This Policy Comment examines the effect that federal government disaster relief payments have on local corruption. Using econometric analysis Leeson and Sobel explain how federal disaster aid acts as a resource windfall and why states that have more natural disasters see higher levels of public corruption. They explain how public corruption has negative effects on communities' long-term prosperity and describe how policy makers can craft disaster response policies to minimize these negative unintended consequences. With the Hurricane Katrina debacle raising questions about public corruption's impact on disaster relief, corruption has once again become an important issue in American politics. This comment, however, analyzes not corruption's impact on disaster relief, but rather the impact that disaster relief has on corruption. Disaster relief floods money and resources into the affected area, which provides public officials the incentive and opportunity to gain wealth through corrupt practices. Our analysis shows that states that receive more disaster relief also have more instances of public corruption. Corruption not only hinders the effective management of disaster relief, but it also has long-term consequences for economic prosperity. More corruption is associated with lower growth and investment, and states that receive disaster relief often suffer from these effects. When determining the best course of action, policy makers must remember that increased corruption is an unintended consequence of disaster relief. Increased oversight is unlikely to solve the problem of corruption because of the circumstances surrounding natural disaster. The time sensitive nature of the disaster relief means that protocol will take a backseat when disasters actually strike. Policies that assume the federal government plays the primary role in disaster response are the most susceptible to corruption. Total elimination of public corruption generated by disaster relief will not be possible so long as FEMA relief exists. Any plan to reform disaster relief that intends to minimize corruption should recognize the role of local actors, presumably charities and business, and create space for them to react in time of crisis. Policy makers should recognize the consequences of disaster relief when dealing with urgent crises in order to make sure that they do not hinder the long-term prosperity of a community.


This thesis examines the neurobiological components of the motor control system and relates it to current control theory in order to develop a novel framework for models of motor control in the brain. The presented framework is called the Neural Optimal Control Hierarchy (NOCH). A method of accounting for low level system dynamics with a Linear Bellman Controller (LBC) on top of a hierarchy is presented, as well as a dynamic scaling technique for LBCs that drastically reduces the computational power and storage requirements of the system. These contributions to LBC theory allow for low cost, high-precision control of movements in large environments without exceeding the biological constraints of the motor control system.


Background: There is a paucity of data on the results of reverse (anteverting) periacetabular osteotomy (RPAO) for treatment of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) secondary to acetabular retroversion. Purpose: To evaluate the midterm outcomes of RPAO for FAI secondary to acetabular retroversion in those with and without hip dysplasia. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: A retrospective review identified RPAOs performed on patients with acetabular retroversion in isolation or in the setting of dysplasia (lateral center-edge angle [LCEA] ≤19°). Acetabular retroversion with FAI was diagnosed clinically and radiographically, with a positive crossover and posterior wall signs on pelvic radiographs. Twenty-three patients (30 hips) met the inclusion criteria; 20 hips with isolated retroversion and 10 hips with retroversion and hip dysplasia. The average age at the time of the procedure was 26 years (range, 13-45 years). The average length of follow-up was 5 years (range, 2-19 years). Harris Hip Score (HHS) and radiographs were evaluated preoperatively and at last follow-up. Results: The mean preoperative LCEA was 31° (range, 22°-49°) in the isolated retroversion group and 9° (range, –4° to 17°) in the dysplastic group. Postoperatively, the LCEA in the dysplastic group increased to 35° (range, 15°-46°) (P = .0001). The crossover sign corrected in 55% (11/20) of the isolated retroversion group and 80% (8/10) of the dysplastic group. The acetabular index (mean ± SD) improved from 1.3 ± 0.3 to 1.7 ± 0.6 (P = .0001), indicating improved anteversion. At the latest follow-up, the average HHS in the isolated retroversion group increased from 58 preoperatively (range, 23-77) to 93 (range, 68-100) (P = .0001); the HHS in the dysplastic group improved from 49 (range, 20-74) to 92 (range, 77-100) (P < .0001). Complication rates were similar in both groups. Excluding hardware removal, additional surgeries were performed in 13% (4/30). Conclusion: RPAO performed for FAI in the young patient with isolated acetabular retroversion or retroversion in the setting of dysplasia successfully improved clinical and radiographic results at mid- to long-term follow-up.


This paper presents qualitative findings associated with the experiences of those tasked with enforcing laws within a novel environment of cannabis legalization. Research partner agencies and participants included local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies in Washington and bordering areas of Idaho. Semi-structured interviews explored the pre- and post-legalization experiences of 92 police professionals (ranging from first-line officers to agency leadership). Findings suggest that law enforcement authorities in Washington felt insufficiently prepared for cannabis legalization, are now concerned about greater exposure of youth to cannabis as a result of legalization, and broadly believe that cannabis-related impaired driving has increased markedly and poses a major public safety problem for them. These issues, alongside pressing needs in the areas of agency staffing, training, and equipment related directly to dealing with cannabis legalization outcomes, necessitate attention by policymakers to mitigate major operational challenges. These same or similar issues are likely to arise in other states moving toward the commercialization and regulation of cannabis.


Abstract The correct simulation of the sensible and latent heat fluxes from a non-plant-covered surface is very important in designing the surface scheme for modeling the processes in the land–air exchange. However, using different bare soil evaporation schemes in land surface parameterization, an error in partitioning the surface fluxes can be introduced. In parameterization of evaporation from a non-plant-covered surface in resistance representation, the α and β approaches are commonly used in corresponding formulas where the α and β are functions of soil water content. The performance of different schemes within these approaches is briefly discussed. For that purpose six schemes, based on different dependence α or β on volumetric soil moisture content and its saturated value, are used. The latent and sensible heat fluxes and the ground temperature outputs were obtained from the numerical tests using the foregoing schemes. The tests were based on time integrations by the bare soil parameterization schem...


Purpose Hot flashes are a common and debilitating symptom negatively affecting the quality of life of breast cancer survivors. We sought to compare the short and long term effects of electro-acupuncture (EA) vs. gabapentin for hot flashes among breast cancer survivors. Patients and Methods We conducted a randomized controlled trial of EA vs. gabapentin vs. placebos (sham acupuncture [SA] or placebo medication) in women with breast cancer who had completed primary cancer treatments and experienced bothersome hot flashes twice daily or greater. Acupuncturists performed ten EA/SA treatments over eight weeks using a manualized protocol with 2 Hz electro-stimulation delivered by a TENS unit. Acupuncturists administered SA using Streitberger (non-penetrating) needles at non-traditional acupuncture points without electro-stimulation. Gabapentin (900 mg daily) or placebo medication were continued for eight weeks and then weaned off. The primary endpoint was the hot flash composite score measured by the daily diary at the end of the intervention (Week 8). A secondary endpoint, durability of response, was evaluated at Week 24 from randomization. Longitudinal mixed effects models were used to evaluate change in outcomes over time and group differences. Results Of 120 randomly assigned patients, the mean age was 52.3, 75% were White, 12.5% were peri-menopausal, and 20%/25%/37.5% had natural/surgically/chemically induced menopause, respectively. By Week 8, significant group differences were observed. Mean reduction in hot flash composite scores was greatest in the EA group, followed by SA and gabapentin, with placebo medication having the lowest reduction in hot flashes (-7.4 vs. –5.9 vs. –5.2 vs. –3.4, p=0.0003). By Week 24 and off treatment, reduction in hot flashes in the EA group persisted whereas the hot flashes in the gabapentin group retuned to baseline. The reduction in hot flashes was greatest in the EA group, followed by SA, placebo medication, and gabapentin (-8.5 vs. –6.1 vs. –4.6 vs. –2.8, p=0.0024). No serious adverse events were reported in any groups. The gabapentin group had the highest percentage of participants reporting treatment- related adverse events followed by placebo medication, EA, and SA (48.4% vs. 29.0% vs. 19.3% vs. 3.2%, p=0.004). Conclusion: Electro-acupuncture was more effective than gabapentin, sham acupuncture, or placebo medication in reducing hot flashes for breast cancer survivors both short term and long term with few side effects. Gabapentin produced significant short term reduction in hot flashes that did not persist off medication and was associated with more side effects. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT01005108. Citation Format: Jun J Mao, Sharon X Xie, Marjorie A Bowman, Deborah Bruner, Susan Q Li, Angela DeMichele, John T Farrar. A randomized placebo-controlled trial of acupuncture and gabapentin for hot flashes among breast cancer survivors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PD4-7.


It is generally considered that the GFC was triggered, at least in part, by failures in markets trading in complex securities based upon so-called 'subprime' mortgages. While subprime mortgages carry greater credit risk than 'prime' mortgages, the processes used to securitize these mortgages were based upon the well-established 'Asset Based Securitization' model. The question raised is why securitization of these particular mortgages caused such chaos in markets around the world?
The Chairman of a US Senate Subcommittee investigating the causes of the GFC summarized their findings thus "Running through our findings and these hearings is a thread that connects the reckless actions of mortgage brokers… with market-driven credit rating agencies and the Wall Street executives designing the next synthetic. That thread is unbridled greed, and the absence of a cop on the beat to control it."
Recklessness and greed are People-related issues that appeared to be present throughout the Securitization system.
This paper argues that the vast losses incurred during the GFC were, in part, precipitated by Systemic Operational Risk, in particular, People-related Risks.
Using examples from documented cases, the paper identifies some of the People Risks that went unidentified and unmanaged within the Securitization system, until the market seized up. The paper then suggests approaches to addressing the increased People Risks that caused problems throughout the Securitization system to go unnoticed.


When on July 16th Research Councils UK (RCUK) published its updated Policy on Access to Research Outputs the Open Access (OA) movement greeted the news with enthusiasm. This was hardly surprising: unlike the recommendations in the controversial Finch Report (published a month earlier), RCUK stressed that it continues to view both gold OA publishing and green OA self-archiving as equal partners in any OA policy. One of the first to applaud the new policy was long-standing OA advocate, and self-styled archivangelist, Stevan Harnad. The minute the report was published a relieved Harnad began flooding mailing lists with messages congratulating RCUK on coming up with a policy that not only defied Finch, but was stronger than its current OA policy. But as Harnad set about talking up the policy, and seeking to win over sceptics and doubters, he himself began to have doubts. And eventually he was driven to the conclusion that he had no option but to withdraw his support for the RCUK policy — which he now characterises as "autistic", and a "foolish, wasteful and counterproductive step backwards". How has what at first sight seemed so desirable rapidly become something terrible? Curious to find out, I contacted Harnad. Below I publish the email interview that emerged from our conversation.


"Crossing Boundaries: An Anthology of Women's Experiences in Sport" will help you discover, understand, and appreciate the depth and complexity of the female experience in sport. This is a journey to the center of feminine identity, a survey of past and present voices that lead you into the minds, hearts, and souls of women in sport. The largest literary compilation of writings on and by women in sports, "Crossing Boundaries" serves as a chronology of attitudes and a catalog of experiences. International in scope, some of these pieces have been translated into English for the first time, thus expanding the sports canon.All genres are represented-poems, short stories, prose memoirs, journalistic accounts, plays, and novels-to illustrate the broad reach of the literature written by women from a variety of historical and cultural perspectives. This is the female story in and out of sport, one told by outsiders, insiders, spectators, recreational athletes, and transnational sports heroes."Crossing Boundaries" starts with an important historical perspective dating back to Cynisca, the first female victor in the ancient Olympic Games. The book goes on to examine themes which have long been included in women's writings yet have been long overlooked by both feminists and literary critics. These themes include: -the significance and centrality of the body;-the impact of exclusion and the female reaction to it;-the role of the female spectator as an outsider;-the female identification, connection, and ultimate merger with nature;-the connections women make with others in and through sport;-the athlete's identity; and -the metaphorical uses of sport.Because women had for so long been excluded from official sports, relegated for centuries to the role of passive spectator, you will find literature about play, dance, movement, games, and exercise-activities often considered ancillary to and preparatory for the more important activity of sport. Similarly, since the editors extended their search to other countries to expand the limits of the contemporary Western perceptions of sport, you can widen your understanding of the female sporting experience.The young women who took advantage of the passing of Title IX by the NCAA in 1972 to take part in high school and college sports have now become mothers, and their daughters are following in their footsteps. A new atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement for female athletes of all ages means more and more women are experiencing the joy of sports participation. This book connects generations of women and girls with a vivid, compelling sporting heritage.


To more accurately and precisely delineate a tumor in a 3D PET image, we proposed a novel, semi-automatic, two-stage method by utilizing an adaptive region-growing algorithm and a dual-front active contour model. First, a rough region of interest (ROI) is manually drawn by a radiation oncologist that encloses a tumor. The voxel having the highest intensity in the ROI is chosen as a seed point. An adaptive region growing algorithm successively appends to the seed point all neighboring voxels whose intensities > = T of the mean of the current region. When T varies from 100% to 0%, a sharp volume increase, indicating the transition from the tumor to the background, always occurs at a certain T value. A preliminary tumor boundary is determined just before the sharp volume increase, which is found to be slightly outside of the known tumor in all tested phantoms. A novel dual-front active contour model utilizing region-based information is then applied to refine the preliminary boundary automatically. We tested the two-stage method on six spheres (0.5-20 ml) in a cylindrical container under different source to background ratios. Comparisons between the two-stage method and an iterative threshold method demonstrate its higher detection accuracy for small tumors (less than 6 ml). One patient study was tested and evaluated by two experienced radiation oncologists. The study illustrated that this two-stage method has several advantages. First, it does not require any threshold-volume curves, which are different and must be calibrated for each scanner and image reconstruction method. Second, it does not use any iso-threshold lines as contours. Third, the final result is reproducible and is independent of the manual rough ROIs. Fourth, this method is an adaptive algorithm that can process different images automatically.


In recent decades Japanese art has achieved immense popularity in the West while being little understood. Critics have focused on the superficiality and infantilism they find prevalent in much of the work, while many Westerners are familiar with the country's artistic side solely through manga and anime. Bye Bye Kitty!!! offers a more incisive and wide-ranging view of the contemporary Japanese art scene, depicted through the works of fifteen artists, ranging in age from twenty-seven to forty-five and working in painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and video. The book's title invokes the subtle irony and subversive techniques adopted by this new generation of artists in their rebellion against the kawaii, or "cute," aesthetic of mainstream Japanese culture. An essay by David Elliott provides an overview of the artists and explores many of the societal questions, such as the role of feminism, the rise of the "salaryman," and reflections on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, featured in their works. A contribution by Tetsuya Ozaki illuminates the history and culture of Japan's current Heisei era, which began in January 1989 after the death of Emperor Hirohito. The artists featured in Bye Bye Kitty!!! demonstrate that they have the power not only to reconfigure international stereotypes about the current state of Japanese art but also to shape the very landscape of contemporary Japanese art itself.


Our society increasingly perceives information as an owned commodity. Professor Benkler demonstrates that laws born of this conception are removing uses of information from the public domain and placing them in an enclosed domain where they are subject to an owner's exclusive control. Professor Benkler argues that the enclosure movement poses a risk to the diversity of information sources in our information environment and abridges the freedom of speech. He then examines three laws at the center of this movement: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the proposed Article 2B of the Uniform Commercial Code, and the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act. Each member of this trio, Professor Benkler concludes, presents troubling challenges to First Amendment principles.


The use of welfare support by EU migrants has dominated media coverage and political debates about EU migration in the UK for several years, regularly featuring claims about the negative effects of the presence of EU migrants on the UK social security system. Such claims became particularly prominent in 2013–2015, during the UK government's campaign to limit EU migrants' access to UK welfare benefits and in debates prior to the Brexit referendum. This article sheds light on how Polish migrants position themselves concerning the claiming of welfare benefits in the UK and how this affects their welfare strategies. The article is based on 14 qualitative interviews conducted in Liverpool 18 months after the Brexit referendum. Using stigma and benefits stigma as an overall theoretical framework, we find that the informants, in their positioning narratives, 1) put forward similar stigmatising expressions and stereotypes regarding the use of welfare as those featured by politicians and the media, which points to perceived abuse; 2) make a distinction between in-work and out-of-work benefits, the first being more acceptable than the second; 3) prefer living on savings or accepting 'any job' over making use of out-of-work benefits, which points to an underuse and/or to possible processes of marginalisation; and 4), a tendency among those who have experience with claiming out-of-work benefits to question the discourses of welfare abuse. Finally, 'working' and 'contributing' to the system as opposed to relying on welfare support is perceived as a precondition to staying in the UK after Brexit – welfare and work are seen to signal very high stakes indeed.


Land cover maps derived from satellite imagery have a long and varied history of uses in United States forestry science and management. This article reviews recent developments concerning the use of national- to continental-scale land cover maps for inventory, monitoring, and resource assessment in the U.S. Forest Service. The use of mid-scale digital resolution information (from 10 to 30 meters) is ideal for many forest applications from stand exams to watershed assessments of numerous forest related attributes. Forest and landscape patterns can be meaningfully assessed at those spatial scales as well, and consistent national land cover maps are required for conducting consistent national assessments of forest patterns. National and continental strategies for land cover mapping should recognize that almost all forest inventory, monitoring, and assessment applications require map comparisons over time, and an ideal temporal frequency for most applications is no more than five years.


PURPOSE
Documentation of a resident's progress can be difficult to collect and disseminate, resulting in minimal utilization by current residents and faculty. The goal of this work is to use an electronic management system to enhance communication by providing centralized program information and real-time tracking of resident progress.

METHODS
A web-based residency management database (Medhub, Inc.) was adapted for use in a physics residency program. To distribute program information, announcements, policies, rotation objectives, and required readings were uploaded. The rotation schedule, machine assignments, and educational conference calendar with associated files and attendance records were added. To document resident progress, requirements for over 30 different clinical procedures were added, for which the resident logged the total number of procedures performed. Resident demographics and files documenting activities and achievements were added. An extensive evaluation system was created with over ten different electronic evaluation and report forms produced.

RESULTS
Results are shown for the initial eight months of program existence consisting of one resident and eight physics faculty. 130 documents were uploaded, and 100% of required documents were downloaded by the resident. 135 educational conferences and meetings were offered, of which the resident attended 121. The resident logged a total of 299 clinical procedures. A total of 11 evaluations were submitted. The resident reviewed 100% of respective evaluations within an average of 2.1 days. The resident submitted 19 status reports detailing weekly activities, 100% of which were reviewed by faculty within an average of 4.2 days.

CONCLUSION
We have successfully incorporated a paperless, web-based management system in a physics residency program. This system has played a central role in optimizing the training experience of the resident by providing a vehicle for easy documentation of resident activities, frequent monitoring and feedback of training progress, and widespread communication of program developments.


In a perfect labor market severance payments can have no real effects as they can be undone by a properly designed labor contract (Lazear 1990). We give empirical content to this proposition by estimating the effects of EPL on entry wages and on the tenure-wage profile in a quasi-experimental setting. We consider a reform that introduced unjust-dismissal costs in Italy for firms below 15 employees, leaving firing costs unchanged for bigger firms. Estimates which account for the endogeneity of the treatment status due to workers and firms sorting around the 15 employees threshold show no effect of the reform on entry wages and a decrease of the returns to tenure by around 20% in the first year and by 8% over the first two years. We interpret these findings as broadly consistent with Lazear's (1990) prediction that firms make workers prepay the severance cost.


The effect of a time delay on the transmission on dengue fever is studied. The time delay is due to the presence of an incubation period during which the virus replicates enough in the mosquito so that the viruses can be transmitted by the mosquito to a human. The conditions for the existence of a Hopf bifurcation to limit cycle behavior are established. A theorem for determining whether for a given set of parameter values which satisfies the mathematical conditions, the system will actually undergo a transition from a stable state into a limit cycle state is established. It is found that for a set of realistic values of the parameters in the model, a Hopf bifurcation will not occur even when it is mathematically possible. For a set of unrealistic values of some of the parameters, it is shown that a Hopf bifurcation can occur. Numerical solutions using this set of values show the trajectory of two of the variables making a transition from a spiraling orbit to a limit cycle orbit.


Histopathological studies of Multiple sclerosis (MS) are usually limited by the fact that autopsy tissue is usually from patients in the chronic stage of the disease. Thus far there are only few results on the pathology of oligodendrocytes in early cortical lesions in patients with MS. The recent findings on the pathogenesis of MS in the early stages of the disease are essentially based on the animal model of experimental autoimmune-mediated encephalomyleitis (EAE). The distribution pattern of EAE in the marmoset monkey is similar to the MS. In both diseases cortical lesions can be detected. The aim of this study was to investigate the pathology of oligodendrocytes in early cortical lesions in the EAE animal model. The densitiy of p25- and NogoA-positive oligodendrocytes was determined in the deep cortical layers in demyelinated and normal-appearing cortex. Furthermore, the density of macrophages, CD3-positive T-cells, CD20-positive B-cells and IgG-positive plasmacells in lesions was determined. The density of oligodendrocytes was significantly reduced in lesions compared with normal appearing cortex, resulting with a significantly higher proportion of p25-positive oligodendrocytes within the lesions compared to NogoA-positive oligodendrocytes. Quantitative analysis of inflammatory cells in the lesions revealed a majority of macrophages followed by T-cells, B-cells and few plasmacells. The results of this work show that oligodendrocyte loss is already common in demyelinated cortical lesions in marmosets with early stage of EAE. Since EAE in the marmosets is the animal model with the highest similarity to the human MS, these results suggest that also in early cortical MS lesions oligodendrocytes occur damage by a T-cell mediated antibody/complement reaction.


This short communication contains a reflection on local entrepreneurial ecosystems and how to boost them, in the context of smart specialisation strategies of cities and regions. It is based on a literature study and inputs from ten member cities of the InFocus project (sponsored by the EU's URBACT programme), that exchange and develop knowledge about the development of smart specialisation strategies on the urban level. In September 2017, the network held a meeting in Turin, dedicated to the topic of promoting entrepreneurship ecosystems. The paper discusses several specific aspects of policies regarding entrepreneurship: the relation with smart specialisation approach, start-up promotion policies, fostering a culture of entrepreneurship, and the different development stages in entrepreneurship: Starting, scaling, and growing, with examples from cities in the InFocus network. Among other things, it concludes that a stronger alignment between the urban and regional policy levels is required to link the urban-focused start-up ecosystems to the regional industrial tissue.


It is generally accepted, not only in economic or legal circles, that Africa will be an important investment destination and economic driver over the next decade or so. With the continent-wide African growth rate already at a high level and expected to accelerate in the years to come (some economists predict a 6% growth rate for this decade), it also fair to say that more and more countries in the developed world are looking towards Africa as playing a very important part in revitalising world economic activity.


Thispaper presents a new nonlinear controller design method for regional pole placement of uncertain discretetime systems. The constraint of control input saturation is considered in the design. A sufficient condition is derived for the robust stabilization and the desireddynamic performance represented by the settling time and damping ratio.The design is formulated in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI) optimization. The effectiveness of the proposed design isillustrated by two examples. The first one ishard disk drives, whoseuncertainty is modeled bya norm-bounded form. The resulting controller does not violate the limits, and the second example is on regional pole placement for an uncertain system with and without control saturation. Application to vehicle active suspension to achieve comfortable dynamic performance by pole placement and avoiding actuator saturation is also considered. The results are compared with passive suspension system.


During lung development, airway shape is determined by a signaling pathway that regulates the orientation of cell division. During early lung development, airway tubes change shape. Tube length increases more than circumference as a large proportion of lung epithelial cells divide parallel to the airway longitudinal axis. We show that this bias is lost in mutants with increased extracellular signal–regulated kinase 1 (ERK1) and ERK2 activity, revealing a link between the ERK1/2 signaling pathway and the control of mitotic spindle orientation. Using a mathematical model, we demonstrate that change in airway shape can occur as a function of spindle angle distribution determined by ERK1/2 signaling, independent of effects on cell proliferation or cell size and shape. We identify sprouty genes, which encode negative regulators of fibroblast growth factor 10 (FGF10)–mediated RAS-regulated ERK1/2 signaling, as essential for controlling airway shape change during development through an effect on mitotic spindle orientation.


Sweet corn (Zea mays L). plants that transition from juvenility to the adult phase earlier during development are generally more resistant to common rust (Puccinia sorghi), a disease that causes substantial yield loss in sweet corn. This developmental transition is called vegetative phase change (VPC). VPC is regulated in part by miR156 and miR172. We found that natural variation at the miR156 and miR172 transcript regions are important in determining variation in the timing of VPC. We sequenced the miR156 and miR172 transcript regions in populations originating from the same source population and divergently selected for eight generations for early and late VPC. For both the miR156 and miR172 transcript regions we detected four distinct haplotypes. Overall and individual haplotype frequencies showed significant responses to selection for both early and late VPC. These data contribute to the identification of important loci involved in VPC. Understanding the genetic basis for VPC will facilitate maize breeding aimed at combining early VPC with other desirable traits.


The textile mill workers are continuously exposed to cotton dust which may lead to different respiratory disorders such as byssinosis, respiratory tract irritation, COPD etc. producing larger rate of decline in pulmonary functions and occupational hypertension. The present study was carried out to assess exposure effects of cotton dust on oxidant and antioxidant status which may induce related health hazards. 90 cotton industry workers and 30 healthy controls were screened for serum lipid peroxide (MDA) and serum nitric oxide as oxidants and superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and catalase as antioxidants. Total antioxidant status was also measured. The cotton industry workers were divided in three groups. Group I included workers with 5 to 9 years exposure to cotton dust while group II and III workers were exposed to cotton dust for 10 to 14 years and 15 to 19 years respectively. Highly significant increase in serum MDA and NO? was observed in all groups of cotton industry workers as compared to controls. The activities of SOD, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase were found to be significantly decreased in group II and III workers. Our study demonstrated significant decrease in catalase activity and total antioxidant status in all groups of cotton industry workers. From our study, it is evident that cotton dust exposure induces oxidative stress among textile industry workers. As duration of exposure is increased, the effect is enhanced. This resulting oxidative stress may contribute to respiratory disorders observed in these workers.


Neural networks have been shown effective in deep steganography for hiding a full image in another. However, the reason for its success remains not fully clear. Under the existing cover (C) dependent deep hiding (DDH) pipeline, it is challenging to analyze how the secret (S) image is encoded since the encoded message cannot be analyzed independently. We propose a novel universal deep hiding (UDH) meta-architecture to disentangle the encoding of S from C. We perform extensive analysis and demonstrate that the success of deep steganography can be attributed to a frequency discrepancy between C and the encoded secret image. Despite S being hidden in a cover-agnostic manner, strikingly, UDH achieves a performance comparable to the existing DDH. Beyond hiding one image, we push the limits of deep steganography. Exploiting its property of being universal, we propose universal watermarking as a timely solution to address the concern of the exponentially increasing number of images and videos. UDH is robust to a pixel intensity shift on the container image, which makes it suitable for challenging application of light field messaging (LFM). Our work is the first to demonstrate the success of (DNN-based) hiding a full image for watermarking and LFM. Code: https://github.com/ChaoningZhang/Universal-Deep-Hiding


Objective
In this project, we develop an informational theory that identifies which prime minister debates are the most meaningful in terms of shifting Spanish public opinion . We argue that debates immediately following the installation of new leaders (because they shine light on leadership traits) and debates occurring in times of crisis (because voters can judge both the leader's ability to remedy the problems and their policy proposals) will have the largest short- and long-term effects.

Methods
We use seemingly unrelated regression to explore the impacts of 15 Spanish State of the Nation debates from 1998 to 2016 on vote intention for Partido Popular (PP) and the Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol (PSOE).

Result
Debates following the installation of new party leaders often produce sizable improvements in vote intention, but the most meaningful debates occur during economic crises.

Conclusion
Parliamentary debates are valuable opportunities for party leaders to shift public opinion in their favor, a fact that is not lost to them considering the time and energy devoted to crafting strategies, and the media's fascination with providing extensive coverage of the debates. This study has important implications for the study of dynamic processes (such as vote intention), and the link between parties' strategic communications and voting behavior.


Printing in Plastic: Build Your Own 3D Printer is your gateway into the exciting world of personal fabrication. The printer that youll build from this book is a personal fabricator capable of creating small parts and other objects from drops of molten plastic. Design a part using a modeling tool such as Google SketchUp. Then watch while the Fabricator headsweeps back and forth and upwards, depositingplastic in all the right places.You can build anything from a replacement tab to hold a bookshelf in place, to a small art project, to a bashguard for your bicycle. If you can conceive it and design it, you can build it, and youll have fun doing it. Printing in Plastic is aimed at creative people comfortable in using power tools such as a table saw, circular saw, and drill press. Authors James Kelly and Patrick Hood-Daniel lead you through building a personal fabrication machine based upon a set of blueprints downloaded from their website.Example projects get you started in designing and fabricating your own parts. Bring your handyman skills, andapply patience during the build process. You too can be the proud owner of a personal fabricatora three-dimensional printer. Leads you through building a personal fabrication machine capable of creating small parts and objects from plastic Provides example projects to get you started on the road to designing and fabricating your own parts Provides an excellent parent/child, or small group project What youll learn How to assemble your own 3D printer The ins and outs ofdesign software How to design and produce three-dimensional parts made from plastic How to replace small plastic parts in household objects How to create art objects Who this book is for Printing in Plastic is aimed at creative people comfortable using power tools, such as a table saw, circular saw, drill press, and so forth. The book is aimed at those wanting to create and fabricate tangible objects from plastic. Crafters, carpenters, electronics hobbyists, and others comfortable working with their hands will find the instructions easy to follow and the projects rewarding.


Hyaluronan is a large glycosaminoglycan mainly presented in the extracellular matrix as well as in the intracellular compartment. Hyaluronan is synthesized by three hyaluronan synthase isoforms, namely HAS1, HAS2 and HAS3. HAS3v2 is a smaller splicing variant of HAS3 with 281 AA in length. Here, biological and pathological functions of HAS3v2 were investigated for the first time.

HAS3v2 localizes on membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum as shown by stable overpression of YFP-HAS3v2 fusion protein. Overexpression of HAS3v2 leads to increased intracellular hyaluronan. A HA-HAS3v2 complex was also detected in microsomes of YFP-HAS3v2 overexpressing cells using the HAS enzymatic capture assay. This indicated HAS3v2 is an intracellular hyaluronan synthase or at least HA binding protein.

Esophageal cancer is one of the 10 most frequent tumor types worldwide, which is distinguished into two major subtypes: squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and adenocarcinoma (EAC). HAS3v2 is upregulated only in human EAC and also correlated with TNM staging. This suggested that HAS3v2 is a potential tumor marker for EAC. Lentiviral overexpression of HAS3v2 promotes cell proliferation rate both in vitro and after xenografting of HAS3v2 overexpressing EAC cells in nude mice . This phenotype was, at least partially, caused by enhanced ERK1/2 kinase phosphorylation. HAS3v2 also stimulated the phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and improve EAC cell adhesion. Both phosphorylations could be the consequence of activated RHAMM signaling. Overexpression of HAS3v2 in cancer cells also stimulated HAS3v1 mRNA expression in stromal cells of EAC xenograft, which led to increased stromal HA levels. The stromal HA has been reported to provide microenvironment in favor for progression and metastasis.

The expression of HAS3v2 in EAC was regulated by EGF pathway and the blocking antibody of EGFR, Cetuximab, diminished the EGF-induced HAS3v2 upregulation. Furthermore, the mRNA expression of HAS3v2 and EGFR are
positively correlated in EAC patients.

Taken together, HAS3v2 promotes malignant tumor cell phenotype and could be a diagnostic oncogene and a potential therapeutic target for EAC.


The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations developed the term Climate-Smart Agriculture as an approach to transform agricultural systems to support development and ensure food security in a changing climate. This paper analyses whether climate-smart agriculture policy meets the demands of climate justice and respects the rights of smallholders; and if not, how it could be amended. The study is based on a literature review supplemented by four interviews with climate-smart agriculture actors from diverse backgrounds: a consultant, a small-holder farmer, a practitioner, and a scientist. To examine the climate-smart agriculture concept and its implementation, the following ethical positions are considered: maximalist, minimalist, Pogge s intermediate position, Nussbaum's capability approach, Kantian, and Altruist. The study finds that current climate-smart agriculture approaches are not being fairly implemented because there is the unjust sharing of benefits of income and burdens of emission reduction costs, among smallholders and agro-industries. According to the principles of climate justice, this sharing proportion should be equally distributed based on an individual's capacities and poverty should be taken into consideration as well. Climate-smart agriculture should be fair for the farmers; it should not only push and promote agribusiness expansion. The power of multinational corporations has substantially altered global agrifood chains to the detriment of small farmers and the environment. The mandatory inclusion of local, regional and national level civil society organisations and networks holds the potential for a more fair implementation of climate-smart agriculture. Climate-smart agriculture policy could be more successfully implemented if state and non-state/private sector actors would support such collaboration, allowing for decision making at local levels and a deep and honest reflection on development narratives.


Abstract

Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST) metastases occur in 18%- 47% of patients and most commonly involve the liver and peritoneum. Central Nervous System (CNS) and other sanctuary site metastases are rare, with only limited single patient case reports available in the literature. Given the availability of multiple effective treatments and longer life expectancy in patients with metastatic GIST, there is an increased likelihood of metastases to sanctuary sites including the CNS. We sought to characterize three GIST patients who developed these rare sanctuary site metastases between 2017-2018 during their course of therapy and compare their clinical features and molecular profiles, to add to current knowledge and highlight the need for clinicians to consider sanctuary site metastases, particularly in patients presenting with new symptoms.


This book explores the historical and philosophical ideas underpinning practice in early childhood and primary education. It pulls together key extracts from influential sources and provides helpful editorial commentary explaining the importance of each article to provide an essential reader in early childhood and primary education. It enables easy access to key theoretical ideas and seminal texts to provide a firm understanding of such ideas, as well as placing current issues within an historical and theoretical context. Reflective tasks provide opportunities for the reader to stand back from current practice and beliefs to review their own philosophy of education. These tasks, together with the editorial commentary, help develop the necessary understandings and insights to engage in critical debate on current issues in professional practice. Although early years and primary education are often seen as separate stages of development, children are expected to progress from one stage to another in a seamless way and the historical and philosophical ideas influencing practice at the different stages are often the same or similar. The book supports education professionals to understand and reflect on children's experiences across a range of stages. This is an ideal book for students on Early Childhood Studies, Early Years and Primary Education courses, as well as professionals working with children from birth to 11 years of age.


BACKGROUND
National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidelines advocate the use of the Mini-Mental Test Examination and a functional assessment as a means of measuring treatment response. However, there is little knowledge of the change expected in those with Alzheimer's disease in clinical practice.

OBJECTIVE
to describe the long-term variability of the Mini-Mental Test Examination and Blessed Dementia Rating Scale.

METHOD
374 Alzheimer's disease patients referred to psychiatric services in southeast London were followed annually over a 3-year period.

RESULTS
the mean Mini-Mental Test Examination score for the total group at baseline was 9.9 points. Individual variability in the rate of cognitive and functional decline is large and around 40% of patients after 1 year, and up to one-quarter of patients after 3 years who survived, show no change or an improvement in scores compared with baseline measures.

CONCLUSIONS
in the evaluation of individual treatment response the rate of change, as measured by the Mini-Mental Test Examination and Blessed Dementia Rating Scale, is of limited value.


This article uses a principal agent framework to examine the role that monitoring costs faced by an insurer have on health care utilization. We compare hospital lengths of stay for fee-for-service and capitated patients in low and high monitoring cost situations. Monitoring costs associated with a particular procedure are assumed to be high when there is large variation across patients in hospital lengths of stay. The empirical results indicate that differences in utilization between fee-for-service and capitated patients increase as monitoring costs increase. However, we do not find that fee-for-service reimbursement is used less in the difficult to monitor situations. (JEL I1)


Management of official holdings of foreign assets, in particular in sovereign wealth funds, has become a major focus of national and international economic and financial policy. The principal reasons are their size, lack of transparency, potential to disrupt financial markets, and the risk that political objectives might influence their management. Moreover, such large cross-border holdings in official hands are at sharp variance with today's market-based global economy and financial system. These investment activities of governments have become sufficiently significant that an internationally agreed standard should be established to guide these activities. The standard should apply to the gamut of international investments of governments, including traditional foreign exchange reserves, stabilization funds, nonrenewable resource funds, sovereign wealth funds, and government-owned or controlled entities such as pension funds. The standard should ensure that international investments of governments are based on clearly stated policy objectives and investment strategies. It should set out the role of the government and the managers of the investment mechanism/entity and ensure that the operations of the investment mechanisms are as transparent as possible. Depending on the type of mechanism, its size, and the scope of its activities, behavioral guidelines with respect to its management should be established. Such a standard would contribute not only to financial stability in the countries directly involved but also to international financial stability by increasing the transparency, accountability, and predictability of the operations of governments in managing their international investments and discharging their obligations to current and future generations.


Climate change has advanced the breeding dates of many bird species, but for few species we know whether this advancement is sufficient to track the advancement of the underlying levels of the food chain. For the long-distance migratory pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca the advancement in breeding time has been insufficient to maintain the synchrony with their main food sources. The timing of arrival in the breeding areas from their African wintering grounds is likely to constrain the advancement of breeding date. We hypothesise that this is because in Africa they cannot predict the advancement of spring in their breeding habitat. However, long-distance migrants may advance their arrival time by migrating faster when circumstances en route are favourable. In this study we show that both arrival and breeding date depend on temperatures at their main North African staging grounds, as well as on temperature at the breeding grounds. Male arrival and average laying date were not correlated, but the positive effect of temperature in North Africa on breeding dates suggests that breeding date is indeed constrained by arrival of females. Long-distance migrants thus are able to adjust arrival and hence breeding by faster spring migration, but the degree of adjustment is probably limited as timing schedules in spring are tight. Furthermore, as climate change is affecting temperatures differently along the migratory flyway and the breeding areas, it is unlikely that arrival dates are advanced at the same rate as the timing of breeding should advance, given the advancement of the underlying levels of the food chain.


OBJECTIVE
To describe child- and family-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CFF-CBT), a new developmentally sensitive psychosocial intervention for pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) that is intended for use along with medication. CFF-CBT integrates principles of family-focused therapy with those of CBT. The theoretical framework is based on (1). the specific problems of children and families coping with bipolar disorder, (2). a biological theory of excessive reactivity, and (3). the role of environmental stressors in outcome. CFF-CBT actively engages parents and children over 12 hour-long sessions.

METHOD
An exploratory investigation was conducted to determine the feasibility of CFF-CBT. Participants included 34 patients with PBD (mean age 11.33 years, SD = 3.06) who were treated with CFF-CBT plus medication in a specialty clinic. Treatment integrity, adherence, and parent satisfaction were assessed. Symptom severity and functioning were evaluated before and after treatment using the severity scales of the Clinical Global Impression Scales for Bipolar Disorder (CGI-BP) and the Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) respectively.

RESULTS
On completion of therapy, patients with PBD showed significant reductions in severity scores on all CGI-BP scales and significantly higher CGAS scores compared to pretreatment results. High levels of treatment integrity, adherence, and satisfaction were achieved.

CONCLUSIONS
CFF-CBT has a strong theoretical and conceptual foundation and represents a promising approach to the treatment of PBD. Preliminary results support the potential feasibility of the intervention.


In response to growing concern for research education, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) now emphasizes the value of research in specialty programs. However, there remains a wide variation in how programs implement this training. This study examines how psychiatry programs are incorporating research education into their curriculums and how residents perceive this education. -- The questionnaires of Aguire and Buschbacher were combined and adapted for Canadian residency programs. The resulting survey consisted of 42 questions organized into 3 sections: demographics; opinions about resident research activity; and research curriculum. It was mailed to all 16 psychiatry program directors of the RCPSC and then to all 606 psychiatry residents. -- A response rate of 100% (16/16) was obtained for the directors. Resident research was generally agreed to be important, but only 64% (9/14) reported having an organized research curriculum. In fact, 44% (7/16) stated that no mandatory research was required at all. The minimum expectation for research activity was mostly in the form of a systematic or non-systematic literature review; however, 58% (7/12) took no action as a consequence of failing to meet this minimum. -- A response rate of only 35% was obtained for the residents. Residents felt that it was less important to participate in research and were less enthusiastic about it. Residents also felt that resident time and interest were the most important factors in making a research curriculum work, while directors believed the most· important factors were role models, research director, and an organized research curriculum. Directors consistently reported the importance of learning critical appraisal skills and performing analytical literature reviews. The residents also agreed with this. Both groups thought that critical appraisal was the most adequately taught research area and the area most often offered as mandatory teaching. Additional results of the survey are provided. -- Most programs have in place the basic elements conducive to resident research but there remains a lack of emphasis placed on its implementation. Suggestions for improving and implementing resident research education are given.


Policy makers periodically consider using student assignment policies to improve educational outcomes by altering the socio-economic and academic skill composition of schools. We exploit the quasi-random reassignment of elementary and middle-school students across schools in the Wake County Public School System to estimate the academic and behavioral effects of being reassigned to a different school and, separately, of shifts in peer characteristics. We restrict our identification of peer effects to those students whom the district does not select to switch schools. We rule out all but substantively small effects of transitioning to a different school as a result of reassignment on test scores, course grades and chronic absenteeism. In contrast, increasing the achievement levels of students' peers improves students' math and ELA test scores but harms their ELA course grades. Test score benefits accrue primarily to students from higher-income families, though students with lower family-income or lower prior performance still benefit. Our results suggest that student assignment policies that relocate students to avoid the over-concentration of lower-achieving students or those from lower-income families can accomplish equity goals (despite important caveats); though these gains may reduce achievement for students from higher-income backgrounds.


This article focuses on the development of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). After identifying the inherent limitations of NLP-free tools, we describe the general framework of Mirto, an NLP-based authoring platform under construction in our laboratory, and organized into four distinct layers: functions , scripts , activities and scenarios . Through several examples, we explain how Mirto's architecture allows to implement state-of-the-art NLP functions , integrate them into easily handled scripts in order to create, without computing skills, didactic activities that could be recorded in more complex sequences or scenarios .


The economic relations between the EU and Ukraine have intensified in recent years. Following the 2004 enlargement, Ukraine became the direct neighbour of the EU. At the same time, the country has been developing rapidly and both local production capacities and demand for foreign produce have been increasing. Ukraine also become more open to external partners. All this is reflected in the gradual effective trade integration with the EU; i.e. in growing bilateral trade flows. The overall EU tariffs for Ukrainian products are rather low and other tradition protection measures apply to selective sectors only. Moreover they are expected to disappear gradually within the next few years, following Ukraine WTO entry and expected establishment of the free trade area in manufacturing goods between the EU and Ukraine. However, there exist other so called 'non-tariff' barriers to trade that protect and will protect the EU market. For a relatively poorer country these barriers may turn to be prohibitive. This is probably the cause that there is general perception about Ukrainian export to the EU still being below its potential. The goal of this report is to explore whether the non-tariff barriers impede Ukrainian export to the EU and to what extent. This report is published about the time when the free trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine is negotiated. The authors hope that the findings will turn useful for designing the extent of this agreement and contribute to the discussion about it by showing the extent of non-tariff barriers faced currently by Ukrainian exporters. The report starts from the overview of Ukraine trade policy (chapter 1), with the special emphasis put on economic relations between the EU and Ukraine. Evolution of bilateral trade flows is discussed next (chapter 2). This is supplemented with the brief discussion of recently conducted surveys on barriers hampering Ukrainian exports (chapter 3). The experience of some current EU members from Central and Eastern Europe, which together with gradual phasing out of tariff and traditional protection measures in the 1990s faced growing non-tariff barriers to trade with the EU, seems to be relevant for Ukraine. Chapter 4 reviews the exposure of CEECs exports to the EU's non-tariff barriers, and describes how the countries were changing its trade-related legislation towards the EU laws in order to tackle these barriers. Chapter 4 also shows the extent of the EU's technical barriers to trade in different sectors and how well CEE enterprises were prepared to meet them, once the EU commodity markets opened up completely for the new EU members in 2004. Results of the survey on non-tariff barriers to trade that are faced by Ukrainian exporters to the EU are presented in chapter 5. This is the main empirical contribution and the focus of this paper. The survey covered such areas as certification of origin, customs procedures and technical standards. Finally, chapter 6 concludes with policy recommendations. The authors are grateful for the assistance received from the State Committee of Ukraine for Technical Regulation and Consumer Policy and Association of Light Industry Producers of Ukraine. This publication was made possible due to the financial support provided by the 2006 Foreign Aid Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland.


During my investigations into the life and times of Robert Marsh Westmacott (Aide-de-Camp to Governor Bourke from 1832 to 1837; artist and settler in Illawarra from 1837 to 1847), a somewhat mysterious figure like so many of our early colonial artists, I have encountered a number of variations of his published collection of eighteen tinted lithographs plus descriptive text, entitled Sketches in Australia. The question arose: is the work a true 'book' or merely a collection of lithographs? The bibliographic details for this work are described by Ferguson, 4955. However my studies have revealed a number of important variations of his description. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication Details Organ, M.K., Bibliographic notes on Captain R.M. Westmacott's "Sketches in Australia", Biblionews and Australian Notes & Queries, 11(3), September 1986, 79-81. This journal article is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/asdpapers/127


Aiming to successfully meet the requirements of a large output torque and a wide range of flux weakening speed expansion in permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) for electric vehicles, a novel surface insert permanent magnet synchronous motor (SIPMSM) is developed. The method of notching auxiliary slots between the magnetic poles in the rotor and unequal thickness magnetic poles is proposed to improve the performance of the motor. By analyzing the magnetic circuit characteristics of the novel SIPMSM, the notching auxiliary slots between the adjacent magnetic poles can affect the q-axis inductance, and the shape of magnetic pole effects the d-axis inductance of the motor. The combined action of the two factors not only weakens the cogging torque, but also improves the flux weakening capability of the motor. In this paper, the response surface methodology (RSM) is used to establish a mathematical model of the relationship between the structural parameters of the motor and the optimization objectives, and the optimal design of the motor is completed by solving the mathematical model. Experimental validation has been conducted to show the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed SIPMSM.


Salmonella is one of the major foodborne pathogens, often as the result of pork consumption. Currently, with the situation of antimicrobial resistance, organic farming has been suggested as an alternative for healthier options. However, there is little evidence to support this. In this study, we investigated the occurrence of Salmonella circulating in local organic pig farms in northern Thailand and typed isolated clones to better understand the population structure and transmission dynamics of the underlying Salmonella contamination. In total, 112 samples from 11 organic pig farms were processed from October to December 2018. Salmonella was detected in 9 targeted farms. One-fourth (28/112) of all samples yield Salmonella. The positives proportion of fecal, feeder swabs, and boot swabs were found to be 32.7% (17/53), 17.7% (6/34), and 20.0% (5/25), respectively. Of the 28 positive strains, Seven Salmonella serotypes were identified, with S. Rissen being the most common (15/28; 53.6%). 89.3% (25/28), 78.6% (22/28) and 71.4% (20/28) of isolated Salmonella resisted against tetracycline, ampicillin, and sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, respectively. From multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis, the phylogenetic tree hinted that cross contamination within herds, point mutation of the housekeeping genes at period persisted in a herd, and sharing routes of supply chain between farms. A minimum spanning tree (MST) revealed that Salmonella contamination in organic pig farming is possibly linked with conventional farming. Based on the own results, strictly highly organic practices provide a safe alternative enhancing domestic consumer trust and improve public health safety.


This paper investigates that expansion of the use of electric cars on the environment; a situation in which all of the lightweight vehicles that use an internal combustion engine are replaced by electric cars in Scotland. The idea is to estimate whether it would have a positive impact on the environment. The methodology is based on analysing the most common electric and conventional vehicles helped to estimate the amount of additional electricity that would be needed to charge that expansion. The paper has also looked at the running costs. The results show that approximately 4,066 GWh per year of additional electricity will be needed to compensate for such expansion. With that rise in electricity production, the amount of carbon emissions from the electrical grid will increase slightly by 0.47 megatons CO2 per year. Given that the carbon dioxide generated by the light internal combustion vehicles at the moment is 3.6 megatons of CO2 per year, it is concluded that the total amount of greenhouse gases will decrease if all electric cars in Scotland are replaced by electric cars. The initial cost of an electric car is found to be higher than the conventional one, but in the long term, recharging an electric vehicle will be much cheaper.


In recent years, the integration of a whole set of technologies, commonly known as the Internet of Things (IOT) activating an ecological system blossoming architectures and platform where objects smart, users and communication infrastructures between act to support smart context aware services and applications. Smart-grids, medical monitoring, smart cities and teaching of pollution is distributed gust concrete some examples of applications that are gaining attraction between industries and institutions. In this paper the application of IOT is examined in the FPGA platform, production deices Mars. It includes data collection, congeal, automation algorithms along with the implementation of the TCP / IP stack in FPGA with an interface cable or Wi-Fi Ethernet.


Objective:Application of heat shock before an inflammatory stimulus often results in an attenuated response to that stimulus. As a result, it has become increasingly appreciated that heat shock may induce cross-tolerance to a variety of stimuli based on in vitro and in vivo models. Circulating peripheral blood monocytes are key mediators of cytokine release following endotoxin challenge. The mitogen-activated protein kinases play a key role in the transcriptional regulation of this response including expression of tumor necrosis factor. As such, counterregulatory phosphatases that target mitogen-activated protein kinase may play a role in this heat shock-mediated effect. We hypothesized that prior heat shock to monocytes would induce a phosphatase, MKP-1, that regulated mitogen-activated protein kinase activity and subsequently conferred cross-tolerance to lipopolysaccharide stimulation. Design:Experimental. Setting:University research foundation laboratory. Subjects:THP-1 human monocyte cell line. Interventions:THP-1 cells were exposed to either heat shock (43°C, 1 hr) or normothermia (37°C, 1 hr) and allowed to recover before stimulation with endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide). Measurements and Main Results:Induction of a heat shock response was determined by heat shock protein-70 expression. Tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-10 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to assess heat shock inhibition of lipopolysaccharide-induced gene expression. The effect of heat shock on lipopolysaccharide-mediated activation of the p38 and ERK kinases was examined by measuring phospho-specific isoforms of p38 and ERK1/2 and correlated to in vitro kinase activity. Confirmatory data were generated from experiments employing either pharmacologic inhibition or genetic deletion of MKP-1. Heat shock induced the nuclear localized phosphatase, MKP-1, that attenuated p38 and ERK kinase activity resulting in significantly diminished tumor necrosis factor expression in response to lipopolysaccharide. Conclusions:The effect of heat shock on decreasing the tumor necrosis factor response to lipopolysaccharide is conferred by induction of MKP-1, which negatively regulates p38 and ERK kinases. Modulation of phosphatase activity may be a potential strategy for attenuating acute inflammatory responses.


Part V represents a study on how a future plant at Cottendart (NE) might look with a gas turbine (GT) toping cycle. In addition to the outside references listed in the Bibliography, this work is based on information and results found in Parts II through IV and VI through VIII (in particular Part VI) of this report. The company for electricity production and sale in Neuchâtel, Electricite Neuchâteloise SA (ENSA), has been faced with the fact that over the years the demand for electricity in their district has increased. Up until now, the available production capacity has been adequate for meeting this demand without difficulties. However, if the demand were to continue to increase as it has without an expansion in production capacity, problems, primarily in winter, would arise. Therefore, ENSA has begun looking for expansion possibilities for its electrical production in the district of Neuchâtel. This decision to expand decided after the start of WISPRO corresponds well with one of the stated objectives of this project, namely to study the possibility of adding a gas turbine (GT) toping cycle to the plant at Cottendart.


Fifteen accessions of sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.) were characterized for morphological and phenological traits at Reckenholz in the Swiss lowlands (Experiment 1). The effects of accession, harvest time and site on dry-matter yield, condensed tannin (CT) concentration and forage value (Experiment 2) were determined at three sites in Switzerland varying in altitude from 440 to 559 m. Three to four harvests were taken in the first year after establishment (second year of stand) with harvests 1 and 2 chemically analysed. From the characterization in Experiment 1, a clear grouping of single flowering (Communis) and multiple flowering (Bifera) accessions emerged. Additionally, within the Communis accessions, distinct groupings were identified (historical landraces and newly collected ecotypes) based on morphological characteristics. Experiment 2 showed that Communis and Bifera accessions had a similar chemical composition in the first harvest. In the second harvest, Communis accessions were higher in crude protein and CT and lower in neutral and acid detergent fibre concentrations than Bifera accessions. Total dry-matter yields were higher for Bifera accessions. Among the Communis accessions, ecotypes had consistently higher CT concentrations than landraces. In vitro organic matter digestibility did not significantly differ among accessions. There were clear effects of harvest time and site for most variables, with clear harvest time × sainfoin group interaction but no site × sainfoin group interactions. The results clearly demonstrate that historical landraces and newly collected ecotypes expand the range of available genetic variation for sainfoin breeding.


The imitative ability of nonhuman animals has intrigued a number of scholars and, in doing so, has generated a considerable amount of controversy. Although it is clear that many species can learn via observational learning, there is a lack of consensus concerning both what sorts of things can be learned by watching others and what types of observational learning should count as imitation. These disputes have led to disagreements about the extent to which various nonhuman species engage in imitation, based in large part on different definitions of imitation. An animal's imitative success also depends on the context. For example, dolphins can be taught to imitate on demand, and studies using such elicited imitation tasks have yielded mixed results. Dolphins can imitate behaviors produced by other dolphins and other animals (including humans) and are capable of deferred imitation. When dolphins are asked to imitate, it seems easier for them to reproduce familiar behaviors than novel ones. Adult dolphins appear to be more successful than juveniles at imitating on demand; however, young dolphins appear more likely than adults to spontaneously imitate behaviors. Young dolphins frequently spontaneously imitate the play behaviors of their peers, and sometimes acquire novel play behaviors in the process. Following Kuczaj et al. (2005), we suggest that the distinction between elicited and spontaneous imitation is important, and that understanding both types of imitation is essential. In addition to learning more about the factors that are influential when animals imitate, it is also imperative to understand the types of models and behaviors that are most likely to be imitated, the types of animals that are most likely to imitate others, and ontogenetic changes that occur in imitation.


The observation of an electroscalar signal during the eclipse of the Sun by the Moon in 2008 was a starting point for the development and creation of the electroscalar field theory. This observation shows that such radiation has a long wavelength, and is longitudinal and extremely penetrating. The properties of the electroscalar and electromagnetic dynamics of a massive charged particle have been studied. An analogy between the linear theory of elasticity and Maxwell electrodynamics is made. The observed spectrum of radiation clarifying peculiar properties. Real sources of electroscalar radiation are determined. In accordance with the principle of least action, the Lagrangian of the electroscalar field and the field force acting on the particle are defined. The spectral expansion of the electroscalar field allowed us to establish that the field is longitudinal and aligned with the wave vector. At the heart of the electroscalar theory, which is compliant with the experimental data, is the four-dimensional scalar potential that describes radial vibrations of the electroscalar field source. The four-vector Maxwell electromagnetic potential and four-scalar potential neither form a single object in the Minkowski space nor interfere and, as a consequence, prove to be independent and unrelated differential relations. Moreover, a strong correlation between the spatial position of the particle and the field components allows and demonstrates a new degree of freedom in the electrodynamics of charged particles.


Inspired by human learning, researchers have proposed ordering examples during training based on their difficulty. Both curriculum learning, exposing a network to easier examples early in training, and anti-curriculum learning, showing the most difficult examples first, have been suggested as improvements to the standard i.i.d. training. In this work, we set out to investigate the relative benefits of ordered learning. We first investigate the \emph{implicit curricula} resulting from architectural and optimization bias and find that samples are learned in a highly consistent order. Next, to quantify the benefit of \emph{explicit curricula}, we conduct extensive experiments over thousands of orderings spanning three kinds of learning: curriculum, anti-curriculum, and random-curriculum -- in which the size of the training dataset is dynamically increased over time, but the examples are randomly ordered. We find that for standard benchmark datasets, curricula have only marginal benefits, and that randomly ordered samples perform as well or better than curricula and anti-curricula, suggesting that any benefit is entirely due to the dynamic training set size. Inspired by common use cases of curriculum learning in practice, we investigate the role of limited training time budget and noisy data in the success of curriculum learning. Our experiments demonstrate that curriculum, but not anti-curriculum can indeed improve the performance either with limited training time budget or in existence of noisy data.


The authors propose a distributed caching approach to off-loading data access requests from overloaded data servers in a distributed system to nodes that are idle or less busy. Helping out the busy servers on data accesses, the idle or less busy nodes are called mutual servers. Frequently accessed data are cached in the main memory of mutual servers in addition to server and client local caches. The authors evaluate several data propagation strategies among data servers and mutual servers. Simulation results show that the active-sender passive-receiver policy is the method of choice in most cases. Active-sender policies are best able to exploit the main memory of other idle nodes in the expected normal condition where some nodes are overloaded and others are less loaded. All active policies perform far better than the policy without distributed caching.<<ETX>>


Abstract: The introduction of a competence catalogue in the TFEU by the Treaty of Lisbon eliminated the overlap between the preclusion of national lawmaking powers attributable to the exclusive character of EU competences and that stemming from the enactment of EU legislation, thus opening the doors to scholarly investigation of Union Preemption as a general theory of the effects of EU legislation in non-exclusive competence areas. The first aim of this work is to describe what Union Preemption is (" Sein ") in the context of the EU single market, thus allowing, given an item of EU legislation, to determine its preemptive scope by reference to certain "markers", such as its legal form and the harmonization model it embodies. Against the background of the existing application uncertainties, this work further seeks to suggest what Union Preemption ought to be (" Sollen ") to meet the current needs of European integration, taking into account the diversity of situations where preemption issues arise and the changes in the legal, political, and economic context that have occurred in the single market since 1957.


From the FDA review of RU-486 to the recent growth of fertility clinics to the rights of lesbian parents, women's reproductive lives are aggressively regulated by law and medicine. While a great deal has been written on such issues as abortion and postpartum depression, no single volume has offered a broad discussion of the interface between the legal, medical, and political aspects of women's reproduction in a manner accessible and informative to non-specialists.The Wandering Uterus fills that gap. Taking her title from an ancient Greek belief that women's health problems were caused by a wandering uterus that needed to be confined and controlled, Meyer exposes the way in which myths and prejudice about female sexuality continue to influence the practice of law and medicine today.This book offers new insights and provides a wealth of up-to- date information on a subject that changes every day. The text is divided into three main parts: political issues of pre- conception, the politics of pregnancy, and the politics of motherhood. Throughout, Meyer argues passionately that while technology and medicine must progress, they should not be allowed to do so at women's expense.


Abstract. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the replacement of different levels of animal protein concentrate (APC) with a commercial dry yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in diets on common carp performance. The experiment was conducted in the fish laboratory of the Department of Animal Production, College of Agricultural Sciences, University of Sulaimani in Kurdistan region of Iraq for the period from 25.07.2015 to 15.10.2015. Starting with a period of acclimatization for 21 days, to test the efficiency of using commercial dry yeast S. cerevisiae as alternative protein source to APC used in the manufacturing of diets for common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) by using 90 fish at weights ranged 22-42g divided into 15 groups distributed randomly on 15 plastic containers by five treatments with three replicates per each variant. The treatments contain different levels of APC and yeast S. cerevisiae as follows: first treatment (Control T1): 100% APC / 0.00% yeast S. cerevisiae; second treatment (T2): 75% APC / 25% yeast S. cerevisiae; third treatment (T3): 50% APC / 50% yeast S. cerevisiae; fourth treatment (T4): 25% APC / 75% yeast S. cerevisiae and fifth treatment (T5): 0.00% APC / 100% yeast S. cerevisiae. There was no significant difference observed in the value of biological indices for some physiological organs, spleen and Hepatic pancreases and also in the value of the condition factor (CF) between carps from different treatments. The results of the chemical composition of the fish flesh showed significant difference in the moisture of individuals from T4 as compared with these from T2 and T5, T2 was significantly increased in crude protein as compared with other treatments, T5 had significant differences in fat crude as compared with other treatments, T1 and T2 were significantly different in ash as compared with other treatments, T1 was significantly different in carbohydrates as compared with other treatments. The results showed no significant differences observed among experimental treatments in Panel test of tenderness, color, juiciness, flavor and overall acceptance for fish meat.


Description of Programme In 2005 – 2008, Sightsavers supported an urban eye care project (Dhaka Urban Eye Care Project – DUECP) implemented by three non-government eye organizations, namely Islamia Eye Hospital as the lead hospital coordinating with the Dhaka Bangladesh National Society for the Blind (BNSB) and the Bangladesh Lions Eye Foundation (BLF), Dhaka. The successful completion of this project highlighted the need for testing feasibility of a larger demonstration approach that included other key stakeholders like the government, NGO and private sector services. On completion of the pilot project solely supported by Sightsavers till September 2008, the 'Dhaka Urban Comprehensive Eye Care Project' (DUCECP)' was launched with financial support from Standard Chartered's 'Seeing is Believing' (SiB) Phase IV initiative. The DUCECP was designed more comprehensively in the context of the type of eye health services required. The overall budget of the project was USD 1,657,222 spread over a period of 5 years. In 2013, a no-cost extension was agreed for 15 months up to December 2014. Of this, USD 1 million was provided by Seeing is Believing programme, while USD 657,222 was contributed by Sightsavers.


The United States and Persian Gulf Security: The Foundations of the War on Terror, by Steven Wright. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 2007. v + 208 pages. Bibl. to p. 231. Index to p. 242. $54.50. Turning Point: The Arab World's Marginalization and International Security After 9/11, by Dan Tschirgi. Westport, CT and London, UK: Praeger Security International, 2007. vii +177 pages. Notes to p. 203. Further reading to p. 209. Index to p. 226. $44.95. Reviewed by Christian Koch With the election campaign in the United States already turning the focus to the next US administration, there is no doubt that the Middle East will be at the center of the debate on the future direction of American foreign policy. Much of that debate will take as its point of departure an evaluation of the policies enacted by the current Bush Administration. In this context, the theme of the two books under review is quite similar, as they look at the wider impact of the war on terror and its implications both for regional security in the Gulf as well as broader international security. The volume entitled The United States and Persian Gulf Security: The Foundations of the War on Terror by Steven Wright is "an examination of Bill Clinton's and George W. Bush's foreign and strategic policies vis-a-vis Persian Gulf Security in the post-Cold War and War on Terror era" (p. 2). The author argues that while under President Clinton, US Gulf policy lacked a "clear strategic vision" (p. 86), during the administration of George W. Bush "the new intellectual context of the War on Terror subordinated long-standing US geostrategic interests in the Persian Gulf to the maxims of grand strategy in the War on terror." (p. 7). Thus what one sees under the two presidencies is a reversal of priorities with Clinton placing the issue of political Islam within the context of US strategic interests while Bush places the need to combat "radical Islamism over the immediate US interests in the Persian Gulf arena" (p. 82). Rather than focusing on the Gulf policies of Presidents Clinton and Bush, Turning Point: The Arab World's Marginalization and International Security After 9/11 by Dan Tschirgi seeks to delve a little deeper into the significance of the events of September 11 and to provide an answer to the central questions of "what is the meaning of 9/11, why did it happen, and how can we best seek security in the wake of that event" (p. viii). In this context, the book attempts to "eschew moralizing in favor of an analytical thrust" (p. 162) and tries to put the attacks themselves into perspective by arguing that what happened on 9/11 was "an act of asymmetrical warfare" (p. 70). Tschirgi emphasizes the point that the Middle East should not be seen as "exceptional" when it comes to the threat from fundamentalism but rather that al-Qa'ida and its action should be viewed within the context of marginalized violent internal conflict stemming from the nature of the current international system and its uneven distribution of the benefits of globalization. He thus draws parallels to conflicts such as Mexico's Zapatista Rebellion, Egypt's Gama'a al-Islamiyya insurgency, and the Ogoni uprising in Nigeria. If seen through this lens, he argues: "In fact, 9/11 was a by product of an insidious syndrome of marginalization that directly motivated a relatively small group of activists while simultaneously influencing the attitudes and opinions of a much broader stream of public sentiment in the Arab world" (p. 171). By trying to establish the rationale behind the response of the Bush Administration to the events of September 11, the two authors argue that US policies grew out of earlier convictions that had been formulated mostly throughout the 1990s and even before that. Both volumes go to great length explaining the background to the Neoconservative movement and how their belief in the supremacy of the American cause led them to make the policy choices they did when it came to the Middle East and specifically Iraq. …


We propose a method to predict user performance based on eye-tracking. The method uses eye-tracking-based pupillometry to capture pupil diameter data and calculates—based on a Random Forest algorithm—user performance expectations. We conducted a large-scale experimental evaluation (125 participants aged from 21 to 61 years) and found promising results that pave the way for a dynamic real-time adaption of IT to a user's mental effort and expected user performance. We have already achieved a good classification accuracy of user performance after only 40 seconds (5% of the mean total trial time that our participants took to complete our experiment). The non-invasive contact-free method can be applied cost-efficiently both in research and practical environments.


Networks of experts coordinated or orchestrated by international bodies have become so widespread and influential that they are said to shape a new world order. Standards for consumer safety, investor protection, and environmental sustainability are governed by appeals to the epistemic authority of experts. Typically, formal international organizations orchestrate cross-border constellations of public–private collaborations between groups that are deemed to have relevant knowledge. This trend is part of a depoliticization of decision-making; policy issues are framed as technical problems that should be kept at a distance from party politics. The question here is how to conceptualize and assess this development in democratic terms.
 In political theory, three kinds of approach have evolved in response to this trend. At one extreme, the argument is that governance beyond the state cannot be legitimate until it has implemented modes of representation and contestation familiar from the domestic context. At the other extreme, the argument is that legitimacy beyond the state should be decoupled from democratic concerns and be legitimated on technocratic grounds. Between these two poles is the argument that democracy does not have to resemble the domestic model in organizational terms and can fruitfully be reconceived or reinterpreted in the international context. Versions of the reinterpretive approach are currently popular under different theoretical labels. It is fruitful to use it as a model for considering questions of democratic legitimacy for the expert networks that constitute or interact with international organizations.
 In following the reinterpretive route, a natural starting point is to consider what the key evaluative dimensions of democracy are. At an abstract level, democracy is about three main considerations:
 1. Authorization: The people are the rightful principals of public action. It is necessary to consider how people can be empowered to challenge and potentially veto opinions that flow from expert networks.
 2. Attitude: Democratically justified institutions express the right kind of concern for people as equals. There are important questions about how the technical rationalities of expert networks can show consideration for a reasonable pluralism of perspectives and how "soft law" can address subjects with appropriate respect for citizens' claim to justification and rule of law.
 3. Area: The authority of democratically legitimate institutions must be matched by a defined sphere of answerability. For the area of expert networks, this issue concerns both the scope of expert mandates and whether there is a fit between mandate and actual practice.
 The task for an assessment of the democratic legitimacy of expert networks is to consider more fully what each of these evaluative dimensions imply in the relevant context.


The aim of this book is to examine the multifarious placements of the pop song in contemporary cinema through a series of short essays from a variety of perspectives-each looking at the use of ONE pop song in a particular movie. These writings offer the opportunity for in-depth discussion of a cinematic moment(s), rationalising function, condition, method, theory, and practice -by academics, authors & professionals from relevant disciplines. All approaches to deconstructing the relationship of pop song to film- psychological, political, semiotic, theological, post-modern and post-mortem etc., are invited, with an extraordinary collection of interpretations expected. Given that the pop song is no longer the exception but the norm within much mainstream cinema there are surprisingly few books analysing this relationship. There are major works by both Anahid Kassabian, who in 'Hearing Film' posits a new, genderised theory, comparing & contrasting song placement with bespoke composition, and Jeff Smith, 'The Sounds Of Commerce' dissecting some early song placements from detailed economic and stylistic positions. The earlier "Celluloid Jukebox" is a thematic account, written from a music journalist perspective compiling many films and songs simultaneously but without substantial focus on 'audio-visual moments' or theoretical-'listening'.


Few papers examine the pecuniary and non-pecuniary determinants of doctors' labour supply despite substantial predicted shortages in many OECD countries. We contribute to the literature by applying both a structural discrete choice and a reduced-form approach. Using detailed survey data for Australian physicians, we examine how these different modelling approaches affect estimated wage elasticities at the intensive margin. We show that all modelling approaches predict small negative wage elasticities for male and female General Practitioners (GPs) and specialists. Our detailed subgroup analysis does not reveal particularly strong responses to wage increases by any specific group. We show that the translog and Box-Cox utility functions outperform the quadratic utility function. Exploiting the advantages of the structural discrete choice model, we examine short-term effects at the intensive margin by calculating labour supply changes in response to 5 and 10% wage increases. The results show that such wage increases substantially reduce the full-time equivalent supply of male GPs, and to a lesser extent of male specialists and female GPs, but not of female specialists.


The article examines how nuclear risk was perceived by German and Japanese journalists covering the Fukushima Disaster. Drawing from the theoretical framework of Beck's World Risk Society, the journalists' personal risk perceptions are reconstructed from narrative interviews, adding an important variable to the understanding of journalistic communication on risk and disaster. The results indicate that German correspondents in Japan were highly concerned about their personal safety while Japanese journalists hardly showed any anxiety with regard to the nuclear disaster. The varying perceptions also widely applied to the journalists' professional experience of the disaster, although further influences like organizational culture came into play as well. The article concludes that historically shaped discourses are an important macro factor for media reporting on risk and disaster.


Abstract The new mineral popovite, Cu5O2(AsO4)2, was found in the sublimates of the Arsenatnaya fumarole at the Second scoria cone of the Northern Breakthrough of the Great Tolbachik Fissure Eruption, Tolbachik volcano, Kamchatka, Russia. It is associated with ericlaxmanite, kozyrevskite, urusovite, lammerite, lammerite-b, johillerite, bradaczekite, tenorite, hematite, aphthitalite, anhydrite, langbeinite, calciolangbeinite, As-bearing orthoclase, etc. Popovite occurs as prismatic or tabular crystals and as grains up to 0.2 mm in size forming clusters up to 1.5 mm in size and as crusts on basalt scoria or on aphthitalite incrustations. Popovite is transparent with a vitreous to greasy lustre. Its colour is olive green to dark olive-green, but fine-grained varieties are light yellow-green. The mineral is brittle, with Mohs' hardness ~3 ½. Cleavage was not observed and the fracture is uneven. Dcalc is 5.30 g cm-3. Popovite is optically biaxial (+), α = 1.84(1), β ≈ 1.86, γ = 1.96(1), 2Vmeas = 50(20)°. The Raman spectrum is given. Chemical data (wt.%, electron-microprobe) are CuO 63.28, ZnO 0.56, V2O5 0.12, As2O5 35.80, SO3 0.27, total 100.03. The empirical formula, based on 10 O a.p.f.u., is (Cu4.99Zn0.04)S5.03(As1.95S0.02V0.01)S1.98O10. Popovite is triclinic, P1̄, a = 5.1450(3), b = 6.2557(3), c = 6.2766(4) Å, α = 100.064(5), β = 96.351(5), γ = 95.100(5)°, V = 196.47(1) Å3 and Z = 1. The strongest reflections in the powder X-ray diffraction pattern [d,Å (I)(hkl)] are 3.715(36)(110, 101), 3.465(43)(11̄1), 2.968(90)(01̄2), 2.927(100)(111), 2.782(31)(1̄02), 2.768(67)(1̄20), 2.513(55)(1̄2̄1) and 2.462(67)(2̄01). Popovite has a novel structure type. Its crystal structure, solved from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data (R = 0.0459), is based on (010) layers forming an interrupted framework. The layer consists of Cu(1)O6 octahedra with very strong Jahn-Teller distortion and Cu(2)O5 and Cu(3)O5 polyhedra. The linkage between the layers is reinforced by isolated AsO4 tetrahedra. Popovite is named in honour of the Russian mineralogists Vladimir Anatol'evich Popov (b. 1941) and Valentina Ivanovna Popova (b. 1941), a husband and wife research team working in the Institute of Mineralogy of the Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Miass, Russia.


This study investigates firms subject to accounting enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for alleged violations of GAAP. We investigate: (i) the extent to which the alleged earnings manipulations can be explained by extant earnings management hypotheses; (ii) the relation between the earnings manipulations and weaknesses in the firms' internal governance structures; and (iii) the capital market consequences experienced by the firms when the alleged earnings manipulations are made public. We find that an important motivation for earnings manipulation is the desire to attract external financing at low cost. We show that this motivation remains significant after controlling for contracting motives proposed in the academic literature. We also find that firms manipulating earnings are: (i) more likely to have boards of directors dominated by management; (ii) more likely to have a CEO who simultaneously serves as Chairman of the Board; (iii) more likely to have a CEO who is also the firm's founder; (iv) less likely to have an audit committee; and (v) less likely to have an outside blockholder. Finally, we document that firms manipulating earnings experience significant increases in their costs of capital when the manipulations are made public.