Korpi, E. (2015). Addiction as an adaptation process in the brain, a view from neurobiology.  The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 4 (1), 91-94. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v4i1.194 Research on the brain mechanisms of dependence on alcohol and drugs of abuse has rapidly advanced during the last two decades. We know the main processes, especially how the drugs are acting on their targets on brain cells, but this basic knowledge has not been well translated to better therapies. Not surprisingly, neurobiological addiction research is tackling the same fundamental questions as all neuropsychiatric research. For example, what are the roles of individual neuronal populations in different phases of addiction (development, maintenance, craving and compulsion, abstinence and relapse)? For preclinical research, novel neurogenetic methods now show great promise to answer at least some of the questions, but more innovative work is required to build models and find mechanisms for social and environmental interactions in addiction and to translate the inventions to clinical therapies. Addiction as a disease concept still gives a proper framework for this line of important research.


We analyze the coordinate descent method with a new coordinate selection strategy, called volume sampling. This strategy prescribes selecting subsets of variables of certain size proportionally to the determinants of principal submatrices of the matrix, that bounds the curvature of the objective function. In the particular case, when the size of the subsets equals one, volume sampling coincides with the well-known strategy of sampling coordinates proportionally to their Lipschitz constants. For the coordinate descent with volume sampling, we establish the convergence rates both for convex and strongly convex problems. Our theoretical results show that, by increasing the size of the subsets, it is possible to accelerate the method up to the factor which depends on the spectral gap between the corresponding largest eigenvalues of the curvature matrix. Several numerical experiments confirm our theoretical conclusions.


Autosomal dominant Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy is caused by mutations in the LMNA gene, which encodes lamin A and lamin C. Mutations in this gene also give rise to limb girdle muscular dystrophy type 1B, dilated cardiomyopathy with atrioventricular conduction defect and Dunnigan-type partial lipodystrophy. The properties of the mutant lamins that cause muscular dystrophy, lipodystrophy and dilated cardiomyopathy are not known. We transfected C2C12 myoblasts with cDNA encoding wild-type lamin A and 15 mutant forms found in patients affected by these diseases. Immunofluorescence microscopy showed that four mutants, N195K, E358K, M371K and R386K, could have a dramatically aberrant localization, with decreased nuclear rim staining and formation of intranuclear foci. The distributions of endogenous lamin A/C, lamin B1 and lamin B2 were also altered in cells expressing these four mutants and three of them caused a loss of emerin from the nuclear envelope. In the yeast two-hybrid assay, the 15 lamin A mutants studied interacted with themselves and with wild-type lamin A and lamin B1. Pulse-chase experiments showed no decrease in the stability of several representative lamin A mutants compared with wild-type. These results indicate that some lamin A mutants causing disease can be aberrantly localized, partially disrupt the endogenous lamina and alter emerin localization, whereas others localize normally in transfected cells.


This article examines the feasibility of integrating five non-timber forest product (NTFP) species into field crop cultivation in eastern Nepal. Cost-benefit analyses including Net Present Value (NPV) and Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) show that all the NTFP species are more profitable than field crops. This profitability relationship holds true even under a sensitivity analysis assuming a 20% reduction in yield and/or fall in prices. However, despite the profitability, farmers do not readily integrate these species into their farmlands on a large scale. A regression analysis of constraining factors explored in a household survey revealed that domestication of NTFP species is significantly influenced by factors such as knowledge and skill required for domestication, frequency of visits to a forest, length of fallow period, size of upland terraces, cattle and goat herd size, accessibility of a forest, permit system, trading system, and market uncertainty. Overall, the unfavorable institutional environment has been the major factor constraining the integration of NTFP species into farmland. Policy recommendations include transferring management to local people such as changing the open-access status of national forests; providing NTFP collection permits to local residents; amending inappropriate policies; promoting group marketing; and taking an adaptive, collaborative approach to community forestry.


We measure temperature-dependent one-photon and two-photon induced photoluminescence from (CH3NH3)PbBr3 single crystals cleaved in ultrahigh vacuum. An approach is presented to extract absorption spectra from a comparison of both measurements. Cleaved crystals exhibit broad photoluminescence spectra. We identify the direct optical band gap of 2.31 eV. Below 200 K the band gap increases with temperature, and it decreases at elevated temperature, as described by the Bose-Einstein model. An excitonic transition is found 22 meV below the band gap at temperatures <200 K. Defect emission occurs at photon energies <2.16 eV. In addition, we observe a transition at 2.25 eV (2.22 eV) in the orthorhombic (tetragonal and cubic) phase. Below 200 K, the associated exciton binding energy is also 22 meV, and the transition redshifts at higher temperature. The binding energy of the exciton related to the direct band gap, in contrast, decreases in the cubic phase. High-energy emission from free carriers is observed with higher intensity than reported in earlier studies. It disappears after exposing the crystals to air.


This thesis focuses on a small, rural hamlet that was established in 1866 'at the foot' of Hervey Range in Far North Queensland. The hamlet was centred on the Range Hotel, but was also known to have had a small blacksmith shop and a cemetery. The hotel was one of five built alongside Hervey Range Road, which linked the newly gazetted port of Townsville to the inland supply town of Dalrymple and the gold, silver and tin mines of the hinterland. The research undertaken to investigate this settlement was constructed around four main questions: can archaeological evidence contribute to our understanding of the cultural landscape of the hamlet; the social role of the Range Hotel within the community; how women experienced and actively contributed to early settler life; and whether social respectability was important to the residents of a hamlet that was centred on the provision of alcohol.

Archival and genealogy research revealed three new families who had resided in the hamlet, identified some of the social interactions and events, or instances of community (Yaeger & Canuto, 2000), that occurred during each of the hamlet's 18 years of occupation and provided evidence for an additional five, previously unknown, internments in the small cemetery. Archaeological surveys and excavations located the remains of the blacksmith shop that was built by John McNeill, a related rubbish dump, a stone floor that is likely part of the Range Hotel's stables and the possible site of the McNeill family home. These discoveries were used to examine the cultural landscape of the hamlet and appear to show that the settlement was probably divided into three separate, but related areas: a camping ground for the carriers and road workers, a business/residential area that included the hotel, stables, blacksmith shop and houses, and small cemetery. These areas were linked to each other and the wider landscape by Hervey Range Road.

The recovered artefacts were used to assess the resident's social aspirations, using Quirk's (2007) six archaeological indictors for middle-class 'gentility' and working-class 'respectability'. Alcohol was often viewed as the 'working man's scourge' and one premise of respectability was the avoidance of this vice. The prominence of alcohol related bottles found across the excavated sites should perhaps have implied that the residents did not desire respectability and yet the recovered evidence did not support this. People in the hamlet appeared to have had comfortable, if simple homes, desired non-essential fashion accessories and used varied decorative ceramics to entertain both family and friends. These findings, therefore, suggest that respectability was achieved, even though alcohol was probably drunk by both the male and female residents.

This layered theoretical approach has produced a fine-grained narrative that highlights the experiences and active roles that individual males and females played within their families and in the wider community. The results add to the understanding of how early Far North Queensland was successfully settled, with the residents' daily lives likely mirroring those of many of the other early settlers. This work also demonstrates how the community was not a 'bounded' entity, but was in fact linked across the wider landscape through the fluid movement of people and the formation of fictive-kin networks (Prangnell and Mate 2011). The discussion on gentility challenges the idea that alcohol was the antithesis of respectability, instead concluding that the type of community, the varieties of alcohol bottles found and even the identification of triggers that may have led someone to start drinking all need to be taken into account when drawing conclusions from the archaeological finds at a particular site.

This thesis provides an important link to research that has already been undertaken in Townsville and on the pastoral stations and gold mines of the hinterland and also suggests further avenues of research. It also demonstrates how a layered theoretical approach can successfully investigate small communities and be used to highlight how ordinary people often led extraordinary lives. Discovering and telling their stories can help to enhance the past and reconnect it to the present.


InGaN p-n junction solar cells with various indium composition and thickness of upper p-InGaN and lower n-InGaN junctions are investigated theoretically. The physical properties of InGaN p-n junction solar cells, such as the short circuit current density (JSC), open circuit voltage (Voc), fill factor (FF), and conversion efficiency (η), are theoretically calculated and simulated by varying the device structures, position of the depletion region, indium content, and photon penetration depth. The results indicate that an In0.6Ga0.4N solar cell, with optimal device parameters, can have a JSC ~31.8 mA/cm2, Voc ~0.874 volt, FF ~0.775, and η ~21.5%. It clearly demonstrates that medium-indium-content InGaN materials have the potential to realize high efficiency solar cells. Furthermore, the simulation results, with various thicknesses of the p-InGaN junction but a fixed thickness of the n-InGaN junction, shows that the performance of InGaN solar cells is determined by the upper p-InGaN junction rather than the n-InGaN substrate. This is attributed to the different amount of light absorption in the depletion region and the variation of the collection efficiency of minority carriers.


OBJECTIVE To assess the usefulness of specific cardiovascular reflex tests in childhood and to estimate the prevalence of cardiovascular reflex abnormalities among children with IDDM. In adults, abnormal cardiovascular reflexes are a frequent complication of diabetes, associated with increased morbidity and mortality. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We measured heart-rate responses to deep breathing and standing in ambulatory children with and without IDDM between 6–19 yr of age. A subgroup of the IDDM patients was retested after 1 yr. RESULTS We found the best techniques for detecting cardiovascular reflex abnormality in children were as follows: to record heart-rate responses to deep breathing either as the change inheart rate corrected for inspiratory heart rate or as the ratio of R-R intervals during expiration and inspiration; and to use the Maximum-minimum ratio for heart-rate responses to standing. HR-DBC was lower in diabetic than nondiabetic children (28.6 ± 9.2% [n = 248] vs. 33.6 ± 6.8% [n = 60]; P < 0.0005). Similarly, E:I was lower in children with IDDM than control subjects (1.42 ± 0.19 [n = 248] vs. 1.52 ± 0.15 [n = 60]; P < 0.0005). In the IDDM group, 21% of the children had abnormal HR-DBc or E:I responses. HR-STND M/m was lower in children with IDDM than control subjects (1.28 ± 0.20 [n = 167] vs. 1.38 ± 0.22 [n = 45]; P < 0.014). Among children with IDDM, 11.4% had abnormal HR-STND M/m responses. Overall, 29% of IDDM children tested abnormal in either HR-DBC or HR-STND M/m; 3% were abnormal in both tests. We found no correlation of HbA1c levels (n = 74) or duration of diabetes with either HR-DB, expiration to inspiration (n = 248), or HR-STND M/m (n = 167). In patients who were reevaluated after 1 yr we found a high correlation of the first and repeat HR-DBC tests (r = 0.47, n = 75, P < 0.0001), E:I (r = 0.53, n = 75, P < 0.0001), and HR-STND M/m (r = .49, n = 37, P < 0.002), but no evidence of an increased number of children with cardiovascular reflex abnormality. CONCLUSIONS With easily performed HR-DB and HR-STND tests, we detected cardiovascular reflex abnormality in 29% of children with IDDM. We found no correlation of changes in HR-DB and HR-STND with HbA1c or duration of diabetes. These tests provide an objective clinical measurement to monitor autonomic neuropathy in children with diabetes.


Business managers, management consultants and researchers regularly question whether and how the contribution of IT to business performance can be measured. This book contributes to the valuation of IT by posing and answering key management questions, offering insights into the value of IT once it has been developed, implemented and used. Measuring the Value of Information Technology targets business managers, IT managers, students and researchers and will enable its readers to systematically, effectively and consistently measure the value of information technology.


Food allergy is a potential risk associated with use of transgenic proteins in crops. Currently, safety assessment involves consideration of the source of the introduced protein, in silico amino acid sequence homology comparisons to known allergens, physicochemical properties, protein abundance in the crop, and, when appropriate, specific immunoglobulin E binding studies. Recently conducted research presented at an International Life Sciences Institute/Health and Environmental Sciences Institute-hosted workshop adds to the scientific foundation for safety assessment of transgenic proteins in five areas: structure/activity, serum screening, animal models, quantitative proteomics, and basic mechanisms. A web-based tool is now available that integrates a database of allergenic proteins with a variety of computational tools which could be used to improve our ability to predict allergenicity based on structural analysis. A comprehensive strategy and model protocols have been developed for conducting meaningful serum screening, an extremely challenging process. Several animal models using oral sensitization with adjuvant and one dermal sensitization model have been developed and appear to distinguish allergenic from non-allergenic food extracts. Data presented using a mouse model suggest that pepsin resistance is indicative of allergenicity. Certain questions remain to be addressed before considering animal model validation. Gel-free mass spectrometry is a viable alternative to more labor-intensive approaches to quantitative proteomics. Proteomic data presented on four nontransgenic varieties of soy suggested that if known allergen expression in genetically modified crops falls within the range of natural variability among commercial varieties, there appears to be no need to test further. Finally, basic research continues to elucidate the etiology of food allergy.


Received: August 2015, Accepted: October 2015 Background: One of the necessities of industrial societies is the application of developed measures/strategies for the prevention of occupational incidents in industrial companies. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the role of the safety management system on safety culture of an oil and gas exploration and production company. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 240 participants, chosen through simple random sampling, based on the research goals, statistical society size, and the Krejcie and Morgan table. For data collection, the Safety Management System Questionnaire, with a Cronbach's α of 0.96, and the Safety Culture Questionnaire, with a Cronbach'sα of 0.91, were utilized after determining their validity. The gathered data were analyzed using SPSS and LISREL softwares. Results: First level confirmatory factor analysis was performed with the use of LISREL package on 5 factors of encouraging/motivating employees to observe safety tips, educating employees on safety tips, safety policies in organizations, safety control in organizations, and urgent planning in organizations. The results showed that all the indices on obtained values were very desirable. In addition, the results of this research indicated that there was a statistically positive, meaningful relationship between the variable of safety management system and its components (i.e., safety policies, employees' motivators, safety education, urgent prevention plans, and internal control), and safety culture (P<0.01). High education levels of the employees had meaningful impacts on the safety management system (P<0.01).However, there was no statistically significant relationship between the education level and occupational background of the employees and the company's safety culture (P>0.05). Conclusions: The results of the present paper proved that the safety management system and its components play an important role in the development of the safety culture of an oil company. Therefore, notifying the related authorities of this fact in order to establish a safety management system is a vital issue.


Economic Growth, Human Development, and Welfare" of the 2018 Report of the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP). Mission of the IPSP: The International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP) will harness the competence of hundreds of experts about social issues and will deliver a report addressed to all social actors, movements, organizations, politicians and decision-makers, in order to provide them with the best expertise on questions that bear on social change. The Panel will seek consensus whenever possible but will not hide controversies and will honestly present up-to-date arguments and analyses, and debates about them, in an accessible way. The Panel will have no partisan political agenda, but will aim at restoring hope in social progress and stimulating intellectual and public debates. Different political and philosophical views may conceive of social progress in different ways, emphasizing values such as freedom, dignity, or equality. The Panel will retain full independence from political parties, governments, and organizations with a partisan agenda. While the Panel will primarily work for the dissemination of knowledge to all relevant actors in society, it will also foster research on the topics it will study and help to revive interest for research in social long-term prospective analysis


We study the optimal long-term care policy when informal care can be provided by children in exchange for monetary transfers by their elderly parents. We consider a bargaining model with single-child families. Daughters have a lower labor market wage and a lower bargaining power within the family with respect to sons. Consequently, they provide more informal care and have lower welfare in the laissez-faire (although not necessarily lower transfers). The first best involves redistribution from families with sons to families with daughters and can be implemented by a gender-specific schedule of public LTC benefits and transfers to working children. If the policy is restricted to be gender neutral, we find that the informal care provided by daughters should be distorted up to enhance redistribution from families with sons to families with daughters. Transfers within the family should be distorted in both types of families.


Objective Acceptability and tolerability of bowel cleansers influence whether patients are able to complete the prescribed dose and, consequently, the quality of the cleansing achieved. No standardised means of assessing patients' experience of using bowel cleansing is currently available. The aim of the study was to develop the Bowel Cleansing Impact Review (BOCLIR) to assess patient response to bowel cleansing products. Design Content was derived from qualitative interviews. Face and content validity were assessed via cognitive-debriefing interviews. Finally, patients completed the BOCLIR and a demographic questionnaire. Item response theory (Rasch analysis) was employed for item reduction and assessment of unidimensionality. Internal consistency and construct validity were also assessed. Results Analysis of 40 interviews resulted in the production of three scales; patient satisfaction, symptomatic impact and activity limitations. Scales were designed to be used alone or together. 19 debriefing interviews demonstrated BOCLIR acceptability, relevance and ease of completion. The validation survey involved 166 patients (52% male, mean (SD) age 54.3 (15.2) years). After misfitting and redundant items were removed all scales fit the Rasch model confirming their unidimensionality. Cronbach's α-coefficients were high (0.77–0.94) indicating good internal consistency. Scores on the BOCLIR were related to patients' willingness to use the product in future and ease of drinking the full preparation (p<0.01 for each scale). Conclusions The BOCLIR is a new measure consisting of three unidimensional scales (satisfaction, symptoms and activity limitations) with good psychometric and scaling properties. The BOCLIR will allow accurate assessment of patients' response to bowel cleansing preparations.


The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta , is an abundant and aggressive component of early-successional communities in the southeastern United States. After disturbance, it rapidly invades new habitats, and once there, it has strong competitive and predatory effects on the existing arthropod community. In upland coastal plain pine forests at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, I conducted two studies of fire ant ecology. In my first study (chapter 1), I investigated the way in which fire ants colonize early-successional road and powerline cuts through forests, and I tested whether some of these linear habitats provided better fire ant habitat than others. I found that fire ant mound density (#/ha) was similar in narrow dirt roads and in wider roads with the same intermediate level of mowing disturbance, and that density was lower in wide powerline cuts where the vegetation is only removed every five years. Furthermore, mound density was greatest near the edges of cleared roads and powerline cuts and was also greater on the northern sides of roads and powerline cuts where there was less shading from the adjacent forest. Results from this study suggest that allowing increased shading from adjacent forest vegetation, especially along northern roadside edges, would limit the suitability of road and powerline cuts as fire ant habitat, thereby slowing invasion. In my second study (chapter 2), I examined the impact of fire ants on arthropod and plant species in early-successional forest gaps. In a tritrophic system, I tested whether the top-down effect of insect herbivore consumption by fire ants was strong enough to cascade through two trophic levels and improve plant productivity. I compared this potential effect to that of other arthropod predators in the community. I found that fire ants controlled the level of damage to plant leaves by herbivores, but that the damage was not severe enough to influence plant growth or fitness. Fire ants had stronger negative interactions with insect herbivores than other predators in the community, and iii for this reason, fire ants can be considered keystone predators. This project provides further evidence that fire ants successfully invade even small patches of early-successional habitat that exist within larger matrices of uninhabitable, late-successional forest, and that once there, they have a dramatic effect on the arthropod community. Restricting the amount of earlysuccessional habitat within southeastern forests, either as permanent road and powerline cuts or as temporary gaps, would limit the potential detrimental effects by the invasive fire ant.


Paleontological completeness and stratigraphic ranges depend on extinction rate, origination rate, preservation rate, and the length of the interval of time over which observations can be made. I derive expressions for completeness and the distribution of durations and ranges as functions of these parameters, considering both continuous- and discrete-time models. Previous work has shown that, if stratigraphic ranges can be followed indefinitely forward, and if extinction and preservation occur at stochastically constant rates, then extinction rate and preservability can be estimated from (1) discrete (binned) stratigraphic ranges even if data on occurrences within ranges are unknown, and (2) continuous ranges if the number of occurrences within each range is known. I show that, regardless of whether the window of observation is finite or infinite, extinction and preservation rates can also be estimated from (3) continuous ranges when the number of occurrences is not known, and (4) discrete ranges when the number of occurrences is not known. One previous estimation method for binned data involves a sample-size bias. This is circumvented by using maximum likelihood parameter estimation. It is worth exploiting data on occurrences within ranges when these are available, since they allow preservation rate to be estimated with less variance. The various methods yield comparable parameter estimates when applied to Cambro-Ordovician trilobite species and Cenozoic mammal species. Stratigraphic gaps and variable preservation affect stratigraphic ranges predictably. In many cases, accurate parameter estimation is possible even in the face of these complications. The distribution of stratigraphic ranges can be used to estimate the sizes of gaps if their existence is known.


Abstract. The leading idea of this work is to continuously retrieve glaciers surface velocity through SAR imagery, in particular using the amplitude data from the new ESA satellite sensor Sentinel-1 imagery. These imagery key aspects are the free access policy, the very short revisit time (down to 6 days with the launch of the Sentinel-1B satellite) and the high amplitude resolution (up to 5 m). In order to verify the reliability of the proposed approach, a first experiment has been performed using Sentinel-1 imagery acquired over the Karakoram mountain range (North Pakistan) and Baltoro and other three glaciers have been investigated. During this study, a stack of 11 images acquired in the period from October 2014 to September 2015 has been used in order to investigate the potentialities of the Sentinel-1 SAR sensor to retrieve the glacier surface velocity every month. The aim of this test was to measure the glacier surface velocity between each subsequent pair, in order to produce a time series of the surface velocity fields along the investigated period. The necessary coregistration procedure between the images has been performed and subsequently the glaciers areas have been sampled using a regular grid with a 250 × 250 meters posting. Finally the surface velocity field has been estimated, for each image pair, using a template matching procedure, and an outlier filtering procedure based on the signal to noise ratio values has been applied, in order to exclude from the analysis unreliable points. The achieved velocity values range from 10 to 25 meters/month and they are coherent to those obtained in previous studies carried out on the same glaciers and the results highlight that it is possible to have a continuous update of the glacier surface velocity field through free Sentinel-1 imagery, that could be very useful to investigate the seasonal effects on the glaciers fluid-dynamics.


Background and Purpose— Assessing upper limb movements poststroke is crucial to monitor and understand sensorimotor recovery. Kinematic assessments are expected to enable a sensitive quantification of movement quality and distinguish between restitution and compensation. The nature and practice of these assessments are highly variable and used without knowledge of their clinimetric properties. This presents a challenge when interpreting and comparing results. The purpose of this review was to summarize the state of the art regarding kinematic upper limb assessments poststroke with respect to the assessment task, measurement system, and performance metrics with their clinimetric properties. Subsequently, we aimed to provide evidence-based recommendations for future applications of upper limb kinematics in stroke recovery research. Methods— A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and IEEE Xplore. Studies investigating clinimetric properties of applied metrics were assessed for risk of bias using the Consensus-Based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments checklist. The quality of evidence for metrics was determined according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach. Results— A total of 225 studies (N=6197) using 151 different kinematic metrics were identified and allocated to 5 task and 3 measurement system groups. Thirty studies investigated clinimetrics of 62 metrics: reliability (n=8), measurement error (n=5), convergent validity (n=22), and responsiveness (n=2). The metrics task/movement time, number of movement onsets, number of movement ends, path length ratio, peak velocity, number of velocity peaks, trunk displacement, and shoulder flexion/extension received a sufficient evaluation for one clinimetric property. Conclusions— Studies on kinematic assessments of upper limb sensorimotor function are poorly standardized and rarely investigate clinimetrics in an unbiased manner. Based on the available evidence, recommendations on the assessment task, measurement system, and performance metrics were made with the goal to increase standardization. Further high-quality studies evaluating clinimetric properties are needed to validate kinematic assessments, with the long-term goal to elucidate upper limb sensorimotor recovery poststroke. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/. Unique identifier: CRD42017064279.


The Danish study of Functional Disorders (DanFunD) cohort was initiated to outline the epidemiology of functional somatic syndromes (FSS) and is the first larger coordinated epidemiological study focusing exclusively on FSS. FSS are prevalent in all medical settings and can be defined as syndromes that, after appropriate medical assessment, cannot be explained in terms of a conventional medical or surgical disease. FSS are frequent and the clinical importance varies from vague symptoms to extreme disability. No well-described medical explanations exist for FSS, and how to delimit FSS remains a controversial topic. The specific aims with the cohort were to test delimitations of FSS, estimate prevalence and incidence rates, identify risk factors, delimitate the pathogenic pathways, and explore the consequences of FSS. The study population comprises a random sample of 9,656 men and women aged 18–76 years from the general population examined from 2011 to 2015. The survey comprises screening questionnaires for five types of FSS, ie, fibromyalgia, whiplash-associated disorder, multiple chemical sensitivity, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic fatigue syndrome, and for the unifying diagnostic category of bodily distress syndrome. Additional data included a telephone-based diagnostic interview assessment for FSS, questionnaires on physical and mental health, personality traits, lifestyle, use of health care services and social factors, and a physical examination with measures of cardiorespiratory and morphological fitness, metabolic fitness, neck mobility, heart rate variability, and pain sensitivity. A biobank including serum, plasma, urine, DNA, and microbiome has been established, and central registry data from both responders and nonresponders are similarly available on morbidity, mortality, reimbursement of medicine, heath care use, and social factors. A complete 5-year follow-up is scheduled to take place from year 2017 to 2020, and further reexaminations will be planned. Several projects using the DanFunD data are ongoing, and findings will be published in the coming years.


This short essay is a contribution to the Labor Law Group's chapter-by-chapter critique and analysis of the American Law Institute's effort to restate the common law of employment through its 2015 Restatement of Employment Law. This essay focuses specifically on sections 6.05 and 6.06 of the Restatement, which address employers' duties of honesty and accuracy in their communications to workers themselves as articulated by the torts of fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation. Employers speak to workers about a wide range of job-related topics that include the terms and conditions of employment, business projections, and applicable workplace legal protections. Employers' communications on these subjects can, and often do, valuably inform workers' decisions about jobs and other weighty issues. But employers' speech - in particular their lies and misrepresentations - about these matters can also inflict substantial harm by distorting workers' decisions of great life importance. That employers enjoy advantages of information and power further enhances their ability to manipulate or coerce workers' choices through lies and misrepresentations. Efforts to articulate employers' legal duties of honesty and accuracy should thus be informed by a functional, rather than formalist, understanding of the information and power dynamics within this relationship. The essay starts by explaining how and why law imposes duties of honesty and accuracy on speakers (including but not limited to employers) who experience information or power advantages over their listeners. It then draws upon this background to evaluate the Restatement's attention to these information and power asymmetries in its discussion of employers' fraudulent and negligent misrepresentations to workers. It concludes that the Restatement and its commentary do not consistently attend to these dynamics – in particular, by failing to recognize the breadth of situations in which employers enjoy structurally unequal and thus special access to key information, and by discounting the ways in which these asymmetries can lead workers to rely to their detriment on employers' misrepresentations. Despite the Restatement's limitations in this regard, judges can and should keep these dynamics in mind when considering claims of fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation in the employment context – as should legislators and other policymakers considering workplace policy to inform and empower workers.


Ionic liquids (ILs) are rapidly emerging as important coating materials for highly sensitive chemical sensing devices. In this regard, we have previously demonstrated that a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) coated with a binary mixture of an IL and cellulose acetate can be employed for detection and molecular weight estimation of organic vapors (J. Mater. Chem. 2012, 22, 13732). Herein, we report follow-up studies aimed at formulating the theoretical basis for our previously observed relationship between molecular weight and changes in the QCM parameters. In the current work, we have investigated the vapor sensing characteristics of a series of binary blends of ILs and polymers over a wider concentration range of analytes, and a quadratic equation for estimating the approximate molecular weight of an organic vapor is proposed. Additionally, the frequency (f) and dissipation factor (D) at multiple harmonics were measured by use of a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D). These QCM-D data were then analyzed by fitting to various models. It is observed that the behavior of these films can be best described by use of the Maxwell viscoelastic model. In light of these observations, a plausible explanation for the correlation between the molecular weight of absorbed vapors and the QCM parameters is presented. Our previous findings appear to be a special case of this more general observation. Overall, these results underscore the true potential of IL-based composite materials for discrimination and molecular weight estimation of a broad range of chemical vapors.


One goal of mammalian neurobiology is to understand the generation of neuronal activity in large networks. Conceptual schemes have been based on either the properties of single cells or of individual synapses. For instance, the intrinsic oscillatory properties of individual thalamic neurons are thought to underlie thalamic spindle rhythms. This issue has been pursued with a computer model of the CA3 region of the hippocampus that is based on known cellular and synaptic properties. Over a wide range of parameters, this model generates a rhythmic activity at a frequency faster than the firing of individual cells. During each rhythmic event, a few cells fire while most other cells receive synchronous synaptic inputs. This activity resembles the hippocampal theta rhythm as well as synchronized synaptic events observed in vitro. The amplitude and frequency of this emergent rhythmic activity depend on intrinsic cellular properties and the connectivity and strength of both excitatory and inhibitory synapses.


INTRODUCTION
Primary health care (PHC), the cornerstone of health systems, has an important role in infectious disease control. The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has put a burden on health systems worldwide and especially on healthcare workers at the first line delivering their services in remote areas of Greece. This study investigates preparedness and awareness level of primary healthcare workers (PHCWs) and their risk perception in managing the pandemic during its initial phase.

METHODS
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in public PHC units in Greece. A web-based 14-item questionnaire, tested in a pilot study, was administered by a pre-existing panel of the Education and Research Network in PHC of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Associations were assessed between epidemic response awareness, risk perception, participant demographics and work settings. Participants were grouped by profession in first-line physicians (general practitioners, internal medicine specialists, pediatricians), first-line non-physicians (nurses, health visitors, paramedics) and second-line PHCWs (dentists, microbiologists, administrators, midwifes, laboratory technicians, nutritionists and social workers). Univariate logistic regression and multivariable analysis were performed and linear regression was performed to examine the effect of participants' awareness of the preparedness plan to their working area characteristics.

RESULTS
A total of 441 PHCWs participated in the survey. Risks were perceived at a lower level by second-line PHCWs than by first-line PHCWs (B=-0.78, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.49- -0.08; p=0.028). Older PHCWs had less concerns than younger PHCWs (B=-0.04, 95%CI -0.08- -0.01; p=0.025) and more experienced participants had more concerns than less experienced (B=0.04, 95%CI 0.00,0.07; p=0.050). PHCWs in rural settings presented with more preparedness awareness, compared to PHCWs in urban areas (B=1.10, 95%CI 0.28,1.92; p=0.008), while PHCWs living with high risk individuals showed less situation awareness (-0.55, 95%CI -0.95-0.16; p=0.006).

CONCLUSION
PHCWs in rural areas revealed a relatively high awareness of the response measures and management protocol requirements that were in place, compared to their colleagues in urban areas. As expected, first-line PHCWs directly exposed to emergencies expressed more concerns than second-line PHCWs. Learning from the challenges occurring during the initial phase of the pandemic could help PHC facilities address COVID-19 effectively and PHCWs' sense of security and confidence could be augmented, even when working in remote areas of the country. When planning training, distributing equipment and proposing protocols, the characteristics of the area and the needs of PHCWs, and population should be cautiously considered.


The implementation of the Marine Living Resources Act 18 of 1998 which governs fisheries management in South Africa is guided by a series of objectives. Chief amongst these are the need to ensure resource sustainability, promote economic growth and achieve equity in the fishing industry. Striking a balance among these competing imperatives is a necessary but also monumental task, one which South Africa has arguably failed to achieve to date. In particular, as far the equity objective is concerned, a group of fishers, including both subsistence and artisanal fishers, have continued to be marginalised and overlooked in the fishing rights allocation process. The Policy for the Small-Scale Fisheries Sector in South Africa aims to provide recognition and redress to this sector of the fishing industry. It seeks to achieve this objective by adopting a community-based, co-management approach. The Policy accordingly envisages that fishing rights will be allocated to small-scale fishing communities and that these communities will become involved in managing fisheries together with government. This contribution reviews and critically analyses the scope of application of the Small-Scale Policy and the management approach adopted by the Policy, with a view to assessing its potential to achieve the objective of providing redress to the formerly marginalised groups of fishers. This analysis takes place against the backdrop of the significant resource constraints in the fisheries arena and the country's vision for its future economic development as described in the National Development Plan .


Inference with Difference-in-Differences Revisited A growing literature on inference in difference-in-differences (DiD) designs with grouped errors has been pessimistic about obtaining hypothesis tests of the correct size, particularly with few groups. We provide Monte Carlo evidence for three points: (i) it is possible to obtain tests of the correct size even with few groups, and in many settings very straightforward methods will achieve this; (ii) the main problem in DiD designs with grouped errors is instead low power to detect real effects; and (iii) feasible GLS estimation combined with robust inference can increase power considerably whilst maintaining correct test size – again, even with few groups. JEL Classification: C12, C13, C21


Introduction:
Mathematical models of HIV transmission have played an important role in helping to
understand the drivers of the HIV epidemic, and shape the global HIV response. The
underlying approaches, assumptions and structures used in HIV modelling have the potential
to fundamentally influence the conclusions of any modelling analyses. For this reason, it is
important that approaches to modelling HIV transmission in different contexts carefully
consider how best to 'characterise' a populations distribution of risk and networks of sexual
interaction based on data, and the implications of incorporating different levels of
epidemiological complexity into their modelling.
Across West Africa there are substantial variations in population HIV prevalence - ranging
from 0.5-6%. To date, there has been limited exploration of the potential factors influencing
this population variation.
This PhD aims to inform our understanding of the determinants of population variations in
HIV prevalence across West Africa, using a combination of ecological analysis of population
data, and both simple and more complex epidemiological modelling. The findings are used
both to explore the determinants of HIV transmission across West Africa, and to discuss the
implications for future modelling and epidemic appraisal approaches.
Methods:
A range of modelling and epidemiological analytical approaches were used. Firstly, an existing
policy model, The Modes of Transmission (MoT) model, designed to predict patterns of HIV
incidence, was revised and re-parameterised using data from Nigeria, to explore the effect on
overall conclusions of adding additional heterogeneity into the model, and considering more
explicitly how to model HIV risk amongst lower-risk subgroups.
Secondly, population data from 13 West African countries were compiled. Linear regression
analyses were used to assess potential relationships between HIV prevalence in high-risk
groups and population HIV prevalence and the size of high-risk population subgroups and HIV
prevalence in the general population.
Based on the findings from the MoT and ecological analysis, a dynamic deterministic model
was developed to explore the variations in HIV prevalence across West Africa. The population
model not only included sex work, client and general population sub-groups, but also included
a category of adolescent females (15-24) and a category of males with multiple sexual
partners, with a mixing formulation being used to vary the degree the adolescent females
form partnerships with clients of female sex workers and the subgroup of males who have
multiple partnerships
Input parameters were sampled from ranges relevant for West Africa, using Latin Hypercube
sampling. The model was fitted to equilibrium prevalence in the general population.
Results:
A critique and revisions to the MoT, identified high levels of infections in previously
unrecognised subgroups. These included 16% of new infections occurring in young females
engaging in transactional sex.
Findings from the ecological analysis, showed that across West Africa HIV prevalence in FSWs
and their clients is not associated with higher HIV prevalence in the general population.
Instead, the size of groups of males and females with multiple partners is correlated with
higher HIV prevalence levels.
The deterministic model generated 11000 fits. Grouping fits, based on epidemic size (with 1%
incremental increases from 0-6%), the findings revealed that population sizes of key
subgroups is the predominant driver of the epidemic. For epidemics where prevalence is less
than 3%, FSW population size is the most important determinant of HIV prevalence. For
epidemics above 3%, it is the size of the group of adolescent females with multiple partners
and their level of interaction with clients of FSWs that is the most significant variable related
to higher HIV prevalence. When the limiting effects on HIV transmission of male circumcision
are removed from the model, the findings are less clear, with both sex work and the role of
adolescent females with multiple partners being important determinants of the epidemic.
Circumcision is however shown to significantly limit the magnitude of an epidemic and
epidemic categorisation should account for these variations accordingly.
Conclusions:
Behavioural heterogeneity has long been recognised as an important component of model
development. The results from this thesis show the importance of carefully considering how
to compartmentalise population HIV models. Even for simple static models, the inclusion of
additional subgroups change model conclusions and suggests different intervention priorities.
The use of results and findings from ecological analyses, whilst unable to provide strong
evidence of causality, can provide useful insights into the relationship between population
level factors or behavioural variables and HIV prevalence in the general population. These
findings may then be used to inform model development.
Deterministic dynamic modelling used in this thesis demonstrates that the size and sexual
networks of vulnerable subgroups in the population may be of key importance in determining
levels of HIV epidemics in West Africa. In-particular, adolescent females engaging in noncommercial
multiple partnerships, often associated with transactional exchange are an
important determinant of the HIV epidemic in West Africa. An improved understanding of
this group, their size and motivations for engaging in multiple partnerships, through the use
of epidemic mapping techniques and social research, will be important to future HIV
intervention activities.


Background Dermoscopy is a simple and inexpensive diagnostic technique that permits the visualization of morphologic features that are not visible to the naked eye, forming a link between clinical dermatology and microscopic dermatopathology. For many years, skin biopsy was considered the only definite diagnostic tool that confirms or excludes the clinical diagnosis. Skin biopsies are invasive and have many adverse effects and precautions. Objective To evaluate the accuracy of dermoscope in diagnosis of skin tumors and its correlation with clinical and pathological diagnosis. Patients and methods Thirty-four patients who attended Dermatology Clinic at Qena University Hospital from January 2013 to December 2014 were recruited in a nonrandomized prospective study. The inclusion criteria were reported through the following: full history taking, such as (a) name, age, sex, duration of the lesion, onset, progress, and symptoms; (b) previous history of similar lesions or skin cancer; (c) family history of similar lesion or skin cancer; and (d) any recognized changes in the lesion in the past year such as change in size, consistency, hair growth, or bleeding; dermatologic examination, such as (I) type, site, size, shape, color, surface, and border of lesion have been also detected and reported by using of the three-point checklist as a method for differentiation between benign and suspicious lesions and (II) any specific manifestations as tenderness, bleeding, and recurrence have been detected; (III) digital photography has been performed using digital camera (Sony cyber-shot 16.1 mega pixels); dermoscopic findings by using dermoscope (HEINE BETA DELTA 20), and histopathological examination. Results There was an excellent diagnostic reliability of dermoscopy compared with skin biopsy with interrater κ value of 0.859 (confidence interval: 0.734–0.984, P<0.001). The overall agreement between dermoscopical and histopathological diagnosis was recorded in 27/33 (81.8%) cases. The ability of dermoscopy to differentiate lesion categories was investigated. Nine of the 10 neoplastic lesions and 22 of the 23 non-neoplastic lesions were identified by dermoscopy [χ2(1)=24.2, P<0.001] with sensitivity and specificity rates of 90 and 95.7%, respectively, and positive and negative predictive values of 90 and 95.7%, respectively. Regarding differentiation benign from malignant skin lesions, dermoscopy identified 25 of the 26 benign lesions and identified all malignant skin lesions [χ2(1)=27.8, P<0.001]. The specificity and sensitivity were 96.2 and 100%, respectively, and the positive and negative predictive values were 100 and 87.5%, respectively. Conclusion There was a good agreement between the dermoscopy and clinical diagnosis and also a good agreement between the dermoscopy and pathological diagnosis. So dermoscopy can be introduced as a routine diagnostic tool in dermatological examination and will be of a great aid in the accurate diagnosis of suspicious skin lesions before invasive skin biopsy. However, further studies with large sample size are needed later on.


This paper aims to illuminate the association between workplace ostracism and stress since ostracism is the most prevalent form of mistreatment in modern-day work settings. The study also investigates the moderating role of employees' self-efficacy, gender, and work culture. Data was collected through a survey and structured questionnaires from employees working in both public and private sector banks in Pakistan. Data Analysis was conducted using statistical techniques such as bootstrapping, regression analysis and process macros. The study findings reveal that workplace ostracism is positively related to stress; and negatively related to employee's self-efficacy. Gender and organizational work culture have a moderating relationship. Self-efficacy mitigated the adverse effects of workplace ostracism in the form of stress, as self-efficacious employees tend to experience less stress in their workplace. Organizations must take account of the stress-mitigating impact of self-efficacy which is principally strong for producing acceptable performance since mistreatment and impolite behaviors cannot be evaded and prevented entirely in the social context of the contemporary workplace. Implications and future research directions are discussed in light of the findings.


The reign of Henry VIII saw a flourishing of court drama in England. Recent critical interest has sharpened our awareness of the varied uses of theatricality at the Tudor court, from performance games and disguising through spectacular revels to more and less elaborately developed spoken plays. Henry's personal interest in performance and his apparent readiness to accept drama as an instrument of debate as well as entertainment seem to have encouraged not only dramatic activity itself, but also the survival of evidence. This evidence suggests an increasing prominence of the courtly interlude through the first half of the sixteenth century: printers published texts from playwrights such as Skelton, Rastell, and Heywood while historical records and anecdotes, along with wardrobe accounts, point to a range of other interludes. Both texts and reports suggest that court theater became a recognized and at times highly developed mode of topical comment. This is a period when court drama played an important role in the assertion, celebration, and critique of royal power. (1) If we turn away from Henry's court and look north beyond the Tudor kingdom, what theatrical culture do we find in Scotland, England's close but antagonistic neighbor? James IV's marriage to Henry's sister Margaret in 1503 had confirmed relations between the two countries and their monarchs as both intimate and conflicted. Both royal establishments acknowledged and exploited the consciously spectacular court culture of the early sixteenth century. (2) So did the Stewart courts of James IV and James V support any kind of comparably lively and searching interlude culture? The question is hard to address, primarily because of the difficulty besetting any analysis of early drama in Scotland: the notorious lack of surviving pre-Reformation dramatic texts. Apart from a few fragments from quasi-dramatic games, we have only Sir David Lyndsay's Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, and the two existing versions of that script document, not a court production but large-scale public, outdoor performances in the 1550s. (3) Without scripts the search for a Scottish interlude tradition seems frustrated before it begins. The picture is slightly less blank than this suggests, however. Lyndsay's text is complemented by a detailed, vivid, and revealing eyewitness account of what is plainly a court interlude, played before the king and queen at Linlithgow on the Feast of the Epiphany in 1540 and widely taken to prefigure the Thrie Estaitis. (4) Dramatizing the complaints of a poor man to a king and his parliament, the play addresses the corruption and oppression exercised by courtiers and, more especially, by the Church. Its vividly direct and immediate acknowledgment of topical events, of its courtly audience and of James V among the spectators, along with the king's apparent knowledge and approval of its content and his use of the performance as a political tool, all mark this as similar in type to the English courtly interlude. (5) Our knowledge of the play rests on a report passed to the English commander of Berwick, Sir Thomas Eure, as evidence of James V's attitudes to Church reform. (6) What can be detected of the play's reception might indeed suggest that the political courtly interlude was by then a familiar form in Scotland. Eure, who sent details of the play to Thomas Cromwell in London, states without surprise: "thay have hade ane enterluyde played"--he is interested in the political content of the play, not by the fact of its performance. In Scotland there is no surviving notice of the interlude at all, and this very lack of any contemporary comment or reflection might imply that its performance was, in itself, nothing out of the ordinary. What the report certainly reveals is that in 1540 a confident and theatrically sophisticated political interlude was performed at James V's court, apparently exciting no surprise. Might this suggest a developed but now lost tradition of court interludes in Scotland? …


The recent paper by Gill et al reports that emergency admissions of children in England have increased year on year since 2003.1 We have replicated and extended Gill's analysis for Scotland. General hospital discharge (SMR01) records and Accident & Emergency (A&E) attendance records held by the National Health Service (NHS) National Services Scotland Information Services Division were interrogated to identify emergency continuous inpatient stays and new A&E attendances for children aged 0–14 years from 1999–2011 and from 2009–2012, respectively. Continuous inpatient stays are complete stays in hospital from admission to discharge regardless of within and between hospital transfers. National Records for Scotland midyear population estimates provided denominators.

In Scotland, the overall emergency admission rate for children aged 0–14 years was relatively constant between 1999 and 2002, increased gradually to 2006, plateaued to 2009, then declined in 2010 before increasing again in 2011 (figures 1 and 2). There were 54 354 admissions (rate 58.2/1000) in 1999 compared with 55 895 (65.5/1000) in 2011. The …


The heterobimetallic ruthenium–cobalt catalytic system exhibited good catalytic performance and reusability in the reductive alkoxycarbonylation of olefins with carbon dioxide. Compared to the previous system only consisting of ruthenium catalyst, the binary catalyst system effectively reduced the usage of noble metal and ionic liquid additives. The respective contribution of ruthenium and cobalt catalysts in this multiple-step catalytic process was investigated by a series of condition-controlled experiments. The evolution of the ruthenium catalyst and the occurrence of alkene hydrogenation during the reaction was explained by theortical calculations.


Storyboards, a grid layout of thumbnail images as surrogates representing video, have received much attention in video retrieval interfaces and published studies through the years, and work quite well as navigation aids and as facilitators for shot-based information retrieval. When the information need is tied less to shots and requires inspection of stories and across stories, other interfaces into the video data have been demonstrated to be quite useful. These interfaces include scatterplots for timelines, choropleth maps, dynamic query preview histograms, and named entity relation diagrams representing sets of hundreds or thousands of video stories. One challenge for interactive video search is to move beyond support for fact-finding and also address broader, longer term search activities of learning, analysis, synthesis, and discovery. Examples are shown for broadcast news and life oral histories, drawing from empirically collected data showing how such interfaces can promote improved exploratory search. This paper surveys and reflects on a body of Informedia interface work dealing with news, folding in for the first time an examination of exploratory transactions with an oral history corpus.


Abstract. Despite the numerous potential advantages of indulging in bicycling, such as elevation of health and environment along with mitigation of congestion, the cyclists are a vulnerable group of commuters which is exposed to safety risks. This study aims to investigate the explanatory variables at transportation planning level which have a significant impact on the bicycle crashes. To account for the serial changes around the built environment, the linear time trend as well as time-varying coefficients are utilized for the covariates. These model modifications help account for the variations in the environment which may escape the incorporated variables due to lack of robustness in data. Also, to incorporate the interaction of roadway, demographic, and socioeconomic features within a Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ), with the bicycle crashes of that area, a spatial correlation is integrated. This spatial correlation accounts for the spatially structured random effects which capture the unobserved heterogeneity and add towards building more comprehensive model with relatively precise estimates. Two different age groups, the student population in the TAZs, the presence of arterial roads and bike lanes, were observed to be statistically significant variables related with bicycle crashes. These observations will guide the transportation planning organizations which focus on the entity of TAZ while developing policies. The results of the current study establish a quantifies relationship between the significant factors and the crash count which will enable the planners to choose the most cost-efficient, yet most productive, factors which needs to be addressed for mitigation of crashes.


This thesis uses the accounts of teachers and senior leaders from two case study schools to explore issues impacting upon the development of inclusive practices within schools. The notion of inclusion is a complex and problematic one, and this study illuminates that complexity through the accounts and experiences of two 'ordinary' schools mediating the challenges of developing inclusive practices within the current educational system.

The study purposefully focuses upon the perspectives of the teachers and senior leaders. Other voices, including those of the pupils, parents and support staff within the school, have not been included, in order to retain the focus upon gaining greater depth of understanding of the complex issue of inclusion through the eyes and voices of the professionals (teachers and senior leaders) engaging in the decision making and day to day planning for meeting the needs of all pupils.

The study uses an ethnographic case study approach to gather data through semi-structured interviews, observation (including classroom visits), learning conversations and strategic focus group discussions. A three phase research approach has been developed to reflect ongoing engagement with the complex issue of researching perspectives towards developing inclusive practices within schools. A non-judgemental and non-evaluative research approach has been utilized, which moves away from the researchers' usual role working with schools in a collaborative or advisory capacity, and models the need to create interruptions in thinking and practice to be able to fully understand the complex factors impacting upon the development of inclusive practices within schools.

The perspectives and accounts of the teachers and senior leaders enable tensions existing within policy, literature, research and practice to be identified. The study argues that attention needs to be paid more to the emotional aspects of the experience of developing inclusive practices, and the impact that that has upon staff groups, rather than a narrow focus upon specific actions and outcomes. The centrality of values and principles which are shared and continually discussed and re-negotiated to produce an embedded inclusive school culture is acknowledged, as well as the impact of positive, supportive and inclusive staff relationships within this process.


What does it mean for poetry and music to turn to each other, in the shadow of the Holocaust, as a means of aesthetic self-reflection? How can their mutual mirroring, of such paramount importance to German Romanticism, be reconfigured to retain its validity after the Second World War? These are the core questions of Axel Englund's book, which is the first to address the topic of Paul Celan and music. Celan, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who has long been recognized as one of the most important poets of the German language, persistently evoked music and song in his oeuvre, from the juvenilia to the posthumous collections. Conversely, few post-war writers have inspired as large a body of contemporary music, including works by Harrison Birtwistle, Gyorgy Kurtag, Wolfgang Rihm, Peter Ruzicka and many others. Through rich close readings of poems and musical compositions, Englund's book engages the artistic media in a critical dialogue about the conditions of their existence. In so doing, it reveals their intersection as a site of profound conflict, where the very possibility of musical and poetic meaning is at stake, and confrontations of aesthetic transcendentality and historical remembrance are played out in the wake of twentieth-century trauma.


There has never been an VoIP Guide like this. 100 Success Secrets is not about the ins and outs of VoIP. Instead, it answers the top 100 questions that we are asked and those we come across in forums, our consultancy and education programs. It tells you exactly how to deal with those questions, with tips that have never before been offered in print. This book is also not about VoIP's best practice and standards details. Instead, it introduces everything you want to know to be successful with VoIP.


The authors of this article provide a general introduction to the concept of sovereign debt—including the seductive nature of borrowing and the strategies associated with default—before analyzing the cur rent debt crises in Europe. They focus on Greece's current woes but also discuss Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. The authors also discuss the environment in the United States, which has a high debt burden of its own, and present fiscal choices for policymakers and taxpayers. (JEL E52, E61, E62, H63)


This article assesses how a shock to Chinese growth could affect the UK economy using an empirical model of the world economy that exploits the historical comovement between international business cycles. We find that a 1% slowing in China is likely to reduce UK GDP by around 0.1%. This impact arises mainly from the increasingly important role of China in the global economy - that is, via the United Kingdom's indirect links with China through its main trading partners.


Cathodic protection of bridge decks against spalling caused by deicing salts has been demonstrated effective in decks already damaged. Construction of new decks may use other means to avoid corrosion of steel rebars by the salts: waterproof membranes; polymer overlays for example. However where delamination is severe or where measurements of salts in the pavement indicate imminent spalling, cathodic protection is more economic than replacing the deck. Potholes are scoured and filled with epoxy first. Then the system is put in place. Silicon iron anodes conduct current through a coke breeze asphalt layer. This current is at a larger voltage than that given off by the corroding rebar and in the opposite direction. This prevents current from leaving the steel and prevents rust. The method has been used for subsurface pipelines for years, but this application is new. Other new methods are considered.


Agriculture has received relatively little attention in environmental aesthetics, given its importance culturally for the physical sustenance of societies and from an eco-system perspective. In this article I take some steps towards developing a life-world approach to the agricultural landscape, where the intimate and long-term relationship between farmer and land is understood as having the potential for being a norm rather than the opposite of an aesthetic appreciation of landscape. This requires a narrative understanding of landscape, where culture and nature are seen as plural and relative to each other. I claim that the aesthetic competence of the farmer is inseparable from personal interest, which makes appreciation more acute and vivid both in perceiving nuances and in realising the existential drama of landscape. Finally I suggest that practicing agriculture is a genuine way of knowing nature and that some familiarity with agriculture should be included in all environmental education


Mobility improvement for patients is one of the primary concerns of physiotherapy rehabilitation. In a typical physiotherapy session, the patient is instructed to perform multiple exercises, based on a specific regimen recommended by the physiotherapist for each patient. The physiotherapist then evaluates the patient's progress based on his or her performance during the exercises. Providing the physiotherapist and the patient with a quantified and objective measure of progress, based on both individual exercises and the exercise set, can be beneficial for monitoring the patient's performance. The quantified measure can also be beneficial when the physiotherapist is not available, e.g., crowded gym or rehabilitation at home. In this thesis, two approaches are introduced for quantifying patient performance. One approach describes the movement timeseries by statistical measures and the other by a stochastic model. Both approaches formulate a distance between patient data and the healthy population as the measure of performance. Distance measures are defined to capture the performance of one repetition of an exercise or multiple repetitions of the same exercise. To capture patient progress across multiple exercises, a quality measure and overall score are formulated based on the distance measures and are used to quantify the overall performance for each session. The proposed approaches are compared to several existing approaches, including sample distribution approaches (two sample kernel), classifier-based approaches (Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machines, and Kullback-Leibler Divergence), and dynamical movement primitives. In their original formulation, existing approaches are not capable of estimating measures of performance for multiple exercises. Therefore, the measures of performance for multiple repetitions of the same exercise are estimated using the existing approaches, while the formulation proposed in this thesis is used to estimate the overall performance for multiple exercises in one session. The effects of different variabilities in human motion on the performance of the proposed approaches and the comparison approaches are investigated with both synthetic and patient data. The patient data consists of rehabilitation data recorded from patients recovering from knee or hip replacement surgery, the associated exercise regimen and physiotherapist evaluations of progress. The methods are evaluated quantitatively based on correlation between methods, correlation with exercise regimen difficulty, and qualitatively based on the patients' medical charts. The proposed approaches are capable of capturing the trend of progress for the synthetic dataset and are superior to the existing approaches in presence of multiple sources of variability. For patient data, the proposed approaches correlate moderately with the score obtained from the exercise regimen, and qualitatively iii correspond with the patients' medical charts. The results indicate that the quantified measures of progress obtained from the proposed approaches are promising tools for supporting physiotherapy practice through monitoring patient progress.


Abstract. We report on MAX-DOAS observations of NO2 over an oasis–ecotone–desert ecosystem in NW China. There, local ambient NO2 concentrations originate from enhanced biogenic NO emission of intensively managed soils. Our target oasis "Milan" is located at the southern edge of the Taklimakan desert, very remote and well isolated from other potential anthropogenic and biogenic NOx sources. Four observation sites for MAX-DOAS measurements were selected, at the oasis centre, downwind and upwind of the oasis, and in the desert. Biogenic NO emissions in terms of (i) soil moisture and (ii) soil temperature of Milan oasis (iii) different land-cover type sub-units (cotton, Jujube trees, cotton/Jujube mixture, desert) were quantified by laboratory incubation of corresponding soil samples. Net potential NO fluxes were up-scaled to oasis scale by areal distribution and classification of land-cover types derived from satellite images using GIS techniques. A Lagrangian dispersion model (LASAT, Lagrangian Simulation of Aerosol Transport) was used to calculate the dispersion of soil emitted NO into the atmospheric boundary layer over Milan oasis. Three-dimensional (3-D) NO concentrations (30 m horizontal resolution) have been converted to 3-D NO2 concentrations, assuming photostationary state conditions. NO2 column densities were simulated by suitable vertical integration of modelled 3-D NO2 concentrations at those downwind and upwind locations, where the MAX-DOAS measurements were performed. Downwind–upwind differences (a direct measure of Milan oasis' contribution to the areal increase of ambient NO2 concentration) of measured and simulated slant (as well as vertical) NO2 column densities show excellent agreement. This agreement is considered as the first successful attempt to prove the validity of the chosen approach to up-scale laboratory-derived biogenic NO fluxes to ecosystem field conditions, i.e. from the spatial scale of a soil sample (cm2) to the size of an entire agricultural ecosystem (km2).


Pima Bajo a Uto-Aztecan language spoken in Northwestern Mexico, constructs relative clauses by means of a verbal suffix which has diachronically emerged from an stative/perfective suffix and a demonstrative; such a nominalizing strategy is quite distinct from those observed in others Uto-Aztecan languages from the same area. Furthermore relative clauses are only possible for subject and object; the latter shows a dependent subject encoded via an object/possessive pronoun, a characteristic feature observed also in verbal complements of the verb 'to want' as well as in some adverbial clauses. Functional equivalent constructions of oblique relative clauses show the relative suffix functioning as a clausal connective, which announces a distinct pathway of grammaticalization. Keywords: Grammaticalization; relative clauses; clause linker; Pima Bajo


Abstract. The Mediterranean Sea is considered a "hot spot" for climate change, being characterized by oligotrophic to ultra-oligotrophic waters and rapidly increasing seasurface temperature and changing carbonate chemistry. Coccolithophores are considered a dominant phytoplankton group in these waters. As marine calcifying organisms they are expected to respond to the ongoing changes in seawater carbonate chemistry. We provide here a description of the springtime coccolithophore distribution in the Mediterranean Sea and relate this to a broad set of in situ-measured environmental variables. Samples were taken during the R/V Meteor (M84/3) oceanographic cruise in April 2011, between 0 and 100 m water depth from 28 stations. Total diatom and silicoflagellate cell concentrations are also presented. Our results highlight the importance of seawater carbonate chemistry, especially [CO32−] but also [PO43−] in unraveling the distribution of heterococcolithophores, the most abundant coccolithophore life phase. Holo- and heterococcolithophores respond differently to environmental factors. For instance, changes in heterococcolithophore assemblages were best linked to the combination of [CO32−], pH, and salinity (ρ = 0.57), although salinity might be not functionally related to coccolithophore assemblage distribution. Holococcolithophores, on the other hand, showed higher abundances and species diversity in oligotrophic areas (best fit, ρ = 0.32 for nutrients), thriving in nutrient-depleted waters. Clustering of heterococcolithophores revealed three groups of species sharing more than 65% similarities. These clusters could be assigned to the eastern and western basins and deeper layers (below 50 m), respectively. In addition, the species Gephyrocapsa oceanica, G. muellerae, and Emiliania huxleyi morphotype B/C are spatially distributed together and trace the influx of Atlantic waters into the Mediterranean Sea. The results of the present work emphasize the importance of considering holo- and heterococcolithophores separately when analyzing changes in species assemblages and diversity. Our findings suggest that coccolithophores are a main phytoplankton group in the entire Mediterranean Sea and can dominate over siliceous phytoplankton. They have life stages that are expected to respond differently to the variability in seawater carbonate chemistry and nutrient concentrations.


The ability to elicit information systems requirements is a necessary learning objective for students in a contemporary information systems curriculum, and is a skill vital to their careers. Common challenges in teaching this skill include both the lack of structure and guidance in information systems textbooks as well as the view that a student's education consists of a disparate set of unrelated courses. These challenges are exacerbated by faculty who focus only on their taught courses and by textbooks that often promote an isolated, passing glance at both the importance of and the idea behind requirements elicitation. In this paper, we describe a multiyear, faculty-led effort to create and refine learning activities that are aligned to requirements elicitation learning objectives both within and scaffolded across courses in a modern information systems curriculum. To achieve success in developing this marketable skill within information systems students, learning activities were integrated across the entire information systems major in a process we call Bloomification, where learning objectives, aligned learning activities, and courses are related and connected across the curriculum. This cross-departmental process is presented and lessons learned by the faculty are discussed.


Gender differences in academic achievement have long fascinated researchers and policy-makers alike. In this paper we analyze differences in math and reading test score growth rates by gender for four different race and ethnic groups—white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students—for six different time periods. Our data cover both the earliest years of education and the crucial years of adolescence. In addition, we have data bracketing one non-schooling period. Together these data enable us to get a very complete picture of how gender gaps evolve over the course of early elementary and high school years and how these trajectories differ by race and ethnicity. While the gender gaps are not always statistically significant, they are for 15 of 48 comparisons made, all during school. In addition, all of the statistically significant results suggest that males learn more math and females more reading during early elementary school and again during high school.


The implosion of the Soviet Union has created the real likelihood of general conflagration in post-Soviet Eurasia. This is especially true of Russia's "near abroad," the territorial arc stretching from Tallin to Yalta and containing six independent countries: Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and the Baltic republics. This area contains 70 million people, over 250 strategic nuclear missiles and provided roughly one-third of the former Soviet Union's total economic output. Russian policy toward the "near abroad" will indicate what kind of Russia--nation, empire or anarchic battleground--the West will face in the 21st century. While the Cold War in Europe ended in a phenomenal strategic victory for the West, the dissolution of the USSR continues to disorient NATO capitals. The emergence of fifteen fissiparous states, the devolution of a disciplined imperial military into various self-directed armed forces, the erosion of unitary control over 30,000 nuclear warheads, and the spontaneous combustion of inter-republican conflict are among the scenarios which completely eluded Western planners even five years ago. Despite the implosion of the Warsaw Pact, any new concert of Europe will be buffeted by the ongoing revolutions in the former Soviet empire. As NATO official Christopher Donnelly puts it, "Russia is no longer threatening, but it is frightening." (1) Such an environment is hazardous for daily political forecasts, let alone long-range strategic visions. George Breslauer argues that we have no experience analyzing countries "that are attempting nation-building, political democratization, and economic reform in a context of economic austerity, imperial disintegration, and the collapse of state structures." (2) Western governments, however, must appreciate the forces driving defense and diplomacy in the former USSR in order to foresee--and, perchance, to forestall--the real likelihood of general conflagration in post-Soviet Eurasia. Several unappreciated realities demand a review of the states on Russia's European periphery. (3) The Republic of Ukraine, by virtue of its geopolitical position, resources and nuclear weapons, is already a major actor on the European security scene. Quiescent Belarus, capital of the moribund Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), nevertheless has created its own army and could be drawn into a regional conflict. A shooting war erupted in Moldova in mid-1992 which, though currently ignored by the West, evinces eerie parallels to the Balkans. (4) The Baltic republics, centrifugal pioneers of the Soviet break-up, continue to "host" unwelcome Russian military units and an unsettled Slavic population whose cause has energized Moscow's conservatives. Russian policy toward the blizhniye zarubezhniya ("near abroad") will indicate the kind of Russia--nation, empire or anarchic battleground--the West will face in the 21st century. The Region The territorial arc stretching from Tallin to Yalta contains six independent countries with 70 million inhabitants, over 250 strategic nuclear missiles, (5) and provided roughly one-third of the economic output of the former Soviet Union. Ukraine alone has a population of 52 million (including some 11 million Russians) and the second largest standing army in Europe. Unlike the Central European Warsaw Pact states, these republics did not even enjoy a chimerical notion of statehood, (6) and so were thrust even more abruptly into independence in 1991. Like Russia, all six share unfathomable socioeconomic nightmares, not least of which is that each has banished its Communist Party without casting off its Communists. Jack Snyder identifies in these countries all the historical "risk factors for intense outbursts of aggressive nationalism," i.e., "democratization, state building, marketization, mass communications." (7) The borders of these states were designed, courtesy of Josef Stalin, to heighten ethnic identities and justify repressive Soviet rule. …


In a recent paper, Professor Robert Ahdieh argues that the debate about whether corporate law federalism leads to a race to the top or the bottom is pointless because state corporate law has little to do with the quality of corporate governance. Ahdieh thinks that markets, like those for corporate control and labor, are what make corporate governance what it is, not state competition for corporate charters. This essay, which will appear in the George Washington Law Review as part of a colloquy on Ahdieh's thought-provoking paper, argues that the race debate matters because while the market for corporate control disciplines managers, it is competition among states that disciplines states from distorting the market for corporate control. After showing that the race debate matters, the essay then tries to explain the persistence and ideological valence of the debate. Why is it that the debate continues despite innumerable empirical and theoretical studies on both sides, and why is it that defenders of the federalism model are mostly conservatives and critics are mostly liberals? The answer to both questions is that the race debate is really a conflict between two visions of corporate law held by these groups. Using the framework developed by Thomas Sowell, the essay shows how the split in the academic community about the optimality of the corporate law model can be explained by one's faith in experts (what Sowell calls the "unconstrained" vision) or by one's faith in processes, like markets (what Sowell calls the "constrained" vision). The essay then offers some preliminary thoughts on the implications of this description for corporate law scholarship and some ideas on how to move the debate forward.


BACKGROUND: Raised intracranial pressure (ICP) may lead to increased stiffness of the optic nerve sheath (ONS). OBJECTIVE: To develop a method for analyzing ONS dynamics from transorbital ultrasound and investigate a potential difference between patients with raised ICP vs normal ICP. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data from 16 patients (≤12 years old) for whom ultrasound image sequences of the ONS had been acquired from both eyes just before invasive measurement of ICP. Eight patients had an ICP ≥20 mm Hg. The transverse motion on each side of the ONS was estimated from ultrasound, and Fourier analysis was used to extract the magnitude of the displacement corresponding to the heart rate. By calculating the normalized absolute difference between the displacements on each side of the ONS, a measure of ONS deformation was obtained. This parameter was referred to as the deformability index. According to our hypothesis, because deformability is inversely related to stiffness, we expected this parameter to be lower for ICP ≥20 mm Hg compared with ICP <20 mm Hg. The one-sided Mann-Whitney U test was used for statistical comparison. RESULTS: The deformability index was significantly lower in the group with ICP ≥20 mm Hg (median value 0.11 vs 0.24; P = .002). CONCLUSION: We present a method for assessment of ONS pulsatile dynamics using transorbital ultrasound imaging. A significant difference was noted between the patient groups, indicating that deformability of the ONS may be relevant as a noninvasive marker of raised ICP. The clinical implications are promising and should be investigated in future clinical studies. ABBREVIATIONS: AUC, area under curve ICP, intracranial pressure ONS, optic nerve sheath ONSD, optic nerve sheath diameter ROC, receiver operating characteristic


Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), in particular, exposure therapy, is the treatment of first choice for anxiety disorders. Patients are repeatedly exposed to the feared, but innocuous stimulus to learn that the catastrophe that they expect does not follow, which typically decreases their fear response (i.e., extinction). Clinical guidelines recommend motivating patients to inhibit all safety behaviors during exposure. Safety behaviors are actions aimed at preventing, escaping, minimizing, or neutralizing a feared outcome. Patients may misattribute the nonoccurrence of the catastrophe to their safety behavior, which hampers exposure effects. However, empirical findings are inconsistent, and show detrimental, neutral, and beneficial effects of using safety behavior during exposure. Our first aim was to test whether the negative effects of safety behaviors on exposure outcomes depend on whether safety behavior precludes the occurrence of threat. A fear conditioning experiment showed that safety behavior that precluded the occurrence of threat prevented extinction, and that safety behavior that minimized the severity of threat allowed extinction for several participants, but prevented extinction for other participants. Additionally, we found that cleaning safety behavior, which logically precludes the occurrence of threat, did not prevent a decrease in threat beliefs about contamination and illness. Together these findings suggest that the negative effects of safety behavior on exposure outcomes do not only depend on whether safety behavior prevents the occurrence of threat. Secondly, we investigated the causal influence of safety behavior on anxiety. Healthy participants clinically representative checking safety behavior on a daily basis for one week. This exacerbated their cognitions about the severity of threat. Hence, checking behavior appears to contribute to the severity of fears in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which suggests that safety behavior contributes to the exacerbation of pathological anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, in a fear conditioning experiment, we found that using safety behavior after fear extinction can promote a return of fear. This suggests that safety behavior may be involved in relapse after exposure therapy. Third and finally, we explored the potentially beneficial effects of approach-enhancing safety behavior. We found that spider fearful individuals infer safety from approach behavior in spider-relevant scenarios. This suggests that approach itself may signal safety in anxious individuals. However, approach behavior did not add to the beneficial effects of exposure: repeated exposure to a spider by pulling it toward you and by having the experimenter pull it toward you caused similar reductions in spider fear. Safety behavior can maintain irrational fears by preventing extinction learning, contribute to the development of pathological anxiety by directly exacerbating threat beliefs, and may promote a return of fear after exposure therapy. However, safety behavior that allows threat occurrences may not hamper extinction for certain individuals, cleaning safety behavior may not be detrimental to the beneficial effects of exposure in the context of disgust, and safety behavior that motivates approach may directly increase safety perceptions. Pathological anxiety is a severe clinical and societal problem; therefore efforts to translate the current findings to clinical applications are warranted.


Aim: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) is the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB) and is responsible for more than eight million new infections worldwide and about two million deaths each year. New chemotherapeutics are required to treat the emerging threat of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant strains. Materials and Methods: Microarray data analysis techniques used to find novel gene target. In the present study, it was found that four novel genes named as MetZ (amino acid biosynthesis), aceAB (respiration system), relE (virulence activity), and kdaP (cell transport system) can be targeted that are inclusive of unique and important function in cell metabolism of organism. Discontinuing the function of these genes might kill the mycobacterium and prominently the specified relE gene, which plays a significant role in virulence effect, by inhibiting this gene, an individual with TB can be saved from TB disease if diagnosed and prognosis will be done at an early stage. Pharmacophore techniques are used in the present study to screen out lacs of molecule. Molecules downloaded from ZINC database are run through pharmacophore screening and docking procedure. Results: Finally, it was observed that top five (on the bases of binding energy) molecules from docking procedure gave improved result in ADME and toxicity analysis.