of hyperparameter optimization (HPO) configuration are a widespread problem in ML research. When comparing two algorithms J and K searching one subspace can yield the conclusion that J outperforms K, whereas searching another can entail the opposite. In short, the way we choose hyperparameters can deceive us. We provide a theoretical complement to this prior work, arguing that, to avoid such deception, the process of drawing conclusions from HPO should be made more rigorous. We call this process epistemic hyperparameter optimization (EHPO), and put forth a logical framework to capture its semantics and how it can lead to inconsistent conclusions about performance. Our framework enables us to prove EHPO methods that are guaranteed to be defended against deception, given bounded compute time budget t. We demonstrate our framework's utility by proving and empirically validating a defended variant of random search.


The Monte Facito Formation consists of Early-Middle Triassic sediments deposited during the first stages of the continental separation of Africa and Europe. This stratigraphic unit, located at the base of the Mesozoic succession of the Lagonegro Basin, appears as a chaotic complex, severely affected by contractional tectonics, and whose original stratigraphic order is very difficult to determine. Despite these complications, a first attempt to determine stratigraphic order was performed on the southern side of the Monte Facito locality. Another key section considered was the La Cerchiara outcrop. As the Monte Facito section is no longer accessible, the La Cerchiara outcrop remains the only locality were a significant stratigraphic portion of the Monte Facito Formation can be observed. Nevertheless, the problematic way-up of the succession has until now prevented consideration of this outcrop as the main Monte Facito Formation type-succession. Difficulty in determining way-up is a consequence of a lack of high-resolution biostratigraphic dating combined with a paucity of well-preserved way-up sedimentary indicators. A detailed field survey, involving sedimentological, stratigraphic and structural observations, has been conducted with the aim of definitively understanding the correct younging direction of the Monte Facito succession exposed at the La Cerchiara locality. The recognition of well-preserved way-up sedimentary indicators, as well as graded beds and ripples, allows an eastward direction of younging to be attributed to the study succession. These results permit a better understanding of the evolution of the passive northern African palaeomargin during the Triassic period, which led to the opening of the Lagonegro Basin.


Intellectual assets are strategic resources that underlie a library's sustainable growth.
Many library experts are striving to design indicators for measuring the intangible
sides of library organizations. However, very little effort has been made to develop
indicators with specific reference to intellectual assets. The purpose of this study is
to apply intellectual capital concepts to academic library settings by exploring types
of intellectual assets from a new perspective for library managers, explaining the
motivation behind an interest in intangible assessment, and developing indicators to
evaluate measurable surrogates for library intellectual assets.
The researcher selected the case study methodology to investigate the actual
development of indicators at three university libraries in Thailand. Using multiple
methods of data collection, document reviews and semi-structured interviews yielded
the case descriptions, key success factors associated with intellectual assets, and
initial intangible indicators. Small-scale surveys were sequentially undertaken to test
user acceptance of the suggested indicators. The case findings from within-case
analysis were compared to examine similar patterns across the three case libraries
that led to the formation of theoretical propositions and the modification of the
conceptual framework for developing intangible indicators.
The key findings from this study are as follows: (1) library collections and
services can be treated as an additional category of library intangibles because they
are derived from a combination of human, structural and relationship assets; (2) two
main motives for interest in intangible assessment are tracking progress on
knowledge management projects and supplementing library evaluation reports with
information on intangibles; and (3) most indicator users at the operations
management level place more emphasis on the indicators developed for assessing
human assets, as well as on collection and service assets.
This research makes a major contribution to knowledge on library performance
evaluation by providing the theoretically-informed, empirically-supported
propositions that intellectual capital reporting principles are relevant and applicable
to internal assessment practices in Thai academic libraries. These propositions may
be transferable to other information service units where their contextual conditions
are similar to the case study libraries.


Because Chinese bloggers and microbloggers publish their opinions under the government's scrutiny, an interesting issue is whether or not these social media have influenced Chinese people's perceptions and conceptions of human rights. Blogging and microblogging activities require user involvement, communications, connection, and sharing. Such social interaction may lead to the establishment of new social issues and substantial changes in values and ideas. In the blogosphere where politics are not concerned, bloggers, microbloggers, and the Chinese courts have begun to define the scope of free speech. Therefore, social media's impact on China's politics and human rights — especially free speech and privacy — may be a gradual and subtle evolution, rather than a democratic revolution.From the perspectives of Chinese bloggers, the political control of online expression, such as censorship, is actually a tradeoff for free speech outside the political domain. In this essay, I will first analyze how the Chinese government controls political blogging and microblogging activities. Then I will examine a recent Chinese defamation case, Beijing Kingsoft Security Software Co., Ltd. v. Zhou, in which Chinese courts first explored the social role of microblogging and its relations with free speech. The Chinese case exhibits some controversies similar to the recent U.S. online defamation case, Obsidian Finance Group, LLC v. Cox, which was decided by an Oregon federal district court around the same time. From the Chinese court decision, we can, to some extent, understand that vigorous social media activities have gradually influenced the human rights practices in China in a positive way.


We have performed a large-scale evaluation of current computational methods, including conventional small-molecule force fields, semiempirical, density functional, ab initio electronic structure methods, and current machine learning (ML) techniques to evaluate relative single-point energies. Using up to 10 local minima geometries across ~700 molecules, each optimized by B3LYP-D3BJ with single-point DLPNO-CCSD(T) triple-zeta energies, we consider over 6,500 single points to compare the correlation between different methods for both relative energies and ordered rankings of minima. We find promise from current ML methods and recommend methods at each tier of the accuracy-time tradeoff, particularly the recent GFN2 semiempirical method, the B97-3c density functional approximation, and RI-MP2 for accurate conformer energies. The ANI family of ML methods shows promise, particularly the ANI-1ccx variant trained in part on coupled-cluster energies. Multiple methods suggest continued improvements should be expected in both performance and accuracy.


Cooperation among humans is one of the keys to our great evolutionary success. Natalie and Joseph Henrich examine this phenomena with a unique fusion of theoretical work on the evolution of cooperation, ethnographic descriptions of social behavior, and a range of other experimental results. Their experimental and ethnographic data come from a small, insular group of middle-class Iraqi Christians called Chaldeans, living in metro Detroit, whom the Henrichs use as an example to show how kinship relations, ethnicity, and culturally transmitted traditions provide the key to explaining the evolution of cooperation over multiple generations.


To know whether something as complex as a programme of nurse education is successful we have to determine what 'success' looks like and then seek evidence to judge its worth. Whilst this may sound straightforward, those with an interest in the quality of nurse education - students, healthcare providers, commissioners, professional bodies, academics, patients, the university and the wider public - will each have their own, quite legitimate, perspective on success. Success to a student may mean good academic support and achievement, to a patient it may mean developing the competence and compassion for care, to healthcare providers it could mean readiness for employment within an evolving service, and to professional bodies it will mean the students' proficiency and fitness to practise for professional registration. Whilst these perspectives on success are not mutually exclusive they do require education providers to design programmes that can evolve over the duration of their validation, accreditation or licensing period in order to maintain contemporaneousness, to draw on a range of data sources to evaluate learning quality within University and practice placements, and to demonstrate performance metrics that communicate the programme's worth. The worth of a programme is increasingly judged on the basis of value for money. Across the world, most higher education students take out government-funded loans or rely on family support and incur significant financial debt in order to complete their programmes, and hence there is expectation that programmes will lead directly to better pay graduate employment. There is also a highly competitive higher education market internationally and within most developed nations, and therefore the issue of designing for quality experience and outcomes takes on greater significance in order to ensure that degree programmes stand out from the crowd and are an applicant's first choice. This chapter takes the reader on a journey exploring the different dimensions of quality and the measures that can be used to evaluate the student's learning experience, progress, achievement and outcomes. It will consider the most effective governance arrangements, exploring international perspectives that ensure internal programme coherence as well as the confidence of external stakeholders, which include the public as well as employers. By drawing on contemporary international evidence and experience of those leading in the field of nurse education, this chapter will help the reader understand the importance of quality whilst also recognising its value in achieving a competitive edge.


Actinomycetes have provided many industrially important bioactive compounds having great economic importance and always being a curious organism for secondary metabolite production. Actinomycetes have long been recognized as prolific producers of enzymes, antibiotics, anti cancerous agents and play important role in recycling of organic matter. Numerous methods have been advocated for isolation of actinomycetes to facilitate the discovery of natural compounds specially antibiotics. Isolation of actinomycetes can fulfill all the novel essentialities associated with actinomycetes. Actinomycetes are widely distributed in the natural habitats, hence various methods like pretreatments, enrichment, combinations of antibiotics, specific isolation media and some novel methods has been adapted for isolation. Marine actinomycetes were also isolated by various methods and found to be important source for novel secondary metabolites. Rare actinomycetes isolated by providing combinations of methods or high throughput screening methods. Endophytic actinomycetes can be isolated by mostly chemical treatment for surface sterilization followed by serial dilution. Strategy for a range of isolation methods have been mentioned in this review for discovery of various genera of actinomycetes. K e y w o r d s Actinomycetes, antibiotics, isolation methods, Enrichment


Through evolution, vertebrates have "chosen" the calcium phosphate mineral apatite to mineralize their teeth and bones. This article describes the key characteristics of apatite in biological mineralization and explores how the apatite structure allows biology to control mineral composition and functionality. Through the synthesis and testing of calcium phosphates for biomaterials applications, we have gained further understanding of how sensitive the chemical and physical properties of apatite are to its growth conditions.


We propose C-NORTA, an exact algorithm to generate random variates from the tail of a bivariate NORTA random vector. (A NORTA random vector is specified by a pair of marginals and a rank or product--moment correlation, and it is sampled using the popular NORmal-To-Anything procedure.) We first demonstrate that a rejection-based adaptation of NORTA on such constrained random vector generation problems may often be fundamentally intractable. We then develop the C-NORTA algorithm, relying on strategic conditioning of the NORTA vector, followed by efficient approximation and acceptance/rejection steps. We show that, in a certain precise asymptotic sense, the sampling efficiency of C-NORTA is exponentially larger than what is achievable through a naive application of NORTA. Furthermore, for at least a certain class of problems, we show that the acceptance probability within C-NORTA decays only linearly with respect to a defined rarity parameter. The corresponding decay rate achievable through a naive adaptation of NORTA is exponential. We provide directives for efficient implementation.


Abstract. Temporal variations in wind speed and significant wave height (SWH) at a location in the eastern Arabian Sea are studied using ERA-Interim reanalysis data from 1979 to 2012. A shallow water location is selected for the study since measured buoy data are available close to the location for comparison with the reanalysis data. The annual mean wind speed shows a statistically significant decreasing trend of 1.5 cm s−1 year−1, whereas a statistically insignificant increasing trend of 3.6 cm s−1 year−1 is observed for annual maximum wind speed due to the local events that altered the trend in annual maximum wind speed. Weakening of SWH during one of the peak monsoon months (August) is identified from the monthly analysis of SWH, which shows a higher upward trend in SWH during the southwest monsoon period, with an exception during August. The annual mean SWH shows a slight upward trend (0.012 cm year−1), whereas a larger upward trend (1.4 cm year−1) is observed for annual maximum SWH. Both identified trends are statistically insignificant. The influence of tropical cyclone activity is also studied and it is found that the maximum SWH and wind speed during 1996 are directly related to the cyclonic event.


Objective. This paper introduces a fully automated, subject-specific deep-learning convolutional neural network (CNN) system for forecasting seizures using ambulatory intracranial EEG (iEEG). The system was tested on a hand-held device (Mayo Epilepsy Assist Device) in a pseudo-prospective mode using iEEG from four canines with naturally occurring epilepsy. Approach. The system was trained and tested on 75 seizures collected over 1608 d utilizing a genetic algorithm to optimize forecasting hyper-parameters (prediction horizon (PH), median filter window length, and probability threshold) for each subject-specific seizure forecasting model. The trained CNN models were deployed on a hand-held tablet computer and tested on testing iEEG datasets from four canines. The results from the iEEG testing datasets were compared with Monte Carlo simulations using a Poisson random predictor with equal time in warning to evaluate seizure forecasting performance. Main results. The results show the CNN models forecasted seizures at rates significantly above chance in all four dogs (p   <  0.01, with mean 0.79 sensitivity and 18% time in warning). The deep learning method presented here surpassed the performance of previously reported methods using computationally expensive features with standard machine learning methods like logistic regression and support vector machine classifiers. Significance. Our findings principally support the feasibility of deploying trained CNN models on a hand-held computational device (Mayo Epilepsy Assist Device) that analyzes streaming iEEG data for real-time seizure forecasting.


Not only is the South China Sea of strategic importance, it is also rich in oil and other natural resources. As such, it is the subject of overlapping territorial disputes between several East and Southeast Asian countries as well as the scene of military tensions and potentially dangerous conflicts. Recent proof of this was the crisis in Sino-American relations in April 2001 following the mid-air collision between a US surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter over waters claimed to be Chinese by the PRC but asserted to be international by the USA. Nor has this been the only recent incident. But disputes over the South China Sea are much more complex matters than simply issues of military security. Environmental values, economic security and political developments are also involved. Spanning the full complexity of the situation, this volume: covers its historical and legal background; analyses its environmental, economic, military and political dimensions; and assesses the potential for containing and resolving disputes as well as transforming the structures of conflict in the region. The book features contributions from leading scholars in South China Sea and conflict studies. Its comprehensive but coherent nature also makes it ideal for use as a textbook or information resource. A useful work for researchers in the field, this study should also appeal to a more general readership.


The electronic invoicing (EI) of taxes is one of Latin America's contributions to international taxation in support of the fight against evasion, global efforts towards tax transparency, and the digitization of tax administrations (TAs). Initially, EI was conceived as an instrument of documentary control over the invoicing process, so as to avert both the omission of sales and the inclusion of false purchases. The original idea was extended to other areas of tax control, such as payroll, goods in transit, and new services such as factoring. To some extent, EI can be regarded as the start of the process of digitizing the TAs in the broad sense. This publication addresses the pioneering experience of EI in Latin America, from its implementation to its extensions and impact on tax collection.


Throughout history and to this date in a continuously globalized world, monotheistic religions and medicine have caused numerous acrimonious debates especially in crucial moments of life and death. Medical and nursing staff working with patients from different religions in any country in the world must adhere to and respect those patients' faiths and be aware of them to provide better patient care and in worst case scenarios, avoid litigation. Furthermore, this paper should not to be treated as an encyclopedic reference; it is merely a general overview into the three monotheistic faiths to alert professional healthcare staff of the possibility of a religious implication even if it contradicts their own concerns and points of views. In this paper, a general overview of some aspects of Judaism, Christianity and Islam's doctrines concerning informed consent, abortion, do not resuscitate -DNR, euthanasia and end-of-life care, and autopsies are highlighted and presented. After describing the Islamic viewpoint on each medical process presented herein, a final chapter from an insider's perspective will recount some examples of how the aforementioned medical processes are carried out from the standpoint of one of Saudi Arabia's societies. Comments Submitted to the Program of Organizational Dynamics in the Graduate Division of the School of Arts and Sciences in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Organizational Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania Advisor: Adrian Tschoegl This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/od_theses_msod/46 THE IMPLCATIONS OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ON MEDICAL AND PATIENT CARE


A specific size of whole tree chip was needed to co-mill wood chips with coal. The specifications are stringent because chips must be mixed with coal, as opposed to a co-firing process. In co-firing, two raw products are conveyed separately to a boiler. In co-milling, such as at Alabama Power's Plant Gadsden, the chip and coal mix must pass through a series of conveyors, a pulverizer, and pipes to the furnace. Handling specifications require smooth cut edges, as opposed to shredded edges. In a partnership involving several entities, including the National Forests in Alabama, Alabama Power Company, Forest-Based Economic Development Services, Precision- Husky, the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station, and others, a trial was conducted to determine if wood chips could be created in a one-step in-woods process that would meet the stringent requirements of the power plant. Precision-Husky, of Leeds, Alabama, volunteered to work with the partnership to manufacture a machine that would create the chips to the stringent specifications needed.