Heterosexual men's sexual safety behavior is important to controlling the U.S. epidemic of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). While sexual safety is often treated as a single behavior, such as condom use, it can also be conceptualized as resulting from multiple factors. Doing so can help us achieve more nuanced understandings of sexual risk and safety within partner-related contexts. We used latent class analysis with data collected online from 18- to 25-year-old heterosexually active U.S. men (n = 432) to empirically derive a typology of the patterns of sexual safety strategies they employed. Indicators were sexual risk-reduction strategies used in the past year with the most recent female sex partner: condom use, discussing sexual histories, STI testing, agreeing to be monogamous, and discussing birth control. We identified four subgroups: Risk Takers (12%), Condom Reliers (25%), Multistrategists (28%), and Relationship Reliers (35%). Partner-related context factors—number of past-year sex partners, relationship commitment, and sexual concurrency—predicted subgroup membership. Findings support tailoring STI prevention to men's sexual risk-safety subgroups. Interventions should certainly continue to encourage condom use but should also include information on how partner-related context factors and alternate sexual safety strategies can help men reduce risk for themselves and their partners.


We use administrative registration records with information on the owners of all Chinese firms to document the importance of "connected†investors, defined as state-owned firms or private owners with equity ties with state-owned firms, in the businesses of private owners. We document a hierarchy of private owners: the largest private owners have direct investments from state-owned firms, the next largest private owners have equity investments from private owners that themselves have equity ties with state owners, and the smallest private owners do not have any ties with state owners. The network of connected private owners has expanded over the last two decades. The share of registered capital of connected private owners increased by almost 20 percentage points between 2000 and 2019, driven by two trends. First, state owned firms have increased their investments in joint ventures with private owners. Second, private owners with equity ties to state owners also increasingly invest in joint ventures with other (smaller) private owners. The expansion in the "span†of connected owners from these investments with private owners may have increased aggregate output of the private sector by 4.2% a year between 2000 and 2019.


The Dobzhansky–Muller model posits that intrinsic postzygotic reproductive isolation—the sterility or lethality of species hybrids—results from the evolution of incompatible epistatic interactions between species: favorable or neutral alleles that become fixed in the genetic background of one species can cause sterility or lethality in the genetic background of another species. The kind of hybrid incompatibility that evolves between two species, however, depends on the particular evolutionary history of the causative substitutions. An allele that is functionally derived in one species can be incompatible with an allele that is functionally derived in the other species (a derived-derived hybrid incompatibility). But an allele that is functionally derived in one species can also be incompatible with an allele that has retained the ancestral state in the other species (a derived-ancestral hybrid incompatibility). The relative abundance of such derived-derived vs. derived-ancestral hybrid incompatibilities is unknown. Here, we characterize the genetics and evolutionary history of a lethal hybrid incompatibility between Drosophila mauritiana and its two sibling species, D. sechellia and D. simulans. We show that a hybrid lethality factor(s) in the pericentric heterochromatin of the D. mauritiana X chromosome, hybrid lethal on the X (hlx), is incompatible with a factor(s) in the same small autosomal region from both D. sechellia and D. simulans, Suppressor of hlx [Su(hlx)]. By combining genetic and phylogenetic information, we infer that hlx-Su(hlx) hybrid lethality is likely caused by a derived-ancestral incompatibility, a hypothesis that can be tested directly when the genes are identified.


The analysis provides a hybrid techno-economic perspective on EU and China e-bus development dynamics. China is a leading global electric bus user – particularly in certain provinces. In Europe, the European Commission has started an electric bus initiative and several EU member countries have tried to achieve progress with regard to their own municipal e-bus fleets. While the economic analysis shows that e-bus innovation and diffusion dynamics can be influenced by government procurement policy, it is also obvious that certain pricing schemes in e-bus (mixed) municipal mobility networks are not successfully promoting clean e-bus expansion. A key issue is that various grant schemes depress the prices for used e-buses which in turn creates additional risk for e-bus leasing arrangements. Industrial policy aspects as well innovation policy face challenges in the e-bus context. China's regional e-bus approaches have shown considerable success and part of China's patent dynamics supports e-bus expansion perspectives. From a technological perspective, there are several alternative modes of e-bus mobility whose technological and economic advantages have to be explored in the context of the characteristics of local and regional bus routes. A very important technological element of e-mobility concerns technical aspects of battery charging – for example, cycle lifetime, power density, charging time and safety. The price dynamics of battery packs is rather high and should stimulate the expansion of e-bus mobility in Europe and China. One key problem faced by Europe and Asia is the challenge of common technical standards. As regards Germany's and the UK's position as a potential lead markets for e-bus mobility – or a similar positioning of a network of EU cities – much depends on adequate new policy initiatives. The emissions reductions which could be achieved by transitioning to 100% e-bus mobility in the EU would amount to an estimated 1.3% cut in terms of emissions of the transport sector (without aviation).


ABSTRACT

Objective: To study the relationship between the psychological and spiritual dimensions in adult palliative care.

Methods: The data sources used were Medline, Web of Knowledge and Scopus, using the following key concepts: "palliative care" and "psychology" and "spirituality". The search took place 5th December 2017, at 10:20 am, and no articles were excluded based on publication date. Out of a total of 1038 articles found, 65 met the pre-selected criteria and were included in the descriptive qualitative synthesis.

Results: Some lack of definitional consensus of spirituality is still evident. Nevertheless, spiritual wellbeing was considered an important component of quality of life, closely related to physical and psychological distress symptoms, therefore highlighting the importance of psychological and psychiatric care in enhancing the wellbeing of palliative care patients.

Conclusion: Understanding the interface of the psychological and spiritual dimensions of adult palliative care patients may contribute to a more efficient therapeutic practice. Therefore, training healthcare professionals to improve spiritual support and appropriately addressing these issues should be of great importance in palliative care settings, thus promoting an appropriate response to the patients' needs and dying process.


Cheat grass (Bromus tectorum) invasibility represents a serious threat to natural ecosystems dominated by sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata). Ecosystem susceptibility to annual grass invasion seems to be driven by specific biophysical conditions. The study was conducted in Rich County, Utah, where cheat grass invasion is not yet an apparent problem, but an imminent invasion might be just a matter of time (temporal scale) to meet spatial variations in environmental conditions (spatial scale). Literature review and expert knowledge were used to define biophysical variables and their respective suitability ranges of where cheat grass takeover might occur. GIS, remote sensing and logistic regression-statistical analyses were employed to estimate probability of cheat grass invasion along environmental gradients. GIS procedures were used to spatially predict areas prone to be invaded by cheat grass under present climatic conditions (model prediction power was 47 percent). Afterwards, simulated climatic change projections (for 2099 year) from the Community Climatic System Model (CCSM-3) were used to model the invasibility risk of cheat grass. The 2099 cheat grass prediction map showed a favorable reduction of around 25 percent in the areas affected by cheat grass invasion, assuming that climate changes occurred as predicted by the CCSM model. The location of highly predisposed areas can be useful to alert managers and define where resources might be allocated to reduce a potential invasion and preserve native rangeland ecosystems. ____________________________________ In Monaco, T.A. et al. comps. 2011. Proceedings – Threats to Shrubland Ecosystem Integrity; 2010 May 18-20; Logan, UT. Natural Resources and Environmental Issues, Volume XVII. S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Natural Resources Research Library, Logan Utah, USA.


This paper presents the serial optimization as well as the parallelization of the TRAF code, a 3D multi-row, multi-block CFD solver for the RANS/URANS equations. The serial optimization was carried out by means of a critical review of the most time-consuming routines in order to exploit vectorization capability of the modern CPUs preserving the code accuracy. The code parallelization was carried out for both distributed and shared memory systems, following the actual trend of computing clusters. Performance were assessed on several architectures ranging from simple multi-core PCs to a small slow-network cluster, and high performance computing (HPC) clusters. Code performance are presented and discussed for the pure MPI, pure OpenMP, and hybrid OpenMP-MPI parallelisms considering turbomachinery applications: a steady state multi-row compressor analysis and an unsteady computation of a low pressure turbine (LPT) module. Noteworthy, the present paper can provide code developers with relevant guidelines in the selection of the parallelization strategy without asking for a specific background in the parallelization and HPC fields.


We demonstrate simultaneous 10-Gb/s NRZ-to-RZ format conversion and multicasting from one to many data channels in a highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) with only a single pump. Functionalities are achieved based on various nonlinear effects, such as four-wave-mixing (FWM), cross-gain-modulation (XGM) and cross-phase-modulation (XPM) between the pump channel and the NRZ data channel. Up to five and six converted data channels are error-free (10(-9) BER) as the wavelength spacing between the pump and the NRZ signal is set to 0.4-nm and 0.8-nm, respectively.


Despite the widespread debate about crime in Brazil and the alarming increase in homicides in recent years, few studies have analyzed or exposed evidence of the impact of public security spending on deterring violence in the country. This may be due to issues of endogeneity when estimating the relationship between security spending and the rate of homicides. The primary innovation presented in this paper is the use of a Bartik-inspired instrument to address the simultaneity issue. It measures government security spending in a two-stage least squares estimation, obtaining outcomes that are not only statistically but also practically significant. Results indicate that an increase of R$10 per capita in annual security expenditure leads to a decrease of 0.6 per 100,000 people in the number of homicides.


The initiation of DNA synthesis is an important cell cycle event that defines the beginning of S phase. This critical event involves the participation of proteins whose functions are regulated by cyclin dependent protein kinases (Cdks). The Mcm2-7 proteins are a family of six conserved proteins that are essential for the initiation of DNA synthesis in all eukaryotes. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, members of the Mcm2-7 family undergo cell cycle-specific phosphorylation. Phosphorylation of Mcm proteins at the beginning of S phase coincides with the removal of these proteins from chromatin and the onset of DNA synthesis. In this study, we identified DBF4, which encodes the regulatory subunit of a Cdk-like protein kinase Cdc7-Dbf4, in a screen for second site suppressors of mcm2-1. The dbf4 suppressor mutation restores competence to initiate DNA synthesis to the mcm2-1 mutant. Cdc7-Dbf4 interacts physically with Mcm2 and phosphorylates Mcm2 and three other members of the Mcm2-7 family in vitro. Blocking the kinase activity of Cdc7-Dbf4 at the G1-to-S phase transition also blocks the phosphorylation of Mcm2 at this defined point of the cell cycle. Taken together, our data suggest that phosphorylation of Mcm2 and probably other members of the Mcm2-7 proteins by Cdc7-Dbf4 at the G1-to-S phase transition is a critical step in the initiation of DNA synthesis at replication origins.


BACKGROUND
Actinic keratoses (AKs) are precancerous epidermal lesions found most frequently on areas of the skin exposed to the sun. Several case studies published recently have indicated that 5% imiquimod cream, currently licensed for the treatment of genital warts, may be an effective treatment for AK.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the efficacy and safety of imiquimod for the treatment of AK.

DESIGN
Patients in this randomized, double-blind, vehicle-controlled study applied 5% imiquimod cream or vehicle to AK lesions 3 times per week for a maximum of 12 weeks or until lesions had resolved. In the event of an adverse reaction, application of imiquimod was reduced to 1 or 2 times per week. Rest periods were also allowed if necessary.

SETTING
A specialized outpatient dermatology clinic within a state-funded hospital in Germany.

PATIENTS
The study population was aged 45 to 85 years. Of 52 patients screened, 36 men and women with AK confirmed by histological diagnosis were enrolled. Patients were excluded from the study if they did not have a histological diagnosis for AK, if they were older than 85 years, or if they did not comply with the protocol. All patients had responded to a notice asking for volunteers.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The number and appearance of lesions were evaluated before, during, and after treatment. All adverse effects were recorded.

RESULTS
Lesions treated with 5% imiquimod cream were clinically cleared in 21 (84%) of 25 patients and partially cleared in 2 (8%). Clearance was histologically confirmed 2 weeks after the last application of imiquimod in all patients clinically diagnosed as lesion free. Only 10% of patients treated with imiquimod were clinically diagnosed with recurrence 1 year after treatment. No reduction in the size or number of AK lesions was observed in vehicle-treated patients. Adverse effects reported by patients treated with imiquimod included erythema, edema, induration, vesicles, erosion, ulceration, excoriation, and scabbing. However, imiquimod was well tolerated since all patients completed the 12-week treatment. Only a few, mild adverse reactions to the vehicle cream were reported.

CONCLUSION
Application of 5% imiquimod cream for 12 weeks is an effective and well-tolerated treatment for AK.


A multichip packaging technology has been developed for use in the advanced hybrid integration of semiconductor chips made of different materials. The resulting multichip module (MCM) is similar to a monolithic circuit in that all the interconnects are made by photolithography and thin-film metallization. Any semiconductor chip can be integrated in this scheme without special chip metallization patterns or the incorporation of special features on the chips. In this technique, chips with backside contacts, such as laser diodes and photodetectors, can be packaged, offering greater flexibility and speed than other hybrid or multichip packaging technologies. Several different optoelectronic receivers which combine various GaAs, Si, and GaInAs chips have been successfully integrated and operated at frequencies ranging from 100 MHz to above 1 GHz. >


Despite the successes of antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders remain prevalent in infected people. This is due, in part, to incomplete ART penetration across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and lymph nodes and to the establishment of viral sanctuaries within the central nervous system. In efforts to improve ART delivery, our laboratories developed a macrophage-carriage system for nanoformulated crystalline ART (nanoART) (atazanavir, ritonavir, indinavir, and efavirenz). We demonstrate that nanoART transfer from mononuclear phagocytes (MP) to human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC) can be realized through cell-to-cell contacts, which can facilitate drug passage across the BBB. Coculturing of donor MP containing nanoART with recipient HBMEC facilitates intercellular particle transfer. NanoART uptake was observed in up to 52% of HBMEC with limited cytotoxicity. Folate coating of nanoART increased MP to HBMEC particle transfer by up to 77%. To translate the cell assays into relevant animal models of disease, ritonavir and atazanavir nanoformulations were injected into HIV-1-infected NOD/scid-γcnull mice reconstituted with human peripheral blood lymphocytes. Atazanavir and ritonavir levels in brains of mice treated with folate-coated nanoART were three- to four-fold higher than in mice treated with noncoated particles. This was associated with decreased viral load in the spleen and brain, and diminished brain CD11b-associated glial activation. We postulate that monocyte-macrophage transfer of nanoART to brain endothelial cells could facilitate drug entry into the brain.


This paper introduces and describes field tests performed with aluminium mesh. The paper also describes a simple theoretical model created in ANSYS AUTODYN to predict the behaviour of the mesh. This is the third, and final, paper in a series which has characterized aluminium mesh and its blast mitigation properties. Despite its porous and lightweight characteristics, aluminium mesh has been found to have blast mitigation properties. The current use of the mesh includes fuel tanks for airplanes, boats, and fuel stations as well as light armoured vehicles for the military. The mesh acts as an explosion suppressant by preventing fuel tanks from exploding when exposed to an ignition source. More recently, work has been performed to assess the ability of the mesh to mitigate blast pressures produced by high explosives. Nearly 100 tests were conducted over a one-year period using high explosives. The first series of tests was done in a small arena test format using two different charge sizes at two different scaled distances yielding four sets of data. All arena tests used four sensors with zero, five, ten, or 20 layers of mesh directly in front of the sensors. The second series of tests used a high-explosive shock tunnel to replicate the waveform of a large explosive charge in open air at a prescribed scaled distance. Results from these test series can be found in the first two instalments of this series of papers. In May 2008, field tests were performed which applied the aluminium mesh to the undercarriage of a Humvee. These tests served as a proof of concept for application of the mesh in the field. One Humvee was outfitted with mesh while another Humvee acted as the control. Results are discussed. While the aluminium mesh is not ready for deployment in the experimental application method, field testing shows promise in the ability to mitigate IED explosion effects.


We report on the formation and subsequent dark evolution of induced absorption and photorefractive gratings produced by a high-intensity 15-ns pulse in an as-grown sample of BaTiO3 crystal. We show that the experimentally observed multiple time constants for decay of the induced absorption and buildup of the grating in the dark can be explained and successfully simulated by a numerical model of photorefraction incorporating two secondary (hole-trapping) centers in addition to the deep level. The model also takes into account combined electron and hole photoconductivity and high-intensity illumination. We present a full description of the method of numerical solution of the zeroth (homogeneous illumination) and the first-order parameters (inhomogeneous illumination) in this model regime for either steady-state or transient pulse trains and dark-evolution conditions.


Empirical validation of software metrics suites to predict fault proneness in object-oriented (OO) components is essential to ensure their practical use in industrial settings. In this paper, we empirically validate three OO metrics suites for their ability to predict software quality in terms of fault-proneness: the Chidamber and Kemerer (CK) metrics, Abreu's Metrics for Object-Oriented Design (MOOD), and Bansiya and Davis' Quality Metrics for Object-Oriented Design (QMOOD). Some CK class metrics have previously been shown to be good predictors of initial OO software quality. However, the other two suites have not been heavily validated except by their original proposers. Here, we explore the ability of these three metrics suites to predict fault-prone classes using defect data for six versions of Rhino, an open-source implementation of JavaScript written in Java. We conclude that the CK and QMOOD suites contain similar components and produce statistical models that are effective in detecting error-prone classes. We also conclude that the class components in the MOOD metrics suite are not good class fault-proneness predictors. Analyzing multivariate binary logistic regression models across six Rhino versions indicates these models may be useful in assessing quality in OO classes produced using modern highly iterative or agile software development processes.


) Masticatory muscle pain is the second most frequent cause of orofacial pain after dental pain. Myofascial pain dysfunction syndrome (MPDS) is the most common form of temporomandibular joint dysfunction. MPDS is a pain that triggers from [sensitive] points in the muscles and fascia and is followed by spasm, tenderness to palpation, restricted movement, fatigue, and sometimes dysfunction. The researchers intended to collect comprehensive information about therapeutic interventions for myofascial pain through the conduction of a critical study based on evidence in the literature. In this review, 51 English articles, published between 1981 and 2013, were extracted from PubMed, Medline, Ovid, and Google Scholar. These articles were then reviewed in detail in two categories, namely pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical treatments. MPDS treatment should be first focused on the identification and correction of underlying causes. Thiocolchicoside (TCC), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and Cox-2 inhibitors are among promising pharmaceutical methods. On the other hand, ultrasound and laser therapy are among promising non-pharmaceutical methods. The complex mechanism of MPDS, along with its underlying peripheral and central nervous mechanisms may make MPDS, difficult to treat, especially in its chronic form.


A chance meeting with a young hedgehog maid who is visiting Redwall Abbey reveals to Martin the Warrior a tantalising glimpse of the early life, and family, he can scarcely remember. He sets forth from the Abbey to seek the truth about the father he barely knew, accompaned by his trusty friends Dinny, Trimp and Gonff. His journey takes him home to the northland shore, meeting friends and enemies, old and new, along the way and leading him to an extraordinary shipwreck. The wreck, the Arfship, is home to three ancient, veteran warriors who have in their possession a dusty old volume. Inside is the story of Martin's early life and the dramatic account of his father Luke's pursuit of his hated enemy, the pirate stoat, Vilu Daskar. Brian Jacques' skilful narrative is told in three parts, interweaving the stories of father and son in yet another unforgettable Redwall experience.


This paper describes the participation of smallholders in commercial horticultural farming in Kenya and identifies constraints and critical factors that influence their decision to participate in this industry by selling their produce. The study employs panel survey data on smallholder producers of both international (export) and domestic market vegetables and controls for unobserved heterogeneity across farmers. We find that participation of smallholders in both the domestic and export vegetable markets declined and that this trend is associated with weather risks, high costs of inputs and unskilled labour, and erratic vegetable prices, especially in the international market. Different factors are at play in determining a household's market choice for the commercialisation of vegetables: credit is important only when vegetables are (also) exported, livestock ownership is negatively related to production for the domestic market, and distance to the nearest market town positively related to all pathways of commercialisation, for example.


AIM
To identify any barriers to the use of information technology by community nurses, such as poor access, insufficient time and a lack of appropriate skills.

METHODS
Literature review and questionnaire.

RESULTS
The study showed that a large majority of community nurses had access to IT. However, sharing facilities and varying clinical systems meant that, with the exception of e-mail, they made infrequent use of the applications provided.

CONCLUSION
Despite some access difficulties, community nurses have a positive attitude to IT and would like to receive more training.


Across many dryland regions, historically grass‐dominated ecosystems have been encroached upon by woody‐plant species. In this paper, we compare ecosystem water and carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes over a grassland, a grassland–shrubland mosaic, and a fully developed woodland to evaluate potential consequences of woody‐plant encroachment on important ecosystem processes. All three sites were located in the riparian corridor of a river in the southwest US. As such, plants in these ecosystems may have access to moisture at the capillary fringe of the near‐surface water table. Using fluxes measured by eddy covariance in 2003 we found that ecosystem evapotranspiration (ET) and net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide (NEE) increased with increasing woody‐plant dominance. Growing season ET totals were 407, 450, and 639 mm in the grassland, shrubland, and woodland, respectively, and in excess of precipitation by 227, 265, and 473 mm. This excess was derived from groundwater, especially during the extremely dry premonsoon period when this was the only source of moisture available to plants. Access to groundwater by the deep‐rooted woody plants apparently decouples ecosystem ET from gross ecosystem production (GEP) with respect to precipitation. Compared with grasses, the woody plants were better able to use the stable groundwater source and had an increased net CO2 gain during the dry periods. This enhanced plant activity resulted in substantial accumulation of leaf litter on the soil surface that, during rainy periods, may lead to high microbial respiration rates that offset these photosynthetic fluxes. March–December (primary growing season) totals of NEE were −63, −212, and −233 g C m−2 in the grassland, shrubland, and woodland, respectively. Thus, there was a greater disparity between ecosystem water use and the strength of the CO2 sink as woody plants increased across the encroachment gradient. Despite a higher density of woody plants and a greater plant productivity in the woodland than in the shrubland, the woodland produced a larger respiration response to rainfall that largely offset its higher photosynthetic potential. These data suggest that the capacity for woody plants to exploit water resources in riparian areas results in enhanced carbon sequestration at the expense of increased groundwater use under current climate conditions, but the potential does not scale specifically as a function of woody‐plant abundance. These results highlight the important roles of water sources and ecosystem structure on the control of water and carbon balances in dryland areas.


During 1983 and 1984 the effect of low level military training
flights on the establishment. size and reproductive success of wading
bird colonies was studied in Florida. Based on the indirect evidence
of colony distributions and turnover rates in relation to military
areas (training routes designated to 500 feet or less above ground
level and military operations areas). there was no demonstrated effect
of military activity on wading bird colony establishment or size on a
statewide basis. Colony distributions were random with respect to
military areas and turnover rates were within 2% when military and
non-military areas were compared. Colony distributions and turnover
rates, however. were related to the amount and type.Les tuer-tne or
freshwater) of wetland. respectively.
During two breeding seasons the behavioral responses and
reproductive success of selected species were monitored in a
non-habituated treatment colony (military overflights) and a control
colony (no overflights). Breeding wading birds responded to F-16
overflights at 420 knots indicated airspeed. 82-84% maximum rpm. 500
feet above ground level and sound levels ranging from 55-100 dBA by
exhibiting no response. looking up or changing position (usually to an
alert posture): no productivity limiting responses were observed.
High-nesting Great Egrets responded more than other species, nestling
Great Egrets and Cattle Egrets responded significantly (r <.05) more
intensely than adults of their respective species, and adults
responded less during incubation and late chick-rearing than at other
times. In addition, no differences in adult attendance, aggressive
interactions or chick feeding rates were observed to result from F-16 overflights. No evidence of habituation to overflights was noted.
Humans entering the colony or airboats approaching the colony vicinity
elicited the most severe responses (flushing and panic flights)
observed at both sites.
Since relatively little coastal military activity occurs at low
levels ( ~500 ft) and only one Brown Pelican colony (5-6% of the
breeding population) was located in such an area, the reproductive
success of five, more lIexposedll study species (Great Egrets, Snowy
Egrets, Tricolored Herons, Little Blue Herons, Cattle Egrets) nesting
in interior freshwater colonies was studied. Reproductive activity
including such factors as nest success, nestling survival, nestling
mortality, and nesting chronology was independent of F-16 overflights
but related to ecological factors including colony location, colony
characteristics and climatology. The responses to and effects of F-16
overflights, as reported here, should not be considered representative
of military aircraft at lower altitudes or greater noise levels. (194 pages)


Objective of this study was to assess the impact of osteoporosis on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in elderly Korean women. Sociodemographic characteristics, medical history of osteoporosis, and the EuroQol-5 dimension questionnaire scores for 1,000 female participants aged 60 years or older were obtained from the 2015 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Demographic variables, including age, educational level and income, were significantly associated with HRQoL. Furthermore, osteoporosis had a significant effect on HRQoL in elderly Korean women. In the osteoporosis group, the adjusted odds ratios for disability on the ED-5Q dimensions were 1.92 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.44-2.58, p<0.001) for mobility, 1.90 (95% CI=1.45-2.51, p<0.001) for pain/ discomfort, and 1.89 (95% CI=1.36-2.61, p=0.001) for usual activities. These findings indicate that osteoporosis has a significant impact on HRQoL and suggest that the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis may significantly improve quality of life in elderly women.


The ability to predict, or at least recognize, the state of the world that an action brings about, is a central feature of autonomous agents. We propose, herein, a formal framework within which we investigate whether this ability can be autonomously learned.

The framework makes explicit certain premises that we contend are central in such a learning task: (i) slow sensors may prevent the sensing of an action's direct effects during learning; (ii) predictions need to be made reliably in future and novel situations.

We initiate in this work a thorough investigation of the conditions under which learning is or is not feasible. Despite the very strong negative learnability results that we obtain, we also identify interesting special cases where learning is feasible and useful.


Background: Complete rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) causes significant alteration of knee joint kinematics. Untreated patients often develop joint instability, chronic articular degeneration, and knee dysfunction. Demands on the ACL produced by playing tennis have not been investigated. Objective: To identify subjective sport-specific limitations in tennis players with isolated unilateral ACL deficiency. Study design: Prospective case–control study. Methods: 16 players (mean (SD) age, 39.9 (2.3) years; 14 men) with a chronic unilateral ACL deficient knee and 16 healthy controls (38.25 (8.47) years; 14 men) were recruited. ACL deficiency was confirmed by clinical and magnetic resonance imaging. A Lysholm score was obtained in all patients, together with subjective evaluation of their current tennis performance compared with pre-injury levels, applying a 0–100% visual scale. Both groups completed a questionnaire on tennis specific abilities. Results: Lysholm scores were: 85.6 (10.3) points in the study group and 100 (0) points in the control group (p<0.001, t test for independent samples). Injured players evaluated their current tennis performance as 66.8 (15.2)% compared with 100% pre-injury level (p<0.005, t test for dependent samples). Abilities affected in the ACL deficient group were landing after a smash stroke (p<0.001); stopping abruptly and changing (p<0.001); playing a three set singles match (p<0.05); and playing on a hard court surface (p<0.001, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Conclusions: There are specific limitations associated with complete isolated ACL rupture, including subjective tennis performance impairment, limitations landing after a smash, stopping and changing step direction, difficulties playing a three set singles match, and playing on hard court surfaces.


INTRODUCTION The beginning of genetic improvement of French dairy goats goes back to the 60's when a selection program was developed at a national scale by the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) for the Alpine and Saanen breeds. The relatively rapid development of milk recording allowed the implementation of typical two-steps selection schemes for both breeds: since 1965, such schemes have included selection of parents, planned mating and progeny testing, and, in the 80's, the initial on-station progeny test evolved towards an on-farm progeny testing based on artificial insemination (Piacère et al., 2000). Since the very beginning of the selection program the main selection objective for both breeds has been the improvement of protein yield and protein content in order to warrant profit for farmers and to improve cheese yield. In 1999, fat yield and fat content were added to the selection objective (Belichon et al., 1999) to avoid an undesirable reduction of the ratio of fat over protein content. Up to 1995, type scores were nonlinear and they were used mainly for culling of dams and sires. In 1995, the "Institut de l'Elevage" and the French Breeders' Association "Caprigène France" defined new linear scores for type appraisal and, since 2000, a new genetic evaluation is being conducted for linear type traits. Methods and software used for genetic evaluation of French dairy goats benefit from the evolutions of dairy cattle genetic evaluation. First methods applied to dairy goats were based on modified contemporary comparison principles (Poutous et al., 1981). Since then, methods and models have evolved: use of BLUP in an animal model with repeated records (Boichard et al., 1992), consideration of heterogeneous variances (RobertGranié et al., 1999) for dairy traits, and multiple trait genetic evaluation for type traits (Ducrocq, 1992). The objective of this article is to describe the characteristics of present genetic evaluation of dairy goats in France, to report estimates of genetic trends for dairy traits in the Alpine and Saanen breeds, and to discuss perspectives for genetic evaluation.


We observed the distribution of CD56+ epithelial cells in the pancreatic duct system using 25 fetal, one infantile, 3 normal adult, 4 diabetic, and 8 chronically inflamed pancreatic tissue samples. In the early stage of gestation (12 to 17 weeks), CD56+ cells were commonly seen in the immature tubular structures. They were often continuous to pancreatic islets, and their distribution was similar to that of synaptophysin (Syn)+ cells, suggesting that they are precursors of islet neogenesis. Their number decreased in proportion to gestational age. Instead, from 24 weeks of gestation, luminal cell clusters that were common in interlobular ducts revealed CD56+. These cell clusters were unrelated to islet neogenesis and Syn expression. Similar CD56+ luminal cell clusters were also observed in cases of chronic pancreatitis, whereas they were scarce in normal adult and diabetic tissues. CD56+ cells were also occasionally seen in intralobular ducts, intercalated ducts, and centroacinar cells in cases of chronic pancreatitis. We conclude that there are two types of CD56+ epithelial cells in the pancreatic duct system: CD56+ endocrine cells are numerous during the early stage of gestation, when islet neogenesis appears, while CD56+ luminal cells may represent developmental and regenerative changes of pancreatic ducts.


We determined the isotopic composition of oxygen in marine diatoms in eight deep-sea cores recovered from the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The analytical reproducibility and core-to-core consistency of the isotopic signal suggests that diatom δ18O can be used as a new paleocenographic tool to reconstruct past variations in surface water characteristics and to generate 18O -isotope-based stratigraphy for the Southern Ocean. The data indicate that diatom δ18O reflects sea surface temperature and seawater isotopic composition and that diatoms retain their isotopic signal on timescales of a least 430 ka. The δ18O analyses of different diatom assemblages reveal that the isotopic signal is free of species effects and that the common Antarctic species have the same water-opal fractionation. The transition from the last glacial maximum (LGM) to the Holocene is fully recorded in high sedimentation rate cores. An 18O enrichment during the LGM, a post-LGM meltwater spike and an input of meltwater during the late Holocene are the main isotopic features observed in down core records. The origin of this meltwater was very likely melting icebergs and/or continental ice or by melting sea ice that had accumulated snow. The most pronounced meltwater effects are recorded in cores that are associated with the Weddel gyre. Our results provide the basis for extending isotope studies to oceanic regions devoid of carbonate; further, isotopic stratigraphies may be constructed for records and regions where they were previously not possible.


A multiple generator drivetrain (MGD), where a single large generator in a wind turbine is replaced by multiple generators with the same or different rated powers, is proposed along with an automatic switch as an alternative to an existing MGD configuration. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons of a MGD with a conventional drivetrain are provided to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of having a MGD in wind turbines. New approaches for improving the efficiency and the reliability, expanding the operational range, and reducing the cost of a wind turbine are mentioned. A simple mathematical model for a MGD with electromagnetic clutches is developed, a novel prototype of a MGD is designed and fabricated, and experiments are conducted on the prototype. It is concluded that a multiple-generator drivetrain with generators operating individually or in parallel has a better potential of improving the efficiency and the reliability, expanding the operational range, and reducing the cost of offshore and onshore wind turbines than the existing MGD configuration.


Introduction Since 2011 two online, validated exams for fourth-year emergency medicine (EM) students have been available (National EM M4 Exams). In 2013 the National Board of Medical Examiners offered the Advanced Clinical Examination in Emergency Medicine (EM-ACE). All of these exams are now in widespread use; however, there are no data on how they correlate. This study evaluated the correlation between the EM-ACE exam and the National EM M4 Exams. Methods From May 2013 to April 2014 the EM-ACE and one version of the EM M4 exam were administered sequentially to fourth-year EM students at five U.S. medical schools. Data collected included institution, gross and scaled scores and version of the EM M4 exam. We performed Pearson's correlation and random effects linear regression. Results 303 students took the EM-ACE and versions 1 (V1) or 2 (V2) of the EM M4 exams (279 and 24, respectively). The mean percent correct for the exams were as follows: EM-ACE 74.8 (SD-8.83), V1 83.0 (SD-6.41), V2 78.5 (SD-7.70). Pearson's correlation coefficient for the V1/EM-ACE was 0.51 (0.42 scaled) and for the V2/EM-ACE was 0.59 (0.41 scaled). The coefficient of determination for V1/EM-ACE was 0.72 and for V2/EM-ACE = 0.71 (0.86 and 0.49 for scaled scores). The R-squared values were 0.25 and 0.30 (0.18 and 0.13, scaled), respectively. There was significant cluster effect by institution. Conclusion There was moderate positive correlation of student scores on the EM-ACE exam and the National EM M4 Exams.


This memo defines a portion of the Management Information Base (MIB) for use with network management protocols in the Internet community. In particular, it describes managed objects for defining, configuring, and monitoring Forwarding Equivalence Class (FEC) to Next Hop Label Forwarding Entry (NHLFE) mappings and corresponding actions for use with Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).


Patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) experience decreased quality of life (QoL) and significantly higher rates of malnutrition, inflammation, hospitalization and mortality when compared with the normal population. The dietary approach in the different phases of chronic renal failure is one of the most important, and yet controversial, topics in the whole history of nephrology, even when dialysis facilities were not easily available. Although much progress has been made in recent years in recognizing the link between malnutrition, different diseases and increased mortality, no consensus has yet been reached concerning the ideal assessment and management of nutritional status in dialysis patients in Iran. In this study, 70 patients on MHD in the teaching hospitals in Urmia were divided into two groups and were requested to fill in the validated SF-36 QoL questionnaire. One group of 35 patients received dietary counseling while the other did not and acted as controls. The SF-36, a short-form QoL scoring system consists of 36 questions that are compressed into eight multi-item scales covering all aspects of QoL. The two groups studied were similar in age, level of education, gender and duration of dialysis treatment; 46.8% of the patients were female and 52% were male. The total SF-36 score was slightly higher in males compared with females, but this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.05). The scores were higher in the group counseled about diet. Overall, the difference in physical health, in work activities and QoL as a whole, between the two groups, was statistically significant (t = 2.04, df = 34, P = 0.049; t = 2.04, df = 34, P = 0.049; t = 2.28, df = 1.96, P = 0.043, respectively). The QoL was considerably diminished in HD patients, but less so in the group that was educated about their nutrition. Improvement in QoL is achievable in patients if their discomfort is more effectively treated medically. One of the methods for this is education about their nutritional program, which can be used for other chronic diseases too. More research is needed to assess whether interventions help to improve QoL and lower heath risks among patients on HD.


Importance of an alternative sensor system to an inertial measurement unit (IMU) is essential for intelligent land navigation systems when the vehicle travels in a GPS deprived environment. The sensor system that has to be used in updating the IMU for a reliable navigation solution has to be a passive sensor system which does not depend on any outside signal. This dissertation presents the results of an effort where position and orientation data from vision and inertial sensors are integrated. Information from a sequence of images captured by a monocular camera attached to a survey vehicle at a maximum frequency of 3 frames per second was used in upgrading the inertial system installed in the same vehicle for its inherent error accumulation. Specifically, the rotations and translations estimated from point correspondences tracked through a sequence of images were used in the integration. However, for such an effort, two types of tasks need to be performed. The first task is the calibration to estimate the intrinsic properties of the vision sensors (cameras), such as the focal length and lens distortion parameters and determination of the transformation between the camera and the inertial systems. Calibration of a two sensor system under indoor conditions does not provide an appropriate and practical transformation for use in outdoor maneuvers due to invariable differences between outdoor and indoor conditions. Also, use of custom calibration objects in outdoor operational conditions is not feasible due to larger field of view that requires relatively large calibration object sizes. Hence calibration becomes one of the critical issues particularly if the integrated system is used in Intelligent Transportation Systems applications. In order to successfully estimate the rotations and translations from vision system the calibration has to be performed prior to the integration process.
The second task is the effective fusion of inertial and vision sensor systems. The automated algorithm that identifies point correspondences in images enables its use in real-time autonomous driving maneuvers. In order to verify the accuracy of the established correspondences, independent constraints such as epipolar lines and correspondence flow directions were used. Also a pre-filter was utilized to smoothen out the noise associated with the vision sensor (camera) measurements. A novel approach was used to obtain the geodetic coordinates, i.e. latitude, longitude and altitude, from the normalized translations determined from the vision sensor. Finally, the position locations based on the vision sensor was integrated with those of the inertial system in a decentralized format using a Kalman filter. The vision/inertial integrated position estimates are successfully compared with those from (1) inertial/GPS system output and (2) actual survey performed on the same roadway. This comparison demonstrates that vision can in fact be used successfully to supplement the inertial measurements during potential GPS outages. The derived intrinsic properties and the transformation between individual sensors are also verified during two separate test runs on an actual roadway section.


Adsorption of methylene blue or 3,7 bis (dimethylamino) phenothiazin-5-ium ion was used to measure the specific surface areas of six cotton fibers taken from the International Calibration Cotton Standards. A kinetic study of this dye's adsorption to the cotton fibers was first conducted to establish the adsorption isotherms. From this study, the adsorption isotherm was determined at 25°C for 24 hours with the concentration of methylene blue solution in the range 0.004 to 0.18 x 10-3 kg L-1. After 24 hours, the concentration of methylene blue at the adsorption equilibrium was analyzed by a spectrophotometer at a wavelength of 660 nm. The specific surface area was then calculated from this isotherm. The specific surface areas for these cottons, B-26, C-36, D-5, E-4, G-17, and I-26 were found to be 32.32, 32.42, 34.48, 52.72, 43.96, and 29.91 x 10-3 km2 kg-1, respectively. The reliability of this method seems very good. (Resume d'auteur)


The aim of this study is to demonstrate that John Gower's Confessio Amantis is a work of great philosophical and poetic sophistication which is worthy of greater critical attention and esteem than it has so far received. It attempts to do this in a number of ways: firstly, it outlines some of the reasons that Gower's poem has been somewhat neglected; secondly, it looks at Gower within his literary context; thirdly, it examines the poem in the context of the poet's social, religious and political milieaux. By examining the poem from these perspectives, it is hoped that some critically useful indications of the intellectual breadth of Gower's poem will have been delineated.
Chapter One: Place and Time
Other critics have traced the development of Gower's adverse critical reputation, but it is Gower's proximity (poetically, linguistically and socially) to his more famous contemporary, Geoffrey Chaucer, which has contributed most to Gower's denigration. While his works have been more closely scrutinised in recent decades, a full appreciation of Gower's work can be achieved only by examining Gower in his own right. An analysis of the Confessio in relation to Gower's most probable intended audiences indicates a poet striving to produce a work to which a wide range of people could respond to and make use of on a number of levels. Similarly, Gower's view of himself as an author, as indicated by the Prologue of the poem, is further evidence of the breadth and seriousness of his endeavour.
Chapter Two: Modes and Styles
The ways in which Gower chose to frame and to present his ideas are further indications of the poem's sophistication. His use of confession, an analytical dialogue between two people with carefully defined roles, was an innovation which presented many rich poetic and philosophical possibilities. An examination of the role of the sacrament of confession in late fourteenth-century society shows that Gower had chosen a mode of discourse which was not only highly familiar to his audience but which was the most powerful tool for psychological analysis available at that time. Gower makes rich use of that tool to examine his major character, Amans, and, through this 'Everyman' figure, to examine humanity in general. As a 'lover's confession' the Confessio Amantis is an examination of human sexuality on one important level, but Gower simultaneously examines 'love' in its
broader, social aspects and so explores aspects of human nature on a macrocosmic level also.
Chapter Three: Voices and Characters
The focus of this analysis is the central figure, Amans. The way in which Gower presents this figure is vital to an understanding of the breadth of Gower's achievement in this poem. Amans is an Everyman figure both as an archetypal lover and as an archetypal human being. Iconographical and textual evidence is surveyed to examine the presentation of this vital figure, as are relevant calendrical schemes and the topos of the Twelve Ages of Man. The breadth of possible interpretation built into the figure of Amans is another indication of the breadth of meaning in the poem. The relationships between Amans and the other major poetic figures in the work, Genius, Venus and Nature, show that Gower aimed to present a carefully considered, well constructed and intellectually challenging vision of love and its roles in the cosmos.
Chapter Four:- Findings and Outcomes
The confessional dialogue and its conclusion which make up the bulk of the poem are devoted to these microcosmic and macrocosmic concerns. They are framed and complemented by the poem's prologue and epilogue, which reinforce the poem's social and political concerns. Gower was highly concerned with the politics of his time, and wrote the poem to inform those politics by showing a path towards a 'common good'. By examining the political environment in which the Confessio was written, we can get some idea of what motivated him to write this poem and why he conceived of it as he did. The total structure of the poem makes it clear that he wished it to be both a poem which could be enjoyed and a proposal of a 'middle way' which could be used, by people of his own time and in times to come. He attempted to write a poem for everybody. The conclusion of the study serves to indicate further areas of study which this kind of analysis of Gower's poem could make possible.


Indians undergoing socioeconomic and lifestyle transitions will be maximally affected by epidemic of type 2 diabetes (T2D). We conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of T2D in 12,535 Indians, a less explored but high-risk group. We identified a new type 2 diabetes–associated locus at 2q21, with the lead signal being rs6723108 (odds ratio 1.31; P = 3.32 × 10−9). Imputation analysis refined the signal to rs998451 (odds ratio 1.56; P = 6.3 × 10−12) within TMEM163 that encodes a probable vesicular transporter in nerve terminals. TMEM163 variants also showed association with decreased fasting plasma insulin and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, indicating a plausible effect through impaired insulin secretion. The 2q21 region also harbors RAB3GAP1 and ACMSD; those are involved in neurologic disorders. Forty-nine of 56 previously reported signals showed consistency in direction with similar effect sizes in Indians and previous studies, and 25 of them were also associated (P < 0.05). Known loci and the newly identified 2q21 locus altogether explained 7.65% variance in the risk of T2D in Indians. Our study suggests that common susceptibility variants for T2D are largely the same across populations, but also reveals a population-specific locus and provides further insights into genetic architecture and etiology of T2D.


Each semester students inundate academic interlibrary loan (ILL) units with requests to borrow required course materials. Historically these were cancelled by ILL borrowing offices due to high demand, short loan periods and the ability for the lending library to recall. The solution developed into a pilot project, beginning with the decision to process borrowing requests for course materials from libraries within a consortium, which had agreed to longer loan periods. Additionally, ILL received permission to select course materials and, working with Course Reserve, placed items on reserve, added links to library course pages and worked with course instructors to communicate the availability to students. Workflow and procedures were developed to streamline the process and detailed data was collected on the requests. Learn how an ILL department and Course Reserve unit collaborated to develop an innovative program that provides students access to required readings through patron-driven acquisition, resource sharing and ingenuity.
Related URL: http://z.umn.edu/license2ILL


This Article examines judicial decisionmaking in labor and employment cases involving undocumented workers. Labor and employment laws, designed to protect all workers regardless of immigration status, often conflict with immigration laws designed to deter the employment of undocumented workers. In the absence of clarity as to how these differing policy priorities should interact, courts are left to resolve the conflict. While existing case law appears to lack coherence, this Article identifies a uniform judicial reliance upon "fault-based" factors. This Article offers a structure to understand this developing body of law and evaluates the legitimacy of the fault-based decisionmaking modalities utilized by courts. Though concepts of fault are not uncommon in law, when evaluating these cases courts tend to examine immigration-related fault as opposed to fault stemming from the underlying workplace claim. Using the taxonomy rooted in the Supreme Court's 2002 Hoffman decision, courts employ two constructs in cases involving undocumented workers: past fault as it relates to unlawful immigration, continued unlawful presence in the country or fraud to obtain work; and future fault as it relates to the potential for prospective illegal acts.This Article explores whether courts' use of these fault concepts provide legitimate bases upon which to make decisions and concludes that decisional legitimacy depends on the fault-based modality used by the court. Future "fault-based" decisionmaking effectuates legislative intent in a manner sufficient to satisfy separation of powers principles. Past "fault-based" decisions, unrooted in existing legal doctrine, constitute unchecked judicial policymaking that may violate separation of powers principles. In the middle are past fault-based decisions that are rooted in existing doctrine but are inappropriately applied in the undocumented worker context because of the insufficient nexus between the immigration wrong and the injury.The Article concludes that the attempt to effectuate immigration policy through the application of immigration fault into labor and employment cases can be an impermissible exercise of judicial authority.


Abstract Background: The cost-effectiveness of a heart failure management intervention can be further informed by incorporating the expected benefits and costs of future survival. Methods: This study compared the long-term costs per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained from home-based (HBI) vs specialist clinic-based intervention (CBI) among elderly patients (mean age = 71 years) with heart failure discharged home (mean intervention duration = 12 months). Cost-utility analysis was conducted from a government-funded health system perspective. A Markov cohort model was used to simulate disease progression over 15 years based on initial data from a randomized clinical trial (the WHICH? study). Time-dependent hazard functions were modeled using the Weibull function, and this was compared against an alternative model where the hazard was assumed to be constant over time. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted to identify the key drivers of cost-effectiveness and quantify uncertainty in the results. Results: During the trial, mortality was the highest within 30 days of discharge and decreased thereafter in both groups, although the declining rate of mortality was slower in CBI than HBI. At 15 years (extrapolated), HBI was associated with slightly better health outcomes (mean of 0.59 QALYs gained) and mean additional costs of AU$13,876 per patient. The incremental cost-utility ratio and the incremental net monetary benefit (vs CBI) were AU$23,352 per QALY gained and AU$15,835, respectively. The uncertainty was driven by variability in the costs and probabilities of readmissions. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed HBI had a 68% probability of being cost-effective at a willingness-to-pay threshold of AU$50,000 per QALY. Conclusion: Compared with CBI (outpatient specialized HF clinic-based intervention), HBI (home-based predominantly, but not exclusively) could potentially be cost-effective over the long-term in elderly patients with heart failure at a willingness-to-pay threshold of AU$50,000/QALY, albeit with large uncertainty.


Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (1) made it unlawful for an employer to hire or fire an employee or to discriminate by classifying, compensating, or denying opportunity to an employee on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Sex as a protected category was an afterthought. The bill was opposed by many in Congress, among them a Virginia representative who caused the bill to be amended to add sex--perhaps expecting that the protection of women-workers would result in killing the bill. Another Congressman proposed that a woman should not be permitted to claim sex discrimination unless she filed a sworn statement that her spouse was unemployed. Those maneuvers failed, and the Act passed. It went into effect on July 1, 1965. Though Title VII promised women equality of employment opportunity, even many supporters of women's rights were committed to protecting women as workers while preserving their traditional roles as wives and mothers. I recommend to you the scholarship of Cary Franklin for a wonderful and illuminating look back at these times. (2) At the initiative of Columbia Law Professor George Cooper, in the fall of 1971, Columbia opened the Employment Rights Project, a clinical course offering, "staffed," as it were, by our students, with George and me, newly hired, as its instructors. One of the students in our early semesters--Howard Rubin--after graduation, joined me as an instructor, and George returned to classroom teaching. In those early days, cases were made largely by looking at the defendant employer's job structure and finding blatant segregation and resulting salary discrimination. Two of the Clinic's earliest cases--against Newsweek magazine and the New York Telephone Company--succeeded largely on that foundation. The Newsweek women were pioneers who filed their first complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1970. Those working on Newsweek's editorial side were all too personally familiar with the widely-known truth that, at a national news magazine, a man behind a typewriter was a "Writer," while a woman behind a typewriter was a "Researcher." Though Newsweek signed a Memorandum of Understanding with its women employees, little in the workplace changed. Disappointed by management's broken promises to desegregate the magazine's jobs, in May-June 1972, fifty Newsweek women filed charges at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the New York State Division of Human Rights. The settlement, one year later, provided many positive management commitments, among them hiring and assignment goals--including the appointment of a woman in editorial management. Lynn Povich, lead Newsweek plaintiff, tells the whole story in her book to be published in the fall of this year. (3) The plaintiff class at the New York Telephone Company (4) was composed of 2200 management level women in the Traffic Department of the Company where, for example, women held 98% of the lowest management jobs earning half the salary of men who held 80% of the top management jobs. Useful testimony supplemented our statistical case. The company's General Personnel Supervisor, for example, testified that military experience--but not teaching experience--showed "supervisory skill," and when asked how the company had validated that measure, he replied, "I guess I'm paid to make this type of judgment." The case settled before trial with goals and timetables and salary increases for women in the class. Somewhat closer to home, in 1971 and 1972, at the close of late summer interviewing season, women at NYU School of Law and Columbia Law School were filing administrative employment discrimination complaints against major New York City law firms. The Clinic represented them. What those women were up against was captured at the end of a negotiation session just prior to our filing two of the cases in federal court. The Royall Koegel & Wells attorney representing his own firm closed the meeting by saying, "I do see what you're saying. …


Compared to the last two decades, an increase in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) prevalence, morbidity, mortality and disability has clearly emerged among women both in Europe and in all other countries. Despite this evidence, in the international guidelines for COPD there are no sex-specific recommendations. The aim of this study is to evaluate gender differences in patients hospitalized for COPD in Puglia (Italy), with regard to number of admissions, mean age, average length of stay in hospital (ALOS), hospital mortality, re-hospitalization and presence of comorbidities. To identify COPD hospitalized patients, we relied on the Puglia Hospital Discharge Register Database. We included all patients discharged with principal diagnosis of COPD with or without exacerbation (respectively ICD-9-CM codes 491.21 and 491.20) between 2005 and 2016. There has been an increase in the proportion of women's hospitalizations for COPD, from 2005 [31.9%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 31.1-32.7] to 2016 (37.9%, 95%CI 36.0-40.0). Women need longer hospitalization and in 2016 the proportion of women's re-hospitalization was greater compared to men. Despite these data, women are less treated with respiratory therapy (ICD-9- CM 93.9x) than men in all the examined years and wards. The prevalence of most common comorbidities is higher among women. The number of COPD hospitalized patients had been reduced in Puglia between 2005 and 2016, with an important increase of female COPD patients, female average age, ALOS and re-hospitalization. Women are treated less and have more comorbidities with a negative impact on clinical progression of COPD, survival and quality of life.


There is increasing evidence that the global climate change is already having measurable biological impacts. However, no study (based on actual data) has assessed the influence of the global warming on communities in rivers. We analyzed long‐term series of fish (1979–1999) and invertebrate (1980–1999) data from the Upper Rhône River at Bugey to test the influence of climatic warming on both communities. Between the periods of 1979–1981 and 1997–1999, the average water temperature of the Upper Rhône River at Bugey has increased by about 1.5°C due to atmospheric warming. In the same period, several dams have been built from 12.5 to 85 km upstream of our study segment and a nuclear power plant has been built on it. Changes in the community structure were summarized using multivariate analysis. The variability of fish abundance was correlated with discharge and temperature during the reproduction period (April–June): low flows and high temperatures coincided with high fish abundance. Beyond abundance patterns, southern, thermophilic fish species (e.g. chub, and barbel) as well as downstream, thermophilic invertebrate taxa (e.g. Athricops, Potamopyrgus) progressively replaced northern, cold‐water fish species (e.g. dace) and upstream, cold‐water invertebrate taxa (e.g. Chloroperla, Protoneumura). These patterns were significantly correlated with thermal variables, suggesting that shifts were the consequences of climatic warming. All analyses were carried out using statistics appropriate for autocorrelated time series. Our results were consistent with previous studies dealing with relationships between fish or invertebrates and water temperature, and with predictions of the impact of climatic change on freshwater communities. The potential confounding factors (i.e. dams and the nuclear power plant) did not seem to influence the observed trends.


This paper develops a new method of integral sliding mode control redesign for a class of perturbed nonlinear dissipative switched systems by modifying the dissipativity- based control law that was designed for the unperturbed systems. The nominal model is considered affine with matched and unmatched perturbations. The redesigned control law includes an integral sliding-based control signal such that the system always operates on the sliding mode and the dissipativity of the perturbed switched system is maintained from the initial time of the system operation for the norm bounded perturbations. The proposed techniques eliminate the restrictive design conditions on the derivative of storage functions offered in a recent work. In addition, the global dissipativity of the perturbed system is always maintained if the original unperturbed system is globally dissipative. Depending on the type of stability of the unperturbed system, the designed control law for the perturbed system guarantees robust exponential or asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system. The theoretical results are applied to nonlinear switched systems, and the convergence of the state vectors to the origin is verified by simulation in presence of nonlinear perturbations.


ABSTRACT In this article, we consider the problem of testing (a) sphericity and (b) intraclass covariance structure under a growth curve model. The maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) for the mean in a growth curve model is a weighted estimator with the inverse of the sample covariance matrix which is unstable for large p close to N and singular for p larger than N. The MLE for the covariance matrix is based on the MLE for the mean, which can be very poor for p close to N. For both structures (a) and (b), we modify the MLE for the mean to an unweighted estimator and based on this estimator we propose a new estimator for the covariance matrix. This new estimator leads to new tests for (a) and (b). We also propose two other tests for each structure, which are just based on the sample covariance matrix. To compare the performance of all four tests we compute for each structure (a) and (b) the attained significance level and the empirical power. We show that one of the tests based on the sample covariance matrix is better than the likelihood ratio test based on the MLE.


Stories of familial memories, histories and daily life, from sixteen daughters of diasporic Indian families living in Britain, are used to examine how culture, gender and consumption are negotiated within family settings. The differing gate-keeping roles played by parents, children and grandparents within families, in resisting or promoting the negotiation of cultural boundaries, have not been examined before. This provides a crucial opportunity to examine the changing pattern(s) of power, identity and gender roles in ethnic families; the gap in research on gender roles within the family; the family as part of a social system; the cultural embeddedness of family relationships; and the family at a more disaggregated level. These daughters' stories identified the polarisation of parental positions over a number of key issues, notably language, media and consumption (e.g. food, alcohol, clothing); showed the importance of understanding gender as performance across the family/societal boundaries; and demonstrated the centrality of communities and networks in supporting and restraining different interpretations of culture, consumption and gender by mothers and fathers.


Eskom and the Department of Water Affairs, both widely regarded as environmentally enlightened organizations, recognized as early as 1979 the need for environmental consideration of the Palmiet Pumped Storage Scheme. It should be noted that, at that time, the scheme was still in its early stages of planning. With the Pumped Storage Scheme now complete and in operation, it can be used as an example of the effective integrated environmental management of a large construction project, particularly when consideration is given to the environmental sensitivity of the area in which it has been developed. A preliminary environmental study was carried out in the first instance by the Department of Water Affairs. This study was aimed largely at assessing the validity of the environmental concerns that had been publicly expressed, and agreed that indeed there was an environmental case and particular care was warranted.


Summary The composition of the incoming cabinet has been a disappointment: the president's clear election victory seemed to give him the opportunity to appoint a more strongly reformist group of ministers. The new government says it intends to involve the private sector heavily in infrastructure provision, and that it recognises the need to improve the business environment, but there has been little concrete progress so far, and it has yet to show the will and capacity to do what is required. In late December Aceh province was devastated by an earthquake and a catastrophic tsunami. About a quarter of a million Indonesians were killed and countless others injured. Vast numbers have lost their livelihoods, and material damage is estimated at $3 billion, although the natural gas producing facilities remain intact. The international community showed itself to be favourably disposed to the incoming government, and committed generous disaster assistance. The economy grew increasingly rapidly in 2004, and investment spending has at last begun to record sustained high rates of growth. The budget outcome for the year is expected to be reasonably close to plan, despite the previous government's failure to reduce the enormous waste resulting from electricity and fuel price subsidies. Monetary policy was tightened toward the end of the year in response to accelerating inflation. A deposit insurance agency to be established under newly enacted legislation is unlikely to be able to prevent banking collapses, or the transfer of the resulting losses to the general public; the legislation seems merely to codify most of the actions taken on an ad hoc basis in 1999–98 when the banking system collapsed. Meanwhile, yet another banking scandal has led to the closure of a private bank, after a seemingly unwarranted delay by the central bank. The government has announced its intention gradually to adjust electricity and fuel prices upwards. The Constitutional Court has annulled a new electricity law allowing greater private sector participation and competition in this sector, however. Similar court actions now seem likely whenever the government enacts laws aiming to enhance efficiency through these means. After less than four years of decentralisation, the underlying laws have been replaced. The new laws can be interpreted as an attempt to shift government authority back towards the centre, but there has also been an attempt to redress the regionally inequitable fiscal impact of current revenue sharing arrangements.


After the triumphs of Montgomery and Selma, Martin Luther King, Jr., rallied his forces and headed north. The law was on his side, the nation seemed to be behind him, the crusade for civil rights was rapidly gathering momentum--and then, in Chicago, heartland of America, the movement stalled. What happened? This book is the first to give us the full story--a vivid account of how the Chicago Freedom Movement of 1965-1967 attempted to combat northern segregation. "Northern Protest" captures this new kind of campaign for civil rights at a fateful turning point, with effects that pulse through the nation's race relations to the day. Combating the outright, unconstitutional denial of basic political and civil rights had been King's focus in the South. In the North, the racial terrian was different. James Ralph analyzes the shift in the planning stages--moving from addressing public constitutional rights to private--impact legal rights--as King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) mounted an unprecedented attack on housing discrimination, one of the most blatant social and economic inequities of urban America. A crisis in the making is unfolded as King, the SCLC, and a coalition of multiracial Chicago civil rights groups mobilize protests against the city's unfair housing practices. Ralph introduces us to Chicago's white ethnics, city officials, and business and religious leaders in a heated confusion of responses. His vibrant account--based in part on many in-depth interviews with participants--reveals the true lineaments of urban America, with lessons reaching beyond the confines of the city. The Chicago Freedom Movement is given a national context--as King envisioned it, and as it finally played out. Here, the Chicago crusade becomes emblematic of the civil rights movement today and tomorrow. Ralph argues that this new push for equality in more private realms of American life actually undermined popular support for the movement and led to its ultimate decline.


Managing knowledge in general and indigenous knowledge in particular has become an important and valuable input in the management of sustainable development programmes. Historically, indigenous knowledge has been downplayed in the management of information. The tendency among library and information professionals has been to emphasize recorded knowledge at the expense of unrecorded indigenous knowledge. However, the growing realization that indigenous knowledge has a role to play in national development as well as the knowledge management environment has led to the growth of interest in preserving and managing it. The major challenges to the management and preservation of indigenous knowledge are issues relating to collection development, intellectual property rights, access and the preservation media.


The use of colistin, a 50-year old polymyxin antibiotic with a reportedly high incidence of nephrotoxicity and neurotoxicity, declined with the development of potentially less toxic anti pseudomonal agents. Colistin retains significant activity against emerging multidrug resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria and is often the only therapeutic option available to treat infections by these pathogens. As a consequence, use of colistin as a 'last-line' of defence has increased dramatically over recent years. However, there has been a dearth of pharmacological information to inform rational use of colistin in order to maximise antibacterial activity and minimise toxicity and the development of resistance. As resistance to colistin is beginning to emerge, there is an urgent need to optimise use of colistin to prolong its therapeutic utility. To increase our understanding of colistin pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) this thesis examined the activity of colistin against Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Colistin is administered parenterally as its sulphomethylated derivative, sodium colistin methanesulphonate (CMS); colistin is subsequently formed from CMS in vivo. The contribution to bacterial killing of both CMS and formed colistin was unknown, despite the important implications for susceptibility and PK/PD studies. The relative antibacterial activity of CMS and colistin against P. aeruginosa was thus investigated. The time-course of the killing effect achieved with CMS (and formed colistin) was very similar to that observed with colistin when added to achieve the same colistin concentration-time course resulting from the conversion of CMS. Killing with CMS did not begin until significant concentrations of colistin were achieved, indicating that CMS possesses little antibacterial activity. As the time-course of antibacterial activity from CMS could be accounted for by the appearance of colistin, it was clearly demonstrated that antipseudomonal activity was due to formation of colistin. CMS may therefore be regarded as an inactive pro-drug of colistin.
Confusion surrounds the optimal dosing regimen of CMS. Three clinically relevant dosage regimens of CMS (8, 12 and 24 hourly) were simulated in an in vitro PK/PD model to evaluate the PD of colistin against P. aeruginosa. Overall bacterial killing and regrowth throughout the experimental period (72 h) was generally similar among the three regimens, with regrowth observed with all regimens. Population analysis profiles (PAPs) revealed the presence of colistin resistant subpopulations with each regimen at 72 h. In the two regimens which employed the greater dosage interval (12 and 24 h), the emergence of resistance was substantially greater and occurred earlier than for the 8 hourly regimen.
Information on the PK/PD index that best predicts colistin efficacy is important for rational design of optimal dosing strategies. Dose fractionation was employed in an in vitro PK/PD model to identify the PK/PD index (i.e., the area under the unbound concentration-time curve to MIC ratio [ƒAUC/MIC], the unbound maximal concentration to MIC ratio [ƒCmax/MIC], or the cumulative percentage of a 24-h period that unbound concentrations exceed the MIC [ƒT>MIC]) that best predicts colistin efficacy against P. aeruginosa and to determine the values for the predictive index required to achieve various magnitudes of killing effect. Overall killing effect was best correlated with ƒAUC/MIC. The magnitudes of ƒAUC/MIC required for 1- and 2-log10 reductions in the area under the cfu/mL curve relative to growth control were identified.
Use of combination antibiotic therapy may be beneficial against rapidly emerging resistance in P. aeruginosa. Bacterial killing and resistance emergence with colistin monotherapy and in combination with imipenem was systematically investigated at two inocula (~10^6 and ~10^8 cfu/mL) using static time-kill methodology. The bacterial strains examined included colistin heteroresistant and colistin- and imipenem-resistant strains; colistin-heteroresistant P. aeruginosa was first identified in this study. Colistin combined with imipenem at clinically achievable concentrations substantially increased bacterial killing against MDR and colistin heteroresistant isolates at both inocula. Combination therapy against colistin-susceptible isolates generally had little effect on the proportion of colistin-resistant subpopulations, with PAPs very similar to that obtained with equivalent colistin monotherapy.
Finally, to further investigate the combination of colistin and carbapenems, a systematic investigation examining the bacterial killing and emergence of colistin resistance with colistin alone and in combination with doripenem at both high and low inocula against P. aeruginosa was undertaken using an in vitro PK/PD model. The addition of doripenem to colistin using clinically relevant dosage regimens resulted in substantial improvements in bacterial killing over equivalent monotherapy against the MDR colistin-resistant isolate at both inocula. Although the benefits in overall antibacterial activity with the combination were slightly less pronounced against the colistin-susceptible but -heteroresistant strain, combination regimens nevertheless resulted in substantial improvements in bacterial killing. Combination therapy substantially reduced and delayed the emergence of colistin-resistant subpopulations in the colistin susceptible strain, but had no effect on the colistin resistance of a MDR colistin-resistant isolate.
In brief, this thesis was the first to demonstrate CMS is an inactive prodrug of colistin and to systematically investigate colistin combinations. The findings contained therein improve the current understanding of the PK/PD determinants of colistin activity and resistance development. This work provides important information that will assist in designing optimal dosing strategies to maximise the efficacy of, and reduce the development of resistance to, this increasingly important therapeutic agent. Awards: Winner of the Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal for Excellence, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2012.


We use Kernel Canonical Correlation Analysis (KCCA) for detecting brain activity in function MRI by learning a semantic representation of fMRI brain scans and their associated time frequency. The semantic space provides a common representation and enables a comparison between the fMRI and time frequency. We compare the approach against Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) by localising brain regions that control finger movement and regions that are involved in mental calculation. We also compare the two approaches on a simulated null data set. We hypothesis that once a link can be established between regions of the brain to task one could create a brain-computer interface were computer related tasks could be activated by brain "thought" activity.


Although Arab-American literature has been in existence in the U.S. for over a century, it has only recently begun to be recognized as part of the ethnic landscape of literary America. However, the last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in publication by Arab-American writers. This literary burgeoning reflects in part the shifting historical, social, and political contexts that have pushed Arab-Americans to the foreground, creating both new spaces for their voices and new urgencies of expression, as well as the flourishing creativity of these writers.


This thesis analyses data provided by face to face interviews with a sample of British converts to Islam to find out how and why they came to convert, and what
were the repercussions of their conversions. The work is placed in the context of the predominantly post-Christian British society in which they had spent the greater part of their lives and the existence of a sizeable community of British Muslims.

Influential studies of the psychology and sociology of religious conversion are reviewed and applied to the data. These tend to leave a series of loose ends and fail to pin down the causes or reasons for the conversions. The encounter and reaction with a proselytising group, a key finding in many previous studies, is found to be lacking in the evidence of the current sample of converts. A need is
found to broaden the analytic approach. A holistic academic framework is found that both enables the researcher to analyse the conversions as a process through time and allows for further fields of study to be incorporated in the analysis. Thus the stage model for analysing the conversion process proposed by Lewis Rambo (1993) is employed, with a minor modification. Rambo's stage model permits the researcher to include in the study the insights into the human predicament offered by classical Islam. Literature based on and including the Qur'an and sunnah is
reviewed. This provides a way of linking together some of the factors previous researchers have considered significant in the conversion process.

The degree of interaction with Muslims prior to conversion varied enormously. In all cases there had been some contact but it is not found possible to state that such
contact was necessary for the conversions to take place. The Islamic concept of hidayah is proposed as a unifying concept that can account for the disparate factors and apparently random coincidences identified as having been factors in the conversion processes. The Islamic concepts of tawheed and fitrah also contribute to a unifying view of the conversion phenomena. It is found that the
common factor in the 'interaction' and 'commitment' stages of conversion is not immersion in a group of people, but interaction with a book, the Qur'an. This proves to be the pivotal element in all the conversions in this study.

The post-conversion experiences of the converts as they became members of the Muslim ummah are found to be broadly similar in that they had been unprepared for the differences between their view of Islam, based mainly on the original texts, and that of the mainly South Asian Muslim community which included a history of cultural accretions. The success of their socialisation with the South Asian Muslim community varied a little from person to person, language and culture being the main stumbling blocks, but major differences were found that related to
the gender and ethnicity of the converts. Their relationships within the non-Muslim community continued with some modifications. Little evidence is found
that social problems, linguistic and cultural barriers, or what the future might hold, had, or would, deflect the converts from their faith. This may be because
they all came to Islam through the Qur'an. It is therefore suggested that research into the psychological effect the Qur'an has on its readers would shed further light on the phenomenon of conversion to Islam.


Contractor selection process is generally believed to be marred with lots of bias in most developing nations, which sometimes leads to incompetent contractor being selected because it is based mainly on human experience and feelings. In particular, in a culturally biased country like Nigeria where most contractors' selection process is not based on performance but rather on whom you know, not paying attention to important factor/criteria but rather on selfish personal gains, which directly or indirectly affect the public in different forms could have some negative effects on projects. The failure of managers to be objective in decision-making in regard to contractor selection has great consequences for the government as well as corporate organizations in terms of cost incurred, delivery time, and impact on the general welfare of the people. Hence, there is a need for managers to be interested in the selection of contractors, suppliers of materials, equipment, and services as failure or inefficiency on the part of the contractor that could affect the well-being of the people negatively and damage the performance rating of the government. Developing an appropriate model to address the problem of poor contractor evaluation would, no doubt, be a great relief in the selection of contractors. This chapter presents a prototype system for contractor evaluation decision.


Honey bees divvy up the labor of obtaining food and feeding the young by age: Young adult "nurse" bees feed the larvae, whereas older bees forage. The transition from nurse to forager, which can be accelerated or slowed in response to the needs of the hive, is accompanied by a decrease in nutrient stores. Noting that abundant nutrient stores typically promote synthesis of insulin [or insulin-like peptides (ILPs) in insects] and that insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS) has been implicated in the central regulation of feeding-related behavior in Drosophila, Ament et al. investigated the role of IIS in honey-bee behavioral maturation. The abundance of mRNAs encoding the ILP AmIlp1 in brain and the ILP receptors AmInR1 and AmInR2 in abdomen was greater in foragers than in nurses (despite their decreased adiposity). This increase depended on nutritional status; immature bees fed on sugar (which led to forager-like lipid stores) expressed more brain ilp1 and brain and abdominal inR1 than their counterparts fed a more nutrient-rich diet of sugar and pollen. IIS stimulates TOR (target of rapamycin), and administration of the TOR inhibitor rapamycin elicited a seasonally dependent delay in the onset of foraging. Although insulin signaling is typically associated with increased energy metabolism, the expression of genes encoding proteins involved in energy metabolism--notably, five of six in the citrate cycle--was enhanced in the brains of nurse bees compared with foragers, although foragers have higher overall metabolic rates. The authors conclude that, in the honey bee, IIS--which is involved in regulation of metabolism and of feeding behavior in a solitary insect--is associated with regulation of social behavior. S. A. Ament, M. Corona, H. S. Pollock, G. E. Robinson, Insulin signaling is involved in the regulation of worker division of labor in honey bee colonies. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 4226-4231 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The aim of the present study was the examination of the construct validity of the Democritus Assessment Tool for Pre-school Children (PAT-PRE) (Kambas, Aggeloussis, & Gavrilidou, 2003). PAT-PRE was distributed to 435 children (238 boys and 197 girls) aged 48-71 months that were divided in four age groups [48-54 months (n=92), 55-59 months (n= 92), 60-65 months (n= 125) and 66-71 months (n=126). The results of the factor analysis revealed a model that accounted for the 60.38 % of the total score variance and was consisted of one strong multicollective factor and three weaker ones supporting the proposal of Kambas et al. (2003) for the use of the total score. Moreover, the item scores had statistically significant relationships with the total short form score. Age had a statistically significant effect on the total PAT-PRE score, while sex did not. PAT-PRE seemed to be a valid test on motor performance in normal Greek pre-school children.


Universities, to achieve success and stay competitive, must refine their processes by way of new methods and technologies to enable development and transfer the knowledge they create, utilizing valuable knowledge more productively in academic and learning services; in the management of research projects, community activities, and the student life cycle; and in institutional development, support and administration. An efficient knowledge management system (KMS) is an important strategy for helping universities to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. However, many have embarked upon the KM process without knowing what factors are required for successful KMS implementation. The aim of this article is to explore the influence of information management (IM) as one of the determinants of success in KMS implementation, particularly at the Universidad Simon Bolivar, a public institution located in Caracas, Venezuela. The design we employ is exploratory rather than experimental. We take a deductive approach, based on a quantitative method, and employ a questionnaire for data collection. Our sample is made up of 96 participants (academic and support staff). We concludes by acknowledging the importance of IM as a success factor for effective KM, with the participation of different actors in the decision-making process.


Its anatomical localization, a highly heterogeneous and drug‐resistant tumor cell population and a "cold" immune microenvironment, all challenge the treatment of glioblastoma. Nanoscale drug delivery systems, including graphene oxide (GO) flakes, may circumvent some of these issues bypassing biological barriers, delivering multiple cargoes to impact several pathways simultaneously, or targeting the immune compartment. Here, the interactions of GO flakes with in vitro (U‐87 MG three‐dimensional spheroids, without stromal or immune compartments) and in vivo (U‐87 MG orthotopic xenograft) models of glioblastoma are investigated. In vitro, GO flakes translocated deeply into the spheroids with little internalization in tumor cells. In vivo, intracranially administered GO also show extensive distribution throughout the tumor and demonstrate no impact on tumor growth and progression for the duration of the study. Internalization within tumor cells is also scarce, with the majority of flakes preferentially taken up by microglia/macrophages. The results indicate that GO flakes could offer deep and homogenous distribution throughout glioblastoma tumors and a means to target their myeloid compartment. Further studies are warranted to investigate the mechanisms of GO flakes transport within the tumor mass and their capacity to deliver bioactive cargoes but, ultimately, this information could inform the development of immunotherapies against glioblastoma.


The development of automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology has enabled an increasing number of applications. However, the robustness of ASR under real acoustic environments still remains to be a challenge for practical applications. Interfering speech and background noise have severe degrading effects on ASR. Speech source separation separates target speech from interfering speech but its performance is affected by adverse environmental conditions of acoustical reverberation and background noise. This dissertation works on the enhancement of a speech source separation technique, namely adaptive decorrelation filtering (ADF), for robust ASR applications. To overcome these difficulties and develop practical ADF speech separation algorithms for robust ASR, improvements are introduced in several aspects. From the perspectives of speech spectral characteristics, prewhitening procedures are applied to flatten the long-term speech spectrum to improve adaptation robustness and decrease ADF estimation error. To speedup convergence rate, block-iterative implementation and variable step-size (VSS) methods are proposed. To exploit scenarios where multiple pairs of sensors are available, multi-ADF postprocessing is developed. To overcome the limitations of ADF separation model under background noise, procedures of noise-compensation (NC) and adaptive speech enhancement are proposed for the achievement of improved robustness in diffuse noise. Speech separation simulations and speech recognition experiments are carried out based on TIMIT database and ATR acoustic measurement database. Evaluations of the methods presented in this dissertation demonstrate significant improvement of performances over baseline ADF algorithm in speech separation and recognition.


In this paper we examine the dynamics of suicide attacks and targeted killings in the Second Intifada. We find evidence that the targeted killings of Palestinian leaders by Israel reduce realized Palestinian violence. We find, however, that intended Palestinian violence is increasing at low levels of targeted killings, but decreasing at higher levels. We find that suicide bombings that kill at least one Israeli lead to a subsequent increase in the incidence and levels of Palestinian fatalities. Our results do not support the notion that suicide attacks and targeted killings follow the "tit-for-tat" pattern that is commonly postulated in the literature.