Examined in this study were the effects of Sin Tax Law at the microlevel. Using the before-and-after method of analyzing impacts, we applied a multiple regression analysis incorporating difference-in-difference approach of econometric estimation. It appeared that youths had significantly lower cigarette consumption after the implementation of this law. This suggests that Sin Tax Law (STL) discouraged the youth from smoking. In contrast, consumption of cigarettes among adults did not change significantly implying that the tax induced price-increase was relatively less effective. Therefore, it is recommended that there should be specific policies targeting adult smokers to inhibit them from consuming more cigarettes. Results also provide important lessons for future research in monitoring and evaluating public policies.


The design of government portfolios – that is, the distribution of competencies among government ministries and office holders – has been largely ignored in the study of executive and coalition politics. This article argues that portfolio design is a substantively and theoretically relevant phenomenon that has major implications for the study of institutional design and coalition politics. The authors use comparative data on portfolio design reforms in nine Western European countries since the 1970s to demonstrate how the design of government portfolios changes over time. Specifically, they show that portfolios are changed frequently (on average about once a year) and that such shifts are more likely after changes in the prime ministership or the party composition of the government. These findings suggest a political logic behind these reforms based on the preferences and power of political parties and politicians. They have major implications for the study of institutional design and coalition politics.


Background and Objectives: Stapedectomy and stapedotomy are the standard techniques for surgical treatment of stapes fixation. Both techniques differ in the size of the created opening in the stapes footplate and the type of prosthesis used. The aim of the study is to evaluate the outcomes of hearing following the two surgical techniques. Methods: One hundred and forty-nine medical records of patients who underwent stapedectomy or stapedotomy between the years 1988 and 2011 were reviewed. The subjects were classified into two groups including stapedectomy and stapedotomy. The clinical and immediate pre- and postoperative air-conduction (AC) threshold, bone conduction, and air-bone gap (ABG) were compared between the two groups. Results: The average age of patients included (n = 149) was 34.4 years at the time of surgery. The pure-tone average calculated for AC for clinical and immediate preoperative and postoperative was 57.6, 58.9, and 35.3 dB, respectively. The ABG calculated for clinical, immediate preoperative, and postoperative was 37, 36.9, and 14.5 dB, respectively. The majority of the patients (80.5%) underwent surgery for otosclerosis. Stapedectomies were done for 60.4% versus 39.6% stapedotomies. Preoperatively, the majority of patients fall within the class of moderate to moderate-severe hearing loss. Closure of ABG to 10 dB or more was achieved in 50.4% of the cases. Postoperative ABG was statistically different (P = 0.002) between the stapedectomy (16.79 dB) versus stapedotomy (10.85 dB) group. Conclusions: Stapedotomy cases were better than stapedectomy ones in closing the ABG. The frequency (250 Hz) AC threshold was better in the stapedotomy group compared to the stapedectomy one in a postoperative audiogram. No statistical difference was observed between the two groups in the other frequencies.


A mathematical model of heating a biological tissue with electromagnetic radiation is suggested in this research. The dependence of heating the biological tissue on various modes of generation and radiative powers is constructed. Thermal and physical coefficients of a porcine eye cornea were experimentally determined. It was demonstrated that the 100μW of radiative power deposition can heat the biological layer to 0.004oC, whereas at 100mW power level, the temperature will rise to 4.32oC.


We summarize the key empirical evidence on the nexus between MNEs and development, focusing on issues that are relevant for the formulation, implementation and assessment of policies by host developing countries. We also delve into what we do not know, as well as topics for which the evidence is still quite blurred. We dis-cuss the reasons for the absence of clear evidence, and potential avenues for future research to improve policies. Although most countries rely on MNEs/FDI as a central plank of their development strategy, the collective weight of academic research has not led to a fine-tuning of policy implementation. Countries still rely on policies for which evidence is sparse, or no longer valid in an era of globalisation. Much of the literature has focused on externalities and spillovers, and has deemphasised the other 'effects' of MNE activity, implicitly assuming that MNEs are almost always beneficial for development. Few rents are costless when the opportunity costs of scarce resources are considered, especially in the longer term. Despite the abundance of empirical studies (of increasing sophistication), most ignore the significance of structural change. Growth and the interaction with MNE activity is not linear or monotonic over time, because the economy itself is in a constant state of flux.


Owing to the absence of accounting standards for the preparation of a value-added statement (VAS), a large variety of methods are used in financial statements. In this study the published value-added statements (PVAS) of companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange during the period 1976-2005 have been standardised by the Graduate School of Business of the University of Stellenbosch (USB) in order to quantify the differences between the standardised VAS (SVAS) and the PVAS. These differences consist of the inclusion of items that do not belong in the VAS, items that are erroneously allocated among the distribution to stakeholders, and interpretation differences in whether a certain item forms part of the calculation of value added or the distribution thereof. The greatest difference quantified was the overstatement of the distribution to government that amounted to 54.4% of total differences. For users, including government, to properly calculate and compare the value added of different business entities, a standard for the preparation and presentation of VAS ought to be published. In the South African context the need of a precise measurement of each business entity's contribution to the growth of the national economy is relevant, and this need should also be addressed.


Heavy-vehicle (HV) impact on freeway operations in the Highway Capacity Manual 2010 is evaluated on the basis of values for passenger car equivalents (PCE) for buses–trucks and recreational vehicles. These values were calibrated for relatively uncongested freeway conditions [Levels of Service (LOS) A through C] because inadequate field data on HV behavior under congested conditions were available; furthermore, field-collected headway information was based on the average headway for vehicles in a particular class, regardless of the type of vehicle that they were following. The goal of this paper was to collect and analyze freeway field data on HV headways with an emphasis on lower speeds typically associated with an LOS E (capacity) or F (forced-flow conditions). The effect that a leading vehicle has on headways was captured and analyzed for 10 leading–following vehicle pair types containing at least one passenger car (for example, buses followed by passenger cars). Headway statistics were analyzed for nine speed ranges (up to 20 mph, 20 to 25 mph, 25 to 30 mph, 30 to 35 mph, 35 to 40 mph, 40 to 45 mph, 45 to 50 mph, 50 to 55 mph, and over 55 mph) and 10 vehicle pair types. Values for PCEs were derived for each speed range on the basis of average headway for a specific vehicle pair type divided by the average headway between passenger cars. Leading and following vehicle classes and speeds were found to have a significant influence on headways and values for PCEs.


Observation is a critical element of behavioural ecology and ethology.  Here, we propose a similar set of techniques to enhance the study of the diversity patterns of invertebrate pollinators and associated plant species.  In a body of avian research, cameras are set up on nests in blinds to examine chick and parent interactions. This avoids observer bias, minimizes interference, and provides numerous other benefits including timestamps, the capacity to record frequency and duration of activities, and provides a permanent archive of activity for later analyses.  Hence, we propose that small video cameras in blinds can also be used to continuously monitor pollinator activity on plants thereby capitalizing on those same benefits.  This method was proofed in 2010 in the alpine in BC, Canada on target focal plant species and on open mixed assemblages of plant species.  Apple ipod nanos successfully recorded activity for an entire day at a time totalling 450 hours and provided sufficient resolution and field of view to both identify pollinators to recognizable taxonomic units and monitor movement and visitation rates at a scale of view of approximately 50 cm2.  This method is not a replacement for pan traps or sweep nets but an opportunity to enhance these datasets with more detailed, finer-resolution data.  Importantly, the test of this specific method also indicates that far more hours of observation - using any method - are likely required than most current ecological studies published to accurately estimate pollinator diversity. NOTE: Supporting information to this article may be found in the left menu.


A GaAs/AlAs coupled multilayer cavity structure with InAs quantum dots (QDs) was fabricated by wafer-bonding of two cavity structures grown individually. The wafer-bonding technique is important to control the spatial distribution of nonlinear polarization for strong terahertz emission by the differential frequency generation of the two cavity modes of the coupled cavity. Three layers of self-assembled InAs QDs were inserted in a cavity grown on a (001) GaAs substrate as optical gain materials for two-color emission of the cavity mode lights. The other cavity with a GaAs cavity layer was grown on a (113)B GaAs substrate. Two-color emissions with a 3.8 THz frequency difference were successfully observed from the wafer-bonded coupled cavity by cw optical pumping at room temperature.


The validity of Hofmann's classification of ruminants into browsers/"concentrate selectors", intermediate feeders and grazers/"grass and roughage eaters" and of his consecutive physiological postulates has repeatedly been questioned. In contrast to former concepts, which all focused on the chemical characteristics of the respective forages, we propose a new hypothesis on the main driving force of ruminant diversification, namely the physicomechanical characteristics of the respective forages. In contrast to browse, grass tends to stratify and form a "fibrous raft" in the reticulorumen. The significantly more capacious forestomachs of grazers, and the significantly thicker rumen pillars (indicating the strength of reticulorumen muscle equipment) of their forestomachs, are interpreted as particular adaptations to this forage characteristic. With these parameters, we present, for the first time, two single morphological measurements that allow the statistical reconstruction of Hofmann's classification. A small forestomach capacity and the lack of strong reticulorumen muscles in browsers would explain the observed exclusiveness with which browsers avoid grass forage under natural conditions, which we confirmed using two datasets on the composition of the natural diet. Both rumen pillar thickness and relative forestomach capacity were significantly correlated to the grass content of the natural diet, respectively. Our functional interpretation was also supported by a stepwise regression analysis with the proportion of grass in the natural diet as dependent variable and the rumen pillar thickness, the relative forestomach capacity, and the body weight as independent variables, which revealed significant equations.


Nowadays, near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) fills a niche in medical imaging due to various reasons including non‐invasiveness and portability. The special characteristics of NIRS imaging make it suitable to handle topics that were only approachable using electroencephalography (EEG) such as imaging infants and children; or studying the human brain activity during actions, like walking and drawing that require a certain amount of freedom that non‐portable devices such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) cannot permit. This chapter discusses the unique advantages of NIRS as a functional imaging method and the main obstacles that still prevent this technology from becoming a prominent medical imaging tool. In particular, in this chapter we focus on the design of the brain‐device interface: the NIRS cap and its important role in the imaging process.


Background The endogenous vasodilator endothelium‐derived nitric oxide (EDNO) contributes to the regulation of vascular tone and organ perfusion. It has been suggested that some volatile anesthetics may diminish the influence of EDNO and thereby decrease regional blood flow. Methods Radioactive microspheres were used to determine regional hemodynamics in rats. The authors tested the hypothesis that halothane inhibits EDNO and, therefore, should diminish the response to nitric oxide synthesis inhibition by NW ‐nitro‐L‐arginine methyl ester (L‐NAME) compared with either conscious or barbiturate‐anesthetized rats. Results NW ‐nitro‐L‐arginine methyl ester decreased blood flow to the brain by 23% (P < 0.005) in conscious rats to a level similar to that seen with either anesthetic agent. In both conscious and barbiturate‐anesthetized rats, L‐NAME increased blood pressure (BP) by 24 plus/minus 2 (P < 0.001) and 20 plus/minus 1 (P < 0.001) mmHg and total peripheral resistance (TPR) by 132% (P < 0.001) and 105% (P < 0.001), respectively. In contrast, during halothane anesthesia, both the pressor response (only 7 plus/minus 1 mmHg) and the increase in TPR (only 22%) were greatly diminished (P < 0.001). NW ‐nitro‐L‐arginine methyl ester decreased cardiac output (CO) by 47% (P < 0.001) and heart rate (HR) by 28% (P < 0.001) in conscious rats. In barbiturate‐anesthetized rats, L‐NAME decreased CO by 38% (P < 0.005) and HR by 13% (P < 0.001). In halothane‐anesthetized rats, L‐NAME changed neither CO nor HR. Thus halothane anesthesia largely eliminated the systemic response to EDNO synthesis inhibition. In conscious rats, L‐NAME decreased blood flow to the heart (30%) and kidneys (47%). In barbiturate‐anesthetized rats, L‐NAME did not alter blood flow to the heart but decreased renal blood flow by 35% (P < 0.005). In halothane‐anesthetized rats, L‐NAME did not alter blood flow to either the heart or the kidneys. Overall, halothane blunted or blocked the systemic and regional hemodynamic responses to EDNO synthesis inhibition seen in conscious and barbiturate‐anesthetized rats. Conclusions Halothane anesthesia greatly diminished or eliminated all systemic and regional hemodynamic responses to L‐NAME. These data indicate that halothane anesthesia inhibits EDNO‐mediated regulation of systemic and organ hemodynamics.


"Don't Buy Where You Can't Work": An Investigation of the Political Forces and Social Conflict Within the Harlem Boycott of 1934INTRODUCTIONOn August 4, 1934, a huge crowd of Harlem residents gathered in front of Abyssinian Baptist Church. An atmosphere of excitement and satisfaction was evident; the spirit of celebration was not dampened by a prolonged rainstorm. This rare collection of men, women, and children represented a cross-section of the class and political spectrum of one of the most celebrated communities in Black America Harlem's citizens were assembled to participate in a victory parade sponsored by the Citizen's League for Fair Play. Just ten days before, Blumstein's Department Store signed an agreement to hire forty-five "colored clerical and sales...clerks." A six month campaign had broken the most powerful white merchant on 125th Street.(1)Organizers tried to postpone the event at 1:00 p.m. because of the foul weather. Thousands "who braved the rain" eventually "wended their way homeward" when word of cancellation reached them. Nearly 1500 celebrants refused to leave and waited patiently for the leadership to reconsider its decision. By 4:00 p.m. the "first ray of sunshine brightened the scene" and the dedicated began to march down Lenox Avenue to 110th Street. Carrying signs which read "Don't Trade Where We Can't Work," the marchers recaptured the rhythm and joy of the 1920s. Some even danced the "two-step" as the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the Jenkins Orphanage Bands provided the necessary music to inspire those who traveled the route. "While the parade was still moving up Seventh Avenue..., the marchers took occasion to roundly boo while they were passing the office of the Amsterdam News."Those who were keen observers must have been impressed with the diversity of community participants. Some of Harlem's "finest" rocked with the music and shouted "cries of victory." Fraternal groups, church clubs, ministers, women's societies, celebrities, and professionals joined the unemployed, push-cart vendors, street corner spokesmen, cult members, and Garveyites to form an impressive united front. At Dorrence Brooks Square two loud speakers, supplied by the Dunbar Radio Company, amplified the voices of the boycott leaders. Each "reiterated the story of the fight and...what the League planned to do in the future."(2)By mid-September 1934, the Citizen's League for Fair Play was hopelessly split by bitter factional politics. Some of its most prominent members were quick to disassociate themselves from what a few termed a "messy situation." Within a short time, picket lines reappeared at Blumstein's sponsored by what became known in the Black press as the "Rebel Picketing Committee"(3) or the "Renegade `Boycott' Committee."(4) In later months, this labor action was dubbed by its opposition as the "Racket Committee...on Foul Play."(5) Some Jewish and Italian businessmen labeled the resumption of picket activities as a "race hatred campaign."(6) What happened to the impressive united front that characterized the post-September momentum of the Citizen's League for Fair Play? What forces contributed to the factional chaos that plagued the later stages of the Harlem boycott? Can we utilize this multidimensional event as a historical lens to view and examine the competing elements seeking to exploit the political opportunities created by the Depression?The purpose of this paper is to investigate the above questions and provide a broad historical appreciation for the "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" boycott campaign. Largely neglected by historians or relegated to a minor consideration,(7) the "Don't Buy" movement is central to understanding the flowering of nonviolent direct action popularized by Martin Luther King and the student sit-ins of the 1950s. The seeds of the modern civil rights movement can be found among a fertile field of community boycott efforts that sprouted, matured and died in the 1930s. …


The pressure dependence of the 129Xe chemical shift in the metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) UiO-66 and UiO-67 (UiO - University of Oslo) has been investigated using both theory and experiment. The resulting chemical shift isotherms were analyzed with a theoretical approach based on model systems (as proposed by K. Trepte, J. Schaber, S. Schwalbe, F. Drache, I. Senkovska, S. Kaskel, J. Kortus, E. Brunner and G. Seifert, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017, 19, 10020-10027) and experimental 129Xe NMR measurements at different pressures. All investigations were carried out at T = 237 K while the pressure range was chosen according to the maximum pressure at which Xe liquifies (p0 = 1.73 MPa or 17.3 bar), thus 0 < p ≤ p0. The theoretically predicted chemical shift isotherms agree well with the experimental ones. Additionally, a comparison of the chemical shift isotherms with volumetric adsorption isotherms was carried out to determine the similarities and differences of both isotherms.


A deterministic, process-oriented, dynamic and one-dimensional year-round lake water quality model, MINLAKE2010, was developed for water temperature ( T ) and dissolved oxygen (DO) simulations to study impacts of climate warming on lake water quality and cisco fish habitat. The DO model is able to simulate metalimnetic oxygen maxima in vertical DO profiles of oligotrophic lakes. The model was calibrated with profile data from the 28 study lakes in Minnesota; two-thirds of them are deep mesotrophic/oligotrophic lakes that support cisco, a coldwater fish species. The average standard error of estimate against measured data was 1.47 °C for T and 1.50 mg/L for DO. Oxythermal habitat parameter TDO3 ( T at DO = 3 mg/L) was determined from simulated daily T and DO profiles under past and future climate scenarios in the 28 study lakes. Average annual maximum TDO3 (TDO3 AM ) for the 28 study lakes is projected to increase on the average of 3.2 °C under the MIROC 3.2 future scenario, while the occurrence day of TDO3 AM is not much different under past and future climate scenarios. Both physical processes (mixing characteristics related to lake geometry ratio) and trophic status control temperature and DO characteristics and then affect cisco habitat in a lake.


The discovery of a sauropod tooth and a single sauropod footprint from the Valtos Formation supplements our knowledge of these dinosaurs from the Middle Jurassic of the Isle of Skye. Although the family cannot be determined from this single tooth, it is thought that it represents a primitive eusauropod and may belong to a similar sauropod to that previously described from limited isolated osteological evidence (caudal vertebra, damaged humerus and a rib). The characteristics that suggest this affinity include evidence of denticles on one edge of the tooth, wrinkling and granulation of the enamel, wear suggesting crown-to-crown occlusion, and the spatulate tooth shape. The single sauropod footprint is the oldest record of a sauropod footprint from the Middle Jurassic of Skye. Supplementary material: Surface models of the sauropod footprint from the Valtos Formation produced using Agisoft Photoscan software in obj, ply and stl formats are available at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3435984


Lysimeters are important tools in soil–plant–atmosphere research because they allow direct measurements of evapotranspiration and facilitate studies of water, nutrient, and solute balances. Heterogeneity in the atmospheric conditions in greenhouses causes spatial variations in evapotranspiration. Accurate design and management of water balance research in greenhouses is difficult due to restraints of replication and placement needed to statistically minimize the influence of heterogeneity. Precision and control are necessary to maintain precise boundary conditions, a prerequisite for accurate investigations of selected variables. We present a rotating structure that significantly enhances uniformity in environmental conditions between individual free‐standing lysimeters placed on the structure. The system contains automatic irrigation (water and fertilizer) delivery and drainage collection devices. The system was tested in evaporation and plant growth experiments. A dual carousel setup was used to measure evaporation from containers placed on the soil surface of the lysimeters, as well as yield of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) plants growing in the lysimeters. Half of each carousel was covered with netting to reduce solar radiation by 50%. One carousel rotated throughout the experiment while the other one remained stationary. Variability in measured data was reduced as a result of rotation. The CV of measured evaporation from the rotating system (3.3%) was significantly lower than that of the stationary system (16.2%). Similarly, the CV of relative lettuce yields of the rotating system was 11.9% as compared with 20.9% for the stationary system. The proposed apparatus is very attractive as a research and teaching tool for studying plant physiological processes, flow and transport in soils, and plant response to management or environmental variables.


Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty (RTSA) is a popular treatment for patients with rotator cuff damage, glenohumeral arthritis, complex fractures, and previously failed total shoulder arthroplasty given its ability to alleviate pain and increase range of motion and function. Although RTSA significantly improves functionality, pain, and satisfaction, patients need to be given realistic expectations for when to expect improvements, peak performance, and plateaus as well as potential risks for negative outcomes. As with any surgical procedure, patients are at risk for intraoperative, perioperative, short-term, and long-term complications. Thus, the purpose of this review is to discuss the short-term and long-term complications, metrics, and length of follow-up for patients who have undergone RTSA. In addition, we provide recommendations for a cut-off point between short-term and long-term outcomes for RTSA.


ABSTRACT As a growing number of women across sub-Saharan Africa engage in paid work, they face the challenge of finding suitable child care arrangements. Drawing on survey data from over 1,200 mothers and in-depth interviews with 31 of these women, we find that mothers living in a slum of Nairobi, Kenya, employ three main strategies to balance their work and child care responsibilities: (1) combine work and child care, (2) rely on kin and neighbours, or (3) use centre-based care. Mothers reported numerous disadvantages to either bringing their children to work or depending on others for child care assistance. In contrast, mothers highlighted several perceived benefits of centre-based child care for themselves and their children, while noting that costs were often prohibitive. These findings suggest that providing affordable centre-based child care could be a key strategy to improving the lives and welfare of women and children living in African slums.


Because many databases contain or can be embellished with structural information, a method for identifying interesting and repetitive substructures is an essential component to discovering knowledge in such databases. This paper describes the SUBDUE system, which uses the minimum description length (MDL) principle to discover substructures that compress the database and represent structural concepts in the data. By replacing previously-discovered substructures in the data, multiple passes of SUBDUE produce a hierarchical description of the structural regularities in the data. Inclusion of background knowledge guides SUBDUE toward appropriate substructures for a particular domain or discovery goal, and the use of an inexact graph match allows a controlled amount of deviations in the instance of a substructure concept. We describe the application of SUBDUE to a variety of domains. We also discuss approaches to combining SUBDUE with non-structural discovery systems.


proposed joint-transform optical correlator (JTOC) would be capable of operating as a real-time pattern-recognition processor. The key correlation-filter reading/writing medium of this JTOC would be an updateable holographic photopolymer. The high-resolution, high-speed characteristics of this photopolymer would enable pattern-recognition processing to occur at a speed three orders of magnitude greater than that of state-of-the-art digital pattern-recognition processors. There are many potential applications in biometric personal identification (e.g., using images of fingerprints and faces) and nondestructive industrial inspection. In order to appreciate the advantages of the proposed JTOC, it is necessary to understand the principle of operation of a conventional JTOC. In a conventional JTOC (shown in the upper part of the figure), a collimated laser beam passes through two side-by-side spatial light modulators (SLMs). One SLM displays a real-time input image to be recognized. The other SLM displays a reference image from a digital memory. A Fourier-transform lens is placed at its focal distance from the SLM plane, and a charge-coupled device (CCD) image detector is placed at the back focal plane of the lens for use as a square-law recorder. Processing takes place in two stages. In the first stage, the CCD records the interference pattern between the Fourier transforms of the input and reference images, and the pattern is then digitized and saved in a buffer memory. In the second stage, the reference SLM is turned off and the interference pattern is fed back to the input SLM. The interference pattern thus becomes Fourier-transformed, yielding at the CCD an image representing the joint-transform correlation between the input and reference images. This image contains a sharp correlation peak when the input and reference images are matched. The drawbacks of a conventional JTOC are the following: The CCD has low spatial resolution and is not an ideal square-law detector for the purpose of holographic recording of interference fringes. A typical state-of-the-art CCD has a pixel-pitch limited resolution of about 100 lines/mm. In contrast, the holographic photopolymer to be used in the proposed JTOC offers a resolution > 2,000 lines/mm. In addition to being disadvantageous in itself, the low resolution of the CCD causes overlap of a DC term and the desired correlation term in the output image. This overlap severely limits the correlation signal-to-noise ratio. The two-stage nature of the process limits the achievable throughput rate. A further limit is imposed by the low frame rate (typical video rates) of low- and medium-cost commercial CCDs.


Author(s): Bokhorst-Heng, Wendy D.; Marshall, Kelle L. | Abstract: French immersion (FI), one of the hallmarks of French as a Second Language education in Canada and mandated in New Brunswick, Canada's only officially English/French bilingual province, is often the target of language ideological debates surrounding its purposes and expected outcomes. Yet, notably absent in FI scholarship has been a focus on the ideologies informing students' investment in French, including what bilingualism might mean for their language learning and identity. In this article, we discuss nine Grade 8 French immersion students' co-construction of language ideologies regarding bilingualism. In a focus group, these students created a promotional video regarding the merits of bilingualism whose audience was comprised of fictional peers in a predominantly Anglophone province. Our analysis was guided by Darvin and Norton's (2015) model of investment. We employed the tools of multimodal critical discourse analysis to consider the students' construction of language ideologies through their video production. Through macro and micro analyses, we identified five primary ideologies: Bilingualism (a) is a matter of personal decision; (b) provides access to jobs; (c) provides access to economic capital; (d) provides access to Francophone communities of practice; and (e) provides access to symbolic capital. We discuss how the students have "remixed" the dominant provincial ideologies on bilingualism into their own, considering the implications of these ideologies on their investment in French. Finally, we suggest how multimodal practices provide a means to develop language students' meta-cognition and expand their investment in their target language.


Over the past 10 years, central banks and governments throughout the developing world have accumulated foreign exchange reserves and other official assets at an unprecedented rate. This paper shows that this official asset accumulation has driven a substantial portion of the recent large global current account imbalances. These net official capital flows have become large relative to the size of the industrial economies, and they are a significant factor contributing to the weakness of the economic recovery in the major industrial economies.


The globalisation of markets has pushed static, territorially-bounded legal structures towards a more rapid and efficient adaptation to the globalised and regionalised reality. In addition, substantial modifications in the structure and activities of financial institutions have increased risks and the need for new regulatory responses. Efforts to harmonise commercial law within the global order have resulted in a fragmented and ad hoc process, constructed according to multiple different interests and in order to preserve public policies in the face of transnational challenges. This book is the first to systematically analyse the current state of commercial law from a global perspective. The author seeks to both identify the reasons that are fostering the harmonisation process and to explain the ways in which it is developing. Among the relevant elements examined in this thorough analysis are the following: how emerging countries are absorbing international standards (with a special case study of Brazil); the impact of corporate activities on legal systems; the role of the corporation in promoting the standardisation of laws; issues of social responsibility and corporate accountability; justifications for the regulation of the corporate world; free trade vs. "fair trade"; the impact of treaty reservations and different forms of treaty incorporation into national legal systems; interaction between regional trade agreements and the WTO system; how movements of capital are reflected in international initiatives as well as in regional legislation and regulation; co-operation among national financial authorities; the emerging new lex mercatoria; and, the role of professional associations such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).


Purpose: To investigate the outcomes of orbital decompression surgery for dysthyroid optic neuropathy associated with severe Graves' ophthalmopathy. Design: Ten years (2000-2010) retrospective case series.Methods: Thirty-eight orbits (with dysthyroid optic neuropathy) of 119 surgical orbital decompressions. Patients with dysthyroid optic neuropathy associated with Graves' ophthalmopathy, who underwent orbital decompression surgery at Sydney Eye Hospital (Sydney, Australia), were investigated for outcome measures.Results: Thirty-five orbits were eligible for data analysis. Orbital decompression surgery improved visual acuity in 29 orbits and maintained visual acuity in four orbits. In patients with dysthyroid optic neuropathy, there was a statistically significant mean improvement in visual acuity of 2.8 lines postoperatively (standard deviation = 3.2; 95% confidence interval 3.9 to 1.7, p-value < 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences invisual acuity amongst different combinations of orbital walls being decompressed, with the majority of orbits had the medial orbital wall decompressed. This may reflect the small number of decompressions performed in each subgroup. Orbital decompression surgery reduced proptosis by a mean of 3.2 mm (standard deviation = 2.9; 95% confidence interval -4.32 to -2.07; p-value < 0.05). Medial and lateral orbital walls decompression resulted in the greatest mean reduction in proptosis. There were no severe visual impairment cases postoperatively (VA worse than 6/60). There were two patients with new onset diplopia postoperatively. There were three orbits with bleeding and one orbit with CSF leakage, all without major sequelae postoperatively.Conclusion: Regardless of surgical access, orbital decompression surgery is effective and safe in the management of dysthyroid optic neuropathy and in reducing proptosis in patients with Graves' ophthalmopathy.


Due to the glory, honor, recognition and rewards that are associated with winning in major international sports competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, soccer World Cup, World Athletics championships and many others, strategies for identifying and nurturing sports talent is continuously explored by various countries of the world. Indeed, world-class athletes can only be nurtured and developed in environments that are conducive for sports participation and competition. In this vein, universities, being the highest institutions of learning have been noted to be ideal sites for preparing, building and exposing talent in most of the countries in the developed world. Evidence is abundant on university students in the developed world who represent and win medals for their countries in international sports competitions. However, universities in African countries are yet to fully embrace this practice and identify concrete measures for producing world-class athletes. It is against this background that the current study was undertaken in Kenya. Games tutors, who are managers of sports programmes in the public and private universities in Kenya where targeted to provide information on technical and management factors that are critical to enabling universities in the country to nurture and produce athletes of national and international caliber. The results of the study highlighted various technical and management measures for transforming Kenya's universities into vibrant centres for developing elite athletes.


The aim of the study is to compare the regulatory speech used by parents and children in three different groups: Swedes in Sweden, and Estonians in Estonia and Sweden. 54 families with children of 9-13 were videotaped during mealtime. All regulatory speech aimed at controlling behaviour was identified and coded according to sentence form used for regulation as well as outcome (response). Estonians in Estonia used behaviour directives most frequently, and favoured the direct imperative form of regulatory language over declaratives and questions used by Estonians and Swedes in Sweden. Although the outcomes of regulation were mainly compliance in all groups, Estonian children living in Sweden complied significantly less than Swedish children. The results also show that Estonian children in Sweden have been influenced by the Swedish preference for regulating by declaratives and questions, using more questions and fewer imperatives than their mothers.


This
study examines how Bangladeshi media responded in the time of coronavirus
crisis focusing on the issue death with COVID-19 symptoms. This study analyses the content of 169 Bengali
news article from 5 different newspaper published within the timeline of 20th
March to 30th May 2020 using framing theory as the theoretical
framework. With the quantitative content analysis of news reporting this study
also discover how media frame this Corona virus (COVID-19) situation with the
words COVID-19 symptoms and some specific symptoms (fever, cough, breathing
problem, isolation etc.). The result suggested that there was not enough
information to link a person death with coronavirus rather it was the public
agenda which media tried to portray with a particular frame. This study
questioned the objectivity and accountability of journalist and newspaper on
the issue of covering news on death with COVID-19 symptoms. This study also
questioned all the statistical record of death with COVID-19 symptoms in
Bangladesh where primary source of data was newspaper reports published between
20th March to 30th May 2020.


Switzerland has a small but internationally recognised set of competences and actors in fuel cells and hydrogen, from fundamental research to technology and product development. Swiss organisations are prominent in a number of research partnerships, and some have either major international co-operation or are partly or fully owned by overseas companies. However, the sector in Switzerland remains somewhat fragmented, with many actors pursuing their own niches and relatively little cross-fertilisation or co-ordination. While companies can and do work directly with research organisations, the sector (and possibly the country) have not proven large enough to build or support more connected value or supply chains. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy, in conjunction with other Swiss support organisations, provides funding for both research and development, and some for demonstration projects. It is generally well regarded and considered flexible and simple to deal with. It does not itself have a grand vision for how the sector could or should develop, typically being responsive to project suggestions. Such a vision is not necessarily part of its remit, but does seem to reflect a broader absence of strategic perspective regarding the fuel cell and hydrogen sector in Swiss energy policy and energy debate. This project set out to understand the state of the fuel cell and hydrogen sector in Switzerland, primarily through interviews with relevant players, and put it into the context of global developments, through E4tech's industry knowledge and further research. An additional goal was to identify any major gaps or barriers to sector development, and to suggest options for closing the gaps or removing the barriers.


From the Publisher:
The books in O'Reilly's Oracle series are authoritative -- they tell the whole story about complex topics, ranging from performance tuning to the use of packages in PL/SQL to new technologies like Power Objects. And they're independent; they're alternatives for readers who need to know how products and features really work. They're packed with real-world advice and techniques from practitioners in the field, and they come with disks containing code you can use immediately in your own applications. O'Reilly is the alternative for Oracle people who need to solve problems -- and solve them now.
Performance tuning is crucial in any modern relational database management system. Too many organizations respond to Oracle performance problems by throwing money at these problems -- by buying larger and more expensive computers or by hiring expert consultants. But there's a lot you can do on your own to increase dramatically the performance of your existing system. Whatever version of Oracle you're running -- from Version 6 to Oracle8, proper tuning can save your organization a huge amount of money in additional equipment, extra memory, and hardware upgrades.
The first edition of Oracle Performance Tuning became a classic for programmers, managers, database administrators, system administrators, and anyone who cares about improving the performance of an Oracle system. This second edition contains 400 pages of updated material updating on Oracle features, incorporating advice about disk striping and mirroring, RAID, client-server, distributed databases, MPPS, SMPs, and other architectures. It also includes chapters on parallel server, parallel query, backup and recovery, the Oracle Performance Pack, and more.
The book comes with a PC diskette containing all of the SQL and shell scripts described in the book, as well as additional tuning scripts that can help monitor and improve performance at your site.


The brain is a fearsomely complex information-processing environment--one that often eludes our ability to understand it. At any given time, the brain is collecting, filtering, and analyzing information and, in response, performing countless intricate processes, some of which are automatic, some voluntary, some conscious, and some unconscious. Cognitive neuroscience is one of the ways we have to understand the workings of our minds. It's the study of the brain biology behind our mental functions: a collection of methods--like brain scanning and computational modeling--combined with a way of looking at psychological phenomena and discovering where, why, and how the brain makes them happen. Want to know more? Mind Hacks is a collection of probes into the moment-by-moment works of the brain. Using cognitive neuroscience, these experiments, tricks, and tips related to vision, motor skills, attention, cognition, subliminal perception, and more throw light on how the human brain works. Each hack examines specific operations of the brain. By seeing how the brain responds, we pick up clues about the architecture and design of the brain, learning a little bit more about how the brain is put together. Mind Hacks begins your exploration of the mind with a look inside the brain itself, using hacks such as "Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Turn On and Off Bits of the Brain" and "Tour the Cortex and the Four Lobes." Also among the 100 hacks in this book, you'll find: Release Eye Fixations for Faster ReactionsSee Movement When All is StillFeel the Presence and Loss of AttentionDetect Sounds on the Margins of CertaintyMold Your Body SchemaTest Your HandednessSee a Person in Moving LightsMake Events Understandable as Cause-and-EffectBoost Memory by Using ContextUnderstand Detail and the Limits of Attention Steven Johnson, author of "Mind Wide Open" writes in his foreword to the book, "These hacks amaze because they reveal the brain's hidden logic; they shed light on the cheats and shortcuts and latent assumptions our brains make about the world." If you want to know more about what's going on in your head, then Mind Hacks is the key--let yourself play with the interface between you and the world.


The jurisprudence of the Third Amendment, which limits the quartering of troops in private homes, effectively consists of just one case: Engblom v. Carey. But what a case! In addition to showcasing an unjustly neglected corner of our constitutional heritage, Engblom demonstrates the troubling effects of a dubious legal doctrine: governmental immunity. Though the court of appeals had held New York officials potentially liable for violating the Third Amendment when they had quartered National Guard troops in the dormitory rooms of striking prison guards, the lower court on remand in Engblom denied the plaintiffs a remedy. Why? Because throughout the United States, all levels of government — federal, state, and local — enjoy immunity from civil lawsuits. Courts have moreover extended this privilege from sovereigns to their officials; hence Engblom's refusal to hold New York officials liable for violating the Third Amendment and various common law rights. Few people today worry about the quartering of troops. More people should worry, though, about governmental immunity. Inspired by the sort of royal privileges that the Constitution expressly rejects, and invented by public officials all too eager to exempt themselves from ordinary civil liability, governmental immunity can claim neither an honorable pedigree nor very convincing policy justifications. Like brown M&Ms backstage at a Van Halen concert, the Engblom court's refusal to remedy violations of the Third Amendment signals a more serious problem: The doctrine of governmental immunity leaves the victims of wrongdoing by sovereigns and their officials without judicial relief. We would do better to treat the government the way that the common law treats private communities, relying on independent third parties to adjudicate disputes and holding both the community and its agents liable for their wrongs. Englom v. Carey, 677 F.2d 957,957 (2d Cir. 1982).


Roads, and means of transport, make a crucial contribution to economic development and growth and bring important social benefits. Poorly maintained roads constrain mobility, significantly raise vehicle operating costs, increase accident rates and their associated human and property costs, and aggravate isolation, poverty, poor health, and illiteracy in rural communities. This Note highlights the economic and social importance of regular road maintenance and recommends ways to achieve sustainable road maintenance with scarce public resources. Its audience is not specialists but rather people who need to understand road maintenance enough to discharge their responsibilities effectively: government policy-makers, mayors, ministry staff, new World Bank staff and staff in sectors such as rural development and social funds. The reference section offers sources providing more detailed information.


Organization of the actin cytoskeleton at focal adhesions is regulated though protein complexes that include the small guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) Cdc42 and Rac. Such Rho-family GTPases control activity of the p21-activated protein kinase (PAK). Activity of PAK is thought to be regulated in part by its localization to focal adhesions through interaction with the protein PIX (PAK-interacting exchange factor). An obvious regulatory mechanism is, thus, that activation of Cdc42 and Rac1 by PIX could stimulate PAK activity. Although this remains possible, Loo et al. show that there is more to regulation of PAK in such complexes. PIX is anchored to focal adhesions by another protein known as GIT1 (G protein-coupled receptor kinase-interacting target 1). Analysis of the properties of mutant proteins expressed in cultured mammalian cells showed that PAK could be activated without interaction with the small GTPases. Instead, overexpression of GIT1 caused activation. GIT1 is itself a GTPase-activating protein (GAP), and the GAO domain of GIT1, but not its GAP activity, was required to activate PAK. In vitro studies of PAK showed that increasing the concentration of immobilized PAK could cause activation of its kinase activity, thus providing a potential mechanism by which PIX and GIT1 may regulate PAK activity independently of the Rho GTPases. T.-H. Loo, Y.-W. Ng, L. Lim, E. Manser, GIT1 activates p21-activated kinase through a mechanism independent of p21 binding. Mol. Cell. Biol. 24, 3849-3859 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


As composites are introduced into more complex structures with out-of-plane loadings, a better understanding is needed of the out-of-plane, matrix-dominated failure mechanisms. This work investigates the transverse tension fatigue characteristics of IM6/3501 composite materials. To test the 90° laminae, a three-point bend test was chosen, potentially minimizing handling and gripping issues associated with tension tests. Static testing of 50 specimens of nine different-sized configurations produced a mean transverse tensile strength of 61.3 MPa (8.0 ksi). The smallest configuration (10.2 mm wide, span-to-thickness ratio of 3) consistently exhibited transverse tensile failures. A volume scale effect was difficult to discern due to the large scatter of the data. Static testing of 10 different specimens taken from a second panel produced a mean transverse tensile strength of 82.7 MPa (12.0 ksi). Weibull parameterization of the data was possible, but due to variability in raw material and/or manufacturing, more replicates are needed for greater confidence. Three-point flex fatigue testing of the smallest configuration was performed on 59 specimens at various levels of the mean static transverse tensile strength using predominantly an R ratio of 0.1 and a frequency of 20 Hz. A great deal of scatter was seen in the data. The majority of specimens failed near the center loading roller. To determine whether the scatter in the fatigue data is due to variability in raw material and/or the manufacturing process, additional testing should be performed on panels manufactured from different sources.


The past two decades have seen a wealth of papers on policy diffusion and policy transfer. In the first half, this paper reviews some of the trends in the literature by looking backwards to the political science diffusion literature, and forwards to the expanding multi-disciplinary social science literatures on policy 'learning', 'mobilities' and 'translation' which qualify many of the rationalist assumptions of the early diffusion/transfer literatures. These studies stress the complexity of context that modifies exports of policy and the need for interpretation or experimentalism in the assemblage of policy. The second half of the paper focuses on role of international organisations and non-state actors in transnational transfer in the spread of norms, standard setting and development of professional communities or networks that promote harmonisation and policy coordination. The 'soft' transfer of ideas and information via networks whether they be personal, professional or electronic is rapid and frequent. It is rather more infrequent to see such ideas structure governance and become institutionalised. Knowledge transfer is more extensive than policy transfer.


Capstone design courses are an increasingly common component of engineering curricula nationwide, but how much do we really know about the current practices? How do capstone courses differ across departments and institutions? How have capstone courses changed in the past 10 years? This paper highlights data from a survey of engineering capstone design courses conducted in 2005, based on responses from 444 programs at 232 institutions. Particular focus areas include respondent profile, course/project logistics, faculty involvement, funding details, industry sponsorship, and success. The 2005 data are also compared with results from the comparable survey by Todd and Magleby et al. in 1994 (Journal of Engineering Education, April 1995), thus providing both a snapshot of recent practices plus an indication of trends over the past decade.


Streetwise is devoted exclusively to business topics. From writing business plans, to financing, to building Web site traffic, these books provide everything ambitious business professionals need. Business happens in the real world, not the classroom. Streetwise recognises this and delivers the goods - fast. No fluff. No wasted time. Just cutting-edge information managers and small business entrepreneurs need to run their business successfully.


Terrorist destructions of art and antiquities could be the result of extreme Salafist ideology, with contextual and strategic concerns ancillary in the targeting process. Previously, politico-military, theological, and economic approaches were used to explain terrorists targeting cultural property. This article examined the ideological and historical context, and explores the strategic appeal for terrorists targeting heritage. The four case studies include the Islamic Group's attack on the Temple of Hatshepsut, Al Qaeda's bombing of the Askariya Shrine, Ansar Dine's assault on Timbuktu, and the Islamic State's partial destruction of Palmyra. Findings suggest that jihadists are engaging in a subconscious reconquest of the contemporary Salafi identity, through opportunistic (yet deliberate) dominance performances. These performances take advantage of the strategic appeal of heritage sites, while sending symbolically loaded messages to target audiences. Through re-enacting the Abrahamic rejection of idols, jihadists reimagine and propagate themselves as heirs to ancient conquest traditions. This tradition–involving the rejection, defacement, and destruction of works of art and antiquities–is rooted in a chaotic attempt at reconstructing identity. To that end, art works and antiquities are being targeted by jihadists who are engaged in reimagining the highly idealised, Al Wala jihadi, and benefiting from the subsequent influence and attention.


Abstract Background Driving performance is influenced by human, vehicular, and environmental factors. Objectives To investigate the effects of distraction tasks, such as sending a text message (STM) and searching a navigation device (SN), on the driving performance of experienced taxi drivers. Methods Twelve male taxi drivers (age: 56.3 ± 4.4 y; experience: 28.4 ± 6.4 y) and 14 female taxi drivers (age: 55.5 ± 3.5 y; experience: 19.4 ± 5.0 y) drove in a simulator at a constant speed (90 km/h) for 2 min while maintaining a gap of 30 m from the car in front, also traveling at 90 km/h. Participants were instructed to drive only for the first 1 min (control phase). For an additional 1 min (task phase), they were instructed to drive only, drive + STM, or drive + SN. Results Compared with driving only, during driving + STM or driving + SN, the drivers' skin conductance level was relatively increased, suggesting that the distraction task increased the drivers' workload and sympathetic nervous system activity. Compared with driving only, during driving + STM or driving + SN, the average distance from the car in front, speed deviation, and anterior–posterior and medial–lateral coefficients of variation increased, suggesting that maintaining the instructed gap and speed, and the longitudinal and transverse control of the car, was more difficult because of the distraction task. Conclusions Even for highly experienced taxi drivers, distraction tasks increased workload, increased the difficulty of vehicle control, and detracted from safe driving.


A major aim initially was to create a forum for reflective dialogue on the preschool professions and how it is experienced on a daily basis, so as to be able to investigate how members of the preschool staff construct their professional subject. The following are major questions that were posed: How do preschool staff members talk about themselves, their profession and their work? In what way does reflective discussion contribute to the construction of a professional subject? The basic method adopted was that of participatory research. The specific methods employed included those of thematically structured depth interviews, dialogue conferences and a research circle. Participants were found to construct the subject matter of their profession in part on the basis of their working-class and lower middle-class background. The fact that they were women working in a profession dominated by women also influenced their conception of themselves as professionals. There was a more or less hidden professional hierarchy within the preschool concerning preschool teachers versus child minders. The discussions dealt in particular with pedagogical matters, childcare, professionalism and individuality. Participants showed their acceptance of various norms and values readily associated with subordination. The duality of their situation became evident when they discussed such matters as caring for children and teaching, as well as their simply performing their duties versus having a sense of achievement. It became evident how their location between the public and the private spheres influences preschool staffs? construction of the subject matter of their profession. There was also an obvious duality between their professional position and the position of others when they viewed themselves in relation to colleagues, children, parents and the school system generally. Although they regarded themselves as authorities in certain contexts, in other situations they identified themselves with groups they considered to be in a subordinate position. It was from this latter perspective that they tended to criticize prevailing norms, public authorities and the educational system. The project revealed a clear potential for change and emancipation and the importance of hope and of creating meaning. The discussions appeared to contribute to the development of new and differing perspectives of participants regarding their professional and private identities. In addition, they overcame polarization and the adherence to inflexible positions, as well as to develop and apply knowledge of various types. A demystification of power structures and an increased insight into pedagogical processes and the capabilities of the individual could also be noted. (Less)


Workers who use computers earn more than those who do not. Is this a productivity effect or merely selection? Using the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey, we control for selection and find a wage premium of 3.8% for the average worker upon adopting a computer. This premium, however, obscures important differences in returns to computer adoption across education and occupation groups. We find that long-run returns to computer use are over 5% for most workers. Differences between short-run and long-run returns may suggest that workers share training costs through sacrificed wages.


Soils contain various metals in style of inorganic compounds or they will stay secure with organic matter, clays or as oxides. The spreading of urban waste and waste sludge in agricultural fields has been a standard apply since decades. The focus was to work out analysis and compare the heavy metals concentration level in 2 elite vegetables (chilies and potatoes) at ten numerous vegetable study areas in Indore in Madhya Pradesh (India). Results of heavy metal determination in elite vegetables and the corresponding soil samples of pot experiments disclosed a transparent dependence on the concentrations of metals more to the pots. Correlation reflects that the uptake trend is close to same because of solutions were more in increasing metal concentrations. Percent uptake of various metals from soil to the plant components additionally show that the pots wherever p.c uptake was higher, were at risk of uptake of that metal and even a smaller increase in level of these metals in soil will cause abundant higher uptake. The physiochemical conditions of soil also are of nice concern for the uptake of heavy metals by the plants.


The Eighteen-Village Vattimas are a Tamil Brahman subcaste. They were formerly rural landlords, but today they mostly belong to the urban middle class. In recent decades, the Vattimas' marriage system has changed markedly. Child marriage has ended and the age of marriage has since risen further. Close-kin marriage is no longer preferred, although subcaste endogamy remains the norm. Nevertheless, the education and employment of individuals, and their personal compatibility, have now become crucial criteria, and young men and women are involved in arranging their own marriages. Among the Vattimas (like other Indians), a form of arranged, endogamous companionate marriage has now developed, which plays a fundamental role in reproducing both caste and the middle class in contemporary India.


CONTEXT: Although practice guidelines suggest that primary care providers working with children and adolescents incorporate BMI surveillance and counseling into routine practice, the evidence base for this practice is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of brief, primary care interventions for pediatric weight management on BMI. DATA SOURCES: Medline, CENTRAL, Embase, PsycInfo, and CINAHL were searched for relevant publications from January 1976 to March 2016 and cross-referenced with published studies. STUDY SELECTION: Eligible studies were randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies that compared the effect of office-based primary care weight management interventions to any control intervention on percent BMI or BMI z scores in children aged 2 to 18 years. DATA EXTRACTION: Two reviewers independently screened sources, extracted data on participant, intervention, and study characteristics, z-BMI/percent BMI, harms, and study quality using the Cochrane and Newcastle-Ottawa risk of bias tools. RESULTS: A random effects model was used to pool the effect size across eligible 10 randomized controlled trials and 2 quasi-experimental studies. Compared with usual care or control treatment, brief interventions feasible for primary care were associated with a significant but small reduction in BMI z score (–0.04, [95% confidence interval, –0.08 to –0.01]; P = .02) and a nonsignificant effect on body satisfaction (standardized mean difference 0.00, [95% confidence interval, –0.21 to 0.22]; P = .98). LIMITATIONS: Studies had methodological limitations, follow-up was brief, and adverse effects were not commonly measured. CONCLUSIONS: BMI surveillance and counseling has a marginal effect on BMI, highlighting the need for revised practice guidelines and the development of novel approaches for providers to address this problem.


The European Union has issued a directive initiative on gender quotas to increase the proportion of the under-represented sex among non-executive directors of large companies listed on stock exchanges and related measures. The article critically discusses the impacts of quotas, which despite of the proposals relating to better performance, fundamentally are highly equality driven ignoring the purpose of corporations as entities that seek for long-term, monetary value through investing in skills and knowledge. This article suggests that by identifying professional managerial elites in listed companies' governance organs and paying attention to their importance as the contributors of company value, male dominance in economic decision-making can be explained. The argumentation is based on the data collected from thirty-six Finnish listed companies. The findings support the presumption of governance organs as groups of competence.


In this paper, i am developing a unique optimization based real time inland load management algorithm that takes into account load ambiguity in order to minimize the energy payment for each residential user, as well as reduce the peak to average ratio to overcome the drawbacks in the stability of electrical grid. By categorizing the all residential load in different classes, i.e. must run, interruptible and uninterruptible appliances, i used the real time pricing scheme for load management. However, real time pricing creates the peak profiles when the energy demand is too high, that's why i used the combination of real time pricing and inclining blocks rates model to improve the grid stability by reducing the peak to average ratio. A simulation results show that the proposed algorithm efficiently and effectively reduced the overall residential energy cost as well as peak to average ratio of our model for data provided.


here right-hand corner of the article or click Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article-sign up in the box at the top Ecological systems with threshold behaviour show drastic shifts in population abundance or species diversity in response to small variation in critical parameters. Examples of threshold behaviour arise in resource competition theory, epidemiological theory and environmentally driven population dynamics, to name a few. Although expected from theory, thresholds may be difficult to detect in real datasets due to stochasticity, finite population size and confounding effects that soften the observed shifts and introduce variability in the data. Here, we propose a modelling framework for threshold responses to environmental drivers that allows for a flexible treatment of the transition between regimes, including variation in the sharpness of the transition and the variance of the response. The model assumes two underlying stochastic processes whose mixture determines the system's response. For environmentally driven systems, the mixture is a function of an environmental covariate and the response may exhibit strong nonlinearity. When applied to two datasets for water-borne diseases, the model was able to capture the effect of rainfall on the mean number of cases as well as the variance. A quantitative description of this kind of threshold behaviour is of more general application to predict the response of ecosystems and human health to climate change.


This study conducted to find out the information seeking pattern and determine the major resources of information major source of information satisfying the needs of Indian and foreign tourists with special preference to tourist visitors of Kovalam tourist region, Trivandrum district of Kerala state. Questionnaire methodology adopted for data collection. The sample population is the tourist visitors of Kovalam tourist region in the period of Jan 2012 to Dec 2013.Results shows that Online searching are the major method used for seeking and collecting information for Indian and foreign tourists but tourist guides the major source of collecting reliable information for both Indian and foreign tourists.


The photon stream method is used to derive the optical force on a pair of concentric spheres in a focused beam. The effects of the differences in refractive index and relative size between the inner and outer spheres on the optical force are evaluated. In addition, the effects of total internal reflection at the interface between the inner and outer spheres are examined. Computational results are compared with previous findings. The present method can be applied to arbitrary intensity distributions of the laser beam.


Abstract What should be the role of law in response to the spread of artificial intelligence in war? Fuelled by both public and private investment, military technology is accelerating towards increasingly autonomous weapons, as well as the merging of humans and machines. Contrary to much of the contemporary debate, this is not a paradigm change; it is the intensification of a central feature in the relationship between technology and war: double elevation, above one's enemy and above oneself. Elevation above one's enemy aspires to spatial, moral, and civilizational distance. Elevation above oneself reflects a belief in rational improvement that sees humanity as the cause of inhumanity and de-humanization as our best chance for humanization. The distance of double elevation is served by the mechanization of judgement. To the extent that judgement is seen as reducible to algorithm, law becomes the handmaiden of mechanization. In response, neither a focus on questions of compatibility nor a call for a 'ban on killer robots' help in articulating a meaningful role for law. Instead, I argue that we should turn to a long-standing philosophical critique of artificial intelligence, which highlights not the threat of omniscience, but that of impoverished intelligence. Therefore, if there is to be a meaningful role for law in resisting double elevation, it should be law encompassing subjectivity, emotion and imagination, law irreducible to algorithm, a law of war that appreciates situated judgement in the wielding of violence for the collective.


This chapter pursues three aims: First, I propose three different roles that hope can play in political philosophy—one instrumental, one constitutive, and the other justificatory. I then examine three major approaches to political hope, exemplified by Bloch, Rorty, and contemporary liberal authors in order to distinguish three approaches to the justificatory question. I argue that they make opposite mistakes with regard to the importance of hope. Whereas Bloch solves the problem of justification by introducing a metaphysics to support hope, thereby adopting an overambitious concept of hope, Rorty and contemporary liberals assign it too small a role. Based on this discussion, I then argue for my own proposal; the view that, while ethical pluralism rules out any expectation that we can achieve more ambitious forms of community than political liberalism seems to allow, the requirements of justice may still require us to hope for the emergence of such forms of community.


Abstract
This thesis is an historical account of the development and dissemination of birth control knowledge in Scotland in the twentieth century up to 1975.
The question posed is, given that Scotland in the twenty-first century has a higher rate of teenage pregnancies than most of Western Europe despite there being no restriction on the ability to access contraceptive advice, was advice always so readily available and if so from whom ?
Post 1870 there was a pan European fertility decline which was mirrored in Scotland some forty years later. The debate amongst demographers and social historians is thus as to the causes of this fertility decline. Religion being cast as the impediment to the early development of the fertility decline ensured that an examination of the Roman Catholic versus Scottish Protestant views on birth control be explored.
Historical accounts have considered that the desire for contraceptive advice was a phenomenon of the early years of the twentieth century and that letters to Marie Stopes were the first interactions between the general public and those competent to offer advice. However, the historical record shows that from the early years of the nineteenth century members of the public sought information on methods of birth control by writing to journals, a pattern that continued throughout the period covered by this thesis.
Scotland remains distinctive from other parts of the UK by virtue of its separate legal system, both civil and criminal, its separate Church history with the parish church and state having been virtually one and the same and the rural parish church being a precursor of the local authorities. The employees of the local government authorities, the Medical Officers of Health were responsible, in agreement with their political masters of whatever hue, for the policies in relation to health and welfare adopted in a particular locality; in this case birth control advice. The administrative devolution of central government has meant that successive Scottish Secretaries of State have been able to obfuscate and hinder developments in Scotland which would have facilitated widespread dissemination of birth control advice and of course the fact that the NHS Acts in Scotland and England and Wales are distinct has ensured that legislative change has been delayed.
The thesis draws upon medical and scientific journals and contemporary literature to set the scene by explicating the developments in the understanding of sexuality and reproductive physiology, a necessary precursor to the developments later in the twentieth century of the oral contraceptive pill and the impact that this preparation had on society, removing the procreative function of sexual intercourse from the hedonic. Thus freeing women from 'the burden of pregnancy' should they wish it, should it be available, from whom and at what cost. The politicians having debated from the 1930s to the 1970s the subject of contraceptive advice being available only to married women and initially, only available to those for whom a further pregnancy would be hazardous.
Oral history testimony has been taken, and used to inform the discussion, from retired health care professionals, family planning nurses, GPs, family planning doctors, pharmacists and obstetricians as well as patients and retired clergymen who were involved in prescribing, dispensing, researching methods of contraception or in the case of the patients at the receiving end of the wisdom or ignorance of the professionals and of course in the case of the clergy advising on the moral questions in relation to the practice of birth control.
In Glasgow, poor housing and social conditions, grassroots' feminism and working class women were instrumental in establishing the first birth control clinics whereas in Edinburgh the Cooperative Women's Guild organised public meetings to raise the issue and call on government to allow maternity centres to provide guidance and instruction in birth control to married women. In Aberdeen it was wealthy philanthropic women who promoted birth control ideals and facilitated the first birth control clinic in the north of Scotland. The issue however was politically sensitive, especially in the west of Scotland, as the Labour Party needed to secure the votes of the Roman Catholic Population.
The medical profession were not at the forefront of providing this advice in part due to ignorance but also lack of interest and also not wishing to be seen as promoting immorality and offending the Church, a powerful body in Scotland. The Protestant and Catholic Churches in Scotland had an alliance condemning all acts of birth control until the 1930s when the clamour from the public forced politicians, heretofore virtually absent from the debate, to confirm what was and was not available at government expense. That guidance, similar to that offered in England, was not available to the public in Scotland as evidenced by contemporary accounts in the National Records of Scotland, merely highlights the differing attitudes of politicians in Scotland who at a local and national level were ever mindful not to risk offending the Roman Catholic Church's teachings or risk suffering at the ballot box.
Teaching of birth control techniques was absent from most medical schools in Scotland although Edinburgh University appointed a lecturer in family planning in 1946. Thus most young practitioners from Scottish medical schools remained ignorant and unable to help their patients even if willing to do so. Despite the Royal Commission on Population of 1949 recommending that advice on contraception to married persons be available, as part of the National Health Service, it was to take nearly another thirty years before contraceptive advice to all who wished it were freely available. In the intervening years the medical profession, although reluctant to become involved, had accepted initially that they could charge a fee for this private service and later that item of service payments for providing contraceptive advice was acceptable, although interviewees conceded that in many cases general practitioners were untrained to provide this service.
This account of the history of the dissemination of birth control advice shows how the medical profession, initially uninterested in this subject, became, as reproductive physiology was better understood and with developments of hormonal manipulation of the menstrual cycle, to embrace contraception as a legitimate topic on which to provide advice to patients. The notion, of course, of general medical practitioners having responsibility for a group of patients unless as private practitioners was only apparent after the inception of the NHS.


At least some long-term in vitro-cultured cytotoxic T cell clones and uncloned cell populations are able, in the presence of Con A, to lyse other cells, to be lysed by other cells, but not to lyse themselves. This as-yet-unexplained result may have implications as to the mechanism of T cell-mediated cytotoxicity.


Ovarian cancer is a lethal gynaecological malignancy which is known as the silent killer. It has a poor prognosis due to the lack of major symptoms in early stage disease and hence its late detection. Cancer antigen-125, the most widely used biomarker for ovarian cancer detection, lacks appropriate sensitivity and specificity.
Thus, early biomarkers of the disease are urgently required. Proteomic analysis of human serum promises to be a valuable approach for the discovery of putative biomarkers for human malignancies like ovarian cancer, which could be developed into non-invasive blood tests. In this study, serum samples from a pilot study for ovarian cancer screening which were collected prior to diagnosis were processed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Research Centre, in collaboration with Prof. Tempst's group, who had developed a novel mass spectrometry (MS)-based technology platform for the high-throughput extraction and measurement of serum peptides. Several marker peaks were identified, which when used in combination with the ovarian cancer biomarker CA-125, assisted in the discrimination of case versus
healthy samples at an earlier point prior to diagnosis. Work then involved the establishment and optimisation of a similar serum profiling platform at UCL. This involved the optimisation of a liquid-handling robot to provide semi-automated high- throughput sample purification and spotting, and optimisation of spectral acquisition and processing. The reproducibility of the platform was tested and the effects of different sample handling conditions on peptide profiles examined. The method was then used to search for putative markers of ovarian cancer, using identically processed samples from women diagnosed with malignant or benign ovarian cancer and healthy controls. Finally, as a complementary approach to discover protein biomarkers, the same samples were profiled using 2D Difference Gel Electrophoresis, employing different fractionation strategies to overcome the very large dynamic range of protein expression in serum. Mass spectrometry was used to identify several previously reported and some novel putative biomarkers of ovarian cancer, which warrant further validation.


It has recently been suggested that the tidal deformation of a neutron star excites daughter p- and g-modes to large amplitudes via a quasi-static instability. This would remove energy from the tidal bulge, resulting in dissipation and possibly affecting the phase evolution of inspiralling binary neutron stars and hence the extraction of binary parameters from gravitational wave observations. This instability appears to arise because of a large three-mode interaction among the tidal mode and high-order p- and g-modes of similar radial wavenumber. We show that additional four-mode interactions enter into the analysis at the same order as the three-mode terms previously considered. We compute these four-mode couplings by finding a volume-preserving coordinate transformation that relates the energy of a tidally deformed star to that of a radially perturbed spherical star. Using this method, we relate the four-mode coupling to three-mode couplings and show that there is a near-exact cancellation between the destabilizing effect of the three-mode interactions and the stabilizing effect of the four-mode interaction. We then show that the equilibrium tide is stable against the quasi-static decay into daughter p- and g-modes to leading order. The leading deviation from the quasi-static approximation due to orbital motion of the binary is considered; while it may slightly spoil the near-cancellation, any resulting instability timescale is at least of order the gravitational wave inspiral time. We conclude that the p-/g-mode coupling does not lead to a quasi-static instability, and does not impact the phase evolution of gravitational waves from binary neutron stars.


Medicinal plants have been used as therapeutic drug throughout the world. But, a very few of them have been scientifically validated. Samanea Saman belongs to the Leguminosae family commonly known as rain tree and is native to tropical America. S.saman tree has different parts like a leaf, fruits, pods, seeds, and wood. S.saman is currently studied for the production of biogas which is easily obtained in the urban and rural areas. S.saman has been used in traditional medicine as a remedy for the treatment of different diseases. The phytochemical screening of the plant revealed the presence of alkaloids–C8H17ON and C17H36ON3 pithecolobine and saponin (samarin). Natural products are mainly derived from medicinal plants, which are tested in vitro and in vivo models and used to investigate the mechanism of action of drugs with potential biological properties. Additionally, S.saman were recommended as the suitable tree for planting in the urban environment as this species can reduce the outdoor temperature for all types of ground covers. This review is mainly focused on antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-diabetic potential, insecticidal, antifungal, analgesic, anti-ulcer and cytotoxic activities. However, this study helps to develop new strategies for the designing of novel drugs to treat various diseases related to human race.


One-stationary bistatic side-looking synthetic aperture radar (OS-BiSAR) data are more challenging to process than the translational azimuth-invariant bistatic counterparts because 2-D spatial variances exist in OS-BiSAR. To overcome the problem, extended-keystone-transform (EKT)-nonlinear-chirp-scaling (NLCS) imaging algorithm is proposed in this letter. The key steps of the proposed algorithm are deducing the twice EKTs to deal with the 2-D spatial variance of range cell migrations and equalizing the 2-D spatial variant Doppler FM rates by using the associative NLCS. As a result, raw data of OS-BiSAR can be well focused even with the 2-D spatial variances. The simulations given at the end of this letter verify the effectiveness of this imaging algorithm.


Based on field research in Greek Thrace, this essay examines the problem of deception in psychiatric care, in the context of national psychiatric reform. Over the last 25 years, psychiatric treatment in Greece has shifted from custodial hospitals to outpatient settings, challenging the mentally ill to help care for themselves as they adapt to life "in the community." I explore the consequent reworking of therapeutic relationships outside custodial institutions through verbal negotiation, as against methods of confinement and constraint associated with inhumane institutional care. I argue that an ambivalent intimacy is fostered in these relationships by suspicions of deceit, which speak as well to a problem of knowledge in contemporary psychiatry globally. Working through the case of a Gypsy outpatient diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, whose life ended in a drug overdose, I trace suspicions of deceit across multiple terrains: from (neo)liberal reform, to clinical diagnosis, to constructions of minority culture. On these terrains, I do not attempt to determine the truth of speech in the clinic, but to discern the dynamics of suspicion through which that truth comes into question. Rather than clear refusals of responsibility, I show suspicions of deception in community-based care as refractions of psychiatric reform through a constitutive opacity in intimate ethical relations between patients and therapists.


The quantification of the UV characteristics of smoke aerosols is valuable to UV Index forecasting, air quality studies, air chemistry studies, and assessments of the impacts on regional and global environmental changes. The wavelength dependence of the light absorption by smoke aerosol has been researched throughout the UV and visible spectral region and varies with fire type and aerosol composition. An objective of this study is to investigate the spectral optical properties (eg, extinction coefficient, single-scattering albedo, and asymmetry parameter), UV actinic fluxes, and radiative forcing of smoke of different fire regimes. The smoke aerosol information (eg, simulated smoke fields from biomass burning emission and vertical distribution of the mass concentration of smoke components) from WRF-Chem is used to distinguish 2 smoke types: flaming and smoldering. To compute the spectral optical properties for the fire regimes, the representative size distribution and spectral refractive index have been implemented into the Mie code, and the optical properties are used to run the tropospheric ultraviolet and visible radiative transfer model. We make comparisons between simulated model and measured actinic flux in the UV and visible spectra under smoke aerosol laden conditions. The WRF-Chem-SMOKE model simulates the smoke plume matched with fire locations and comparable aerosol optical depth (AOD) with satellite measurements. However, the correlation between the simulated and observed AOD is small, which implies that adjusting the fire size for the emission inputs and improving meteorological fields are required for further research. The smoke at selected locations reduces the UV actinic flux and increases the visible actinic flux above the plume at small solar zenith angles. The specific spectral response is dependent on the smoke type. Overall, the results of this investigation show that this approach is valuable to estimate the impact of smoke on UV and visible radiative fluxes.


While there has been decades of work on developing automatic, locality-enhancing transformations for regular programs that operate over dense matrices and arrays, there has been little investigation of such transformations for irregular programs, which operate over pointer-based data structures such as graphs, trees and lists. In this paper, we argue that, for a class of irregular applications we call traversal codes, there exists substantial data reuse and hence opportunity for locality exploitation. We develop a novel optimization called point blocking, inspired by the classic tiling loop transformation, and show that it can substantially enhance temporal locality in traversal codes. We then present a transformation and optimization framework called TreeTiler that automatically detects opportunities for applying point blocking and applies the transformation. TreeTiler uses autotuning techniques to determine appropriate parameters for the transformation. For a series of traversal algorithms drawn from real-world applications, we show that TreeTiler is able to deliver performance improvements of up to 245% over an optimized (but non-transformed) parallel baseline, and in several cases, significantly better scalability.


This thesis seeks to provide a causal explanation of a new curriculum model (NCM) within a university college with a view to examining the changing nature of governance in higher education. Critical realist explanatory frameworks guide the structure of the thesis. Accordingly, the thesis first explores the 'efficient causes' behind the NCM, arguing that it evolved from within a broader political, economic, managerial and institutional relational network. This was to give rise to a series of significant structures and mechanisms leading to reforms in Higher Education including widening participation, decreased per capita funding, the centrality of economy and efficiency and a 'lifelong learning' agenda. This thesis also argues, using the theory of integrated institutionalism (Scott, 1995) that the legitimation of these new demands would be felt through one or more of coercive (through rules and sanctions), normative (through 'appropriateness') or mimetic (through reference to other organisations) means. Testing of the theorised demands and the nature of legitimation was undertaken through semistructured 'realist interviews' (Pawson and Tilley, 1997) with nine members of academic staff from the college. Analysis utilising NViv07 suggests perceived demands of 'changing mission', 'college demands', 'enforcement and monitoring', 'nature of the world' and 'student population'. There exists a high degree of confirmatory evidence for the theorised demands, most especially in terms of economy, efficiency, effectiveness, widening participation and the commodification of HE. The testing of the legitimation mechanisms suggests a high degree of coercion within governance of HE.


Abstract Post-eruptive lacustrine sediments that infill a Middle Eocene kimberlitic diatreme near Lac de Gras (Northwest Territories, Canada) have spectacular preservation of diatom microfossils. A single undiagnosed species belonging to the genus Aulacoseira is abundant in this material and reveals, in addition to the full complement of siliceous structures comprising the frustule, an array of soft parts that hitherto have been unavailable for study in diatoms of this age. These features include the velar complex, which lines the interior of valves, layered internal membranes, lamellate plastid fragments with pyrenoid-like inclusions, and extracellular mucilagenous bodies. Both ultrastructural and cytoplasmic characters have pronounced affinities with extant congeneric taxa, with an especially close resemblance to the resting cells observed in living Aulacoseira. These observations suggest that modern cellular organization and associated ecological adaptations were present early in the history of nonmarine aulacoseiroid diatoms, implying that prolonged evolutionary stasis has characterized the ecologically important genus Aulacoseira.


The severity of renal cystic disease in the major form of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (PKD1) is highly variable. Clinical data was analyzed from 324 mutation-characterized PKD1 patients (80 families) to document factors associated with the renal outcome. The mean age to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) was 54 yr, with no significant difference between men and women and no association with the angiotensin-converting enzyme polymorphism. Considerable intrafamilial variability was observed, reflecting the influences of genetic modifiers and environmental factors. However, significant differences in outcome were also found among families, with rare examples of unusually late-onset PKD1. Possible phenotype/genotype correlations were evaluated by estimating the effects of covariants on the time to ESRD using proportional hazards models. In the total population, the location of the mutation (in relation to the median position; nucleotide 7812), but not the type, was associated with the age at onset of ESRD. Patients with mutations in the 5' region had significantly more severe disease than the 3' group; median time to ESRD was 53 and 56 yr, respectively (P = 0.025), with less than half the chance of adequate renal function at 60 yr (18.9% and 39.7%, respectively). This study has shown that the position of the PKD1 mutation is significantly associated with earlier ESRD and questions whether PKD1 mutations simply inactivate all products of the gene.


Platinum-based chemotherapy as first-line treatment for lung cancers encounters insufficient selectivity, severe side effects and drug resistance in clinics. In this study, we developed an amphiphilic prodrug of cisplatin-poly(ethylene glycol)-block-polycaprolactone and demonstrated that the prodrug formed micellar nanoparticles, NPPt(IV), with an average diameter of ∼100 nm. NPPt(IV) released platinum in response to the intracellular acidic and reductive environment, and in turn induced significant anti-proliferative activity in lung cancer cells. More importantly, NPPt(IV) exhibited a prominent inhibitory effect on CD133+ lung cancer stem cells (CSCs) and suppressed tumor growth in vivo. Unlike cisplatin treatment which eventually enriches CSCs, NPPt(IV) treatment prevents the accumulation of CD133+ lung CSCs in tumors. Therefore, NPPt(IV) simutaneously targeting CSCs and non-CSCs might represent a superior strategy to improve conventional anticancer therapy directed predominantly to tumor bulk populations.


Wild Tigers in Captivity: A Study of the Effects of the Captive Environment on Tiger Behavior Leigh Elizabeth Pitsko Humans maintain wild animals in zoological parks for the purposes of education, conservation, research, and recreation. However, abnormal behaviors may develop in animals housed in human-made environments, if those environments do not allow them to carry out their natural behaviors (such as swimming, climbing, stalking, and predation). Captive environments in zoological parks often do not provide for natural behaviors due to spatial constraints and negative public reaction. Tigers (Panthera tigris) present a difficult case; they have large home ranges in the wild and natural predatory hunting behaviors that are difficult to provide for in captivity. As the numbers of wild tigers decline, captive breeding programs have become a major focus of the zoo community, which magnifies the importance of research on tiger husbandry. A body of research exists on small felids, but little, if any, has focused on tigers. This thesis presents an analysis of the effects of the captive environment on the behaviors of 18 captive Bengal and Siberian tigers in four zoological parks in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Certain animal characteristics (such as subspecies, and age) were also related to behavior. Several characteristics of the captive environment had statistically significant effects on stereotypic and exploratory behaviors of tigers: shade availability, the presence of a body of water, cage size, the presence of a conspecific, vegetation, environmental enrichment, and substrate type. There were significant differences in the behaviors of the two subspecies studied, but the reason for the differences are unclear. The results of this study showed clearly that tigers kept in more natural and complex enclosures performed less stereotypic pacing (unnatural behavior), and more exploratory (natural) behaviors than those housed in less natural enclosures. Reducing the stress level in captive tigers will enhance the animals' overall physical and psychological well being, which will in turn increase the success of captive breeding programs. These results suggest that captive tigers should be housed in large enclosures containing natural substrate and vegetation, water pools, ample shade, a variety of resting locations, and a variety of enrichment items.


Laparoscopic adrenalectomy in benign disease Introduction: Nowadays the laparoscopic approach is the procedure of choice in adrenal diseases, except malignant adrenal tumors. Methods: A descriptive and retrospective study of the first 55 cases of laparoscopic adrenalectomy performed in our hospital between 1998 and 2011, we reviewed the short and long term results. Results: We had one case of conversion to open surgery in a patient with accidental section of the right renal vein. One case of reoperation due to hepatic injury. One case of postoperative mortality in a 71 year old woman with high anesthetic risk operated for Cushings syndrome. Other complications were a case of hydropneumothorax and three cases of abdominal wall hematoma in site of laparoscopic trocar. In the follow up at 45 months all the patients remain asymptomatic, except one with ectopic Cushings syndro- me due to bronchial carcinoid. Conclusions: Laparoscopic adrenalectomy has good results and is an easily reproducible procedure, but must be performed by expert laparoscopic surgeons with a good knowledge of adrenal anatomy and experience in open surgery which allow them to solve the complications that may arise during the laparoscopic procedure.