The fabrication of double-gate metallic field emitter arrays with large collimation gate apertures and their field emission beam characteristics are reported. The device fabrication steps, including the molding technique for array fabrication, the electron extraction gate fabrication by the self-aligned resist etch-back method, and the fabrication of the collimation gate electrode using a focused ion beam assisted method are described in detail. The experimental results of 2 × 2 tip arrays with the proposed double-gate structure demonstrate an order of magnitude enhancement in beam brightness with minimal current loss. A similarly high beam brightness enhancement was achieved with a 20 × 20 tip array device, showing the scalability of the proposed structure. The observation of improved current-voltage characteristics with the 20 × 20 tip array is ascribed to the difference in gate aperture shape. The possibility of further improving the beam characteristics of double-gate field emitter arrays and the redu...


Abstract Much of the world's heavy oil is found in Cretaceous reservoir rocks due to a combination of tectonic, climatic, geological, and biological factors. Here we study Cretaceous oil sands from the Neuquen Basin (Argentina), Sergipe-Alagoas Basin (Brazil), Alberta (Canada), Dahomey Basin (Nigeria), Uinta Basin (USA), Western Moray Firth Basin (United Kingdom), and Wessex Basin (United Kingdom) to improve our understanding of the origin of the heavy oils. Our results indicate that the oils were generated as conventional light oil, which later degraded into heavy oils, rather than thermally cracked oils from over matured source rocks. All the studied Cretaceous oil sands are enriched in the polar fraction, and the total ion current (TIC) fragmentogram of the saturate fractions show unresolved complex mixture (UCM) humps indicating that the oils have undergone biodegradation. Sterane data for the Cretaceous oil sands show a selective increase in the C29 regular steranes relative to C27 and C28 regular sterane, which is also consistent with biodegradation. There is also evidence for diasterane degradation in some samples which are related, suggesting severe biodegradation. The trisnorhopane thermal maturity indicator showed that the Cretaceous oil sands have thermal maturity levels equivalent to 0.66–1.32% Ro, consistent with an early to late oil window. 25-norhopanes were not detected in any of the studied Cretaceous oil sands despite sterane degradation. This strongly suggests that biodegradation in the Cretaceous oil sands occurred at shallow depths rather than at greater depths. Pyrite associated with the Cretaceous oil sands was found to be consistently isotopically light. The isotopic fractionation between these pyrites and contemporary seawater sulfate was calculated using the mean δ34S values and the established seawater composition curve. This fractionation exceeded the maximum known kinetic isotope fractionation of approximately 20‰ that is possible from non-biogenic mechanisms, such as thermochemical sulfate reduction. This strongly suggests that the pyrite precipitated from an open system by means of microbial sulfate reduction as part of the biodegradation process.


ABSTRACT Fringe terrorism is common during nonviolent campaigns. We examine how this can modify the strategic environment between dissident groups and the state in ways that present both challenges and opportunities to moderate factions. Terrorism is intended to promote violent escalation in a conflict, but we argue that fringe terrorist activities in a nonviolent campaign under certain conditions can induce an advantage for well-organized moderate factions. The risk of escalation following terrorism can give the government more incentives to offer concessions to moderate campaign leaders if the movement can credibly prevent armed escalation. The ability to control and prevent violence is more likely when nonviolent movements have a hierarchical structure and a centralized leadership, as such campaigns are better able to prevent shifts by supporters towards violent fringes. Using new data on terrorist attacks by factions sharing the same overall objectives as ongoing nonviolent campaigns, we show that nonviolent campaigns are more likely to see substantial gains in spite of fringe terrorist activities when a movement has a hierarchical structure and a centralized leadership.


Clastic dikes form either by passive deposition of clastic material into preexisting fissures or by fracturing and injection of clastic material during seismic shaking or passive overpressure. Because of their similar final geometry, the origin of clastic dikes is commonly ambiguous. We studied the mechanisms of clastic dike formation within the seismically active Dead Sea basin, where hundreds of clastic dikes crosscut soft rock of the late Pleistocene lacustrine Lisan Formation. We analyzed the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of clastic dikes of known origin and defined characteristic AMS signatures of depositional or injection filling. We discovered that passively filled dikes, which contain brownish silt resembling local surface sediments, are characterized by an oblate AMS ellipsoid and vertical minimum susceptibility axis V3. Dikes that contain green clayey sediment connected to a mineralogically identical detrital layer of the Lisan Formation are characterized by a triaxial AMS ellipsoid, well grouped subhorizontal and parallel to the dike walls' maximum susceptibility axis V1, and subvertical intermediate susceptibility axis V2. Field evidence and AMS analysis indicate that most of these dikes were emplaced by injection inferred to be due to seismically triggered fluidization. This novel application of the AMS provides a petrofabric tool for distinguishing passively filled dikes from injection dikes and, where appropriate, for identifying the latter as seismites.


The diffusion of distributed energy producing systems relying on renewable sources poses a challenge to policy-makers, grid operators, and power generating companies in the electricity industry. One such case may be the diffusion of distributed storage systems integrated with photovoltaic units owned by households. On the one hand, they may act as a buffer and smooth the intra-daily variation in electricity flows through the network. On the other hand, they may increase volatility, if a large number of distributed generators simultaneously use the network once their batteries are fully discharged, by amplifying energy demand shocks. Under the latter hypothesis, the system costs would grow due to a need for larger back-up and transmission capacity, questioning the aggregate advantages of distributed storage systems. This work presents a stylised agent-based model to assess the likelihood of the two alternative effects of distributed storage systems of aggregate energy demand volatility, under different parametrisations of the power generation storage systems. The results suggest that distributed storage systems reduce fluctuations, and are thus beneficial at a systemic level, rejecting the volatility increase hypothesis. Further explorations through richer simulation models of the electricity system are welcome.


Although business strategy has attracted much attention in the literature, the review of past research suggests limited number of studies have attempted to investigate business strategy in the context of local firms, particularly among the small and medium manufacturing firms (SMMFs). The purpose of this study was to address this research issue. More specifically, this study attempted to examine whether the performance of the SMMFs differs with the type of business strategy being adopted. The data for the study was collected from 125 SMMFs. Analyses of the data provide empirical evidence that indicates significant difference between the performance and the business strategy being employed by the SMMFs in the study.


During the past 12 months there has been a major focus on collecting large databases of human faces to use as a comparative foundation for patients undergoing corrective intervention. Sometimes referred to as 'normatives,' the mass collection of this type of anatomical data across the continents has required some major breakthroughs in 3D scanning protocols and subject workflows and has opened a world of possibilities for data analysis and interpretation. This presentation will discuss a number of these projects around the world and in particular what has been learned. There will be an update on the MEIN3D project in London where more than 12,000 very diverse labeled subjects were captured at the London Science Museum in the first 12 weeks of 2012. The presentation will conclude by discussing how the data from this project and several others is being applied, which in turn will lead to a new era of understanding of facial structure and its variation. Rapidly dynamic databases of 3D faces will replace the dated studies of the past based on limited sample sizes collected due to scanner equipment limitations. From a medical perspective there will be discussion on how this information will benefit the work of researchers and clinicians for a wide range of conditions categorized as birth defects cross referencing nearly a hundred separate projects being undertaken around the world with ultra-fast modular 3D surface imaging. * www.3dmd.com 3rd International Conference on 3D Body Scanning Technologies, Lugano, Switzerland, 16-17 October 2012


How serious is spectrum fragmentation in an elastic optical network? It is addressed by the tremendous provisioning gain achieved by eliminating a particular kind of fragmentation, namely, one that could be removed by Hitless Optical Path Shift (HOPS), a non-disruptive defragmentation technology. We devised a series of HOPS-based defragmentation algorithms, ranging from proactive to reactive strategies. Analysis and simulation results show that for typical backbone networks operated with a light load, using our optimal reactive defragmentation scheme, 98% of the requested spectrum bandwidth, that is otherwise blocked, can be provisioned. Moreover, the corresponding defragmentation costs (in terms of impact on existing connections, and defragmentation delay) are kept at minimum.


The growth of cubic silicon carbide on silicon, namely 3C-SiC/Si, has been extensively studied at the University of South Florida over the past decade and numerous electronic and biomedical applications explored using this material system. The key step to 3C-SiC devices is the growth of high-quality epitaxial layers of 3C-SiC. In order to improve the manufacturability of future 3CSiC devices, a simplified 3C-SiC growth process on 50 and 100 mm Si (100) substrates has been developed in a low-pressure horizontal hot-wall chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor. A simplified growth process consists of a single thermal ramp to the growth temperature followed by the 3C-SiC growth. The 3C-SiC epitaxial layers were characterized via optical microscopy, secondary electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Examples of biomedical devices realized with this material system are also introduced, including neural probes and in-vitro recording devices, as well as myoglobin and glucose biosensors.


Binary data are often of interest in business surveys, particularly when the aim is to characterize grouping in the businesses making up the survey population. When small area estimates are required for such binary data, use of standard estimation methods based on linear mixed models (LMMs) becomes problematic. We explore two model-based techniques of small area estimation for small area proportions, the empirical best predictor (EBP) under a generalized linear mixed model and the model-based direct estimator (MBDE) under a population-level LMM. Our empirical results show that both the MBDE and the EBP perform well. The EBP is a computationally intensive method, whereas the MBDE is easy to implement. In case of model misspecification, the MBDE also appears to be more robust. The mean-squared error (MSE) estimation of MBDE is simple and straightforward, which is in contrast to the complicated MSE estimation for the EBP.


Graph-based semi-supervised learning (SSL) algorithms predict labels for all nodes based on provided labels of a small set of seed nodes. Classic methods capture the graph structure through some underlying diffusion process that propagates through the graph edges. Spectral diffusion, which includes personalized page rank and label propagation, propagates through random walks. Social diffusion propagates through shortest paths. A common ground to these diffusions is their {\em linearity}, which does not distinguish between contributions of few "strong" relations and many "weak" relations.
Recently, non-linear methods such as node embeddings and graph convolutional networks (GCN) demonstrated a large gain in quality for SSL tasks. These methods introduce multiple components and greatly vary on how the graph structure, seed label information, and other features are used.
We aim here to study the contribution of non-linearity, as an isolated ingredient, to the performance gain. To do so, we place classic linear graph diffusions in a self-training framework. Surprisingly, we observe that SSL using the resulting {\em bootstrapped diffusions} not only significantly improves over the respective non-bootstrapped baselines but also outperform state-of-the-art non-linear SSL methods. Moreover, since the self-training wrapper retains the scalability of the base method, we obtain both higher quality and better scalability.


Project management has become more than just a supporting role for businesses. For many organizations, it is a relevant part of getting things done, and the many tasks as-sociated with managing projects require more attention than just the scope of work of indi-vidual project management professionals (PMPs). This paper will contribute by showing how through taking standardization as the goal as well as using it internally, the Project management Offices (PMO) will contribute to the maturity level of the organization in terms of project management and increase the sustainability of their business. The core concept of this contribution is the use of Hoshin Kanri (HK) ideas to standardize communication among the process-responsible members at the PMO. Finally, application from a practical point of view is presented and its meaning discussed. Keywords : Project Management; PMO; Communication Standardization; Maturity Models


Background: COVID-19 is a rising health problem that affects not only the infected patients but also the non-COVID-19 group. There is a reduction of non-COVID-19 healthcare services during COVID-19 outbreaks which leads to subsequent increment of mortality. This study aims to investigate the impact of the fourth COVID-19 surge on the cardiology outpatient visits at Nhan dan Gia Dinh hospital.

Method: A retrospective observational study was conducted using extracted data from the healthcare informative system of Nhan dan Gia Dinh hospital. Monthly trends of cardiology outpatient visits between May 1st, 2021 to August 31st, 2021 were compared with those of the previous four months and the same period of the year 2020. The demographic characteristics, diagnoses, and prescription behavior were described.

Results: Non-COVID-19 cardiology outpatient visits showed a stable trend until the beginning of the fourth outbreak, in May 2021 when they dropped drastically by 50%. A reduction of 50% was observed in every diagnosis. There was a substantial decrease in visits from other provinces as well as in the concurrent diagnosis of cancer. No change in the rates of prescribed medications was observed besides the lengthening of the prescription time.

Conclusion: The fourth COVID-19 wave caused a serious impact on cardiology outpatient care which might lead to an adverse prognosis. Though there has been some adaptive modification in prescription, this phenomenon calls for more attention and adequate measurements in the non-COVID-19 population for the later outbreaks.


We consider the problem of identifying a sparse set of relevant columns and rows in a large data matrix with highly corrupted entries. This problem of identifying groups from a collection of bipartite variables such as proteins and drugs, biological species and gene sequences, malware and signatures, etc is commonly referred to as biclustering or co-clustering. Despite its great practical relevance, and although several ad-hoc methods are available for biclustering, theoretical analysis of the problem is largely non-existent. The problem we consider is also closely related to structured multiple hypothesis testing, an area of statistics that has recently witnessed a flurry of activity. We make the following contributions

1. We prove lower bounds on the minimum signal strength needed for successful recovery of a bicluster as a function of the noise variance, size of the matrix and bicluster of interest.

2. We show that a combinatorial procedure based on the scan statistic achieves this optimal limit.

3. We characterize the SNR required by several computationally tractable procedures for biclustering including element-wise thresholding, column/row average thresholding and a convex relaxation approach to sparse singular vector decomposition.


Background Chemical signals are widely used in the animal kingdom, enabling communication in various social contexts, including mate selection and the establishment of dominance. Femoral glands, which produce and release waxy secretions into the environment, are organs of central importance in lizard chemical communication. The Galápagos marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) is a squamate reptile with a lek-mating system. Although the lekking behaviour of marine iguanas has been well-studied, their potential for sexual communication via chemical cues has not yet been investigated. Here we describe the diversity of the lipophilic fraction of males' femoral gland secretions among 11 island populations of marine iguanas, and compare it with the composition of its sister species, the Galápagos land iguana (Conolophus subcristatus). We also conducted behavioural observations in marine iguana territorial males in order to explore the possible function of these substances in the context of male dominance in leks. Methods Femoral secretions were analysed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC–MS), and chromatography with a flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) in order to characterise the lipophilic composition. To understand the potential role of femoral secretions in marine iguana intraspecific communication, territorial males were sampled for their femoral glands and monitored to record their head bob rate—a territorial display behaviour in males—as well as the number of females present in their leks. Results We found that the gland secretions were composed of ten saturated and unsaturated carboxylic acids ranging in chain length between C16 and C24, as well as three sterols. Cholesterol was the main compound found. Intriguingly, land iguanas have a higher diversity of lipophilic compounds, with structural group of lipids (i.e. aldehydes) entirely absent in marine iguanas; overall the chemical signals of both species were strongly differentiated. Lipid profiles also differed among populations of marine iguanas from different islands, with some islands demonstrating a high diversity of lipophilic compounds (i.e. full spectra of compounds), and others lacking one or more compounds. Among the compounds most frequently found missing were 11- and 13-eicosenoic acids. Gland secretions of males with a better body condition and with a higher dominance status (i.e. those accompanied by females and with higher head bob display) were proportionately richer in C20-unsaturated fatty acids (11-eicosenoic acid). Discussion Land and marine iguanas strongly diverged in their chemical composition of the femoral glands likely due to ecological differences between both species. Despite that marine iguana populations varied in their femoral gland composition that was not related to their genetic structure. Our results indicated that 11-eicosenoic acid may play an important role in intraspecific chemical communication in marine iguanas.


In this article we present a novel nested dynamic programming (nDP) algorithm for multipurpose reservoir optimization with additional decision variables related to different water users. The nDP algorithm is built from two algorithms: (1) dynamic programming (DP) and (2) nested optimization algorithm implemented with Simplex and quadratic Knapsack methods. The novel idea is to include a nested optimization algorithm into the DP transition that reduces the initial problem dimension and alleviates the DP's curse of dimensionality. The nDP can solve multi-objective optimization problems, without significantly increasing the algorithm complexity and the computational expenses. Computationally, the nDP can handle dense and irregular variable discretization; it is coded in Java as a prototype application and has been successfully tested with eight objectives at the Knezevo reservoir in the Republic of Macedonia. The article presents a discussion on comparison of nDP with other DP methods and highlights the advantages of nDP.


In this paper we extend the Granovetter threshold model with partial participation towards a collective action. That is, agents may partake by conducting an action that is less costly than the ultimate collective action, but costly enough to signal a commitment to the cause. We show that it is not just the exact distribution of thresholds, but also the distribution of available actions that determines whether a collective action will be achieved. We suggest and prove propositions for how both an inventive "activist" and a "dictator" may strategically change the signaling value of existing actions, or introduce new ones, in order to either instigate or stifle collective action. Applying the theory to revolutions, we argue that new technology can play a role beyond that of communication and synchronization, viz. that of adding modes of partial, less arduous, participation.


By providing external information to large language models (LLMs), tool augmentation (including retrieval augmentation) has emerged as a promising solution for addressing the limitations of LLMs' static parametric memory. However, how receptive are LLMs to such external evidence, especially when the evidence conflicts with their parametric memory? We present the first comprehensive and controlled investigation into the behavior of LLMs when encountering knowledge conflicts. We propose a systematic framework to elicit highquality parametric memory from LLMs and construct the corresponding counter-memory, which enables us to conduct a series of controlled experiments. Our investigation reveals seemingly contradicting behaviors of LLMs. On the one hand, different from prior wisdom, we find that LLMs can be highly receptive to external evidence even when that conflicts with their parametric memory, given that the external evidence is coherent and convincing. On the other hand, LLMs also demonstrate a strong confirmation bias when the external evidence contains some information that is consistent with their parametric memory, despite being presented with conflicting evidence at the same time. These results pose important implications that are worth careful consideration for the further development and deployment of tooland retrieval-augmented LLMs.1


Many real-world applications require the successful combination of spatial and temporal reasoning. In this paper, we study the general framework of the Traveling Salesman Problem with Simple Temporal Constraints. Representationally, this framework subsumes the Traveling Salesman Problem, Simple Temporal Problems, as well as many of the frameworks described in the literature. We analyze the theoretical properties of the combined problem providing strong inapproximability results for the general problem, and positive results for some special cases.


High-quality-factor optical ring resonators have recently been fabricated in thin silicon-on-insulator (SOI). Practical applications of such devices will require careful tuning of the precise location of the resonance peaks. In particular, one often wants to maximize the resonance shift due to the presence of an active component and minimize the resonance shift due to temperature changes. This paper presents a semianalytic formalism that allows the prediction of such resonance shifts from the waveguide geometry. This paper also presents the results of experiments that show the tuning behavior of several ring resonators and find that the proposed semianalytic formalism agrees with the observed behavior.


It is suggested in this article that perhaps during those occasions in which some distance exists between ourselves and our problems in life, we might experience an opportunity for reflective thinking. It is also suggested that opportunities for reflective thinking might be of benefit to clients in counseling. This article reviews selected literature addressing reflective thinking and it reviews selected literature that would seem to provide a perspective on facilitating "space" for reflective thinking during family counseling.


Driven by the visions of Data Science, recent years have seen a paradigm shift in Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP has set the milestone in text processing and proved to be the preferred choice for researchers in the healthcare domain. The objective of this paper is to identify the potential of NLP, especially, how NLP is used to support the knowledge management process in the healthcare domain, making data a critical and trusted component in improving the health outcomes. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art NLP research with a particular focus on how knowledge is created, captured, shared, and applied in the healthcare domain. Our findings suggest, first, the techniques of NLP those supporting knowledge management extraction and knowledge capture processes in healthcare. Second, we propose a conceptual model for the knowledge extraction process through NLP. Finally, we discuss a set of issues, challenges, and proposed future research areas.


The Irish writer John McGahern is acknowledged as a master stylist in both his novels and his short stories. In this article we discuss the stylistic and narratological factors that contribute to the artistry in McGahern's short story writing. We analyse three stories: "A Slip-up", "All Sorts of Impossible Things", and "Creatures of the Earth", using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The stylistic devices that we concentrate on are speech and thought presentation, negative polarity, lexico-semantic foregrounding, prospection and projection, collocation and semantic prosody, and keyness. We argue that by analysing these devices it is possible to gain an insight into the way in which McGahern draws the reader into his stories and generates empathetic responses to his characters. Consequently, these stylistic techniques may be seen as integral to McGahern's style as a writer.


PURPOSE
Biomarkers that predict response to poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPis) are required to detect PARPi sensitivity beyond germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm) cancers and PARPi resistance among reverted gBRCAm cancers. Therefore, we previously developed the Repair Capacity (RECAP) test, a functional homologous recombination (HR) assay that exploits the formation of RAD51 foci in proliferating cells after ex vivo irradiation of fresh primary breast cancer tissue. The aim of the current study was to validate the feasibility of this test on histologic biopsy specimens from metastatic breast cancer and to explore the utility of the RECAP test as a predictive tool for treatment with DNA-damaging agents, such as PARPis.

METHODS
Fresh tissue biopsies from easily accessible metastatic lesions from patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer were irradiated with 5 Gy and cultured for 2 hours followed by detection of RAD51 foci presence (HR proficient) or absence (HR deficient [HRD]). HRD biopsy specimens as well as platinum/PARP-resistant specimens were subjected to BRCA1/2 sequencing.

RESULTS
RECAP had a success rate of 93% on biopsy specimens from metastatic breast cancer lesions (n = 44). Although HRD was detected in 13 (32%) of 41 specimens, only five showed a gBRCAm. In three patients with gBRCAm, post-treatment RECAP tests showed HR phenotype reversion after in vivo progressive disease on platinum and PARPi treatment, which was explained in one patient by a secondary BRCA1 mutation.

CONCLUSION
The RECAP test, which reflects real-time HR status regardless of BRCA mutations, is feasible in metastatic breast cancer biopsy specimens. Compared with gBRCA analysis, it may identify twice as many candidates for PARPi treatment.


Since eukaryotic cells constantly encounter various environmental insults, they have evolved defense mechanisms to cope with toxicant- and carcinogen-induced oxidative stress or electrophiles. One of the most important cellular defense mechanisms against oxidative stress or electrophiles is mediated by the transcription factor Nrf2. Under the basal condition, Nrf2-dependent transcription is repressed by a negative regulator Keap1. When cells are exposed to oxidative stress, electrophiles, or chemopreventive agents, Nrf2 escapes Keap1-mediated repression and activates antioxidant responsive element (ARE)-dependent gene expression to maintain cellular redox homeostasis. Beyond its antioxidant function, Nrf2 has recently been recognized as a key factor regulating an array of genes that defend cells against the deleterious effects of environmental insults. Since this Nrf2-dependent cellular defense response is able to protect multi-organs or multi-tissues, activation of Nrf2 has been implicated in conferring protection against many human diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, acute and chronic lung injury, autoimmune diseases, and inflammation. Therefore, understanding of Nrf2 regulation is crucial in the development of drugs for therapeutic intervention. This review will discuss recent progress in the field of the Nrf2-Keap1 signaling pathway, with emphasis on the mechanistic studies of Nrf2 regulation by Keap1, oxidative stress, or chemopreventive compounds.


In this study I examine the joint effect of explanations and monetary incentives on employees' effort allocation decisions in a multi-action setting. A rich literature in economics indicates that monetary incentives substantially influence employees' decisions. This literature demonstrates that the size of the incentive for a given performance measure should consider the measure's sensitivity, congruence and precision. Research in psychology demonstrates the decision influencing effects of explanations (a non-monetary factor) on employees' decisions through perceptions of fairness. I expect that effort allocation decisions are influenced both by explanations and monetary incentives: I hypothesize that providing reasonable and complete explanations substantively alter agents' action choices relative to a setting with monetary incentives alone. Using student subjects in experiments, I find that monetary incentives matter. Moreover, for sizeable monetary incentives, providing a detailed explanation modifies behavior favorably relative to when an unclear explanation is provided. However, for all of the considered monetary incentives, merely requesting a desired course of action is also enough to modify behavior favorably. This study contributes to the accounting literature by providing evidence of a decision influencing benefit associated with the use of explanations such as causal maps employed by firms adopting the balanced scorecard. This study also contributes to the organizational justice literature by (1) providing evidence regarding the interaction effect of multiple antecedents of justice, and (2) by confirming that not providing an explanation for a desired allocation of effort is better than providing a poor explanation. Finally, the results of this study provide empirical support to the analytic literature indicating that monetary incentives used to align goals should consider the precision with which the performance measures capture actual effort allocation.


Develop Android applications with one of the most widely used database engines, SQLite About This BookDevelop database-driven Android applications and stay ahead of the curveExplore the best techniques to use cursors and loaders to achieve optimum resultsA step-by-step approach to use SQLite for building Android applicationsWho This Book Is ForThis is an ideal book for Android programmers who want to explore SQLite databases based on Android applications. The general competency level expected of the reader is prior knowledge of developing applications and basic knowledge of Android and SQL. In Detail SQLite is an open source relational database management system. Android uses the SQLite database to store and retrieve data persistently. The driving force behind the platform is the database, enabling a myriad of choices for developers making cutting-edge applications.Android SQLite Essentials focuses on the core concepts behind building database-driven applications. This book covers the basic and advanced topics with equivalent simplicity and detail, in order to enable readers to quickly grasp and implement the concepts to build an application database.This book takes a hands-on, example-based approach to help readers understand the core topics of SQLite and Android database-driven applications. This book focuses on providing you with latent as well as widespread knowledge about practices and approaches towards development in an easily understandable manner.


Background Signs of cardiac transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis (ATTR) in patients with echocardiographic increase in interventricular septal thickness (IVST) are lacking. Objectives To identify clinical and ECG/echocardiographic signs associated with increased IVST in ATTR. Methods Analysis of patients with baseline echocardiography in the Transthyretin Amyloidosis Outcomes Survey (THAOS) registry (N=1682). Patients were categorised into IVST classes according to the American Society of Echocardiography classification adapted to gender (ie, normal, mild, moderate, severe); then into two combined IVST classes (normal-mild and moderate-severe). Results 425 patients were included: 336 with a TTR mutation (m-TTR) and 89 with wild-type TTR (WT-TTR). 72% were men. Median (25th, 75th centile) age was 62 (45, 72) years. Non-Val30Met and WT-TTR were frequent in moderate (41% and 35%) and severe (50% and 33%) IVST classes. Median IVST was 15 mm (14, 16) (moderate) and 20 mm (18, 22) (severe). In the combined moderate-severe class, 85% of patients were ≥55 years of age; 81% were men; 86% had blood pressure <140 mm Hg; and 77% had increased right ventricle thickness (≥7 mm). Up to 66% of patients had cardiac sparkling. Systolic dysfunction (left ventricular ejection fraction <50%), restrictive pattern and low voltage were less frequent, and observed in 49%, 18% and 33% of patients, respectively. Conclusions Increased IVST, especially in men ≥55 years with normal systolic blood pressure, increase in right ventricle free wall and valve thicknesses, and sparkling, should alert practitioners to the possibility of ATTR. Absence of restrictive pattern and low voltage should not rule out the suspicion. Trial registration number: NCT00628745 (clinicaltrials.gov).


This paper considers the estimation and testing of demand systems when the number of sample goods is smaller than the number of commodity choices available to consumers. In this case, the demand system is incomplete. The large majority of papers that appeared in the literature specifies and estimates a demand system in share format even when the system may be incomplete. The criterion for deciding whether a share format is admissible without loss of information is a test of the adding-up condition. This test, however, requires the estimation of a demand system in quantity format.


Complement factor C3a and its receptor are required for the mutual attraction and collective migration of neural crest cells. Collective migration, in which cells move in a coordinated manner as a group, is important during development and in the movement of mesenchymal cells during metastasis. Within the migrating population, cell-cell adhesive forces are weaker than those of epithelial cells, which suggests that other mechanisms are responsible for the mutual attraction of cells within the group. Carmona-Fontaine et al. studied the collective migration of Xenopus and zebrafish neural crest (NC) cells, an embryonic cell population that undergoes an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) before exhibiting collective migration. Mathematical modeling and analysis of the migration of NC cell explants across a matrix in vitro suggested that an active mutual attraction mechanism was required to counterbalance the repulsive forces exerted by the matrix. A screen of proteins secreted by NC cells identified the complement component C3a. In vitro chemotaxis assays showed that C3a stimulated the chemotaxis of NC cells, which was prevented by blocking the C3a receptor (C3aR), which was present on migratory, but not premigratory, NC cells. Interfering with C3a or C3aR function prevented an NC graft from joining with endogenous NC cells in embryos and also enhanced the dispersion of NC cell clusters. Blocking C3aR function also impaired the collective migration of NC cells to the chemokine Sdf1 in vitro. C3a-C3aR interactions had no effect on cell-cell adhesion or on adhesion of the cells to fibronectin. Live imaging of NC cell migration in embryos showed that NC cells deficient in C3aR or treated with blocking antibody against C3a lost their ability to collectively migrate and became dispersed. Together, these data suggest that C3a and its receptor underlie the mutual attraction of NC cells, enabling the cells to migrate as a group in a coordinated manner. C. Carmona-Fontaine, E. Theveneau, A. Tzekou, M. Tada, M. Woods, K. M. Page, M. Parsons, J. D. Lambris, R. Mayor, Complement fragment C3a controls mutual cell attraction during collective cell migration. Dev. Cell 21, 1026–1037 (2011). [PubMed]


Background: The patient/caregiver experience during CAR-T therapy is stressful, overwhelming, terrifying, and often a patient's last treatment option. The Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery Innovation and Design team has worked with the CAR-T therapy clinical team to develop a patient experience that provides patients with a sense of caring, supportive environment, timely knowledge, and realistic expectations. Using a human-centered design approach, the Innovation and Design team worked with patients and caregivers to understand latent and unspoken needs in order to develop an ideal CAR-T therapy patient journey. Methods: With qualitative interviewing techniques, patient observation, and low fidelity experimentation, 21 patients/caregiver pairs were interviewed throughout their CAR-T therapy experience in 2018. Patients were interviewed at several touch points as well as encouraged to reach out to the Innovation and Design team at any point with reflections on their experiences. Patients were recruited as they began their evaluation phase for CAR-T therapy. The interviews were unscripted to allow for a breadth of discovery by not constraining the conversations to previously developed themes. As themes emerged from patient/caregiver interviews, artifacts and interventions were designed to alleviate pain points and improve the patient/caregiver experience. These artifacts and interventions were integrated into the clinical processes in real time and patient/caregivers were interviewed to understand the impact of these activities. Results: Several themes emerged from qualitative interviews with patients and caregivers. From the themes, interventions were developed. We were able to demonstrate a qualitative improvement in patient/caregiver experience through these interventions (Figure 1). Conclusions: Patients/caregivers undergoing CAR-T therapy have unique issues surrounding the logistics of care, emotional burden, and physical effects of treatment. We implemented processes to address these issues and observed a qualitative improvement via patient interviews/feedback. Ongoing work includes optimizing remote monitoring, digital platforms for patient education, and a quantitative study looking at patient reported outcomes (PROs) in such patients. To our knowledge, this is the first report for care delivery optimization in real-world practice for this new therapy.


Since the early 2000s, a real attention is paid to physical impairments arising in large-scale optical networks. One cost-effective solution to cope with transmission impairments is to deploy 3R (re-amplifying, re-shaping, and re-timing) regenerators in a limited number of network nodes (i.e., translucent networks). Taking into account the simultaneous effect of four transmission impairments (amplified spontaneous emission, chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion, and nonlinear phase shift), we propose a novel exact approach for impairment-aware network planning. In contrast with previous works, we investigate the problem under pre-planed dynamic traffic. Our proposal takes advantage of the dynamics of the traffic pattern so that regeneration resources may be shared among non-concurrent requests. Given a network topology and a set of pre-planned requests, we target the minimum number of regenerators or/and regeneration sites. Obtained results emphasize the mutual impact between requests' time-correlation and regenerator concentration.


The main objective of this study is estimating the strong motion for the Bam region using the stochastically based seismological models. The two widely used synthetic techniques namely; point-source and finite-fault were utilized incorporating the source-path and site parameters into simple function. The decay factor kappa was estimated based on the data obtained from recorded strong motions to be used as an appropriate factor for the region. The results were validated against those of the recorded data during the destructive 26 December 2003 Bam earthquake in south east of Iran. The efficiency of these methods and estimating the appropriate regional model parameters are the main objectives of this study. The results of the synthesized ground motion, such as acceleration time history, PGA and elastic response spectra were compared /assessed with those of observed data. The Bias model (MB) is used to assess the validation of the simulated earthquakes against recorded horizontal acceleration time histories. The %90 confidence interval of the means averaged over the whole stations using t-student distribution was evaluated and it was shown to be in an acceptable range. The elastic response spectra of the simulated strong motion are showed to be in a good agreement between the recorded waveforms confirming the acceptability of the selected/evaluated source-path-site model parameters. The sensitivity of the simulated PGA and response spectra against kappa factor as well as the pathaveraged frequency-dependent quality factor Q, is studied and discussed.


Most stochastic optimization methods use gradients once before discarding them. While variance reduction methods have shown that reusing past gradients can be beneficial when there is a finite number of datapoints, they do not easily extend to the online setting. One issue is the staleness due to using past gradients. We propose to correct this staleness using the idea of implicit gradient transport (IGT) which transforms gradients computed at previous iterates into gradients evaluated at the current iterate without using the Hessian explicitly. In addition to reducing the variance and bias of our updates over time, IGT can be used as a drop-in replacement for the gradient estimate in a number of well-understood methods such as heavy ball or Adam. We show experimentally that it achieves state-of-the-art results on a wide range of architectures and benchmarks. Additionally, the IGT gradient estimator yields the optimal asymptotic convergence rate for online stochastic optimization in the restricted setting where the Hessians of all component functions are equal.


Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive malignant neoplasm of the pleura related to asbestos exposure. Despite recent advances in therapy for MPM, the prognosis remains poor, with considerable treatment associated morbidity. Radiological assessment plays a central role in the timely identification and subsequent management of treatment related complications in MPM. This review highlights common and uncommon complications associated with and encountered in the post treatment phase.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate safety, tolerability and efficacy on Raynaud's phenomenon (Rp) of iloprost infusion without peristaltic pump in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). PATIENTS AND METHODS: The inclusion criteria were diagnosis of SSc, age between 18 and 65 years, presence of Rp, and absence of any contraindication to the use of iloprost. The treatment was carried out in a day hospital setting and consisted first of 5 consecutive days of iloprost infusion (from an initial dose of 1.0 ng/Kg/min up to 2 ng/kg/min), and then of 2 days of infusions at the maximum possible dose every 45 days for one year. All of the adverse events were carefully recorded and the changes in the Rp were measured by a 5 grade scale (worsened, unmodified, slightly improved, very improved, disappeared). RESULTS: Thirty-eight SSc patients (all females), mean age 49 years (range 18.5-65), disease duration 1.5 years (range 0.5-10.8) were enrolled in the study. During the first cycle of therapy, 14 adverse events occurred in 11 (28.9%) patients and during the next cycles, 3 adverse events were seen in 3 (7.9%) patients. In all of the cases they were mild and transient. Rp was considered very improved in 15 (39.5%) patients, slightly improved in 13 (34.2%), unmodified in 8 (21%) and worse in 2 (5.2%). DISCUSSION: In this study intravenous iloprost without peristaltic pump proved to be safe, well tolerated, and as effective as traditional infusion through peristaltic pump in improving Rp in patients with SSc.


In "The Secret Integration" (1964), some middleclass white boys find themselves one night in the hotel room of a black man, the first they have ever met. Carl McAfee is a homeless jazz musician, alcoholic and broke – an exemplary figure of Beat mythology. The stories he tells them about his life and loves, his travels and adventures, his anguish and fear reveal to these kids from secure homes the outer limits of a world whose existence they had never suspected. "Tim's foot felt the edge of a certain abyss which he had been walking close to–for who knew how long? – without knowing. He looked over it, got afraid, and shied away" (SL 183). In his relation to these white boys, McAfee evokes a literary legacy traceable back to Huck's Jim and further. Exploration along the edges of America's racial boundaries has long been accepted as a part of white male coming of age; indeed, its ritualized function was clear to Leslie Fiedler, who observed that, "Born theoretically white, we are permitted to pass our childhood as imaginary Indians, our adolescence as imaginary Negroes, and only then are expected to settle down to being what we are told we really are: white once more" (134). Pynchon's story does more, however, than simply rehearse this quintessential American white male imagery as part of a coming-of-age tale. "The Secret Integration" calls attention to the racial taxonomy that makes this trope possible, examines the enculturation process by which this racial coding is inscribed as part of growing up white, and situates it at a historical moment when its conditions of possibility are being challenged.


We designed a Kansei retrieval system, which facilitates integrated retrieval of multimedia data from several distributed multimedia databases on the network according to user's sensibility. This system is based on the method we proposed, of semi-automatic indexing with emotional keywords such as genre names for multimedia database (e.g. movie files, audio files) according to user's sensibility by using users' access histories for databases. In order to facilitate integrated Kansei retrieval, we designed the system with a meta-search engine, and also designed the protocol among clients, meta-search engine, and databases.


Jim Harrison's fiction is diverse in its genres, protagonists, and settings: from novel to novella - from comically masculine rogue to the psychically scarred female - from wilderness to city. This study examines the metaphors Harrison uses to offer critical entrance into his fiction - food, place, ecological concerns, journey, "soul history," and region. Harrison's fiction contains the underlying currents of alienation and lost identity, and he uses these currents imbedded in modern life to explore the viability of the mythic quest and the American Dream. This study, the first full length critical analysis of Harrison's work, illuminates Harrison's diversity and range, placing him in the top echelon of contemporary American authors. Through personal association and a passionate attachment to Harrison's work, Patrick Smith uses close readings and contemporary literary theory to produce criticism that sketches the scope of Harrison's influence.


In his exposition of an economic theory of property rights, Harold Demsetz reinforced a foundational assumption in property law: that private ownership is the best way to harness resources for wealth-building purposes. Implicit in Demsetz's model is the largely undefined belief that private ownership will incentivize appropriate use of the property because such use produces higher exchange value. This Article identifies a blind spot in Demsetz's theory that has largely escaped attention in property law and theory. While fully acknowledging the powerful connection between use and exchange value delineated by Demsetz, it argues that, in disparate markets for new or emerging forms of property, the grant of property rights produces the opposite result from his prediction. As a consequence of failures in or deteriorations of use, a fundamental disconnect occurs in the process of developing exchange value. Rather than creating individual and systemic wealth, property ownership in these settings produces rent-seeking and systemic instability. Because use appears to derive inevitably from ownership, property law does little to incentivize use. To correct this omission, this Article provides a framework for incentivizing use by owners of emergent property. It provides both a more detailed definition of use and a spectrum of interventions for this purpose. This normative framework sheds new lights on recent debates about commodification of such things as human organs and cultural property. It also provides insights on property's role as a stabilizer of markets that are prone to bubbles and crashes. A greater sensitivity to use can guide appropriate policy choices in each of these difficult areas of market malfunction. By undertaking a theoretical analysis of use's potential as a facilitator of stable market exchange, this Article provides a framework for analyzing and solving instability at the core of many markets for emergent property. The concept of use has been under-theorized and underappreciated for its prescriptive potential. This Article begins the work of correcting that omission in property scholarship by giving use the more instrumental place it deserves in the owner's bundle of rights.


The Asia-Pacific region is at the forefront of the current epidemic of diabetes. There are currently more than 30 million people with diabetes in the Western Pacific region alone. The World Health Organization predicts that this number will rise dramatically by the year 2025, by which time India and China may each face the problem of dealing with 50 million affected individuals. The problem in the region results from a combination of large population size with rapidly rising prevalence rates, particularly of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Although much heterogeneity exists, rising prevalence rates are being seen throughout the region and appear to be closely associated with westernisation, urbanisation, and mechanisation. The risk for diabetes appears to result from a combination of genetic predisposition and lifestyle change. The most important lifestyle changes relate to changes in dietary habits and physical activity and diabetes risk, particularly in younger individuals, is associated with the development of obesity and particularly central obesity. In some populations, for example Chinese, the relationship between diabetes and weight gain begins to appear at levels of body weight that would not be conventionally regarded as representing obesity. The increasing trend for type 2 diabetes to develop in young people is of particular concern. In children and adolescents in some parts of the region, type 2 diabetes now outnumbers type 1 diabetes by a ratio of 4:1. In view of the severity of the long-term complications of diabetes, the health consequences of this epidemic will become increasingly devastating and threaten to overwhelm the health care systems in the most vulnerable countries. There is an urgent need for prioritisation of diabetes as a key issue by governments throughout the region. Diabetes prevention programmes can be justified on economic, as well as humanitarian grounds. At the level of primary prevention, such programmes can be linked to other non-communicable disease prevention programmes which also target lifestyle-related issues.


The paper presents a comprehensive reform agenda for Polish universities in the years to come. It discusses major problems of higher education funding, governance and organization and suggests a set of possible interrelated steps. The reform agenda is based on several underlying principles, including competition and quasi-market, internationalization, scientific excellence, vertical stratification of the system (into three major institutional types – with a focus on the emergence of internationally visible national flagship universities), and the concentration of research funding in research-active universities. The paper refers also to the national parameterization exercise (as performed by the KEJN), major national funding bodies, national quality assurance and accreditation systems, as well as academic careers.


Interconnect tuning is an increasingly critical degree of freedom in the physical design of high-performance VLSI systems. By interconnect tuning, we refer to the selection of line thicknesses, widths and spacings in multi-layer interconnect to simultaneously optimize signal distribution, signal performance, signal integrity, and interconnect manufacturability and reliability. This is a key activity in most leading-edge design projects, but has received little attention in the literature. Our work provides the first technology-specific studies of interconnect tuning in the literature. We center on global wiring layers and interconnect tuning issues related to bus routing, repeater insertion, and choice of shielding/spacing rules for signal integrity and performance. We address four basic questions. (1) How should width and spacing be allocated to maximize performance for a given line pitch? (2) For a given line pitch, what criteria affect the optimal interval at which repeaters Should be inserted into global interconnects? (3) Under what circumstances are shield wires the optimum technique for improving interconnect performance? (4) In global interconnect with repeaters, what other interconnect tuning is possible? Our study of question (4) demonstrates a new approach of offsetting repeater placements that can reduce worst-case cross-chip delays by over 30% in current technologies.


Our modern world appears to lack a way to find truth. Philosophically, this problem is formulated in a manner of knowing which never gets beyond the subject of the universe; even objectivity in the universe is arguable. The effort called empirical science then gives us conclusions that regularly perpetuate an unstable world. Due to this real subjective empirical constraint, the usual approach to therapeutic Counseling offers methods focused on the individual obtaining skills and conceptions that function to mitigate the apparent and ubiquitous problem of modernity. Empirical science, whether it be physical, biological or phenomenal, has left us with only problem; it leaves us in a lurch, right in the middle of a contradiction of a subject able to know truth. This is the main problem of mental health. I propose that modern problems of mental health cannot be solved truly with reference to what I call the conventional method of experiment and argumentative reason. We require a true and knowable substance of the universe if we are to gain headway. To this end, I propose a unitive discipline of Counseling founded in what is true of the universe. Less about the negotiation between subjects and more about what is true of that negotiation. This essay uses the philosophy of Graham Harman, called Object Oriented Ontology, or "Triple-O", as a means to begin to establish the truthful substance of Counseling as a discipline in its own right, which is to say as well, as a universal object.


The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of macroeconomic and banking factors on credit risk in Islamic banking.The methodology used is panel data regression analysis. The data set is consisting of secondary data from banking financial statements contained in the respective websites, as well as macroeconomic variables obtained from the Central Bureau of Statistics and Central Bank Indonesia for the period 2010 to 2016. The results support the hypothesis that the SIZE of the bank is influencing positively and significantly the credit risk. Other variables tested were financing expansion, financing quality, GDP and inflation which have been proven to influence negatively and significantly the credit risk. These results support the results of another study by Effendi and Yuniarti (2018) regarding the influence of macroeconomic variables on credit risk. The contribution of this article is that similar conclusions have been made regarding the influence of banking factors on credit risk. Both results lead to the conclusion that Islamic banking could be affected negatively if it does not regulate the quality and the expansion of its financing properly.


A Fabry-Perot cavity milled with a focused ion beam on a tapered fiber tip is proposed for in vivo neural activity recording as an optical method. Optical fiber micro-tips are good candidate devices for sensing applications in a small volume and difficult to access locations, such as neuroscience research. The fiber-based probe is electrical artifact-free, labeling free, and feasible for a portable system compared with conventional in vivo neural recording networks. Optical signals and electrical neural activity from the rat somatosensory cortex were simultaneously recorded. This fiber-based probe promises the enhanced ability to extracellular recording of the neural activity in neurophotonics applications. It has a potential capability compared with optrode in optogenetics techniques. Therefore, a single fiber optic probe can be used for simultaneous optical stimulation and optical recording.


Lipid tracers including fatty acids, hydroxyacids, n-alkanols, sterols and triterpenoids were used to determine the origin and fate of suspended particulate organic matter (POM) collected in the Rhone River (France). This seasonal survey (April 2011 to May 2013) revealed a year-round strong terrestrial higher-plant contribution to the particulate organic matter (POM), with significant algal inputs observed in March and attributed to phytoplanktonic blooms likely dominated by diatoms. Major terrigenous contributors to our samples are gymnosperms, and more precisely their roots and stems, as evidenced by the presence of high proportions of ω-hydroxydocosanoic acid (a suberin biomarker). The high amounts of coprostanol detected clearly show that the Rhone River is significantly affected by sewage waters. Specific sterol degradation products were quantified and used to assess the part of biotic and abiotic degradation of POM within the river. Higher-plant-derived organic matter appears to be mainly affected by photo-oxidation and au-toxidation (free radical oxidation), while organic matter of mammal or human origin, evidenced by the presence of co-prostanol, is clearly more prone to bacterial degradation. Despite the involvement of an intense autoxidation-inducing ho-molytic cleavage of peroxy bonds, a significant proportion of hydroperoxides is still intact in higher plant debris. These compounds could affect the degradation of terrestrial material by inducing an intense autoxidation upon its arrival at sea.


Jatropha projects have been set up worldwide as solution to reduce competition between food and biofuel production. Jatropha is mostly produced on marginal land in developing countries and production is labour-intensive. The subject of this study is an existing Jatropha plantation in central Madagascar. The aims are to assess whether large-scale Jatropha plantations offer sufficient income possibilities to contribute to poverty alleviation and food security. The results show that incomes and food security improved in 2008 due to income generated on the plantation, but deteriorated between 2008 and 2010 mostly due to a decline in agricultural yields for climatic reasons. We find weak evidence that households working for the plantation experienced less reduction in incomes and expenditures than control households. The majority of households did not reduce agricultural production; plantation workers are mostly poorer farmers who need an additional income source.


Polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) of different morphologies (spheres and worms) were synthesized using a visible light mediated polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) approach. Spherical and worm-like NPs were subsequently modified to generate diazeniumdiolate functionalized NPs. Interestingly, the NO release rate and the dispersal of biofilms were found to strongly depend on the NP morphology. NPs with a higher aspect ratio (worms) exhibited a slower NO release rate and greater biofilm dispersal after 1 h of incubation.

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We analyze carbon-related BAMs (focused on imports) as potential instruments to reduce emissions leakage. We combine an approach from international trade law with an economic approach. For the legal aspect we discuss the elements needed to include carbon-related BAMs within the current GATT and WTO frameworks. For the economic aspect, we assess the effects of leakage and of BAMs to tackle it within an optimal climate policy model and a general equilibrium model. We find that the design and implementation of these BAMs would be difficult to bring in compliance with current international trade law and it may entail high transaction costs. Moreover, we observe that the severity of leakage may be amplified by international trade and that BAMs help in reducing it. Finally, we find that welfare effects of introducing carbon-related BAMs are ambiguous and thus they may not represent a credible threat to involve other actors in the international climate regime.


Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance Hearing on International Tax Reform, October 3, 2017.
Objectives for Tax Reform: Tax reform should maintain or enhance our tax system's current level of progressivity in distributing tax burdens and benefits. The most significant social welfare fact today is that the income of middle and lower income workers has stagnated in recent decades and a disproportionate share of income growth has accrued to those with highest incomes — the top 1%. While we have recovered from the recession and middle and lower income workers have made some gains, the disparity between high-income and middle- and lower-income has grown substantially and income mobility is more constrained than for prior generations. The taxation of cross-border income of U.S. MNCs should be analyzed under the same fairness standards that apply to any other income.
In particular, as I discuss later in this testimony, a reduced "holiday" tax rate on U.S. MNCs' pre-effective date offshore earnings will overwhelmingly benefit high-income Americans (and foreigners) and is not justified on any policy ground. Its sole purpose is to provide a one-time source of revenue that disguises the future revenue loss from shifting to a weak territorial system.
Tax reform should be revenue neutral or increase net revenues. The central importance of our tax system to national competitiveness and growth is to fund public goods, such as education, basic research, infrastructure, healthcare and income security transfers, and national defense. These government services and capital expenditures support a high standard of living, income security, and physical security for all Americans. It is the job of the tax system to raise the necessary revenue to fund needed public expenditure and not add trillions to the national debt as proposed in the Senate Budget proposal and the GOP Tax Reform Plan.
Objectives for International Tax Reform: International tax reform should maintain or increase, not reduce, the aggregate tax on U.S. MNCs' foreign income. There is no policy justification to advantage international business income of multinational corporations (MNCs) beyond allowing a credit for foreign income taxes. Moreover, evidence does not support claims that U.S. MNCs are overtaxed or are non-competitive as a consequence of U.S. tax rules. The U.S. Treasury Department found that the average tax paid by U.S. companies from 2007–2011 on their book earnings plus foreign dividends was 22%. The most recent publicly available Statistics of Income data for 2012 shows that foreign subsidiaries of U.S. MNCs in the aggregate paid an average foreign tax rate of 12%. Foreign income should be taxed currently or, if that is not politically feasible, under a per country minimum tax regime that is effective in discouraging tax avoidance through transfer pricing and related techniques that shift and indirectly erode the U.S. tax base.
International tax reform should assure that the tax rules for foreign multinational companies on U.S. business activity does not provide them an advantage in relation to U.S. companies. Tax reform should undertake a fundamental review of U.S. source taxation of cross-border activity having a U.S. destination including remote digital sales into the United States. In addition, tax reform should strengthen U.S. corporate residence and earnings stripping rules.
Taxation of international portfolio income should be fundamentally re-examined. Under current rules, there are U.S. tax advantages for portfolio investment by U.S. investors in foreign stock over domestic stock. Similarly, foreign pension funds that benefit principally foreign workers receive exemptions and reliefs from U.S. tax that are not reciprocated by foreign countries on U.S. pension funds benefitting U.S. workers. A fundamental tax reform effort should re-examine from scratch the U.S. rules for taxing cross-border portfolio income, however, the treatment of portfolio income is a subject for development on another occasion.


An account is given of an ecological investigation of freshwater habitats near Ibadan, Nigeria, which was designed to identify and evaluate key factors that might be manipulated to achieve control of the snail hosts of schistosomiasis and fascioliasis. Statistical analyses of data from 24 stations from both lentic and lotic habitats showed that there were statistically significant tendencies for the following snail species to coexist: at the macro-distribution level Lanistes libycus and Bulinus (P.) globosus, in lotic habitats, Lymnaea natalensis, Bulinus forskali, Biomphalaria pfeifferi and Bulinus rohlfsi in lentic habitats; at the micro-distributional level, B. rohlfsi, B. pfeifferi, B. forskali and Anisus coretus. Several species of aquatic macrophytes, including species that occur at water margins (Acroceras and Commelina spp.) and those that occur in more persistent aquatic habitats (Nymphaea and Ceratophyllum spp.) also coexist to a statistically significant extent both with each other and with snail species in the same microhabitats. However, Salvinia proved exceptional as it was negatively associated with four of the snail species. Persistent snail refugia, including areas at stream origins, backwaters and the deeper bays or inlets in lentic habitats, were characterized by the presence of particular macrophyte species. The reasons for the associations between snails and macrophytes are discussed and it is argued that they may be mutualistic. The snails proved tolerant to a wide range of chemical conditions with the exception of low oxygen concentration. However, the absence of aquatic macrophytes and lentic refugia in head waters and the presence of fast flowing water and high temperatures in shallow water are harmful. Although the indigenous snails, L. libycus and Aplexa waterloti, proved to be efficient predators on the eggs and juveniles of snail hosts, other laboratory and field evidence appear to preclude the possibility that they may be useful as biological control agents. In contrast, there is evidence that Melanoides tuberculata might exclude the snail hosts from eroding substrates in lentic habitats. The following integrated control measures in lotic habitats are discussed: (a) judicious drainage and canalization of marshy areas at stream origins, combined with replacement of key marginal macrophytes; (b) dredging and straightening of stream courses; (c) replacement of key macrophytes along the banks; (d) introduction of M. tuberculata if not present. In lentic habitats the following control measures are discussed: (a) prevention of immigration of both macrophytes and snails from feeder streams; (b) control of subaquatic emergent plant species by using grazing domestic animals or competitor species; (c) maximizing wind-generated surface currents to exclude floating plants; (d) eradication of submerged rooting plants by herbivorous fish or invertebrates; (e) the management of such water bodies as either plankton - herbivorous fish or plankton - herbivorous fish - carnivorous fish systems; (f) introduction of efficient, detritivorous non-host molluscs or fish to feed on bottom deposits.


Meditations on the complex historical relationship between U.S. and Cuba have been fuel for a wealth of novels, short stories, plays, performance pieces, musical collaborations, and films before and since the Cuban revolution. In the last fifty years this rich, fertile dialogue has been made problematic due to the strained political and economic relationship between the U.S. and the island. In mainstream media, Ry Cooder's successful and highly visible 1996 interventionist collaboration with the musicians and singers of the Buena Vista Social Club reanimated a resurgence of interest in the possibilities that could exist for cross-cultural collaborations between the neighboring countries. In theatre, where the practical logistics of joint rehearsals and time-intensive dialogue are central to the process, collaborations have been limited in recent years. In 1997 the late Gilberto Zaldivar, cofounder and executive director of Repertorio Espanol, initiated the first cultural exchange between the two countries that involved theatre with the program Cubateatro, which began with the presentation of Teatro Estudio's production of Abelardo Estorino's Vagos Rumores (Obscure Rumors) in New York City. Cubateatro's significance as a program is not to be underestimated historically since it was enacted at a time when the U.S. had an economic embargo against Cuba through the Helms-Burton law, officially called the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996. However, it's useful to bear in mind that since the 1992 passage of the Cuba Democracy Act, the U.S. State Department has promoted "people-to-people" exchanges. In 1999 and 2000, an experimental exchange entitled the U.S.-Cuba Writers Conference facilitated the bilingual, bicultural pedagogical exchange among U.S. and Cuban writers in theatre, poetry, fiction, travel writing, and memoir genres. The exchange was short-lived for any number of practical and financial reasons but the impetus to sustain an independent, non-institutionally based dialogue amongst artists was part of a desire for not only collaboration but also for the documentation of work that bridged the cultures. Ohio State University, University of Alabama, and other universities have been engaged in one-off exchanges to encourage cultural conversations. Of course, there is the parallel legacy of Cuban-American artists creating a vivid body of work here in the U.S. in response and reflection to their own heritage, ancestry, and inherited memories of the island. For many years playwrights such as Maria Irene Fornes, Eduardo Machado, Nilo Cruz, Rogelio Martinez, Jorge Ignacio Cortinas, Alejandro Morales, and many more have sought to encounter the island from realistic, mythic, and pluralistic political, emotional, and imagined perspectives. They have created an exciting, vital counter-narrative to an existing and ongoing narrative of Cubanismo in arts and letters. On International World Theater Day in March 2010, The University of Miami Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) and Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute presented a conference that brought together for the first time in over forty years Cuba's most important living playwrights from the 1960s-Anton Arrufat, Carucha Carnejo, Abelardo Estorino, Eduardo Manet, and Matias Montes Huidobro. Their conversation examined the history of post-Castro revolution Cuban dramatists but also their impact and collaborations with visual artists and theatre designers. The conference was organized by Dr. Lillian Manzor, Director of University of Miami's Latin American Studies Program and the Cuban Theater Digital Archive; Dr. Uva de Aragon, Associate Director of FIU's Cuban Research Institute; Alberto Sarrain, theatre director of La Ma Teodora; and Dinorah Perez Rementeria, art critic and UM graduate student. The conference is part of an extraordinary multimedia archive initiated by Dr. Lillian Manzor, one of the U. …


Application of ultrahard cutting tool materials is continuously expanding. One example of an ultrahard cutting tool material is polycrystalline diamond (PCD), which is widely used in tool making and machining. However, because of the high wear resistance of PCD it is characterised by low grindability and machinability. So, any mechanism used to machine PCD has to meet specific requirements. Grinding with a diamond grinding wheel is one of the economic ways to machine PCD compacts. This thesis considers the grinding of polycrystalline diamond using a conventional grinding machine and makes machining parameter recommendations to support the optimisation of PCD grinding. The PCD grinding forces are mathematically analysed. These grinding forces are measured using a force sensor installed on a conventional grinding machine. The forces produced during grinding are investigated as a function of in-feed, contact zone, material removal rate (MRR) and oscillation rate. Wheel conditioning, another major aspect of PCD grinding, is studied and optimised in order to reduce the grinding forces, increase the cutting efficiency and achieve maximum removal rates and minimum wear ratios. Grinding wheel wear is investigated as a recognized problem in PCD grinding. A series of experiments are conducted in which the material removal rate, the rate of wheel wear and the grinding forces are measured. The effects of in-feed, sharpening process and work piece hardness on the wheel wear are studied. The edge quality of the PCD compacts is investigated as an important issue in tool making. Factors affecting PCD grinding quality include the in-feed, material removal rate, the condition of the diamond grinding wheel and the rigidity of the grinding machine. These are all studied to find their effect on edge quality. The work presented in this thesis also shows that the capability of a conventional grinding machine designed for non-PCD is sufficient to grind PCD with acceptable quality.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
To review early case reports and experimental inductions of amphetamine and methamphetamine psychosis, prior to the prohibition of these drugs, to gain a better understanding of the nature and aetiology of methamphetamine psychosis.

METHODS
Papers considered were historical case reports and case series of psychosis relating to the use and misuse of prescription amphetamine, focusing upon papers by Young & Scoville (1938), Connell (1958), and three subsequent experimental studies published in the early 1970s (Griffith 1972, Angrist & Gershon 1970 and Bell 1973), where psychosis was induced in volunteers using high-dose amphetamine and methamphetamine.

RESULTS
High-dose methamphetamine and amphetamine can result in a paranoid psychosis which remits rapidly (within days) of discontinuing use. The central feature is paranoia occurring in a clear state of consciousness. This may be accompanied by other psychotic symptoms (e.g. hallucinations). Pre-existing schizophrenia is not necessary, and the syndrome is not due to sleep deprivation.

CONCLUSIONS
Research findings from the 1930s to the 1970s suggest that paranoid psychosis should be considered a probable consequence of high-dose methamphetamine use. Individuals who experience psychotic symptoms for any substantive period after intoxication has ended should be suspected of having a functional non-organic psychosis, or a latent vulnerability thereto.


Understanding the factors influencing habitat selection is critical to improving manage- ment and conservation plans for large whales. Many studies have linked the distribution of cetaceans to basic environmental features such as underwater topography and sea surface temperature (SST), but the mechanisms underlying these relationships are poorly understood. Dynamic mesoscale pro- cesses like thermal fronts are prime candidates to link physiographic factors to whale distribution because they increase biological productivity and aggregate prey. However, previous studies of large whales have found little evidence of such associations, possibly because they were not at the appro- priate spatio-temporal scales. We quantified the relationship between SST fronts and the distribution of blue Balaenoptera musculus, finback B. physalus, humpback Megaptera novaeangliae and minke B. acutorostrata whales in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence. We compared the distribution of 1094 whale sightings collected from boat surveys conducted in 1996 to 2000 to the locations of frontal areas determined from 61 satellite maps. The distributions of whales and thermal fronts were highly corre- lated (random resampling and Mantel tests of matrix similarity). Spatial distributions differed among species, probably reflecting differences in feeding strategies. Identification of surface fronts from satellite imagery thus effectively complemented field observations of whales. These findings signifi- cantly increase our understanding of habitat quality in rorqual whales, and encourage a greater use of dynamic environmental variables in future studies of whale habitat use.


The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between systematic risk criteria, previous return and expected return of Iranian companies. This study is a library and analytical-causal research and is based on the analysis of panel data. In this research, financial data of 105 firms accepted in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period of 2010-2015 has been investigated. The results of the research regarding the confirmation of the first hypothesis of the research showed that there is a significant and direct relationship between the systemic risk criteria and the previous returns of the firms. Also, according to the analysis done in connection with the confirmation of the second research hypothesis, we concluded that there is a significant and direct relationship between the systematic risk criteria and the expected return of the firms.


In this thesis, surface studies of two-dimensional materials on various substrates will be presented. The central materials of interest are graphene and hexagonal boron nitride, with the former studied exclusively on silicon carbide. Hexagonal boron nitride will be studied both on epitaxial graphene on SiC, as well as on transition metal foils – specifically nickel and copper. The central experimental method by which we investigate these materials systems is low-energy electron microscopy ('LEEM' – used also to refer to the microscope itself). LEEM allows for not only the direct, real-space imaging of surfaces, but also the obtaining of low-energy electron diffraction patterns from areas as small as 1 μm in diameter. Using the LEEM, we may acquire so-called reflectivity spectra, which will be described in more detail in the body of the work. These spectra are compared to a first-principles model, which was originally developed for the interpretation of such data acquired from graphene on copper foils. A more detailed synopsis of this thesis can be found in the final section of Chapter 1.


Latent variable models have been playing a cen-tral role in statistics, econometrics, machine learning with applications to repeated observation study, panel data inference, user behavior analysis, etc. In many modern applications, the inference based on latent variable models involves one or several of the following features: the presence of complex latent structure, the observed and latent variables being continuous or discrete, constraints on parameters, and data size being large. Therefore, solving an estimation problem for general latent variable models is highly non-trivial. In this paper, we consider a gradient based method via using variance reduction technique to accelerate estimation procedure. Theoretically, we show the convergence results for the proposed method under general and mild model assumptions. The algorithm has better computational complexity compared with the classical gradient methods and maintains nice statistical properties. Various numerical results corroborate our theory.


This paper proposes a novel image formation algorithm for the bistatic synthetic aperture radar (BiSAR) with the configuration of a noncooperative transmitter and a stationary receiver in which the traditional imaging algorithm failed because the necessary imaging parameters cannot be estimated from the limited information from the noncooperative data provider. In the new algorithm, the essential parameters for imaging, such as squint angle, Doppler centroid, and Doppler chirp-rate, will be estimated by full exploration of the recorded direct signal (direct signal is the echo from satellite to stationary receiver directly) from the transmitter. The Doppler chirp-rate is retrieved by modeling the peak phase of direct signal as a quadratic polynomial. The Doppler centroid frequency and the squint angle can be derived from the image contrast optimization. Then the range focusing, the range cell migration correction (RCMC), and the azimuth focusing are implemented by secondary range compression (SRC) and the range cell migration, respectively. At last, the proposed algorithm is validated by imaging of the BiSAR experiment configured with china YAOGAN 10 SAR as the transmitter and the receiver platform located on a building at a height of 109 m in Jiangsu province. The experiment image with geometric correction shows good accordance with local Google images.


At some point in time every current parliamentarian will become a former parliamentarian. In recent decades associations representing former parliamentarians have formed to provide transitional assistance to and maintain and foster social links that developed among these men and women during their time in legislatures. In this roundtable the Canadian Parliamentary Review brought together members of several provincial associations of former members who spoke of their organizations' work and how they might be able to offer their wealth of parliamentary experience to assist current research and outreach projects of legislatures.


In his essay Of Public Credit, David Hume argues against the institutionalization of public credit. Contrary to what is commonly believed, I claim Hume's analysis of public credit is sound and it is an example of his worst-case thinking. Through textual and contextual analysis, I show for Hume public credit brings catastrophic results because men are knaves, systematically biased, and unlucky. Public credit is an appropriate institution to stimulate the economy only if men are perfect and perfectly predictable. But they are not. For Hume, considering the worst-case rather than the best-case helps prevent potential disasters. Public credit should therefore be avoided.


Compositions of ~2500 spinel-olivine pairs and 400 melt inclusion-spinel pairs have been analysed from 36 igneous suites from oceanic, arc and intraplate tectonic settings. Our data confirm that Cr-spinel mg-number is largely controlled by melt composition, but also influenced by octahedral site substitutions, and rate of cooling. Lavas quenched in submarine environments tend to have higher mg-number at a given cr-number than slowly cooled subaerial lavas and peridotites. Unlike mg-number, Cr-spinel Al2O3 and TiO2 contents show good correlations with melt composition, with only limited post-entrapment modifications. Out data suggest that increased activity of Al2O3 decreases the partitioning of TiO2 into spinels. The Al2O3 content of Cr-spinel is a useful guide to the degree of partial melting of mantle peridotites; however, this same relationship is obscured in volcanic rocks. Al2O3 contents of volcanic Cr-spinels are mostly determined by melt composition rather than mantle source composition. The data also suggest that most spinels from residual mantle peridotites can be readily differentiated from those hosted in volcanic rocks. Mantle peridotite spinel tend to have lower TiO2 and higher Fe2+/Fe3+ ratios than spinel from volcanic rocks. The spinel compositions in our database can be subdivided on the basis of tectonic setting and mode of occurrence using an Al2O3 vs TiO2 diagram. A total of seven fields can be distinguished with varying degrees of overlap. This diagram can then be used to determine the tectonic setting of spinel from altered mafic igneous rocks such as serpentinites or meta-basalts, or detrital spinel in sandstones.


The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. At the United States border, however, sovereignty interests—namely who and what enters the country—allow for warrantless searches of property without probable cause. This Note explores the reach of the border exception to one category of property: electronic devices. At present, circuit courts disagree over what level of suspicion—no suspicion or reasonable suspicion—applies to forensic searches of electronics. Courts do agree that manual searches, performed without the assistance of external equipment, merit no suspicion at all. The suspicion gap between manual and forensic searches reflects an assumption that all manual searches are cursory and hence violate a device owner's privacy less than a forensic search.
This Note argues that the existing line between forensic and manual searches should be reimagined; instead, electronic devices, such as smartphones, should be separated out from other electronic devices, such as cameras, and be subject to a reasonable suspicion standard irrespective of the nature of the search, forensic or manual. Redrawing the line between devices themselves recognizes that certain electronics (e.g. cameras) are more analogous to traditional luggage and therefore should receive the same treatment at the border where suspicionless searches are permitted. Like luggage, one can curate these devices: it is possible to know and choose what is inside. As the attenuation of the link between the device in question and traditional luggage expands, so too should the suspicion required. Smartphones and like devices should not be searched without reasonable suspicion. Finally, this Note concludes by recommending that the Customs and Border Protection directive, subject to review and modification every three years, be revised to distinguish between the two groups of electronic devices and account for the privacy concerns unique to the smartphone and related devices group.


Theory suggests the reduction in financing capacity after the failure of a financial intermediary can reduce the value of financial assets. Forced sales of the intermediary's assets could consume liquidity, depressing the liquidation value of the assets of healthy intermediaries and causing contagious runs. These financial fire sales can both cause, and exacerbate, real fire sales, the focus of previous studies. This paper investigates the relevance of financial fire sales using new datasets covering bank failures during the farm depression in the United States just before the Great Depression, as well as bank failures during the Great Depression. Using differences in regulation as a means of identification, we find that the reduction in local financing capacity as a result of bank failures reduces the recovery rates on failed assets of nearby banks, depresses local land prices, renders land markets illiquid, and is associated with subsequent distress in nearby banks. All this indicates a rationale for why bank failures are contagious.


Maternal mortality is one of the most important problems related to the reproductive health. This is why the reduction by three quarters of maternal mortality by 2015 has been fixed as target No. 5 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Achieving this goal requires an annual decline of 5.5% of maternal mortality between 1990 and 2015. Unfortunately, the reduction as estimated in 1997 was less than 1% per year. Africa is the continent most affected by this problem. In 2010, the number of maternal mortality in the world was estimated to 287 000 and Africa was hosting more than 52 % (148 000) of the occurrence in the world In Burkina Faso, maternal mortality ratio decreased from 566 in 1991 to 484 in 1998 and 341 in 2010 according to the DHS data while the census estimate was 307 in 2006 and United Nation agencies provided the number of 300 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births in 2010. Statistics provided by the different sources vary considerably. This situation creates confusion among data users. In addition, researches made on the issue remain very insufficient because of the complexity of the issue, lack of data and poor quality of existing data on maternal mortality. This study has been initiated to fill the gap of knowledge about the determinants and estimates of maternal mortality at national and sub-national levels. Results of this research highlighted explanatory factors of maternal mortality at national and regional level with a focus on factors of regional disparities. Findings also provided estimate by adjusting the census 2006 data from missingness and incoherences, improving the census method and testing different other methods. Finally, projection of maternal mortality level is made from 2006 to 2050.


A background-limited optical system is to view an object through a turbulent medium. The threshold systems for detecting and resolving specific details of the object are derived and their probabilities of correct detection and resolution evaluated. The variance of a maximum-likelihood estimate of the position of the object is calculated for large signal-to-noise ratio. Specific numerical results are given for turbulence that produces a gaussian mutual-coherence function in light from a point object. A model of such turbulence, depicting it as concentrated in one or more thin, homogeneous phase screens, is proposed.


textabstractRequesting blood tests is an important aspect of the health care delivered by
the general practitioner in The Netherlands. About three to four percent of the
patients encounters with Dutch general practitioners result in the physician
requesting blood tests, which is lower than in many other European countries. Although test ordering is limited to three to four percent of patients
encounters with the general practitioner, the use of diagnostic tests in general
practice, has known an overwhelming growth in the years behind. Physicians'
use of blood tests, however, is not always appropriate. General
practitioners are taught test ordering when training in hospitals before settling
down in general practice. Hospital morbidity, however, is different from
morbidity patterns in general practice. Appropriate test ordering
panels in hospital settings, therefore, are not always appropriate for primary
care. Nevertheless, general practitioners use these test panels, once taught,
automatically in the primary care setting. Uncertainty and the desire not
to miss a diagnosis stimulate the use of blood tests. Excessive
and inappropriate test ordering is not only expensive but also may even add to
the uncertainty by generating unexpected abnormal or false positive values.
The use of blood tests may thus even increase uncertainty and stimu late
further unnecessary diagnostic investigations. It is important,
therefore, that once the decision to obtain blood tests has been made,
appropriate test ordering is adhered to. Influencing this heuristic test-ordering
behavior has proven to be difficult.


BACKGROUND
There is strong evidence in the literature that there is an association between ABO blood group and certain diseases.

AIM
The aim of this study was to investigate any association between the ABO blood groups and diabetes mellitus (DM) in Qatar.

DESIGN
This was a sex-matched case-control study.

SETTING
This study was carried out in the diabetic outpatient clinics and blood bank of the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) from April 2011 to December 2012.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
The study included 1633 diabetic patients and 1650 nondiabetic apparently healthy controls. A total of 2148 adult patients above 18 years of age were selected consecutively from the diabetic clinics of the hospitals and 1633 patients gave consent to take part in this study, thus giving a response rate of 76%. A total of 2150 nondiabetic healthy adults above 18 years of age were recruited from the blood bank and 1650 individuals agreed to take part in this study, giving a response rate of 76.7%. Blood group of the recruited subjects was taken from the database of the Blood Bank, Central laboratory, HMC.

RESULTS
The data revealed that the blood group B was significantly more common in diabetic patients as compared with healthy population (25.7% vs. 20.4%; P < 0.001). Blood group O was significantly less common in diabetic patients compared with nondiabetics (38.5% vs. 45.4%; P < 0.001). Among diabetic men, the frequency of only blood group B was significantly higher, while on the contrary among diabetic women the frequency of both A and B (29.7% vs. 24.8%; P = 0.03 and 25.5% vs. 20%; P < 0.009, respectively) were significantly higher as compared with nondiabetic healthy population.

CONCLUSION
The findings in this study suggest that ABO antigens are associated with DM. DM is more common in individuals with blood group B.


Healthcare staff wellbeing is linked to patient outcomes. Arts programmes have been shown to improve physical and emotional wellbeing in hospital staff. Starting in 2016 NELFT has delivered an annual one day creative arts festival known as Arts Day. Attendees self-rated their wellbeing on arrival, as they left and as part of a longer term follow up survey.  There was an increase in the average self-rated wellbeing score after each Arts Day. The long term follow-up surveys show that attendees felt valued and enjoyed meeting up with colleagues. There is limited evidence of the long term impact of Arts Day. Less than 5% of NELFT staff have been released to attend the events. Future success will depend on integration with the wider wellbeing agenda and modifications to reach more staff.


A convenient and efficient application of heterogeneous La-containing SBA-15 systems for the microwave assisted oxidation of a lignin model phenolic monomer, 4-hydroxy-1-phenylpropane, is reported. Low-cost and environmentally friendly H2O2 was used as the oxygen atom donor. The catalyst was prepared by immobilizing lanthanum species on the periodic mesoporous channels of siliceous SBA-15. Powder X-ray diffraction data and ICP-AES revealed that the host retains its hexagonal mesoporous structure after immobilization and most of the lanthanum species are better dispersed in the calcined materials. The surface area and pore size of La/SBA-15 was considerably decreased, indicating the intrapore confinement of the Lanthanum species. The activity of the La/SBA-15 was investigated in the oxidation of 4-hydroxy-1-phenylpropane in the presence of hydrogen peroxide as oxidant. 70.5% conversion of 4-hydroxy-1-phenylpropane was obtained after 30 min of reaction under 200W microwave irradiation, compared to a poor 28.1% degradation after 24h under conventional heating. The possibility of recycling the catalyst was studied.


This paper is an attempt to incorporate the idea of spiking neural P systems as an early seed into the area of Operating System Design, regarding their capability to solve some classical computer science problems. It is reflecting the power of such systems to simulate well known parallel computational models, like logic gates, arithmetic operation, and sorting. In these devices, the time (when the neurons fire and/or spike) plays an essential role. For instance, the result of a computation is the time between the moments when a specified neuron spikes. Seen as number computing devices, SN P systems are shown to be computationally complete, and with such capabilities, arithmetic operations, logic, and timing, some first steps could be taken towards an OS design.