The number of nonconforming items in a sample is monitored using the fraction defective known as the np-chart. The performance of the np-chart in Phase II depends on the accuracy of the estimated parameter in Phase I. Although taking large sample sizes ensures the accuracy of the estimated parameter, it can be impractical for attributes in some cases. Recently, the traditional c-chart and the np-chart with some adjustments have been studied to guarantee the in-control performance. Due to technology progresses, researchers have faced high-quality processes with a very low rate of nonconformity, for which traditional control charts are inadequate. To ameliorate such inaccuracy, this study develops a new method for designing the np-chart, such that the in-control performance is guaranteed with a pre-defined probability. The proposed method uses Cornish-Fisher expansions and the bootstrap method to guarantee the desired conditional in-control average run length. Through a simulation study, this study shows that the proposed adjustments improve the np-charts' in-control performance.


AIMS
The pathophysiology of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is complex but increased left ventricular (LV) diastolic stiffness plays a key role. A load-independent, non-invasive, direct measure of diastolic stiffness is lacking. The diastolic wall strain (DWS) index is based on the linear elastic theory, which predicts that impaired diastolic wall thinning reflects resistance to deformation in diastole and thus, increased diastolic myocardial stiffness. The objectives of this community-based study were to determine the distribution of this novel index in consecutive HFpEF patients and healthy controls, define the relationship between DWS and cardiac structure and function and determine whether increased diastolic stiffness as assessed by DWS is predictive of the outcome in HFpEF.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Consecutive HFpEF patients (n = 327, EF ≥ 50%) and controls (n = 528) from the same community were studied. Diastolic wall strain was lower in HFpEF (0.33 ± 0.08) than in controls (0.40 ± 0.07, P < 0.001). Within HFpEF, those with DWS ≤ median (0.33) had higher LV mass index, relative wall thickness, E/e', Doppler-estimated LV end-diastolic pressure to LV end-diastolic volume ratio, left atrial volume index, and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels than those with DWS > median. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction patients with DWS ≤ median had higher rate of death or HF hospitalization than those with DWS > median (P = 0.003) even after the adjustment for age, gender, log BNP, LV geometry, or log E/e' (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION
These data suggest that DWS, a simple index, is useful in assessing diastolic stiffness and that more advanced diastolic stiffness is associated with worse outcomes in HFpEF.


Architecture design has become a crucial component of successful deep learning. Recent progress in automatic neural architecture search (NAS) shows a lot of promise. However, discovered architectures often fail to generalize in the final evaluation. Architectures with a higher validation accuracy during the search phase may perform worse in the evaluation. Aiming to alleviate this common issue, we introduce sequential greedy architecture search (SGAS), an efficient method for neural architecture search. By dividing the search procedure into sub-problems, SGAS chooses and prunes candidate operations in a greedy fashion. We apply SGAS to search architectures for Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Graph Convolutional Networks (GCN). Extensive experiments show that SGAS is able to find state-of-the-art architectures for tasks such as image classification, point cloud classification and node classification in protein-protein interaction graphs with minimal computational cost.


Nemkovella daguini (Neumann, 1958) is a small-sized orthophragminid species previously reported from the Lutetian to lower Priabonian shelf deposits of the peri-Mediterranean region (Western Tethys). This species, originally established from the Aquitaine Basin (France), differs significantly from typical nemkovellas and other orthophragminids by having isolated adauxiliary and orbitoidal chamberlets that progressively give rise to the formation of typical annular chambers in the neanic stage. We record here for the first time this species from the lower Priabonian Tahwah Formation in the Arabian Peninsula and from the transitional middle-upper Eocene Prang Formation in Meghalaya (India), giving a detailed description and biometry. This expands the geographic range of N. daguini to the Eastern Tethys, allowing us to provide an enhanced scheme for the correlation of peri-Mediterranean deposits with those from the South Asia. In previous studies the majority of the larger benthic foraminiferal (LBF) fauna from this region were considered to belong to the Indo-Pacific bioprovince. The LBF in Tahwah Formation, on the other hand, are here considered to have greater affinity with those of Western Tethys based on the occurrence of Heterostegina reticulata, Nummulites hormoensis, Assilina gr. schwageri-alpina, and Silvestriella tetraedra. The occurrence of Pellatispira in this unit, represented by at least two species, shows Indo-Pacific influence in Oman.


Objective: To investigate the role of TGF-β1 on Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) and invasion ability in human bladder cancer cell line T24.
Methods: After pre-treatment with TGF-β1 of different concentrations for 24 h, we observed the morphological changes of T24 cells under phase-contrast microscopy. The mRNA and protein expression levels of EMT relative marker E-cadherin and Vimentin were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. The effect of TGF-β1 on migration and invasion abilities of T2 cell line was detected with transwell migration and invasion assay.
Results: Results demonstrated that TGF-β1 could induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition in T24 cells. The mRNA and protein levels of epithelial marker E-cadherin were downregulated by TGF-β1, whereas those of mesenchymal maker protein Vimentin were upregulated. Furthermore, it is noted that TGF-β1 could significantly enhance the migration and invasion ability of T24 cells, which, however, could be effectively reversed by TGF-β1 inhibitor LY2109761.
Conclusion: TGF-β1 can enhance migration and invasion ability of T24 cells by inducing epithelial mesenchymal transition.


Importance
Polygenic risk scores comprising millions of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) could be useful for population-wide coronary heart disease (CHD) screening.

Objective
To determine whether a polygenic risk score improves prediction of CHD compared with a guideline-recommended clinical risk equation.

Design, Setting, and Participants
A retrospective cohort study of the predictive accuracy of a previously validated polygenic risk score was assessed among 4847 adults of white European ancestry, aged 45 through 79 years, participating in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and 2390 participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) from 1996 through December 31, 2015, the final day of follow-up. The performance of the polygenic risk score was compared with that of the 2013 American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association pooled cohort equations.

Exposures
Genetic risk was computed for each participant by summing the product of the weights and allele dosage across 6 630 149 SNPs. Weights were based on an international genome-wide association study.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Prediction of 10-year first CHD events (including myocardial infarctions, fatal coronary events, silent infarctions, revascularization procedures, or resuscitated cardiac arrest) assessed using measures of model discrimination, calibration, and net reclassification improvement (NRI).

Results
The study population included 4847 adults from the ARIC study (mean [SD] age, 62.9 [5.6] years; 56.4% women) and 2390 adults from the MESA cohort (mean [SD] age, 61.8 [9.6] years; 52.2% women). Incident CHD events occurred in 696 participants (14.4%) and 227 participants (9.5%), respectively, over median follow-up of 15.5 years (interquartile range [IQR], 6.3 years) and 14.2 (IQR, 2.5 years) years. The polygenic risk score was significantly associated with 10-year CHD incidence in ARIC with hazard ratios per SD increment of 1.24 (95% CI, 1.15 to 1.34) and in MESA, 1.38 (95% CI, 1.21 to 1.58). Addition of the polygenic risk score to the pooled cohort equations did not significantly increase the C statistic in either cohort (ARIC, change in C statistic, -0.001; 95% CI, -0.009 to 0.006; MESA, 0.021; 95% CI, -0.0004 to 0.043). At the 10-year risk threshold of 7.5%, the addition of the polygenic risk score to the pooled cohort equations did not provide significant improvement in reclassification in either ARIC (NRI, 0.018, 95% CI, -0.012 to 0.036) or MESA (NRI, 0.001, 95% CI, -0.038 to 0.076). The polygenic risk score did not significantly improve calibration in either cohort.

Conclusions and Relevance
In this analysis of 2 cohorts of US adults, the polygenic risk score was associated with incident coronary heart disease events but did not significantly improve discrimination, calibration, or risk reclassification compared with conventional predictors. These findings suggest that a polygenic risk score may not enhance risk prediction in a general, white middle-aged population.


Artificial photosynthesis is an attractive strategy for converting solar energy into fuel. In this context, development of catalysts for oxidation of water to molecular oxygen remains a critical bottleneck. Herein, we describe the preparation of a well-defined nanostructured RuO2 catalyst, which is able to carry out the oxidation of water both chemically and photochemically. The developed heterogeneous RuO2 nanocatalyst was found to be highly active, exceeding the performance of most known heterogeneous water oxidation catalysts when driven by chemical or photogenerated oxidants.


Image fusion is a process which combines the data from two or more source images from the same scene to generate one single image containing more precise details of the scene than any of the source images. Among many image fusion methods like averaging, principle component analysis and various types of Pyramid Transforms, Discrete cosine transform, Discrete Wavelet Transform special frequency and ANN and they are the most common approaches. In this paper multi-focus image is used as a case study. This paper addresses these issues in image fusion: Fused two images by different techniques which present in this research, Quality assessment of fused images with above methods, Comparison of different techniques to determine the best approach and Implement the best technique by using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). First a brief review of these techniques is presented and then each fusion method is performed on various images. In addition experimental results are quantitatively evaluated by calculation of root mean square error, entropy; mutual information, standard deviation and peak signal to noise ratio measures for fused images and a comparison is accomplished between these methods. Then we chose the best techniques to implement them by FPGA.


Introduction. Book I: An Accounting Primer. Chapter 1: Principles of Accounting. Chapter 2: Double-Entry Bookkeeping. Chapter 3: Special Accounting Problems. Book II: Getting Ready to Use QuickBooks. Chapter 1: Setting Up QuickBooks. Chapter 2: Loading the Master File Lists. Chapter 3: Fine-Tuning QuickBooks. Book III: Bookkeeping Chores. Chapter 1: Invoicing Customers. Chapter 2: Paying Vendors. Chapter 3: Tracking Inventory and Items. Chapter 4: Managing Cash and Bank Accounts. Chapter 5: Paying Employees. Book IV: Accounting Chores. Chapter 1: For Accountants Only. Chapter 2: Preparing Financial Statements and Reports. Chapter 3: Preparing a Budget. Chapter 4: Using Activity-Based Costing. Chapter 5: Setting Up Project and Job Costing Systems. Book V: Financial Management. Chapter 1: Ratio Analysis. Chapter 2: Economic Value Added Analysis. Chapter 3: Capital Budgeting in a Nutshell. Book VI: Business Plans. Chapter 1: Profi t-Volume-Cost Analysis. Chapter 2: Creating a Business Plan Forecast. Chapter 3: Writing a Business Plan. Book VII: Care and Maintenance. Chapter 1: Administering QuickBooks. Chapter 2: Protecting Your Data. Chapter 3: Troubleshooting. Book VIII: Appendixes. Appendix A: A Crash Course in Excel. Appendix B: Government Web Resources for Businesses. Appendix C: Glossary of Accounting and Financial Terms. Index.


Polygenic risk scores (PRS) aggregating results from genome-wide association studies are the state of the art in the prediction of susceptibility to complex traits or diseases, yet their predictive performance is limited for various reasons, not least of which is their failure to incorporate the effects of gene-gene interactions. Novel machine learning algorithms that use large amounts of data promise to find gene-gene interactions in order to build models with better predictive performance than PRS. Here, we present a data preprocessing step by using data-mining of contextual information to reduce the number of features, enabling machine learning algorithms to identify gene-gene interactions. We applied our approach to the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) dataset, an observational clinical study of 471 genotyped subjects (368 cases and 152 controls). With an AUC of 0.85 (95% CI = [0.72; 0.96]), the interaction-based prediction model outperforms the PRS (AUC of 0.58 (95% CI = [0.42; 0.81])). Furthermore, feature importance analysis of the model provided insights into the mechanism of Parkinson's disease. For instance, the model revealed an interaction of previously described drug target candidate genes TMEM175 and GAPDHP25. These results demonstrate that interaction-based machine learning models can improve genetic prediction models and might provide an answer to the missing heritability problem.


Decades before the revival of spoken Hebrew in Palestine, Italian educators created tools that encouraged students to practice the language in conversation as if it were a living tongue. Leone Reggio's Urrpn pwV ri3U> Studio pratico della lingua santa is the best example of these works. Modeled on contempo rary foreign language textbooks, Reggio's manual prepared students to speak Hebrew by equipping them with a broad vocabulary and a wide range of use ful phrases and supplying a collection of model dialogues to be imitated in conversation. Although Reggio saw the study of Hebrew as an important way to preserve religious values at a moment when the Italian ghettos were being dismantled, his textbook differs from its rivals in its thoroughly secular con tent. Reggio's own description of the book indicates that he saw himself as preparing the way for the use of Hebrew as a national vernacular.


The use of stem cells combined with gene therapy could be an important way to facilitate bone regeneration. In this study, the aim was to investigate the potential of growth and differentiation factor-5 (GDF5) to genetically manipulate human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) for bone regeneration. Recombinant adenovirus Ad-GDF5 and Ad-GFP were constructed and identified, and the titer of both were determined. Third-passage hMSCs were infected with adenovirus, and the expression of GDF5 was confirmed by detection of GFP-positive cells, GDF5 mRNA levels, Western blotting, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). hMSCs at passage 3 were divided into four groups: (1) an experimental group infected with Ad-GDF5, (2) a positive control group cultured with osteogenic differentiation medium, (3) a control group infected with Ad-GFP cultured with standard medium, and (4) a blank control group cultured with standard medium. Evaluation of cell morphology and proliferation, analysis of the expression of genes related to osteogenic differentiation, von Kossa staining, and immunofluorescent staining of collagen I were used to investigate the osteogenesis of cells among the groups. After culturing the cells for 2 days under each corresponding condition, the cells were detached and subcutaneously injected into the backs of nude mice to evaluate bone formation. Samples were collected for histological staining, protein Western blotting, and micro-computer tomography. When infected with Ad-GDF5, hMSCs could overexpress GDF5 for a prolonged period in vitro and reach a concentration of 160 ng/ml. Cells infected with Ad-GDF5 or cultured in osteogenic medium displayed osteogenic differentiation based on their histological and cellular properties and on their gene and protein expression patterns. Furthermore, Ad-GDF5 showed a better ability to upregulate the expression of collagen I, alkaline phosphatase, and osteocalcin mRNA than the osteogenic medium. Furthermore, Ad-GDF5 expression was associated with enhanced bone formation in vivo. Our findings suggest that hMSCs infected with Ad-GDF5 can differentiate in an osteogenic direction and may be a promising cell source for bone regeneration.


Inspired by recent advances in the theory of modified differential equations, we propose a new methodology for constructing numerical integrators with high weak order for the time integration of stochastic differential equations. This approach is illustrated with the constructions of new methods of weak order two, in particular, semi-implicit integrators well suited for stiff (mean-square stable) stochastic problems, and implicit integrators that exactly conserve all quadratic first integrals of a stochastic dynamical system. Numerical examples confirm the theoretical results and show the versatility of our methodology.


6-Chloro-9-(4-methoxy-3,5-dimethyl-pyridin-2-ylmethyl)-9H-purin-2-ylamine (BIIB021), a synthetic HSP90 inhibitor, exhibited promising antitumor activity in preclinical models and was in development for the treatment of breast cancer. The metabolism and excretion of BIIB021 was investigated in rats and dogs after oral administration of [14C]BIIB021. The administered radioactive dose was quantitatively recovered in both species, and feces/bile was the major route of excretion. Metabolic profiling revealed that BIIB021 is extensively metabolized primarily via hydroxylation of the methyl group (M7), O-demethylation (M2), and to a lesser extent by glutathione conjugation (M8 and M9). M7 was further metabolized to form the carboxylic acid (M3) and glucuronide conjugate (M4). Human plasma obtained from the phase I study in cancer patients were also analyzed to assess the metabolism of BIIB021 in humans and to ensure that selected animal species were exposed to all human major metabolites. Results suggested that BIIB021 is metabolized via hydroxylation followed by carboxylation and glucuronidation in humans consistent with rat and dog; however, an additional dominant circulating metabolite, hydroxylation at the purine ring (M10), was identified in humans. Preliminary in vitro studies using liver cytosolic fractions indicated that M10 formation is primarily catalyzed by aldehyde oxidase (AO). AO catalytic activity for M10 formation was the highest in the monkey, followed by mouse, human, and rat. The apparent Km and Vmax values of M10 formation were 174 ± 8 µM and 14.0 ± 0.3 pmol•min−1•mg protein−1 in human and 132 ± 9 µM and 131 ± 4 pmol•min−1•mg protein−1 in monkey, respectively.


Leak-off pressures (LOPs) recorded during leak-off tests (LOTs) conducted down boreholes are often used to estimate the magnitude of the minimum stress (usually assumed to be horizontal – S(_h)) in the subsurface. However, the reliability of these tests has previously been questioned in the literature and the accuracy of the data obtained from them has been in doubt. Using original LOT data from Mid-Norway, this study has shown that through stringent quality control, good LOT data can be used to accurately constrain the magnitude of S(_h). Knowledge of the relationship between in-situ stress and pore pressures (Pp) in basins provides insights into their structure as well as having implications for well design and drilling safety. Using stress-depth plots to display S(_h) measurements from Mid-Norway and six further basins from around the world reveals a variability in the magnitude of Sh at all depths. Analyses show that rock mechanical properties or differences in the way LOTs are performed cannot explain this variability. Separate analysis of extended leak-off test (XLOT) data from Mid-Norway shows that variability in the magnitude of the LOP (most often used to calculate S(_h)) is inherent in the testing procedure. This inherence suggests either the variations in Sh are real (they represent basin heterogeneities) or that they result from a combination or rock mechanical and/or pumping pressure test parameters. Further use of multiple cycle XLOTs shows that using LOPs and instantaneous shut-in pressures (ISIPs) to calculate S(_h) produces similar results. Considering re-opening cycles of tests and those tests from greater depths shows the difference between the magnitude of Sh calculated using the LOP and ISIP is reduced. These same high quality data have been used to calculate the magnitude of the three principal stress from Mid-Norway and show the contemporary stress situation to be S(_h)<S(_v)<S(_H).Compilations of S(_h) and P(_p) have also been used to calculate the lower bound to LOPs and the upper limit to P(_p) as means of predicting Sh. Results show that using the lower bound to estimate the maximum P(_p) (or the upper limit to estimate S(_h)) will lead to large errors within normally pressured zones but successful estimates at overpressured depths. Analyses also show that there is no systematic relationship between the magnitude of the lower bound to LOPs and the contemporary stress situation. The S(_h) and P(_p) data were normalised to a "hypothetical unconstrained basiri' and/or depth to investigate pore pressure in-situ stress coupling and quantify the change in S(_h) with overpressure. Results show that coupling can be inferred in three of the seven basins studied. Poro-elasticity or frictional limits to stress are the most likely coupling mechanisms because regional S(_h) magnitudes do not relate to tectonic regime. Coupling is not inferred for Mid-Norway. An explanation for the lack of coupling is the late timing of overpressure following normal compaction of the rocks. It is suggested that "inflationary mechanism" overpressures produce lower ∆S(_h)/ ∆P(_p) values than overpressures that developed synchronous with burial. Using the poro-elasticity equation to back-calculate the Poisson's ratio (v) of the rocks reveals high values thus establishing a relationship between high v and higher levels of compaction.


Adverse drug reactions represent a significant burden from a hospital, healthcare and societal perspective comprising the 4th to 6th most common cause of death in some series. Clinically, adverse drug reactions have been classified according to those that are predictable and dose-dependent on the basis of their pharmalogical actions ("Type A") versus those that are believed to be immunogenetically mediated and not predictable based on traditional clinical and pharmalogical properties of the drug ("Type B") (Table 20.1). A major breakthrough has been the association between HLA class I and II alleles and Type B adverse drug reactions. Examples include the striking association between HLA-B*5701 and abacavir hypersensitivity syndrome (ABC HSR), HLA-B*1502 and Stevens-Johnson syndrome/Toxic epidermal necrolysis (SJS/TEN) associated with carbamazepine, and HLA-B*5801 and drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome (DIHS) and SJS/TEN associated with allopurinol. These associations have been facilitated by the introduction of molecular methods improving the accuracy and resolution of HLA typing and improved phenotyping of specific drug toxicities. Furthermore, the discovery of associations between specific HLA and these drug toxicities such DIHS and SJS/TEN have fuelled our understanding of the immunopathogenesis of these syndromes. The associations between HLA and drug toxicity are hence important from both a clinical and scientific point of view. Drugs may be viewed as an experiment of man acting as a probe to provoke potentially vigorous and life threatening HLA-restricted immune responses. From a clinical standpoint the association between HLA drug toxicity represents an impotant opportunity to increase drug safety and prevent the traditionally unpredictable Type B reactions by excluding high-risk patients from the drug in question. The widespread uptake of HLA-based pharmacogenetics from discovery to clinical implementation.


Pharmaceuticals are mainly introduced into the environment via two pathways. The first path is the application of veterinary drugs to animals, as they are excreted, high concentration are found in manure. As this contaminated manure is utilised for fertilising the fields a soil issue arises. The second path is the treatment of infections in the human medicine. When these residues are excreted they are transported through the sewers to sewage treatment plants and are then discharged with the treated wastewater into the aquatic environment. In this thesis the enviromental fate of the antibiotics erythromycin, roxithromycin, clarithromycin, tylosin, oleandomycin, tiamulin, salinomycin, the steroid hormones 17 β-estradiol, estrone, estriol, 16 α-hydroxyestrone and β-estradiol 17-acetate, the hormone-conjugates β-estradiol 3-sulfate and estrone 3-sulfate, the oral contraceptives 17 α-ethinylestradiol and mestranol were studied.
To assess the fate of the macrolide antibiotics, ionophores, pleuromutilins, steroid hormones, oral contraceptives and hormone-conjugates, three new analytical methods were developed in respect of the different matrices manure, soil and wastewater. These analytical methods are based on the extraction methods liquid liquid extraction (LLE), solid phase extraction (SPE) and accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) in combination with the clean-up steps SPE, size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and the detection in different ionisation modes of highperformance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Isotopic labelled internal standards were used to account for matrix-effects in the HPLC-MS/MS analysis. As the availability of deuterated macrolide antibiotics standards is poor, a new macrolide internal standard was synthesised. For the determination of veterinary pharmaceuticals the limit of quantifications (LOQ) were determined. They were between 1.4 and 11 ng/g for manure and 0.6 to 30 ng/g in soil, whereas the LOQ in wastewater ranged from 0.6 to 35 ng/L . For the analysis of the steroid hormones and macrolide antibiotics in wastewater compliance within EU decision 657/2002/EC was achieved.
The fate of the veterinary used antibiotics was studied with degradation experiments under anaerobic and aerobic conditions in manure and soil. Half-lives for antibiotics in manure ranged from 5 days up to >200 days and half-lives in soil ranged from 5 days up to >120 days. Additionally new metabolites of the antibiotic salinomycin in manure were identified by means of high performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionisation coupled with high resolution time of flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-HR-TOF-MS) and different tandem mass spectrometric techniques.
The fate of steroid hormones and macrolide antibiotics during wastewater treatment was researched by testing the elimination efficiencies of three different concepts of STPs over four weeks at different weather conditions. While larger STPs eliminated hormones more constantly than smaller STPs, heavy rainfall events led to a collapse of the biological treatment step. By using trickling filter techniques for the treatment of wastewater an elimination of the steroid hormones could not be observed. Also no significant elimination of macrolide antibiotics during wastewater treatment could be detected in all three STPs.


Mr M. J. Arthur writes: Hutton (1982) suggested that the Main Donegal Granite (MDG) was accommodated in a NE–SW zone of tension ('elongate hole'), contemporaneously with NE–SW sinistral shearing around that zone about 400 Ma ago (end Silurian–early Devonian times). Calculations from strain studies suggested that the sinistral displacement was about 20 km at its maximum, across the NW boundary of the MDG, but only about 5 km where the NW and SE boundaries united and continued to the SW (Hutton 1982). No figure was given for the offset across the SE boundary, though it was considered to be a major sinistral shear zone (Hutton 1982). However, Hutton (1982) proposed an unorthodox 'crack opening model' for the emplacement, which is adequately explained by the well established pull-apart model. The MDG has the rhomboidal/elliptical shape (Fig. 1) typical of a pull-apart produced at a releasing bend (cf. Crowell 1974, fig. 3), resulting from the intersection of the two throughgoing parts of a left-stepping sinistral wrench fault (cf. Ramsay 1980, fig. 18). The MDG is about 50 km long and 11 km wide and thus has a length/width ratio of about 4.5, whilst the ratio for pull-aparts is commonly between 2 and 5 with an average of about 3 (Aydin & Nur 1982). Emplacement into an 'elongate hole' contemporaneously with shearing around it, is precisely a characteristic expected of a pull-apart. Although pull-aparts are perhaps best known for their occupation by sedimentary deposits they also often contain contemporaneous igneous


Human behavior is fascinating, and there is no exception to what its influences are on the financial market. This dissertation consists of three essays that examine corporate behavior that is affected by decisions made by the top management. The first essay studies the rationale for leveraged buyout syndication. It demonstrates discrepancies among the decisions made by managers with different educational backgrounds as well as a network effect when it comes to cooperation. The second essay investigates what firm attributes lead to CEO option date manipulation. It suggests that this practice is not a result of inferior corporate governance, and the passage of the 2002 SOX seems to change the considerations behind. The third essay explores whether the existence of family influences helps alleviate the traditional principal-agent problem in small corporations. The findings are consistent with family control acting as a substitute for pay performance as a corporate governance mechanism. Taken together, this dissertation contributes to the understanding not only the role played by the top management, but also the mechanisms involved in the process, either in decision making or in performance.


The interview was recorded at the New York ,on April 17, 1991. The Interviewer was James Sutterlin.
 Considered as one of the pioneers of Israeli diplomacy, Gideon Rafael started his career in 1947, lobbying at the United Nations for a Jewish state. His efforts were rewarded when Israel gained its independence in 1948 and Mr. Rafael helped Moshe Sharett set up the Israeli Foreign Ministry. At the 1949-1950 Lausanne Conference, he was head of the Israeli Delegation. He served as the Ambassador to Belgium and the European Community before being appointed as Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 1967. Mr. Rafael served at that capacity until 1968, when he returned to Jerusalem as Foreign Ministry Director-General. From 1973 to 1977, he served as Ambassador to London before retirement.

Mr. Rafael's diplomatic efforts were instrumental in the founding of Israel, the implementation of Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) (S/RES/242(1967)) and during the 1956 Suez War. In this interview, conducted on 17 April 1991, Mr. Rafael shares these experiences in his diplomatic career, giving insight on Israeli sentiment on these events, as well as reflecting on the relationships between the parties involved.


Abstracts How close are the relationships between young adults and their parents today? Which factors account for closer or less close relationships between the generations? The theoretical model considers opportunity, need, family and cultural-contextual structures. The empirical analyses draw on the Swiss TREE survey ("Transitions from Education to Employment"). They reveal remarkably close ties between the generations. However, we also find a number of strains, such as the separation of parents and unemployment of adult children, that contribute to family relationships being less close. The findings provide insight into the reality of intergenerational relationships during a dynamic period of life.


Based on the atmospheric regional climate model HIRHAM5, the single-column model version HIRHAM5-SCM was developed and applied to investigate the performance of a relative humidity (RH-Scheme) and a prognostic statistical (PS-Scheme) cloud scheme in the central Arctic. The surface pressure as well as dynamical tendencies of temperature, specific humidity, and horizontal wind were prescribed from the ERA-Interim data set to enable the simulation of a realistic annual cycle. Both modeled temperature and relative humidity profiles were validated against radio soundings carried out on the 35th North Pole drifting station (NP-35). In addition, simulated total cloud cover was evaluated with NP-35 and satellite-based ISCCP-D2 and MODIS observations. The more sophisticated PS-Scheme was found to perform more realistically and matches the observations better than the RH-Scheme. Nevertheless, the model overestimates the monthly averaged total cloud cover in the Arctic systematically almost throughout the year. Thus, sensitivity experiments were conducted to assess the effect of changing model adjustment parameters. Two tunable parameters of the PS-Scheme and several tuning parameters contained in the cloud microphysics were analyzed. Both the PS-Scheme adjustment parameter q_0, which defines the shape of the symmetric beta distribution (applied probability density function), and the minimum cloud water content CW_min are potentially able to reduce the overestimation of Arctic cloud cover in the model. Furthermore, the cloud ice threshold g_thr, which controls the Bergeron-Findeisen process, could correct the overestimation/underestimation of liquid/ice water content.


Background Clinical features of metabolic acidosis and pneumonia frequently overlap in young diarrheal children, resulting in differentiation from each other very difficult. However, there is no published data on the predictors of metabolic acidosis in diarrheal children also having pneumonia. Our objective was to evaluate clinical predictors of metabolic acidosis in under-five diarrheal children with radiological pneumonia, and their outcome. Methods We prospectively enrolled all under-five children (n = 164) admitted to the Special Care Ward (SCW) of the Dhaka Hospital of icddr, b between September and December 2007 with diarrhea and radiological pneumonia who also had their total serum carbon-dioxide estimated. We compared the clinical features and outcome of children with radiological pneumonia and diarrhea with (n = 98) and without metabolic acidosis (n = 66). Results Children with metabolic acidosis more often had higher case-fatality (16% vs. 5%, p = 0.039) compared to those without metabolic acidosis on admission. In logistic regression analysis, after adjusting for potential confounders such as age of the patient, fever on admission, and severe wasting, the independent predictors of metabolic acidosis in under-five diarrheal children having pneumonia were clinical dehydration (OR 3.57, 95% CI 1.62–7.89, p = 0.002), and low systolic blood pressure even after full rehydration (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.01–1.04, p = 0.005). Proportions of children with cough, respiratory rate/minute, lower chest wall indrawing, nasal flaring, head nodding, grunting respiration, and cyanosis were comparable (p>0.05) among the groups. Conclusion and Significance Under-five diarrheal children with radiological pneumonia having metabolic acidosis had frequent fatal outcome than those without acidosis. Clinical dehydration and persistent systolic hypotension even after adequate rehydration were independent clinical predictors of metabolic acidosis among the children. However, metabolic acidosis in young diarrheal children had no impact on the diagnostic clinical features of radiological pneumonia which underscores the importance of early initiation of appropriate antibiotics to combat morbidity and deaths in such population.


The constitutional initiative power provided in 1972 Montana Constitution is basic to its plan to increase the democratic responsiveness of a state government weighed down by detailed and inflexible constitutional provisions and interpretations that had accumulated since statehood. It serves, in other words, as a direct practical guarantee of the primary provisions of the Constitution's Declaration of Rights: popular sovereignty and self-government. Popular sovereignty exercised through the constitutional initiative can lead to a paradox, however. While the constitutional initiative can make government more responsive to voters by constraining legislative policymaking or removing constraints on policymaking imposed by judicial review, it also can complicate the constitutional text over time so as to leave state government less responsive in the end. The originators of the constitutional initiative in Montana foresaw this possibility, what one delegate called "a Constitution that looks like California and Louisiana."This article discusses the function of the constitutional initiative as a direct expression of the popular sovereignty guaranteed by the Montana Constitution. Part I explores the historical roots of the constitutional initiative power and process in earlier Montana constitutions and elsewhere. Part II records the origin of the constitutional initiative in the debates that preceded, constituted, and followed the 1972 Constitutional Convention and ratification process. Part III describes voters' use of the constitutional initiative and the Supreme Court's active supervision of amendment procedures. Circulation of constitutional initiative petitions is the most common form of direct democracy in Montana, but at the polls voters more frequently shape the Constitution by approving amendments referred by the Legislature. Both processes focus on fiscal policy and individual rights. Part IV assesses the constitutional initiative in historical and national contexts and considers its future in Montana. The relative infrequency of constitutional initiatives could change as petitioners drive supply through the professionalization of signature gathering and voters drive demand through attempts to make the legislative and judicial branches more responsive on specific issues. Thus, the future of the Montana Constitution depends on the state government's fidelity to the principles of popular sovereignty in the current Constitution.


Seductive details are interesting but irrelevant details added to a passage to make
it more interesting, and research indicates that such details impair learning and recall of
information. Seductive details have traditionally included illustrations, facts, names, and
examples, but the effects of boxed material in textbooks have yet to be studied. If
seductive details impede normal readers, they may have particularly adverse affects on
students with serious reading problems, such as those with learning disabilities (LD) or
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The present study examined the effects
of boxed material on recall for both "Normal Control" (NC) and "Attentional Deficit"
(AD) participants, who each read one of two versions of a text passage entitled "People
with Severe and Multiple Disabilities." The "Original Text" (OT) version contained
extraneous information and illustrations, set apart from the rest of the text, as they appear
in the textbook Human Exceptionality: Society, School, and Family (Hardman, Drew, &
Egan, 1999). The "Modified Text" (MT) version presented this information imbedded in
the text and illustrations and "Focus" questions from the margins were eliminated. The
Wender Utah Rating Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and a Personal History
Questionnaire were administered, and students completed a 45-question multiple choice
quiz on the passage material and a series of post-study questions. Results indicate that all
readers performed significantly better on text information (TI) questions than on boxed
information (BI) questions. Clearly contrary to prediction, however, AD participants
performed better, on average, than did NC participants, with the effect nearly reaching
significance. In addition, questionnaire data indicated that NC and AD participants did
not rate significantly differently on either passage clarity or content; AD participants generally find information presented inside boxes in textbooks to be significantly more
helpful than do NC participants; and AD participants read the preface and/or
"Information for Students" at the beginning of a textbook significantly less often than do
NC participants.


Abstract As has been the case throughout the history of education in the United States, the current structures and practices of U.S. schools and colleges are informed by particular ideals regarding the potential of education. Through this comparative descriptive analysis, I argue that a major reason why these ideals have rarely been realized is the way that students are positioned in educational institutions, dialogues, and reform. A preliminary argument for rethinking how we conceptualize student role and responsibility frames my description and comparison of two programs, one that involves secondary students in the preparation of high school teachers and one that involves college students in the professional development of college faculty. I then draw on the perspectives of student participants across these two programs to address a series of educational ideals that span K–12 and college contexts: inspiring lasting learning, celebrating humanity and diversity, and engaging in meaningful assessment. I designed the programs that are the focus of my analysis with the goal of improving teacher preparation and teaching, but as I discuss in this article, they are proving to be promising models for pursuing what may be a more encompassing possibility: fostering in students a sense of and capacity for responsibility in ways that not only address existing educational ideals but that also point to both more transformative and more achievable notions of education and accountability than those currently in place.


It is now more than 10 years since the deadly July 7 bombings in London. With hindsight, and setting aside the human tragedy, the attack represented a defining moment in modern journalism when mobile phone images taken by those trapped in the wreckage of underground railway carriages opened up a new perspective in news gathering. Today, as consumers of news, we would be surprised not to see such "user generated content", whether it be from the Boston marathon bombing, the beheading of an off-duty soldier outside his barracks in south London or the propaganda machine of ISIS. But the digital revolution encompasses far more than the uploading of mobile phone images. This paper explores just how the practice of journalism has changed in those 10 years that have witnessed an explosion of social media, the tortured introspection of the Leveson Inquiry and the surveillance society revealed by Edward Snowden. What does this mean for our concepts of media literacy and emotional literacy?


In light of the United Nations' (UN) latest urbanization projections, particularly with respect to India and the People's Republic of China, a good understanding is needed of what drives aggregate urbanization trends. Yet, previous literature has largely neglected the issue in favor of studying urban concentration. Taking advantage of the latest UN World Urbanization Prospects, we use an instrumental variables approach to identify and analyze key urbanization determinants. We estimate the impact of gross domestic product (GDP) growth on urbanization to be large and positive. In answer to Henderson's (2003) finding that urbanization does not seem to cause growth, we argue that the direction of causality runs from growth to urbanization. We also find positive and significant effects of industrialization and education on urbanization, consistent with the existence of localization economies and labor market pooling.


A rapid immunodiagnostic test that provides visual evidence of the presence of pork components in raw beef and chicken meats was developed. Colloidal gold was prepared and conjugated with anti-Swine IgG polyclonal antibody. Immunochromatographic test strips were produced, and then were used to test laboratory adulterated raw meat samples. The samples consisted of pork-in-beef, or pork-in-chicken at 1/0; 1/100; 1/1,000; 1/5,000; 1/10,000 (w/w) adulteration levels that were extracted in phosphate-buffered saline. Raw beef and chicken meats without pork were included as controls. Analysis was completed in 10 min. Detection limit was 1/5,000 (w/w), although 1/10,000 was also observed. This immunodiagnostic tests can be conveniently applied to detect low levels of pork components in raw beef and chicken meat products. For the commercial purposes, further studies need to be carried out.


In designing, developing and evaluating educational software supporting reasoning, three aspects are important. The first is the cognitive domain of practice, relating to the nature of reasoning and the idea of support. The second aspect relates to the professional and educational objectives and settings, in particular coupling reasoning software to educational modules. The third aspect relates to economics: market, distribution and user economy. Two scenarios of development for reasoning software can be extrapolated. In the first scenario, software is seen as an add-on to present day textbooks in critical thinking.


This Lee Honors College Thesis consisted of approximately 180 hours of preparation of performance materials, research of compositions to be performed, and composition of program notes. The recital was held on Sunday March 16, 2014 at 5:00 pm in the Dalton Center Recital Hall at Western Michigan University. Works performed included solos for trombone accompanied by student pianist J.J. Treadway and a trio featuring student trumpeter Bonni Lee Beebe. Repertoire included works for trombone by von Weber, Hindemith, Blacher, Jorgensen, and Sulek. Works performed were composed during the Romantic and Modern eras. Approximately 50 audience members were present, including members of the thesis committee. Program notes were distributed to the audience members upon arrival to the venue. This recital satisfied the final performance requirement for the completion of a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Trombone Performance. Rebecca Haines is an undergraduate student of Dr. Steven Wolfinbarger at Western Michigan University. Senior Trombone Recital 3 Trombone Recital Program Notes


Bloom's syndrome (BS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by a broad range of symptoms and, most importantly, a predisposition to many types of cancers. Cells derived from patients with BS exhibit an elevated rate of somatic recombination and hypermutability, supporting a role for bleomycin (BLM) in the maintenance of genomic integrity. BLM is thought to participate in several DNA transactions, the failure of which could give raise to genomic instability, and to interact with many proteins involved in replication, recombination, and repair. In this study, we show that BLM function is specifically required to properly relocalize the RAD50/MRE11/NBS1 (RMN) complex at sites of replication arrest, but is not essential in the activation of BRCA1 either after stalled replication forks or γ-rays. We also provide evidence that BLM is phosphorylated after replication arrest in an Ataxia and RAD3-related protein (ATR)-dependent manner and that phosphorylation is not required for subnuclear relocalization. Therefore, in ATR dominant negative mutant cells, the assembly of the RMN complex in nuclear foci after replication blockage is almost completely abolished. Together, these results suggest a relationship between BLM, ATR, and the RMN complex in the response to replication arrest, proposing a role for BLM protein and RMN complex in the resolution of stalled replication forks.


The manufacturing environment today is highly turbulent. Hence, the potential to alter factory layout has transformed the layout problem from considering long-term material handling costs to considering essential requirements, such as adaptability and proactive responsiveness to dynamic changes. This is beyond the costs of material handling and machine relocation when reconfiguring the layout. As continuation of the authors' previous work, this paper proposes to incorporate function block methodology in dealing with the layout issues in the frequently changing environment of job-shop assembly operations so as to increase the autonomy and adaptability of the assembly operations against changes.


Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) ranges from simple hepatic steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and cirrhosis. The majority of NAFLD patients do not progress to NASH and their morbidity risk is low. However, clinical and economic burden of the disease is considerable since the prevalence of the disease is estimated as high as 25% of the general population. Liver biopsy remains the current gold standard for diagnosis, despite limitations regarding sampling variability, invasive nature, and high cost. However, numerous non-invasive biomarkers, including mainly serum markers or imaging modalities, intend to detect the presence of steatosis, NASH or advanced fibrosis. To date, ultrasound is suggested as first-line screening tool for defining steatosis in a selected population, while diagnosis of NAFLD requires exclusion of other chronic liver disease etiology or other steatosis causes. A crucial step in the management of NAFLD patients is the identification of advanced fibrosis, which may be reliably excluded by using NAFLD-Fibrosis score or FIB-4 score or by performing transient elastography. The most robust modalities implement Magnetic Resonance technology and manage to accurately quantify steatosis or identify fibrosis stage, but are not yet applicable in routine practice. The most challenging endpoint has proved to be a non-invasive diagnosis of NASH since no reliable biomarkers have been found to detect or predict inflammation in NAFLD. Lately, research focuses on validating existing markers as robust diagnostic tools for clinical use and investigating novel experimental markers of disease. Current strategies concepts aim to safely diagnose NAFLD patients, aid drug development and finally, guide personalised treatment.


In this book, one of the world's most renowned historians provides a concise and comprehensive history of capitalism within a global perspective from its medieval origins to the 2008 financial crisis and beyond. From early commercial capitalism in the Arab world, China, and Europe, to nineteenth- and twentieth-century industrialization, to today's globalized financial capitalism, Jurgen Kocka offers an unmatched account of capitalism, one that weighs its great achievements against its great costs, crises, and failures. Based on intensive research, the book puts the rise of capitalist economies in social, political, and cultural context, and shows how their current problems and foreseeable future are connected to a long history. Sweeping in scope, the book describes how capitalist expansion was connected to colonialism; how industrialism brought unprecedented innovation, growth, and prosperity but also increasing inequality; and how managerialism, financialization, and globalization later changed the face of capitalism. The book also addresses the idea of capitalism in the work of thinkers such as Marx, Weber, and Schumpeter, and chronicles how criticism of capitalism is as old as capitalism itself, fed by its persistent contradictions and recurrent emergencies. Authoritative and accessible, Capitalism is an enlightening account of a force that has shaped the modern world like few others.


Bone remodeling can be mimicked in vitro by co-culture models. Based on bone cells, such co-cultures help to study synergistic morphological changes and the impact of materials and applied substances. Hence, we examined the formation of osteoclasts on bovine bone materials to prove the bone resorption functionality of the osteoclasts in three different co-culture set-ups using human monocytes (hMCs) and (I) human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), (II) osteogenic differentiated hMSCs (hOBs), and (III) hOBs in addition of soluble monocyte-colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) and cytokine receptor activator of NFκB ligand (RANKL). We detected osteoclast-specific actin morphology, as well as the expression of cathepsin K and CD51/61 in single cells in set-up II and in numerous cells in set-up III. Resorption pits on bone material as characteristic proof of functional osteoclasts were not found in set-up I and II, but we detected such resorption pits in set–up III. We conclude in co-culture models without M-CSF and RANKL that monocytes can differentiate into osteoclasts that show the characteristic actin structures and protein expression. However, to receive functional bone resorbing osteoclasts in vitro, the addition of M-CSF and RANKL is needed. Moreover, we suggest the use of bone or bone-like materials for future studies evaluating osteoclastogenesis.


I.S.: The Octuor began with a dream in which I saw myself in a small room surrounded by a small group of instrumentalists who were playing some very attractive music. I did not recognize the music, and I could not recall any of it the next day, but I do remember my curiosity-in the dream-to know how many the musicians were.' I remember, too, that after I had counted them to the number eight, I looked again and saw that they were playing bassoons, trombones, trumpets, a flute, and a clarinet. I awoke from this little concert in a state of great delight and anticipation and the next morning began to compose the Octuor, a piece I had not thought of the day before, though for some time I had wanted to write an ensemble piece, not incidental music like the Histoire du Soldat but an instrumental sonata.


An oxidant-antioxidant imbalance in the lung contributes to the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that is caused by a complex interaction of genetic and environmental risk factors. Nuclear erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NFE2L2 or NRF2) is a critical molecule in the lung's defense mechanism against oxidants. We investigated whether polymorphisms in the NFE2L2 pathway affected the rate of decline of lung function in smokers from the Lung Health Study (LHS)(n = 547) and in a replication set, the Vlagtwedde-Vlaardingen cohort (n = 533). We selected polymorphisms in NFE2L2 in genes that positively or negatively regulate NFE2L2 transcriptional activity and in genes that are regulated by NFE2L2. Polymorphisms in 11 genes were significantly associated with rate of lung function decline in the LHS. One of these polymorphisms, rs11085735 in the KEAP1 gene, was previously shown to be associated with the level of lung function in the Vlagtwedde-Vlaardingen cohort but not with decline of lung function. Of the 23 associated polymorphisms in the LHS, only rs634534 in the FOSL1 gene showed a significant association in the Vlagtwedde-Vlaardingen cohort with rate of lung function decline, but the direction of the association was not consistent with that in the LHS. In summary, despite finding several nominally significant polymorphisms in the LHS, none of these associations were replicated in the Vlagtwedde-Vlaardingen cohort, indicating lack of effect of polymorphisms in the NFE2L2 pathway on the rate of decline of lung function.


A dozen papers by internationally known scholars explore questions largely unthinkable without Richard Watson's classic Downfall of Cartesianism: Descartes in Holland, Descartes and Simon Foucher, and issues raised by Descartes for philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, translation and toleration.


Building models that can be rapidly adapted to novel tasks using only a handful of annotated examples is an open challenge for multimodal machine learning research. We introduce Flamingo, a family of Visual Language Models (VLM) with this ability. We propose key architectural innovations to: (i) bridge powerful pretrained vision-only and language-only models, (ii) handle sequences of arbitrarily interleaved visual and textual data, and (iii) seamlessly ingest images or videos as inputs. Thanks to their flexibility, Flamingo models can be trained on large-scale multimodal web corpora containing arbitrarily interleaved text and images, which is key to endow them with in-context few-shot learning capabilities. We perform a thorough evaluation of our models, exploring and measuring their ability to rapidly adapt to a variety of image and video tasks. These include open-ended tasks such as visual question-answering, where the model is prompted with a question which it has to answer; captioning tasks, which evaluate the ability to describe a scene or an event; and close-ended tasks such as multiple-choice visual question-answering. For tasks lying anywhere on this spectrum, a single Flamingo model can achieve a new state of the art with few-shot learning, simply by prompting the model with task-specific examples. On numerous benchmarks, Flamingo outperforms models fine-tuned on thousands of times more task-specific data.


The revised edition of this accessible text provides a balanced assessment and overview of state-of-the-art organizational and performance productivity strategies. Public and nonprofit organizations face demands for increased productivity and responsiveness, and this practical guide offers strategies based on current research and scholarship that respond to these challenges. The book's comprehensive coverage includes: rationale for productivity and performance improvement; evolution of productivity improvement; the quality paradigm; customer service; information technology; traditional approaches to productivity improvement; re-engineering and restructuring; partnering and privatization; psychological contracts; and community based strategies. In addition to updating the examples of the first edition, this new edition also highlights the growing use of enterprise funds, partnership models of privatization, and web-based service delivery. Each chapter concludes with a useful summary and all-new application exercises.


STEM disciplinary language is a necessary component for STEM success. It can be developed through experiences and attention to the development of STEM activities that are rich in language and can be acquired through practical experiences and systematic practice. Secondary students participated in an informal STEM summer camp where they learned to use Google Sketchup ® and a 3-D printer to design their own objects. They interacted with peers and collaborated on issues as they arose, to solve problems. They took the Aural/Spatial Interactions and Invariant Components of Vocabulary for STEM instrument pre and posttest, and the results were analyzed qualitatively. Students progressed through styles of communication that were precipitated by terminological inexactitude, cognitive negotiation and then analogous/metaphoric, clarifying, and technical discourses to build mutual understanding and success.


Neuromuscular junctions develop through a series of reciprocal interactions between the muscle fiber and the incoming motor neuron. Both agrin and neuregulin have been implicated in neuromuscular junction development. Escher et al. use targeted gene ablations to clarify which molecules act when. It seems that neuregulins are not critical for neuromuscular junction formation but agrin is. The previously observed effects of neuregulin signaling disruptions on neuromuscular junction formation may well have been mediated indirectly through the effects of neuregulins on Schwann cells, which surround the neuromuscular junction. P. Escher, E. Lacazette, M. Courtet, A. Blindenbacher, L. Landmann, G. Bezakova, K. C. Lloyd, U. Mueller, H. R. Brenner, Synapses form in skeletal muscles lacking neuregulin receptors. Science 308, 1920-1923 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Cultural transmission may be a significant source of variation in the behaviour of whales and dolphins, especially as regards their vocal signals. We studied variation in the vocal output of 'codas' by sperm whale social groups. Codas are patterns of clicks used by female sperm whales in social circumstances. The coda repertoires of all known social units (n = 18, each consisting of about 11 females and immatures with long–term relationships) and 61 out of 64 groups (about two social units moving together for periods of days) that were recorded in the South Pacific and Caribbean between 1985 and 2000 can be reliably allocated into six acoustic 'clans', five in the Pacific and one in the Caribbean. Clans have ranges that span thousands of kilometres, are sympatric, contain many thousands of whales and most probably result from cultural transmission of vocal patterns. Units seem to form groups preferentially with other units of their own clan. We suggest that this is a rare example of sympatric cultural variation on an oceanic scale. Culture may thus be a more important determinant of sperm whale population structure than genes or geography, a finding that has major implications for our understanding of the species' behavioural and population biology.


Quality assurance of point of care testing (POCT) is thought to be difficult since it is mainly performed by doctors or nurses away from the laboratory. According to POCT guideline second edition, published by The Japan Society for Clinical Laboratory Automation, all the stages of POCT, i.e. from "before sample collection" to "after result reporting", need to be managed. In these stages, problems in the management of reagents, the quality control of measurements, and preservation of test results in medical records in POCT were discussed. Although there are problems, progress in equipment and reagents to assure POCT has been accomplished. Considering the POC coordinator's role, many activities are associated with quality assurance and are indispensable; however, as all laboratory staff can coordinate POCT, information about what is needed at the point of care and should be collected put into action. Our laboratory's participation in blood glucose measurements on the ward and in outpatients is described as an example.


For soils in the Southern Piedmont, clayey upper Bt horizons have typically been estimated to have low saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) relative to underlying less clayey horizons. However, data from a few sites suggest that the more clayey upper Bt horizons are more permeable than deeper horizons. The objective of this study was to evaluate Ks in major horizons of soils on various landscape positions in Piedmont landscapes and to associate those measurements with morphological and landscape properties to refine morphology-based estimates of Ks. For sites studied so far, mean field measured Ks of upper Bt horizons was 42.6 centimeters per day as compared to 12.3 cm d for underlying horizons with less clay. High permeability of the upper Bt horizons is attributed to well developed pedogenic structure.


Patients with advanced liver disease frequently have impaired renal function. Both acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are quite common in patients with cirrhosis and both are associated with a worse prognosis in these patients. A careful assessment of renal function is highly important in these patients to help physicians determine their diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic management and to define transplantation strategies (liver transplantation alone vs simultaneous liver and kidney transplantation). Although they are still widely used in clinical practice, conventional biomarkers of renal function such as serum creatinine have several limitations in these patients. Recent progress has been made in the evaluation of renal function and new diagnostic criteria for AKI have been proposed. However, certain issues such as the noninvasive assessment of the glomerular filtration rate and/or improvement in the differential diagnosis between hepatorenal syndrome and acute tubular necrosis must still be addressed. The purposes of this paper are: (i) to highlight the importance of the evaluation of renal function in patients with cirrhosis; (ii) to review the state of the art in the assessment of renal function in these patients as well as advances that we expect will be made to improve the accuracy of available tools.


Abstract Background: Team-focused intervention to improve the care of low-risk patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a matter of controversy. Our aim was to determine if a community-acquired pneumonia team (CAPT) would shorten hospital length of stay (LOS) and improve health care utilization in low-risk patients with CAP compared with management by a general pulmonary team (GPT). Methods: We performed a prospective cohort study of hospitalized, low-risk patients with CAP (Pneumonia Severity Index [PSI] score class I or II) at a single tertiary hospital from June 2007 to June 2008. Study patients were stratified to management by the CAPT treating group (n = 35), following the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and American Thoracic Society (ATS) CAP guideline recommendations, or to management by the GPT (n = 30) following the standard of care. Primary outcome measure for comparison of the efficacy of the 2 different team-focused interventions was hospital LOS for patients with CAP. Secondary study outcome measures included patient 30- and 90-day all-cause readmission rate, rate of mortality at 30 and 90 days, antibiotic-treatment duration, time to switch patient from intravenous (IV) to oral antibiotic treatment, and time to achieve clinical stability for patients. Results: Hospitalized, low-risk patients with CAP, who were assisted by a CAPT were more likely to have a shorter hospital stay (9 days less; P < 0.001), shorter time to switch from IV to oral antibiotic therapy (8 days less; P < 0.001), and total shorter duration of antibiotic treatment (6 days less; P < 0.001), when compared with low-risk patients with CAP who were assisted by a GPT. In addition, for both groups of assisted patients, there were no differences in the time to achieve clinical stability, use of guideline-concordant antibiotic therapy, rate of mortality, or rate of readmissions at 30 and 90 days. Conclusions: Management by a dedicated CAPT reduced patient hospital LOS, time to switch from IV to oral antibiotic therapy, and duration of antibiotic treatment, without causing adverse events, compared with standard of care, in low-risk patients with CAP.


Background A 34 weeks gestation baby was born with complex cardiac congenital heart disease i.e. dextrocardia, right atrial isomerism and moderate pulmonary stenosis. The baby was ventilated because of prematurity and poor respiratory effort. However, later on during the course, the baby failed multiple attempts at extubation. Case Report This is about a white Caucasian female who was born at 34 weeks. She had antenatal diagnosis of right atrial isomerism, dextrocardia and asplenia. Postnatally, she had moderate pulmonary stenosis. Her pulmonary flow was moderately reduced necessitating a BT shunt earlier on. She was ventilated from birth due to prematurity and poor respiratory effort however a few weeks later, an attempt to extubate her failed. Multiple attempts at extubation later on were unsuccessful. This prompted a flexible bronchoscopy which showed trifurcation of trachea. This included a morphological right bronchus and two left bronchus. One of the left bronchus ended in a blind loop. There was moderate tracheomalacia as well. A tracheostomy was eventually performed for respiratory support. In the course of time, pulmonary flow deteriorated again due to supravalvular and valvular stenosis of undetermined aetiology. Hence a right ventricular to pulmonary artery conduit was performed. Discussion Trifurcate trachea is very rare and its association with pulmonary artery stenosis was unrelated in our case but it is important to look for structural and functional association of trifurcate trachea with pulmonary artery narrowing.


This elementary book provides some state-of-the-art research results on broad disciplinary sciences on complex networks. It presents an in-depth study with detailed description of dynamics, controls and applications of complex networks. The contents of this book can be summarized as follows. First, the dynamics of complex networks, for example, the cluster dynamic analysis by using kernel spectral methods, community detection algorithms in bipartite networks, epidemiological modeling with demographics and epidemic spreading on multi-layer networks, are studied. Second, the controls of complex networks are investigated including topics like distributed finite-time cooperative control of multi-agent systems by applying homogenous-degree and Lyapunov methods, composite finite-time containment control for disturbed second-order multi-agent systems, fractional-order observer design of multi-agent systems, chaos control and anticontrol of complex systems via Parrondos game and many more. Third, the applications of complex networks provide some applicable carriers, which show the importance of theories developed in complex networks. In particular, a general model for studying time evolution of transition networks, deflection routing in complex networks, recommender systems for social networks analysis and mining, strategy selection in networked evolutionary games, integration and methods in computational biology, are discussed in detail.


A machine perception system for aircraft and helicopters using multiple sensor data for state estimation is presented. By combining conventional aircraft sensor like gyros, accelerometers, artificial horizon, aerodynamic measuring devices and GPS with vision data taken by conventional CCD-cameras mounted on a pan and tilt platform, the position of the craft can be determined as well as the relative position to runways and natural landmarks. The vision data of natural landmarks are used to improve position estimates during autonomous missions. A built-in landmark management module decides which landmark should be focused on by the vision system, depending on the distance to the landmark and the aspect conditions. More complex landmarks like runways are modeled with different levels of detail that are activated dependent on range. A supervisor process compares vision data and GPS data to detect mistracking of the vision system e.g. due to poor visibility and tries to reinitialize the vision system or to set focus on another landmark available. During landing approach obstacles like trucks and airplanes can be detected on the runway. The system has been tested in real-time within a hardware-in-the-loop simulation. Simulated aircraft measurements corrupted by noise and other characteristic sensor errors have been fed into the machine perception system; the image processing module for relative state estimation was driven by computer generated imagery. Results from real-time simulation runs are given.


The national rice consumption in Indonesia is among the highest in the world, reaching 29.13 million tonnes in 2017. It has been estimated that it might increase to 31.7 million tonnes by 2045 along with the increase in population. In contrast, Indonesia has seen a decline in rice production in recent years. The combination of increased demand and declining production is likely to cause
a widening imbalance between rice supply and demand.

While Indonesia still imports rice, the country fulfills the largest share of its rice demand domestically. The domestic supply chains are therefore of utmost importance for stable, affordable and accessible rice supplies. However, distribution channels vary in each province
throughout Indonesia. From farmers to consumers, the chains may include middlemen, millers, wholesalers, and retailers, each with their own unique function. Regulating the number of intermediaries involved in the distribution and processing chain of domestically produced rice is not desirable as these intermediaries are required to connect farmers with consumers.

Bulog is supposed to help ensure food security by being involved in the domestic supply chain. However, they face their own challenges on both upstream and downstream levels. Bulog is obliged to maintain national rice stocks and distribute them for direct welfare assistance. However, since the new Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT) program relies largely on private suppliers, the distribution of public rice stocks has been compromised. Furthermore, the poor quality of rice stocks in Bulog warehouses cannot compete with those of private suppliers.

Under these circumstances, Bulog's role needs to be reconsidered. The private sector should play a greater role in domestic rice markets and Bulog should only participate in rice distribution during emergency situations. Presidential Regulation 48/2016 Article 8 needs to be revised to allow Bulog to focus on protecting consumers through disaster-relief programs. As a practical short-term solution to lower rice prices and improve the efficacy of Bulog, Bulog's monopoly on imports of medium-quality rice should be removed. Private companies should be eligible to access an automated licensing system and to import medium-quality rice to Indonesia.


This study compares a set of voluntary and committed patients. At the time of hospitalization, the committed patients had fewer social and economic resources and more serious impairments. In general, the type of hospitalization appeared to be primarily a consequence of the nature and severity of the patient's disorder. In the hospital the two sets of patients received fairly comparable treatment and the differences that did occur would appear to be attributable to a difference in the patients' disorders. Both types of patients experienced some improvement following hospitalization in their instrumental roles, and a very discernible improvement in their interpersonal roles. As the very slight differences between the two types of patients tended to favor the committed patients it seems quite clear that the commitment process did not have long detrimental effects.


Abstract It is widely assumed that coaches have an effect on athletes' doping behaviours; however, the means by which this influence can be manifested are only superficially understood. The present study seeks to understand how coaches see their role in directly and indirectly influencing the doping attitudes and behaviours of athletes. Fourteen elite-level coaches participated in focus group discussions. Coaches displayed a low level of knowledge of banned methods and practices. While it was acknowledged that doping was prevalent in sport, coaches believed that doping was not a problem in their own sport, since doping does not aid in the development or implementation of sporting 'skills'. While the findings suggest that coaches support the revised WADA Code, with increased sanctions for coaches, the findings also highlight how coaches may indirectly and inadvertently condone doping. This may be through inaction or the apparent endorsement of pro-doping expectancies.


Music is a highly engaging activity, which serves various functions for individuals. Of particular interest here is the use of music to enhance mental health and well-being. To date, research on the benefits of music has been primarily focused on individuals with music training. The first aim of this research was to extend the concept of musicianship, to operationalize and develop a measure of both music production and music reception. The second aim was to explore well-being outcomes of music use, and identify music engagement factors predicting better health and well-being. The aims were achieved in a series of studies. Having identified a need for a comprehensive measure of musicianship in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 described the development of the multi-dimensional construct of music engagement. The Music USE (MUSE) questionnaire was then used to investigate music uses and their associated well-being (Chapter 4) and psychopathology (Chapter 5) outcomes, with emotion regulation identified as a key mediator of these relationships. Music engagement for the purposes of cognitive and emotional regulation was found to be consistently associated with, and predictive of, subjective indices of adaptive emotion regulation and improved well-being. Chapter 6 described the final study, which utilized neurobiological indices of well-being and emotion regulation capacity to validate links found between subjective self-reports of well-being and music use for cognitive and emotional regulation. Collectively, these studies demonstrated that benefits associated with music engagement are mediated by emotion regulation styles, and highlight the need to consider emotion regulation when evaluating the impact of music engagement on mental health and well-being. Furthermore, this research emphasized the importance of considering the multidimensionality of musicianship, beyond a numerical index of music training or instrument playing, when assessing the impact of music on health and well-being. This thesis provides a foundation for future work on the use of music to promote adaptive emotion regulation for the purposes of improving mental health and well-being.


ABSTRACT Background: Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) are increasingly applied for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms albeit its effectiveness is unclear.Objectives: To examine the effectiveness of AAI for treating PTSD symptoms.Method: We searched 11 major electronic databases for studies reporting quantitative data on effects of AAI for children and adults with PTSD symptoms. Of 22ʹ211 records identified, we included 41 studies with 1111 participants in the systematic review comprising eight controlled studies with 469 participants in the meta-analysis. We conducted random-effects meta-analyses with all controlled studies based on standardized mean differences (SMD), and calculated standardized mean change (SMC) as effect sizes for studies with a pre-post one-group design. Two independent researchers assessed the quality of the included studies using the NIH Study Quality Assessment Tools. The primary outcome was PTSD or depression symptom severity measured via a standardized measurement at pre- and post-intervention assessments.Results: There was a small but not statistically significant superiority of AAI over standard PTSD psychotherapy (SMD = −0.26, 95% CI: −0.56 to 0.04) in reducing PTSD symptom severity while AAI was superior to waitlist (SMD = −0.82, 95% CI: −1.56 to 0.08). Getting a service dog was superior to waiting for a service dog (SMD = −0.58, 95% CI: −0.88 to −0.28). AAI led to comparable effects in reducing depression as standard PTSD psychotherapy (SMD = −0.03, CI: −0.88 to 0.83). Pre-post comparisons showed large variation for the reduction in PTSD symptom severity, with SMCs ranging from −0.38 to −1.64, and for depression symptom severity, ranging from 0.01 to −2.76. Getting a service dog lowered PTSD symptoms between −0.43 and −1.10 and depression with medium effect size of −0.74.Conclusions: The results indicate that AAI are efficacious in reducing PTSD symptomatology and depression. Future studies with robust study designs and large samples are needed for valid conclusions.


A novel system for remote monitoring of metabolism in animal model is proposed in this paper. The system is obtained by integrating Bio-Nano-Sensors to detect single-metabolites, an electrochemical front-end made with off-the-shelf components, an RF communication sub-system, and an antenna of new design. The system has been calibrated and tested for continuous monitoring of four different metabolites: glucose, lactate, glutamate, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Tests with animal models (mice) have been conducted to investigate tissue inflammation induced by the implanted Bio-Nano-Sensors. The tests confirmed that our system is suitable and reliable for remote monitoring of single-metabolites in experiments with animal models.


Cases of vaping-induced lung injury have increased in the USA, resulting in a heterogeneous collection of pneumonitis patterns in persons who used electronic cigarettes. Hypersensitivity pneumonitis has been documented in several cases of first-hand electronic cigarette use; however, secondhand smoke health-related consequences have not been fully understood. We present a case of the patient who developed hypersensitivity pneumonitis secondary to exposure to secondhand smoke from electronic cigarette. We summarise the presentation and diagnostic investigation, as well as the management of this case.


Packaging materials are typically made of multilayer structures combining polymers, metals and inorganic materials. Multilayer structures are selected in order to optimize the thickness and performance in packaging applications. Atomic layer deposited (ALD) aluminium oxide (Al2O3) layer provides good barrier properties against oxygen and carbon dioxide gases i.e. permeation of gases through ALD coated polymer films will reduce remarkably. The target was to study the effect of pinholes on the oxygen and carbon dioxide permeability of ALD coated extrusion-coated packaging paper. Pinholes were artificially generated by ultra violet (UV) laser drilling through the polymer layer prior to Al2O3 ALD coating. The results show, that even one pinhole through the structure can destroy the excellent barrier properties of the film material. It was found out that the size of a pinhole affects detrimentally the oxygen gas permeation through the material. According to the results, there is a linear correlation between permeation rate of oxygen gas and area of pinhole, thus, oxygen barrier level can be calculated and adjusted by the size of pinhole.


OBJECTIVE
The diagnostic radiology process represents a partnership between clinical and radiology teams. As such, breakdowns in interpersonal interactions and communication can result in patient harm.

CONCLUSION
We explore the role of radiology in the diagnostic process, focusing on key concepts of information and communication, as well as key interpersonal interactions of teamwork, collaboration, and collegiality, all based on trust. We propose 10 principles to facilitate effective information flow in the diagnostic process.


Abstract A new species of the genus Besleria (Gesneriaceae), endemic to the department of Cauca, Colombia, is described and illustrated here. The new species, Besleria santaclarensis Clavijo & Sánchez-Taborda, was discovered in the Regional Protective Forest Reserve "Serranía El Pinche", Cordillera Occidental of the Colombian Andes. B. santaclarensis is distinguished by the epedunculate inflorescences, usually in the leafless axils near the base, with up to eight orange flowers, and by the magenta calyx that covers 2/3 of the corolla.


Bread wheat is the major staple food in Morocco. Drought is the most important abiotic stress decreasing yield. Breeding for drought tolerance may be improved by various plant traits. In order to investigate the best selection criteria to develop drought tolerant varieties, 40 bread wheat genotypes were evaluated under two locations representing the stressed and non-stressed environments, using randomized complete block design with three replications during the cropping season 2014. Under stressed conditions, analysis of variance exhibited significant differences among grain yield, thousand kernel weight, number of plants, number of spikes and tillers per plant, plant height, plant vigor, chlorophyll content and canopy temperature; and non-significant differences for biomass, harvest index, number of days to heading and flowering, and chlorophyll fluorescence. According to correlation and principal component analysis, the grain yield was positively related with biomass, thousand grain weight, number of fertile spikes and plant vigor; and indirectly associated positively with harvest index, plant height and negatively with number of days to flowering, canopy temperature and chlorophyll content. Those traits, correlated to grain yield under stress, can be used as indirect selection for drought tolerance to obtain higher yield potential in dryland conditions. Moreover, thousand grain weight in non-stressed conditions was positively correlated to biomass, number of fertile spikes and its homologue in stressed conditions. Also, the biomass in favorable conditions was correlated to thousand grain weight and harvest index in mild stressed conditions. Thus, those two traits may be used to improve performance in drought prone environments.


Trophozoites of Giardia ardeae were obtained from the great blue heron (Ardea herodias) and established in axenic culture using the TYI-S-33 medium. The generation time in culture for G. ardeae was 22-25 hr, which was 3-fold longer than for Giardia duodenalis (WB strain). A morphological comparison of trophozoites in the original intestinal isolate to those grown in culture revealed that they were identical for the following characteristics: a pyriform-shaped body, a ventral adhesive disc with a deep notch in the posterior border, teardrop-shaped nuclei, pleomorphism in median body structure ranging from a round-oval appearance (Giardia muris type) to that of a clawhammer (G. duodenalis type), and a single caudal flagellum on the right side (as viewed dorsally) with the left one being rudimentary. Analysis of the chromosomal migration patterns was performed by orthogonal-field-alternation gel electrophoresis and demonstrated that the pattern for G. ardeae was distinctly different from that for G. duodenalis (Portland 1-CCW strain). Bacterial symbionts were seen attached to trophozoites in the original isolate but could not be detected in cultured trophozoites using scanning electron microscopy, fluorescence light microscopy using the Hoechst 33258 dye for DNA localization, or by standard microbiological techniques using nonselective media for growing aerobic or anaerobic bacteria. This study demonstrated that avian-derived Giardia could be grown in axenic culture; based on morphological criteria and chromosomal migration patterns, that G. ardeae should be considered a distinct species; and that rationale for determining Giardia spp., based on median body structure alone, should no longer be considered adequate for classification at the species level.


The combination of potentiometric methods with multivariate calibration techniques allows complex mixtures to be analyzed. In this study, a new method was developed and reported for simultaneous determination of copper(II) and zinc(II) cations in a mixture by titrimetric methods. The developed method permits simultaneous cation analysis with low detection limits, just by using a pH electrode. This work has achieved the challenging goal of developing a cost-effective and applicable method that can be applied in most laboratories due to independence of any chemical instruments. Partial least squares 1, one of the multivariate calibration techniques, was used in the analysis of titrimetric data. Copper(II) and zinc(II) were simultaneously determined with approximately 5 ppm detection limits and the developed method was validated by performing the titration with known sample mixtures and a certificated alloy sample.


Combination antiviral drug therapy improves the survival rates of patients chronically infected with hepatitis B virus by controlling viral replication and enhancing immune responses. Some of these drugs have side effects that make them unsuitable for long-term administration. To address the trade-off between the positive and negative effects of the combination therapy, we investigated an optimal control problem for a delay differential equation model of immune responses to hepatitis virus B infection. Our optimal control problem investigates the interplay between virological and immunomodulatory effects of therapy, the control of viremia and the administration of the minimal dosage over a short period of time. Our numerical results show that the high drug levels that induce immune modulation rather than suppression of virological factors are essential for the clearance of hepatitis B virus.


The article deals with the issue of the so-called "white" terror during the Izhevsk workers'' revolt that was the most powerful rebellion against the Bolsheviks in 1918. The author examines the key points, which originally composed this myth, analyzing the number of the arrested and shot people and examining the main episode, which for many decades proved the terrorist nature of the uprising, and is connected with the fate of peasants Bannikovs from Bolgury village. The significance of the article is that conducting a historiographical analysis, the author bases the study of controversial issues on a solid source base, consisting of materials of central and local archives. The author comes to the conclusion that some of the well-established claims in the national historiography are exaggeration or distortion and others are pure fiction that was created by the Soviet historiography. And these exaggerations, distortions and fictions still exist in modern historiography. The article examines the problem of the origin of these statements and their validity.


The anabolic effects of a supplemented diet with branched-chain amino acids, especially leucine, on skeletal muscle wasting and as a co-adjuvant in cancer treatment have been well-studied. Leucine is a precursor of protein synthesis and acts as a nutritional signal, affecting multiple metabolic processes (e.g., satiety, thermo-genesis, energy efficiency, and body composition). Previous studies related to nutritional therapy have mainly focused on myopenia, which is the loss of skeletal muscle mass in some pathologies, including cancer. Leucine plays a role in the maintenance and even increase of lean body mass in healthy individuals as well as the prevention of disease states that culminate in myopenia. Herein, we review the available data addressing the mechanisms by which leucine acts as a cellular signal, thereby stimulating muscle protein synthesis, leading to the inhibition of muscle catabolism, especially in an experimental model of cancer cachexia. We also show differences found in the metabolomic and proteomic analyses, including the use of leucine in maternal diets as a preventative for muscle wasting as supported by our experimental data.


Abstract:The decline in trust in the scientific community in the United States among political conservatives has been well established. But this observation is complicated by remarkably positive and stable attitudes toward scientific research itself. What explains the persistence of positive belief in science in the midst of such dramatic change? By leveraging research on the performativity of conservative identity, we argue that conservative scientific institutions have manufactured a scientific cultural repertoire that enables participation in this highly valued epistemological space while undermining scientific authority perceived as politically biased. We test our hypothesized link between conservative identity and scientific perceptions using panel data from the General Social Survey. We find that those with stable conservative identities hold more positive attitudes toward scientific research while simultaneously holding more negative attitudes towards the scientific community compared to those who switch to and from conservative political identities. These findings support a theory of a conservative scientific repertoire that is learned over time and that helps orient political conservatives in scientific debates that have political repercussions. Implications of these findings are discussed for researchers interested in the cultural differentiation of scientific authority and for stakeholders in scientific communication and its public policy.


Cooperatives are facing the challenge to be competitive in the market, without losing their traditional values of mutuality and democracy. To do that, they need to re-construct open and participative dialogue with their employees and members based on more democratic forms of communication and engagement. From this point of view, the measurement and communication of sustainability aspects may allow a dialogue to be mobilized with shareholders and stakeholders without losing the attention on competitive factors. Based on these premises, the article analyses the experience of a 5-year action research project (from 2006 to mid-2011), carried out within Unicoop Tirreno, an Italian consumers' cooperative, and aimed to implement different tools for sustainability accounting and to embrace a more open dialogue with stakeholders, in particular with employees and members. In this process of change, the tools implemented for sustainability accounting played a key role in supporting the cooperative to reinterpret its own values and in stimulating a new and participative management approach. The results indicate a virtuous circle between the management and measurement of cooperative principles and the management and measurement of sustainability issues.


This thesis is concerned with relations between the state and society in the rural communities of the district of Massingir, close to Mozambique's southern border with South Africa. Based on 17 months of fieldwork, it explores how the changing relations between the neighbouring states have affected the social, economic, and political lives of the residents of this borderland. It addresses issues concerned with labour migration, local politics, and the recent development of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP). There has been a long history of male labour migration from this region to the goldmines in South Africa. While this migration has been of economic importance to the people of Massingir, it has also become deeply embedded in their social and cultural lives, signifying the transition from adolescence to manhood. However, cross-border relations deteriorated when Mozambique gained independence and the mining industry reduced its dependence on foreign labour. This thesis argues that, despite recruitment cutbacks, the social and economic pressures remain for the young men of Massingir to migrate. Unable to cross the border legally, they cross illegally and attempt to find temporary employment. Migration has been important in constructing the ethnic Shangaan identity of this area. I argue that, although ethnic identity is sharpened whilst people are away, it is equally important to consider how it is consolidated at home. The domination of the Frelimo party in this region has been key in this. I demonstrate that Frelimo has been able to maintain its popularity and sustain single-party rule in Massingir, despite the official shift to pluralist democracy. I argue that the recent development of the GLTP is a threat to local livelihoods and Frelimo's popularity has been diminished by its involvement in the project. I demonstrate that residents have used political processes to pressurise the state into recognising their concerns.


The quality of palliative care can have a profound impact upon patients' and families' lives. Furthermore, the well-being of professionals within palliative care has serious implications for patients and families, professionals, and organisations. Therefore, this thesis explored issues within palliative care from both the patients' and professionals' perspective. Firstly, a meta-synthesis of literature was conducted in order to answer the following questions: "What do palliative care patients value in their care?" and "What enhances palliative care patients' experience of feeling cared for?" The meta-synthesis of 14 papers revealed five themes: The Holistic Nature of Care, Being With People who Have a Shared Understanding, Talking and Being Listened to, Oscillating Between Living and Dying, and Psychological Well-being. The findings suggested aspects of care that services could focus on in order to meet patients' needs. Secondly, experiences of 12 clinical psychologists working in palliative care were explored using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis in order to gain an understanding of the impact this work has on their levels of compassion and resilience. Six themes were identified: Being Part of Something Special, The Therapeutic Relationship, Doing More With Less, Being Changed as a Result of Involvement, The Consummate Professional, and Practicing What you Preach. Experiences were characterised by the impact of the therapeutic relationship, organisational change, and effects on the self. Finally, the process of conducting research within palliative care was critically appraised. Methodological issues, as well as the effects of conducting research in palliative care on the researcher were discussed.


We use repeat-pass SAR data to produce detailed maps of surface motion covering the glaciers draining into the former Larsen B Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, for different epochs between 1995 and 2013. We combine the velocity maps with estimates of ice thickness to analyze fluctuations of ice discharge. The collapse of the central and northern sections of the ice shelf in 2002 led to a near-immediate acceleration of tributary glaciers as well as of the remnant ice shelf in Scar Inlet. Velocities of most of the glaciers discharging directly into the ocean remain to date well above the velocities of the pre-collapse period. The response of individual glaciers differs and velocities show significant temporal fluctuations, implying major variations in ice discharge as well. Due to reduced velocity and ice thickness the ice discharge of Crane Glacier decreased from 5.02 Gt a −1 in 2007 to 1.72 Gt a −1 in 2013, whereas Hektoria and Green glaciers continue to show large temporal fluctuations in response to successive stages of frontal retreat. The velocity on Scar Inlet ice shelf increased 2–3-fold since 1995, with the largest increase in the first years after the break-up of the main section of Larsen B. Flask and Leppard glaciers, the largest tributaries to Scar Inlet ice shelf, accelerated. In 2013 their discharge was 38% and 46% higher than in 1995.