When economic growth (or economic decline) takes place, who benefits and who is hurt how much? The more traditional way of answering this question is to compare two or more comparable cross sections and gauge changing income inequality among countries or individuals. A newer way is to utilize data on a panel of countries or a panel of people and assess the pattern of panel income changes. How do these two approaches relate to one another? This paper shows, first, that it is possible to have all four combinations of rising or falling inequality along with divergent or convergent panel income changes, and second, under what conditions, for various measures of rising/falling inequality and various measures of divergent/convergent income changes, each of the four possible combinations can arise.


We cloned two genes encoding DNA polymerases from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrodictium occultum. The deduced primary structures of the two gene products have several amino acid sequences which are conserved in the alpha-like (family B) DNA polymerases. Both genes were expressed in Escherichia coli, and highly purified gene products, DNA polymerases I and II (pol I and pol II), were biochemically characterized. Both DNA polymerase activities were heat stable, but only pol II was sensitive to aphidicolin. Both pol I and pol II have associated 5'-->3' and 3'-->5' exonuclease activities. In addition, these DNA polymerases have higher affinity to single-primed single-stranded DNA than to activated DNA; even their primer extension abilities by themselves were very weak. A comparison of the complete amino acid sequences of pol I and pol II with two alpha-like DNA polymerases from yeast cells showed that both pol I and pol II were more similar to yeast DNA polymerase III (ypol III) than to yeast DNA polymerase II (ypol II), in particular in the regions from exo II to exo III and from motif A to motif C. However, comparisons region by region of each polymerase showed that pol I was similar to ypol II and pol II was similar to ypol III from motif C to the C terminus. In contrast, pol I and pol II were similar to ypol III and ypol II, respectively, in the region from exo III to motif A. These findings suggest that both enzymes from P. occultum play a role in the replication of the genomic DNA of this organism and, furthermore, that the study of DNA replication in this thermophilic archaeon may lead to an understanding of the prototypical mechanism of eukaryotic DNA replication.


The aim of this experiment was to reduce piglet stress and improve performance following moving and mixing at weaning by use of the anti-aggressive drug amperozide and the practice of co-mingling piglets during lactation. Thirty-six piglets weaned at 29 days of age were allocated to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments as follows: (1) injection of 1 ml amperozide or placebo (0.9% saline) at the time of weaning, and (2) co-mingling or no comingling of piglets from day 10 of lactation to weaning. At weaning all piglets were injected with pliytohaemagglutinin or saline, their change in skin-fold thickness was measured 24 h later and behaviour was recorded every 5 min for the first 120 min after weaning. At 4 and 24 h after weaning the depth and extent of injuries were recorded. Daily live-weight gain, apparent voluntary food intake and food conversion ratio were not improved (P > 0.05) by administration of amperozide or co-mingling of piglets during lactation. Cell-mediated immunity, as evidenced by a 0.17 proportional decrease (P <; 0.001) in skin-fold thickness following the injection of phytohaemagglutinin, was decreased in piglets not given amperozide at weaning. Injection of amperozide caused a 0.26 proportional increase (P < 0.001) in the amount of time piglets spent lying and caused piglets to display no interest in the feeder (P < 0.001) in the first 2 h after weaning. Consequently piglets not given amperozide were more active, spent more time at the feeder and participated in more aggressive encounters (P < 0.01). A significant interaction occurred between co-mingling and amperozide for mean injury score at both 4 (P < 0.01) and 24 h (P < 0.05) after weaning. When measured 4 h after weaning, co-mingling of piglets during suckling reduced mean injury score regardless of whether piglets were given amperozide or not at weaning. When piglets were not allowed to co-mingle during lactation, amperozide reduced mean injury score proportionately by around 0-44 (P < 0.01) compared with piglets administered with saline. Despite the administration of amperozide and the practice of comingling causing a reduction in stress and an improvement in welfare in this experiment, there was no beneficial effect on performance in the first 2 weeks after weaning.


PURPOSE
Some women with unilateral ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) undergo contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) to prevent cancer in the opposite breast. The use and trends of CPM for DCIS in the United States have not previously been reported.

METHODS
We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database to analyze the initial treatment (within 6 months) of patients with unilateral DCIS diagnosed from 1998 through 2005. We determined the CPM rate as a proportion of all surgically treated patients and as a proportion of all patients who underwent mastectomy. We compared demographic and tumor variables in women with unilateral DCIS who underwent surgical treatment.

RESULTS
We identified 51,030 patients with DCIS; 2,072 patients chose CPM. The CPM rate was 4.1% for all surgically treated patients and 13.5% for patients undergoing mastectomy. Among all surgically treated patients (including breast-conserving surgery), the CPM rate increased by 148% from 1998 (2.1%) to 2005 (5.2%). Among patients who underwent mastectomy to treat DCIS (excluding patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery), the CPM rate increased by 188% from 1998 (6.4%) to 2005 (18.4%). Young patient age, white race, recent year of diagnosis, and the presence of lobular carcinoma in situ were significantly associated with higher CPM rates among all surgically treated patients and all patients undergoing mastectomy. Large tumor size and higher grade were significantly associated with increased CPM rates among all surgically treated patients but lower CPM rates among patients undergoing mastectomy.

CONCLUSION
The use of CPM for DCIS in the United States markedly increased from 1998 through 2005.


The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography (SEPB) presents selected English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. Most sources have been published between 1990 and the present; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 1990 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to works that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories. Note that e-prints and published articles may not be identical. In cases where the publisher frequently changes journal URLs with providing public notification or URL redirection, included URLs are to the publisher's domain, not to individual articles.


Composites of polyamide matrix reinforced by short glass fibers are increasingly used as replacement for metal parts in the automotive industry, especially because they are light weighted and easy to manufacture. Automobile parts are usually subjected to fatigue loadings during their service life, which makes it necessary to have a reliable or predictable durability life. Short glass fiber reinforced (SGFR) thermoplastics are used in structural parts such as top strut and motor mounts wherein they are subjected to complex positive and negative loads. As they are injection-molded, they exhibit a complex fiber orientation distribution, which clearly has an effect on their mechanical properties. Moreover, the polyamide matrix in SGFR thermoplastics is sensitive to ambient humidity and temperature. Therefore, a fatigue criterion for this material should unify different load ratios, fiber orientation distributions for the given atmospheric conditions. In literature, a wide variety of fatigue criteria has been proposed; nevertheless, single unified fatigue criterion yet has space for improvement. This article proposes an energy-based fatigue criterion that tends to take into account a load ratio and fibers orientation effects.


Climate change, when combined with more conventional stress from human exploitation, calls into question the capacity of both existing ecological communities and resource management institutions to experience disturbances while substantially retaining their same functions and identities. In other words, the physical and biological effects of climate change raise fundamental challenges to the resilience of natural ecosystems. Perhaps more importantly, the projected scope of ecological shifts from global climate change — and uncertainty about such changes — significantly stresses the capacity of legal institutions to manage ecosystem change. Existing governmental institutions lack the adaptive capacity to manage such substantial changes to ecological and legal systems. In particular, regulators and managers lack information about ecological effects and alternative management strategies for managing the effects of climate change, as well as the institutional infrastructure for obtaining such information.A number of recent initiatives have been proposed to address the effects of climate change on ecological systems. However, these nascent programs do not fully meet the needs for developing adaptive capacity. A federal, publicly accessible, and system-wide portal and clearinghouse will help regulators at all levels of government manage the effects and uncertainty from climate change. Such an information infrastructure, combined with a range of incentives that encourage regulators to engage in adaptive management and programmatic adjustment over time, will help governmental and private institutions become more resilient and capable of managing the physical and human institutional effects of changing climate.


Our study focuses on family farm firms as an important and yet under-researched type of family firms. We explore the entrepreneurial growth behavior in the context of family farm firms by focusing on the role of pluriactivity. By integrating the literature of family business strategies, EO, and growth intentions, this study of 1618 Finnish family farms seeks to understand the idea of pluriactivity as a strategic orientation of family farm firms leading towards the growth and renewal of their prevailing and future domains. Our study revealed that pluriactivity is associated with growthorientation and perceived strengths of the family farm firms. We identified four types of growth groups (Established, Growth-Driven, Experimenters, Stand-Stills) and found differences in their pluriactive orientation. We suggest that pluriactivity as a strategic orientation affects the growth-intention of the family entrepreneurs and the business renewal processes of the family farm firms. Entrepreneurs need to have capabilities (knowledge, skills, experience) and willingness to change (motivation, attitude, volition) when using pluriactivity as a strategic orientation as they affect growth behavior (EO). Lastly, we discuss with our results and make some suggestions for future research avenues in family business strategy research.


Designing robots, virtual creatures, artificial companions and social artifacts can really be rather challenging sometimes. Forms and shapes that people are familiar with seems to inevitably correlate with their interpretation and interaction. For instance - Paro's inventor, Takanori Shibata, proposed an idea that people's acceptance towards the therapeutic robot seal would be higher than compared to e.g. a robotic cat, as people has less prior experiences with seals than with cats.


REPOA's research agenda is concerned with poverty and its alleviation. Our objectives are to: develop the research capacity in Tanzania; enhance stakeholders' knowledge of poverty issues and empower them to act; contribute to policy dialogue; support the monitoring of the implementation of poverty related policy; strengthen national and international poverty research networks, and forge linkages between research(ers) and users.


Although there are several approaches to measure viscosity of liquid foods in the literature, the successful selected technique depends on the specific product and the functional characteristics that need to be analyzed. Accordingly, it is not an easy task for food technologists to determine the suitable approach to be used. Therefore briefing the existing methods, working principles, advantages, limitations and their successful applications for well known published articles, may enable the researchers to choose the optimum approach. The intensive review revealed that the most commonly used viscosity measurement devices are capillary flow viscometers, orifice type viscometers, falling ball viscometers, and rotational viscometers. Glass capillary viscometers are widely used for measuring low to medium viscosity of Newtonian fluids. In order to measure the viscosity of difficult fluids like those having large particles non-conventional geometries such as mixer viscometry method is used. Tube viscometer method which might be considered as a wide-bore capillary viscometer with a special capability to handle suspensions is currently used to determine rheological behaviour of a product after a thermal treatment. Scraped surface heat exchangers (SSHE) are widely used in food industry for thermal treatment of very viscous food products. Mass detecting capillary viscometer is a new technique to measure the viscosity of milk and soymilk products. In order to measure the viscosity of food stabilizers coaxial viscometers are recommended. Also, possibly the best known of the orifice viscometers in the food industry is the dipping-type Zahn viscometer. Finally, it could be inferred that the viscosity ought to be independent on the instrument, so different instruments will yield the same results, but this is a theoretical concept and different instruments rarely yield identical results.


Observations of a chemical at a point in the atmosphere typically show sudden transitions between episodes of high and low concentration. Often these are associated with a rapid change in the origin of air arriving at the site. Lagrangian chemical models riding along trajectories can reproduce such transitions, but small timing errors from trajectory phase errors dramatically reduce the correlation between modeled concentrations and observations. Here the origin averaging technique is introduced to obtain maps of average concentration as a function of air mass origin for the East Atlantic Summer Experiment 1996 (EASE96, a ground-based chemistry campaign). These maps are used to construct origin averaged time series which enable comparison between a chemistry model and observations with phase errors factored out. The amount of the observed signal explained by trajectory changes can be quantified, as can the systematic model errors as a function of air mass origin. The Cambridge Tropospheric Trajectory model of Chemistry and Transport (CiTTyCAT) can account for over 70% of the observed ozone signal variance during EASE96 when phase errors are side-stepped by origin averaging. The dramatic increase in correlation (from 23% without averaging) cannot be achieved by time averaging. The success of the model is attributed to the strong relationship between changes in ozone along trajectories and their origin and its ability to simulate those changes. The model performs less well for longer-lived chemical constituents because the initial conditions 5 days before arrival are insufficiently well known.


This paper describes a paradox of global thrift. Consider a world in which interest rates are low and monetary policy is constrained by the zero lower bound. Now imagine that governments implement prudential financial and fiscal policies to stabilize the economy. We show that these policies, while effective from the perspective of individual countries, might backfire if applied on a global scale. In fact, prudential policies generate a rise in the global supply of savings and a drop in global aggregate demand. Weaker global aggregate demand depresses output in countries at the zero lower bound. Due to this effect, noncooperative financial and fiscal policies might lead to a fall in global output and welfare. (JEL E21, E23, E43, E44, E52, E62, F32)


Gene expression analysis is one of the studies in bioinformatics. There are
many methods and approaches use in gene expression analysis. Some methods that
are currently being used, such as fuzzy ART, neural network, and Bayesian method
were used in gene expression analysis. The problem that occurred in supervised
learning is that the output and error rates that been provided were momentous. The
reason in conducting this research is to determine the best methods, between two
approaches for gene expression analysis. For this research, the approach used is
supervised learning and the methods that were used are multi layer feedforward and
k-Nearest Neighbour. The methodology that will be use for this research are
knowledge acquisition, implementation that consists of three phase; experiment,
result and analysis, experiments and observation, and evaluation and findings. After a
series of experiments, the multi layer feedforward is the better method in determining
gene expression especially protein genes rather than k-Nearest Neighbour. It is
because the accuracy of the output is more precise and can be used for further
analysis. The presentation of multilayer feedforward is clear and well-defined. The
accuracy of the results is important for usage of others. This research can be a good
reference for the advancement and development of gene expression analysis.


A current trend in the semantic web is the use of embedded markup formats aimed to semantically enrich web content by making it more understandable to search engines and other applications. The deployment of Microdata as a markup format has increased thanks to the widespread of a controlled vocabulary provided by Schema.org. Recently, a set of properties from the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) specification, which describes educational resources, was adopted by Schema.org. These properties, in addition to those related to accessibility and the license of resources included in Schema.org, would enable search engines to provide more relevant results in searching for educational resources for all users, including users with disabilities. In order to obtain a reliable evaluation of the use of Microdata properties related to the LRMI specification, accessibility, and the license of resources, this research conducted a quantitative analysis of the deployment of these properties in large-scale web corpora covering two consecutive years. The corpora contain hundreds of millions of web pages. The results further our understanding of this deployment in addition to highlighting the pending issues and challenges concerning the use of such properties.


Vocal deficits are prevalent and debilitating in Parkinson's disease. These deficits may be related to the initial pathology of the nigrostriatal dopamine neurons and resulting dopamine depletion, which contributes to dysfunction of fine motor control in multiple functions. Although vocalization in animals and humans may differ in many respects, we evaluated complex (50-kHz) ultrasonic mate calls in 2 rat models of Parkinson's disease, including unilateral infusions of 6-hydroxydopamine to the medial forebrain bundle and peripheral administration of a nonakinesia dose of the dopamine antagonist haloperidol. We examined the effects of these treatments on multiple aspects of the acoustic signal. The number of trill-like (frequency modulated) 50-kHz calls was significantly reduced, and appeared to be replaced by simpler (flat) calls. The bandwidth and maximum intensity of simple and frequency-modulated calls were significantly decreased, but call duration was not. Our findings suggest that the nigrostriatal dopamine pathway is involved to some extent in fine sensorimotor function that includes USV production and complexity.


The objective of the study was to investigate how smallholder farm communities could sustain economically viable agricultural production in the salt-affected areas of Al-Musayyeb in 'Central Iraq'. It aims at opening a new dimension to farmers and policy makers on how to increase production in soil-affected areas by determining the extent to which it is possible to raise efficiency for salt-affected farmers with the existing resources base and available technology. There were 220 households, randomly stratified, interviewed based on severity of salinity indicators. The scores and determinants of technical efficiency (TE) and allocative efficiency (AE) were identified using stochastic frontier cost and production functions. Empirical findings show that the estimated AE of the farms in the Al-Musayyeb area varied in the range of 56–94%, with a mean of 59%. This suggests that the average farmer needs a cost-saving of 41% to attain the status of the most allocatively efficient farmer. Findings show that technical efficiency was in the range of 57–98%, with mean of 89%; and economic efficiency was 32–84%, with mean of 52%. These widely varying indices of efficiency among Al-Musayyeb farmers in a similar agro-ecological locality indicate great potential to achieve productivity growth through improved efficiency, using existing technologies and the available resource base in the study area. Results of the estimated coefficients indicated that family labor and land tenure are significantly and positively correlated with technical and allocative efficiencies, while off-farm income contributed to technical efficiencies. These results suggest that land tenure in this farming system and increased investment in extension services could jointly contribute to improved efficiency in in the studied area. Therefore, efforts directed to generation of new technologies should not be neglected.


This paper is meant as the object recognition work done directly on images obtained from the autonomous car's camera. Normally, before the recognition stage, images need to process with the purpose of locating the candidate regions. This paper does not concentrate on the location stage, but focus on contributing a new descriptor for object recognition. Particularly, objects such as traffic-sign are recognized based on the sparse representation of object's descriptor over learned dictionary. The main idea is training the dictionary of local descriptors, or building the basis of a local descriptor space. Then, using the representation of description of object over this basis, we define a object's descriptor. We approve the robustness of the proposed descriptor under the linear transformation such as rotation or scale etc. Moreover, the stage of building the basis of descriptor space is done offline, thus computing time is quite reliably for the autonomous car. The experiments done on a database including traffic-sign images show that the proposed method is promising and competitive related to the state-of-the-art methods.


Waste recycling has been the main topic of various scientific researches due to environmental management. Renewable agricultural sources such as pineapple leaf, sisal, jute, piassava, coir, and sugarcane bagasse are among agro waste, normally known as biomass, which is recently used for reinforcing polymeric materials. Sugarcane bagasse fiber residues has been extensively investigated and employed as a source of reinforcement of polymers. The major residue is normally burnt for energy supply in the sugar and alcohol industries and as a result, tons of ash is created. The ash contained inorganic components which are valuable for reinforcement in polymeric materials. This chapter reports on the use of sugarcane bagasse, sugarcane bagasse ash (SBA) and its cellulose as reinforcing fillers for polymers.


We present a GPU accelerated algorithm for skeleton extraction from 3D meshes and point clouds. Our method performs skeletonization in a pipeline, where each stage ensures an optimal transformation of the input data to achieve a satisfactory result. The input vertices are converted to the medial surface of the mesh with the shrinking spheres method for improved accuracy of the final skeleton. Vertices are then sampled from the medial surface and contracted to a thin shape with the L1 method. These steps are done in parallel. The final stages include skeleton reconstruction and post processing on the CPU. We introduced modifications to the original CPU based algorithms for them to be suitable for parallel execution. These modifications include speedups for algorithm convergence and data dependency removal during computation. An advantage of our method is that it does not require connectivity information between vertices, as opposed to Laplacian based mesh contraction methods. Experimental results show near real time performance of our algorithm. The implementation uses the CUDA API for efficient utilization of the GPU resources.


The development and availability of new computing and communication devices, and the increased connectivity between these devices, thanks to wired and wireless networks, are enabling new opportunities for people to perform their operations anywhere and anytime. This technological expansion has developed a multitude of challenges that demand further research. ,bAdvances in Ubiquitous Computing: Future Paradigms and Directions investigates the technology foreground of ubiquitous computing, the emerging applications and services, as well as certain social issues that are vital for the successful deployment of a ubiquitous computing application, through a multi-perspective analytical lens. Providing academics and practitioners with high quality, authoritative content on such topics as device design, wireless communication, location sensing, privacy concerns, attention focus, multi-person interaction, and direct interaction, work patterns, this Premier Reference Source is a must-have addition to library collections worldwide.


In an article responding to the reception of her first book, The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston offered the following plea:I am an American writer, who, like other American writers, wants to write the great American novel. The Woman Warrior is an American book. Yet many reviewers do not see the American-ness of it, nor the fact of my own American-ness.(1)Maxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese-American writer who uses mythic figures and stories as part of an attempt to change the ways in which so-called minority or ethnic writings are traditionally received in the U.S. and elsewhere. The eldest of six children, the author was born in San Francisco of a Chinese immigrant family. Her parents ran a laundry and tried to maintain traditional Chinese ways. Maxine Hong Kingston was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, a centre for American radicalism in the sixties, and became a peace activist during the turbulent years of the Vietnam war. She has been a teacher but now concentrates on her writing, though the recent massacre in Tien-an-men Square has led to her involvement in the Foundation for Chinese Democracy, designed to support Chinese students throughout the world.To promote the publication of her third book, Tripmaster Monkey, Maxine Hong Kingston was a guest at both the Sydney Carnivale Writers' Festival and Melbourne Spoleto Writers' Week in 1989. Sneja Gunew interviewed her in relation to her sense of herself as an American multicultural writer and with particular focus on her first novel, The Woman Warrior.SG: Maxine, in relation to your first novel, The Woman Warrior, just how American is it? When I first set this as a text in about 1980 I made the fundamental mistake of putting it almost exclusively in the context of Chinese culture and that is how students were asked to respond to it. It was offered as a book that looked back to Chinese culture and it was seen very much as the narrator in exile. Now of course I'm much more aware of the fact that, quite rightly, you talk about it as being a Chinese-American book and indeed that it's a very American book.MHK: I do feel that I work in an American tradition. There's an American mainstream literary creation from the beginning which tried to distinguish an American language and literature and culture from the British one and, in doing that, American writers have experimented with writing dialect. Mark Twain tried to set down in writing the 38 Mississippi River dialects, and we had Walt Whitman and William Carlos Williams, who are I guess my literary great grandfathers. Their stated aim was to find the common American speech and put it into poetry, to try to find the syntax of American speech and to find the American voice -- a new language. So I think that as I write about Chinese-American people and our lives and how we speak, I had to invent another American language in another one of its stages, in that sense of creating a new English language. I see myself as working very much in a mainstream tradition.SG: That explains the American part of it, and that's understandable as a balance to the manner in which readers first saw it as a Chinese book, as exotic in all sorts of stereotypic and wrong headed ways, but what now do you see as the Chinese part of it, the Chinese-American aspect?MHK: Well I think it's very curious that I seem to have placed myself in two canons of literature and I do feel that I am in the canon of American literature. Very officially, I mean I'm on some of the lists of the University great books and at the same time, without my having consciously aimed for it, I've learned that the Chinese in China see me working in Chinese traditions even though I write in English and the book has been translated into Chinese. They perceive my writing as continuing the myths, that I show what has become of mythic spirits and heroes as they come into modern times. Also they have detected stylistic influences. …


Macau, known as "The Monte Carlo of the Orient", is the largest gaming city in the world, with great influx of Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese players. Inspite of their potential spending power, limited information is available about their gaming behaviors. In-depth interviews were employed to fill the knowledge gap by detailing their gaming behaviors, including gaming frequency, types of games played, betting amount, and superstitions and taboos. Findings revealed that majority of the respondents favored table games, and would dine, shop, and enjoy performances in the casinos apart from gaming. No special pattern was noted in terms of gaming duration and self-control when losing or winning money. An interesting finding was the different gaming behaviors between Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese interviewees. Interviewees from Hong Kong visited Macau casinos more frequently than the Mainland interviewees because of geographic proximity and convenience. Consequently, Mainland Chinese interviewees acted as tourists and were more likely to visit different casinos as sightseeing activities. They were more attentive to the tangible elements of casinos, whereas Hong Kong interviewees paid more attention to service quality, gaming rules and behaviors of other players. In addition, Hong Kong interviewees were more familiar with the Chinese gambling superstitions and taboos than did the mainlanders, probably due to the popularity of gaming movies in Hong Kong. Another significant finding was that the long-standing Chinese beliefs feng shui did influence Chinese? Gaming behavior. A conceptual framework and several propositions illustrating the interrelationship between Chinese cultural value system and behavior are discussed. Recommendations for casino practitioners, including selling of auspicious mascots or souvenirs at the casino stores and improving service quality of employees, to serve these segments better are also suggested.


Northern Cyprus has implemented relatively strict measures in the battle against the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The measures were introduced at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to prevent the spread of the disease. One of these measures was the use of two separate real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) tests for SARS-CoV-2 referred to as the double screening procedure, which was adopted following the re-opening of the sea, air and land borders for passengers after the first lockdown. The rRT-PCR double screening procedure involved reporting a negative rRT-PCR test which was carried in 72 to 120 h before departure whilst presenting no known symptoms of the COVID-19 and performing a second rRT-PCR test at the point of arrival. This study compares the results of SARS-CoV-2 rRT-PCR tests performed on incoming flight passengers from the 1 July to 9 of September 2020 to Northern Cyprus. The rRT-PCR test results collected by the Near East University (NEU) DESAM COVID-19 laboratory were compared with the rRT-PCR test results collected by the Ministry of Health and/or private COVID-19 laboratories in Northern Cyprus. This comparative study was conducted using binomial distribution. In addition, by applying the Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Removed (SEIR) model to Northern Cyprus, overall basic reproduction number value of the COVID-19 was analysed for the same time period to act as a threshold for this comparison. In both the statistical and SEIR mathematical model, was calculated. It was assumed that, the more similar the results of NEU DESAM COVID-19 laboratory and other laboratories were with the overall value of Northern Cyprus, the more reliable the results would be. We calculated that the median values of the NEU DESAM COVID-19 laboratory and other laboratories performing the SARS-CoV-2 rRT-PCR on air passengers during the studied period to be 0.96 and 1.29, respectively, compared to Northern Cyprus median value which was 0.99. The rRT-PCR screening results from the NEU DESAM COVID-19 laboratory were closely aligned with the screening results of Northern Cyprus whereas the screening results reported by other laboratories were not in a fit with the regional pattern. This study also aimed to point out the importance of the rRT-PCR screening procedure since asymptomatic positive SARS-CoV-2 cases entery to Northern Cyprus was inhibited and this prevented the spread of the disease within the population.


gas (O&G) installations intensifies in the North Sea, and worldwide, debate rages regarding the fate of these novel habitats and their associated biota—a debate that has important implications for future decommissioning of offshore wind farms (OWFs). Calls to relax complete removal requirements in some circumstances and allow part of an O&G installation to be left in the marine environment are increasing. Yet knowledge regarding the biological communities that develop on these structures and their ecological role in the North Sea is currently insufficient to inform such decommissioning decisions. To focus debate regarding decommissioning policy and guide ecological research, we review environmental policy objectives in the region, summarize existing knowledge regarding ecological aspects of decommissioning for both O&G and OWF installations, and identify approaches to address knowledge gaps through science–industry collaboration. We find that in some cases complete removal will conflict with other policies regarding protection and restoration of reefs, as well as the conservation of species within the region. Key ecological considerations that are rarely considered during decommissioning decisions are: (i) provision of reef habitat, (ii) productivity of offshore ecosystems, (iii) enhancement of biodiversity, (iv) protection of the seabed from trawling, and (v) enhancement of connectivity. Knowledge gaps within these areas will best be addressed using industry infrastructure and vessels for scientific investigations, re-analysis of historical data held by industry, scientific training of industry personnel, joint research funding opportunities, and trial decommissioning projects.


The incidence of the carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacteria is on the rise. They are common in intensive care units (ICUs) and have the potential to cause outbreaks. Currently, there are limited data regarding this phenomenon in Iran, a tropical, developing country, located in the Middle East. A cross sectional retro respective study was performed between April 2015 and October 2015, in Moheb hospital 12 bed intensive care unit, a university hospital, to investigate the prevalence of the carbapenem-resistant infections. 69 clinical specimens were collected. 37 of them were resistant to both imipenem and meropenem , which indicates a resistance rate of 53.6 per cent. we founded a carbapenem resistance rate of 53.6% in our intensive care unit.This finding is consistent with previous local published reports of resistance to the other members of carbapenem antibiotic family. According to previous studies screening for carbapenem resistant bacteria carriers in high risk units, undertake strict contact precautions for carriers and antibiotic stewardship programs to spare carbapenems is highly recommended.


This article focuses on the immunity from real property taxation and charges for the use of water and sewer services that New York nonprofit institutions have historically enjoyed. It first examines the nature of New York City's water and sewer rents and exemptions, and the method by which New York city charges for water and sewer services. It then examines the case law that establishes the liability of nonprofit institutions for the payment of water and sewer rent. It further explores the exemptions from water and sewer rents extended to nonprofit organizations in New York City. Finally, in light of many cuts to New York City nonprofit tax exemptions, it addresses possible arguments that nonprofit institutions may make to challenge New York City's water and sewer rents if their exemptions were canceled.


. In order to create systems of vibroseismic monitoring for earthquake-prone areas it is needed to carry out the simulation of seismic wave propagation in the media typical of volcanic structures. To this end it is required to develop supercomputer technologies for decreasing the computation time and simulation of "big" 3D elastic media. Analysis of the efficiency of two parallel implementations of algorithms for solving the 3D elastodynamic problem written in different terms is carried out with the co-design. The software has been developed for both approaches and optimized for the architecture of a supercomputer equipped with GPU. A comparative analysis of the computation time, the size of the memory used and the software scalability is made.


Abstract The Anthropocene is a proposed term for a new phase in the history of both humanity and the Earth – a geological epoch in which their respective forces intertwine on a planetary scale. As a concept, the Anthropocene has recently gained momentum also in the humanities and the social sciences, but not yet in Tourism Studies. The aim of this paper is to introduce the concept of the Anthropocene to Tourism Studies and to explore and outline scientific, political, and ethical challenges. In the context of the Anthropocene, tourism becomes a geophysical force censoriously interrelated with the capacity of the Earth to sustain the human species.


The concept of BIM is nascent but evolving rapidly, thus, its deployment has become the latest shibboleth amongst both academics and practitioners in the construction sector in the recent couple of years. Due to construction clients buy-in of the BIM concept, the entire industry is encouraged to pursue a vision of changing work practices in line with the BIM ideas. Also, existing research recognises that the implementation of BIM affects all areas of the construction process from design of the building, through the organisation of projects, to the way in which the construction process is executed and how the finished product is maintained. The problem however is that, existing research in technology utilisation in general, and BIM literature in particular, has offered limited help to practitioners trying to implement BIM, for focusing predominantly, on technology-centric views. Not surprisingly therefore, the current BIM literature emphasises on topics such as capability maturity models and anticipated outcomes of BIM rollouts. Rarely does the extant literature offer practitioners a cohesive approach to BIM implementation. Such technology-centric views inevitably represent a serious barrier to utilising the inscribed capabilities of BIM.
This research therefore is predicated on the need to strengthen BIM implementation theory through monitoring and analysing its implementation in practice. Thus, the focus of this thesis is to carry out a sociotechnical systems (STS) analysis of BIM implementation in construction organisations. The concept of STS accommodates the dualism of the inscribed functions of BIM technologies and the contextual issues in the organisations and allows for the analysis of their interactive combination in producing the anticipated effect from BIM appropriation.
An interpretive research methodology is adopted to study practitioners through a change process, involving the implementation of BIM in their work contexts. The study is based on constructivist ontological interpretations of participants. The study adopts an abductive research approach which ensures a back-and-forth movement between research sites and the theoretical phenomenon, effectively comparing the empirical findings with the existing theories and to eventually generate a new theoretical understanding and knowledge regarding the phenomenon under investigation. A two-stage process is also formulated for the empirical data collection - comprising: 1) initial exploratory study to help establish the framework for analysing BIM implementation in the construction context; and 2) case studies approach to provide a context for formulating novel understanding and validation of theory regarding BIM implementation in construction organisations. The analysis and interpretation of the empirical work follows the qualitative content analysis technique to observe and reflect on the results.
The findings have shown that BIM implementation demands a complete breakaway from the status quo. Contrary to the prevailing understanding of a top-down approach to BIM utilisation, the study revealed that different organisations with plethora of visions, expectations and skills combine with artefacts to form or transform BIM practices. The rollout and appropriation of BIM occurs when organisations shape sociotechnical systems of institutions, processes and technologies to support certain practices over others. The study also showed that BIM implementation endures in a causal chain of influences as different project organisations with their localised BIM ambitions and expectations combine to develop holistic BIM-enabled project visions. Thus, distributed responsibilities on holistic BIM protocols among the different levels of influences are instituted and enforced under binding contractual obligations. The study has illuminated the centrality of both the technical challenges and sociological factors in shaping BIM deployment in construction. It is also one of the few studies that have produced accounts of BIM deployment that is strongly mediated by the institutional contexts of construction organisations. However, it is acknowledged that the focus of the research on qualitative interpretive enquiry does not have the hard and fast view of generalising from specific cases to broader population/contexts. Thus, it is suggested that further quantitative studies, using much larger data sample of BIM-enabled construction organisations could provide an interesting point of comparison to the conclusions derived from the research findings.


Behaviour is the ultimate output of an animal's nervous system and choosing the right action at the right time can be critical for survival. A quantitative understanding of behaviour would therefore advance research in neuroscience as well as ecology and evolution. However, animal posture typically has many degrees of freedom and behavioural dynamics vary on timescales ranging from milliseconds to years, presenting both technical and conceptual challenges. Here we review 1) advances in imaging and computer vision that are making it possible to capture increasingly complete records of animal motion and 2) new approaches to understanding the resulting behavioural data sets. With the right analytical approaches, these data are allowing researchers to revisit longstanding questions about the structure and organisation of animal behaviour and to put unifying principles on a quantitative footing. Contributions from both experimentalists and theorists are leading to the emergence of a physics of behaviour and the prospect of discovering laws and developing theories with broad applicability. We believe that there now exists an opportunity to develop theories of behaviour which can be tested using these data sets leading to a deeper understanding of how and why animals behave.


Reduction of crosstalk between interconnections becomes an important consideration in today's VLSI design. This paper presents a novel approach to solve the VLSI channel and switchbox routing problems with the objective of satisfying crosstalk constraints for the nets. The approach is based on a parallel genetic algorithm which runs on a distributed network of workstations. All our routing results are qualitatively better or as good as the best published results. In addition, our algorithm is able to significantly reduce the occurrence of crosstalk.


The researcher establishes, through review of literature on the theory of the firm, that the firm operates as a complex adaptive system, consisting of interdependent tangible activity indicators and intangible capabilities. These interdependent capabilities are ultimately the drivers for creating competitive advantage, which is made observable as the value of the firm. When evaluating firm value, experts in the field of capital appraisal make use of the standard DCF method that, however, accounts only for tangible activity indicators and does not explicitly examine the intangible capabilities of the firm.

In an attempt to address the above limitation, the researcher develops a methodology aimed at explicitly evaluating firm capabilities in the context of firm valuation. In an effort to accomplish this task, the researcher adopts a qualitative and quantitative approach to identify and analyse the underlying constituents of firm capabilities. Through a series of discussions and group sessions with experts, the research identified 127 intangible activity indicators, which are summarised under eight higher order factors (capabilities).

This structure is confirmed through PLS analysis that indicates the existence of the following eight intangible capabilities: (1) value for money, (2) product complexity, (3) distribution, (4) culture, (5) competition, (6) asset management, (7) environment and (8) market equity. Regression analysis confirms that intangible capabilities represent a better predictor for firm value than thangible activity indicators. The researcher also carries out bivariate correlation analyses in order to examine the interrelationship between tangible activity indicators and intangible capabilities. The results confirm that the tangible activity indicators are indeed embedded in the firm's intangible capabilities.

Overall, the research adds knowledge in three areas. First, it extends the literature on capabilities and firm valuation by providing a superior way to DCF of evaluating firm value as a function of the firm's capabilities. Second, the research contributes to business practice by offering a step-wise procedure for explicitly evaluating firm capabilities. Third, the research adds knowledge to methods by identifying the intangible activity indicators through interviews and surveys with experts in the field of capital appraisal and reducing these activity indicators into capabilities using focus groups and PLS analysis.


Thank you, Dean, for your kind remarks. First, a few words about the role of the ICTY. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is, as you all know, the court of law established under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to address grave international crimes that took place in the Balkans in the 1990s. Its mandate, more specifically, is to bring to justice those individuals alleged to be responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia since 1991, and thus contribute to the restoration and maintenance of peace in the region. The ICTY's indictments have charged 161 persons, including heads of state, prime ministers, army chiefs of staff, interior ministers, and many other high- and mid-level political, military, and police leaders from various parties to the Yugoslav conflicts. Notably, as you all know, the ICTY was the first war crimes tribunal created by the United Nations and the first truly international war crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, which were founded in the wake of the Second World War and were, in effect, occupation courts. The establishment of the ICTY and its sister tribunal, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in the early 1990s not only helped to lead the way for the establishment of a number of other ad hoc international criminal courts, but demonstrated that the international community was fully committed to ending the impunity for the gravest of international crimes by making international criminal justice a reality. The ICTY and the ICTR were also an important catalyst for the adoption of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court. In addition, the ICTY has contributed to the international legal system in a far more straightforward manner through its cases and its jurisprudence. In case after case, the Chambers of the ICTY have shown that it is possible and practical to apply international criminal and humanitarian law in actual cases, not just a few times, as in Nuremberg, but repeatedly and in ways consistent with fair trial principles. The ICTY Chambers have construed, clarified, and applied customary humanitarian law, helping to articulate and strengthen norms concerning the protection of civilians and modes of individual criminal responsibility and firmly rooting its jurisprudence in the principle of legality. No less important, the decisions and judgments of the ICTY have also addressed a wide variety of procedural and evidentiary issues by reference to international standards, thus creating--perhaps for the first time--an important corpus of procedural law to which both international courts and national jurisdiction may refer. And even the factual determinations in the ICTY cases have contributed to the international legal system, as in the ICJ's ruling in the Genocide Case, where the ICJ's reliance on factual determinations by the ICTY in the Krstic case proved essential to the conclusions reached by the ICJ. Finally, the ICTY has made, and continues to make, important contributions to the strengthening of competent national judicial systems and the rule of law in the region of the former Yugoslavia. Indeed, thanks in great part to the ICTY's initiative and the support of the international community, specialized mechanisms for war crimes prosecutions have now been established in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Croatia, including the Special War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo. Meanwhile, the training of legal professionals and witness support staff in the region by their ICTY counterparts has facilitated the implementation of international standards and best practices within the local judiciaries. These developments, while taking place on a national level, contribute in a meaningful way to global goals concerning the rule of the law. I turn to the implications of collocation at The Hague of tribunals and dynamics among courts situated at The Hague. …


In situ hybridization histochemistry, using cRNA probes, revealed a complementarity in the distributions of cells in the basal ganglia, basal nucleus of Meynert, thalamus, hypothalamus, and rostral part of the midbrain that showed gene expression for glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) or the alpha-subunit of type II calcium-calmodulin- dependent protein kinase (CAM II kinase-alpha). Cells in certain nuclei such as the thalamic reticular nucleus, globus pallidus, and pars reticulata of the substantia nigra show GAD gene expression only; others in nuclei such as the basal nucleus of Meynert, medial mamillary nuclei, and ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei show CAM II kinase-alpha gene expression only. A few nuclei, for example, the pars compacta of the substantia nigra and the greater part of the subthalamic nucleus, display gene expression for neither GAD nor CAM II kinase-alpha. In other nuclei, notably those of the dorsal thalamus, and possibly in the striatum, GAD- and CAM II kinase-expressing cells appear to form two separate populations that, in most thalamic nuclei, together account for the total cell population. In situ hybridization reveals large amounts of CAM II kinase-alpha mRNA in the neuropil of most nuclei containing CAM II kinase-alpha-positive cells, suggesting its association with dendritic polyribosomes. The message may thus be translated at those sites, close to the synapses with which the protein is associated. The in situ hybridization results, coupled with those from immunocytochemical staining for CAM II kinase-alpha protein, indicate that CAM II kinase-alpha is commonly found in certain non- GABAergic afferent fiber systems but is not necessarily present in the postsynaptic cells on which they terminate. It appears to be absent from most GABAergic fiber systems but can be present in the cells on which they terminate. This suggests that the kinase may be differentially engaged in pre- and postsynaptic functions at certain synapses.


While there is little consensus amongst policy scholars about the relationship between research and policy, there is some agreement that the contribution of research to the policy process is at best, weak, at worst, symbolic. The reason for this tenuous link is manifold, but some policy scholars suggest that it is a consequence of the absence of sufficient dialogue between the various participants in the policy process. This paper proposes two outcomes. First, we survey selected literature on the policy dialogue process, exploring the research policy link as it is played out in the interface between political structures and the actors involved. We explore the nature of informal and i?½non-lineari?½ policy decision-making processes and identify macro formations that exert influence over which policy ideas are noticed and which are ignored. Second, in a mode of critical self-reflexivity, we document our experiences as members of a research team engaged in a policy dialogue initiative in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Through a reflection on our research (as it unfolded) on the relationship between Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), schooling and poverty, we offer an analysis of the political, ethical, and methodological dynamics inherent in research of and/or for policy. The paper appraises the nature, quality and value of the policy dialogue opportunities afforded by the project.


A method based on atomic force microscopy is used to delineate the properties that determine single-molecule adhesion onto solid substrates in aqueous environment. Hydrophobicity as well as electrical properties of the substrate and the polymer are varied. In addition, the influence of the solvent composition, in particular the effect of ions, on the molecular adhesion at the solid-liquid interface is studied. Surprisingly, the polymer and surface-related properties account for only small changes in adhesion force, while dissolved ions show a much larger effect. These results point towards the energy of solvation as the most important contribution to adhesion for a wide variety of polymers and substrate materials.


Nearly 1 in every 5 Americans have some form of disability, creating a high demand for professionals who are interested in working with people with disability (PWD). However, many people are uncomfortable working with PWD, or are unwilling to put in the additional effort that may be necessary to meet their needs. As a result, PWD face many barriers when seeking services. Interventions to address this issue typically focus on changing attitudes or increasing empathy. While these components influence people's behavior in the short-term, they do not completely account for the variability in people being willing to make sacrifices to put in additional time and effort to meet the needs of PWD. Given that feeling close and connected to a group of people makes a person more willing to go out of their way to help a member of that group (e.g., neighbors, family members, classmates), this work explored the association between self-other overlap and willingness to work with PWD. Across 3 studies, self-other overlap was uniquely associated with students' willingness to work with PWD as part of one's profession, even when controlling for attitudes and empathy. The main effects from a fourth study indicated self-other overlap-based enhanced brief intervention did not result in significant improvements in self-other overlap, compared to the other conditions. However, more work will be needed to verify this finding and address more conclusively whether self-other overlap is malleable to intervention in this context. IS SELF-OTHER OVERLAP A MALLEABLE PREDICTOR OF WILLINGNESS TO WORK WITH PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY?


This paper shows that robust inference under weak identification is important to the evaluation of many influential macro asset pricing models, including (time‐varying) rare‐disaster risk models and long‐run risk models. Building on recent developments in the conditional inference literature, we provide a novel conditional specification test by simulating the critical value conditional on a sufficient statistic. This sufficient statistic can be intuitively interpreted as a measure capturing the macroeconomic information decoupled from the underlying content of asset pricing theories. Macro‐finance decoupling is an effective way to improve the power of the specification test when asset pricing theories are difficult to refute because of a severe imbalance in the information content about the key model parameters between macroeconomic moment restrictions and asset pricing cross‐equation restrictions. We apply the proposed conditional specification test to the evaluation of a time‐varying rare‐disaster risk model and the construction of robust model uncertainty sets.


CLPP (caseinolytic mitochondrial matrix peptidase proteolytic subunit) is a highly conserved serine protease. Molecular and structural studies in E. coli and other prokaryotes have revealed CLPP specific substrates and the mechanisms underlying their identification and subsequent degradation. These studies showed that ClpXP is involved in DNA damage repair, stationary-phase gene expression, and ssrA-mediated protein quality control. Similarly, diverse roles for the eukaryotic CLPP have been suggested. In the filamentous fungus Podospora anserine Clpp depletion promotes longevity. In Caenorhabditis elegans it has been demonstrated that CLPP have a central role in mediating the UPRmt signals. Loss of function CLPP mutations in humans cause Perrault syndrome that results in ovarian failure and sensorineural hearing loss accompanied with shorter stature. Despite this we still have a very limited knowledge about the functional role of eukaryotic CLPP, its specific substrates and underlying molecular mechanism.
In order to decipher the in vivo role of CLPP in mammals we have developed a CLPP deficient mouse model (Clpp-/-). Interestingly, only about half of Clpp knockout mice according to Mendelian proportion (12,5%) are born from intercrossing of Clpp+/- mice. These mice are infertile and born ~ 30% smaller than littermates. CLPP deficient mice faithfully replicate the phenotypes observed in human patients. On the molecular level CLPP deficiency leads to an early specific decrease in Complex I activity, followed by a decrease in Complex IV activity later in life. Furthermore, we observed a decrease in mitochondrial translation, which is compensated for by upregulation of mitochondrial transcription. This suggests a direct or indirect role of CLPP in the process of mitochondrial protein synthesis. Gradient sedimentation analysis demonstrates an increase in the steady state levels of small ribosomal subunits, while large ribosomal subunits and monosomes are present in almost normal levels. We also observed an impairment of 12S rRNA assembly into monosomes leading to lower loading of mt- mRNAs. This indicates complications in the function of monosomes. Search for CLPXP substrates and interactors revealed two candidates that are likely to be involved in this process. We show that ERAL1 is one of the substrates of CLPP that is likely causing defective 12S rRNA assembly into the small ribosomal subunit. Additionally, p32, a CLPP interactor is permanently bound to the mitoribosomes. We believe that through interaction with CLPXP, these proteins are involved in resolution of stalled ribosomes. We are currently working further on elucidating the molecular mechanism underlying impaired mitochondrial translation.


This paper looks at the study workload for a sample of undergraduate students during 30 min intervals over 7x24 hours. Students at the Danmarks Tekniske Universitet in Denmark and the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, took part in the experiment, which focused on physics and mathematics students. Detailed data was obtained for the total study workload, the study workload during the day and during the week, the different study activities, and the differences in workload between different students. Significant differences are found between the study practices of the students at the two institutions. Further work is required to make adjustments to the teaching and learning programmes.


Indonesia is one of the countries that is most vulnerable to climate change. As a small Indonesian island, Bali is likely to also be affected by climate change impacts, including rising sea levels, drought, and flooding, which will also impact on its paddy production. This paper shows how the focus area of vulnerability assessments in Bali has been identified, based on multiple assessments including literature reviews, statistical assessment, stakeholder and policy assessment, and interviews with farmers. A project team applied a six-step process to identify issues linked to climate change, the purpose and system of vulnerability assessment, potential risk/harm in context, and potential variables for a further assessment. The team identified paddy production as a significant issue, and the purpose and system was the Presidential Decree No.5 on paddy production. Significant concerns linked to paddy production included droughts, land use change, and potential variables for vulnerability assessment such as water level and the price of rice. This paper suggests how adaptive measures should be implemented to handle paddy production in a changing climate. The results of this paper were used by a vulnerability assessment on rice paddy and climate change [Takama, T., Setyani, P., & Aldrian, E. (2014). Climate change vulnerability to rice paddy production in Bali, Indonesia. In W. Leal Filho (Ed.), Handbook of climate change adaptation (pp. 1–23). Berlin: Springer].


Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is a highly effective oxidant produced during phagocytosis and plays an important role in a variety of physiological and pathological processes. In this work, a new ratiometric fluorescent probe (PTZ-TDPP) based on a diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) and phenothiazine platform, was firstly designed and synthesized for the selective detection of HOCl. PTZ-TDPP showed an obvious color change from purple to pink along with a distinct fluorescence change from bright red to yellow in response to HOCl. The limit of detection towards HOCl was calculated to be 190 nM. For biological applications, PTZ-TDPP is of great development potential in detecting endogenous HOCl in living RAW 264.7 cells. A co-localization study employing MitoTracker Green showed that PTZ-TDPP was specifically located in the mitochondria of RAW 264.7 cells. Therefore, PTZ-TDPP has great potential for the detection of endogenous HOCl in living cells.


Purpose – In offering a critical account of knowledge management in a small- and medium-sized enterprise this paper aims to theorise the creation and sharing of knowledge from a relational perspective.

Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the findings of an in-depth longitudinal study of a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) the paper assesses the role and impact of exogenous change events on the innovation process.

Findings – The case indicates that knowledge management constitutes an ongoing process of social engagement when the unfolding social context presents actors with greater and/or fewer opportunities for critical reflection and strategic choice. Failure to adopt knowledge often relates to the way exogenous change events disrupt how actors connect with their social context and as such are able to manage knowledge and uncertainty.

Research limitations/implications – Based on a single case study this research provides insights that are context specific. In this respect, future work should involve a broader assessment of the changing social context of innovation and knowledge management.

Originality/value – This critical account of knowledge management is in contrast to mainstream and positivist accounts found in the literature.


Objectives To develop new scales within palpation of muscle and skin domains based on 16 items from the Global Physiotherapy Examination and 46 items from the Comprehensive Body Examination [CBE], and to investigate how well these new scales would discriminate between healthy individuals and different groups of patients, when compared with the original methods. Methods Two physiotherapists independently examined 132 persons [34 healthy, 32 with localized pain, 32 with widespread pain, and 34 with psychoses]. Muscle and skin domains were studied separately. The numbers of items were reduced by omitting items with too high a correlation and by exploratory factor analysis [EFA]. Internal consistency was examined with Cronbach's α. Discriminative validity was examined using the Mann–Whitney U-test and the area under the curve. Results Only items from the left body half was included in the EFA, as very high correlation [mean r  =  0.90] was found in the 23 bilateral palpation pairs in CBE. The initial 62 items were reduced to 11 for palpation of muscle and 5 for palpation of skin. Cronbach's α was 0.88 for the subscales for Muscle and Skin. The new Palpation domain in the Global Body Examination showed excellent discriminative ability between healthy persons and the different patient groups [P  <  0.001; area under the curve 0.81–0.94]. Patients with localized pain had significantly less muscular and skin aberration than patients with widespread pain. Conclusions A new Global Body Examination Palpation domain with acceptable psychometric properties was developed. It had fewer items than the Global Physiotherapy Examination and CBE, but with almost the same discriminating ability.


A simple, rapid, precise and accurate high performance liquid chromatography method was developed for simultaneous estimation of Clobetasol propionate and Fusidic acid in combined dosage form. The separation was obtained using a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water in ratio of 80:20 and adjusting pH 5.0 with glacial acetic acid (10%) using Phenomenex-luna C18 (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) column. The flow rate 1.0 mL min -1 and UV detection at 240 nm was employed. The retention time for Clobetasol propionate and Fusidic acid was 5.55 min and 7.48 min respectively. Linearity for Clobetasol propionate and Fusidic acid was found to be in the range of 4-12 μg/mL and 160-480 μg/mL respectively. The method was validated as per the ICH guidelines and the results were within the acceptance criteria for precision, linearity, specificity, stability of solution and robustness.


This paper examines the contribution of investments in Information Technology (IT) and in advertising to the output and profits of Spanish banks, in the period 1983-2003. We find that the growth in the stock of IT capital explains one third of output growth of banks, and that an additional investment in IT of one million euros may be substituted for twenty-five workers. The paper also finds that advertising investments increase the demand for bank services with an elasticity of 0.22 for deposits and 0.11 for loans. For all the assets considered, the null hypothesis that banks use the profit-maximizing amount of services per period cannot be rejected with the data.


The dynamic behavior of the railway vehicles is strongly influenced by the complex interaction between the wheels and rails. In conventional rail vehicles the wheelsets are assembled with two wheels that are not free to rotate independently. Hence, their treads are profiled in order to allow them to negotiate curves without slipping. The dynamics of guidance depends on the wheel-rail contact forces resultant from the vehicle interaction with the track. In this work a methodology for the accurate geometric description of track models is proposed in the framework of multibody dynamics. It includes the representation of the track spatial geometry and its irregularities. The wheel and rail surfaces are parameterized with a formulation that allows using any wheel and rail profiles obtained from direct measurements or design requirements. A methodology is proposed to find online the coordinates of the contact points between wheel and rail surfaces, even for the most general three dimensional motion of the wheelset. A formulation for the description of the normal contact forces, which result from the wheel-rail interaction, is also presented. The tangential creep forces in the wheel-rail contact area are evaluated using: Kalker linear theory; Heuristic force method; Polach formulation. All methodologies proposed here are implemented in a general multibody code. The advantages and drawbacks of the computational tool are discussed with emphasis on the influence of the interpolation scheme used to parameterize the wheel and rail profiles. The discussion is supported through the dynamic analysis of the wheelset of the railway vehicle ML95 on a straight track.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has emerged as the most common chronic liver disease in the Western countries affecting 20%–30% of the general population. NAFLD is considered as one of the manifestations of the metabolic syndrome, closely associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes, and may range from steatosis to the more aggressive form of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Long-standing NASH may progress in severe form of liver diseases, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Steatosis in the liver is characterised by a large intracytoplasmic or well-defined fat droplets accumulation, displacing the nucleus to the cell periphery. Abnormal hepatic triglyceride accumulation is due to dysregulation of fatty acid metabolism. In healthy conditions, fatty acids are preferably stored in adipose tissue. However, elevated peripheral fatty acids together with hepatic de novo lipogenesis and defective apolipoprotein biosynthesis lead to hepatic lipid accumulation.

In this issue, Guillou and colleagues identify a novel hepatic-specific mechanism in the pathogenesis of NAFLD that directly involves the fatty acid sensor peroxisome proliferation-activated receptor α (PPARα) and the hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21).1

PPARs are ligand-activated transcription factors belonging to the nuclear receptor subfamily. They act as lipid sensors, regulating almost every aspect of lipid metabolism. Functional impairment or dysregulation of these receptors leads to obesity, fatty liver and type 2 diabetes. Although the three PPAR isoforms (α, β/δ and γ) share structural similarity and high homology sequence, they are …


Internet has been an important tool in connecting, interacting, and garnering information in this digital age. This study is on the behavior of Internet access requests through the Diliman Network (DilNet) of the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) analyzed using recurrence plots (RP) and recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) measure: recurrence rate r. A six-day data set was investigated using RP with parameters: time delay τ, epsilon e, and embedding dimension M chosen appropriately. The resulting recurrence plots show disrupted typology with clusters of diagonal and vertical lines indicating activity aggregation. The recurrence rate is shown to decrease according to power law r ~ eα with α that is sensitive to M. The deviation of obtained α values is discussed in relation to the activity being constant or intermittent. The computed values of r for the same M at different days also reflect high activities, but vary in interpretation depending on the corresponding α-values. The results were related to the expected regular activities of DilNet users.


ost of the discussions of some five to ten years ago about market viability of multimedia products still hold true. The key consideration continues to be what portions, if any, of what we consider to be the core research areas within our field have made or are about to make a major market impact. Take search and retrieval, an area in which we have made significant strides in advancing the state of the art. We've especially made advances in retrieval of objects in a single media type, such as still pictures. Hopefully you agree that the recent techniques have made image retrieval more versatile, with better acuity and accuracy. One would think that this technology would make a dashing complementary toolkit for the happy-clicking camera owner. However, despite the large and ever-expanding market of digital cameras, we haven't seen our research contributions make an impact in any substantial way. Doesn't sound good, does it? Unfortunately, this is the reality. If you disagree, think about the following: When selecting a camera, an average buyer considers several factors, almost all relating to the hardware (such as the size of the image capture device, how many megapixels it generates, zoom capability, and so on). The image-management software isn't a clear factor or concern. The end result is that we're perfecting the ability to search for the actual content instead of just for surrogate tags, but buyers don't know about this technology and probably don't care. Maybe it's the nature of our field. Perhaps we'll never see that elusive killer app that we have fantasized about for so long. Maybe our work is bound to make only marginal contributions, instead of opening a new market or significantly expanding an existing one. What do you think? Questions are plenty and success stories few and far in between. If you have any thoughts on this topic, please write to me at golshani@cs. wright.edu. Are there any up-and-coming areas that you feel will make a larger market impact? Are there things that we should be doing differently? Any guesses on what scenarios may be more likely to lead us to success? MM


Speckle appears in all conventional ultrasound images and is caused by the use of a phase-sensitive transducer. Speckle is an undesirable property as it can mask small but perhaps diagnostically significant image features. In this paper a homomorphic, hybrid nonlinear processing method, based on cancellation of scattering interference, is developed and examined. Experiments with synthetic and real ultrasound imagery show that the proposed method improves the contrast-to-noise ratio in both lesion and cyst areas and preserves edge clarity.


A Boolean function f is correlation immune if each input variable is independent of the output, under the uniform distribution on inputs. For example, the parity function is correlation immune. We consider the problem of identifying relevant variables of a correlation immune function, in the presence of irrelevant variables. We address this problem in two different contexts. First, we analyze Skewing, a heuristic method that was developed to improve the ability of greedy decision tree algorithms to identify relevant variables of correlation immune Boolean functions, given examples drawn from the uniform distribution (Page and Ray, 2003). We present theoretical results revealing both the capabilities and limitations of skewing. Second, we explore the problem of identifying relevant variables in the Product Distribution Choice (PDC) learning model, a model in which the learner can choose product distributions and obtain examples from them. We prove a lemma establishing a property of Boolean functions that may be of independent interest. Using this lemma, we give two new algorithms for finding relevant variables of correlation immune functions in the PDC model.


Achieve the most accurate imaging diagnosis for pediatric radiology. Differential Diagnosis in Pediatric Imagingoffers the most up-to-date knowledge of pediatric imaging diagnostic techniques. It provides imagers, clinicians and their trainees with simple methods to evaluate both frequently and rarely seen diseases and disorders, and suggests differential diagnoses fully taking into account clinical findings. In addition, the text provides how-to tips for identifying normal images - saving time and helping to avoid common misinterpretations. Readers are guided through a comprehensive, easy-to-navigate radiological library of pediatric disorders, which are divided by organ system. Sections include the head and neck, chest, musculoskeletal, urogenital and the digestive tract, and are complemented by a thorough review of normal values. Each chapter discusses the imaging findings and different diagnostic possibilities, while mirroring clinical situations encountered in daily practice. Features: * Easy-to-read tables highlight important findings and clinical clues to help identify diagnoses at a glance *1,500 high-quality images cover all major childhood disorders* A comprehensive chapter on normal values and measurements Written by an international group of expert authors, this text is the foremost guide to the expanding specialty of pediatric radiology. Radiologists and residents in radiology can use this text as reference for daily practice and in preparation for exams.


Distributed optical fiber Brillouin sensors provide innovative solutions for the monitoring of temperature and strain in large structures. The effective range of these sensors is typically of the order of 20-30 km, which limits their use in certain applications in which the distance to monitor is larger. In this work, we have developed a new technique to significantly extend the measurement distance of a distributed Brillouin Optical Time-Domain Analysis (BOTDA) sensor. Distributed Raman Amplification in the sensing fiber provides the means to enhance the operating range of the setup. Three Raman pumping configurations are theoretically and experimentally investigated: co-propagating, counter-propagating and bidirectional propagation with respect to the Brillouin pump pulse. We show that some of the amplification schemes tested can extend the measurement range and improve the measurement quality over long distances.


Polysaccharides are major components of extracellular matrices and are often extensively modified post-synthetically to suit local requirements and developmental programmes. However, our current understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics and functional significance of these modifications is limited by a lack of suitable molecular tools. Here, we report the development of a novel non-immunological approach for producing highly selective reciprocal oligosaccharide-based probes for chitosan (the product of chitin deacetylation) and for demethylesterified homogalacturonan. Specific reciprocal binding is mediated by the unique stereochemical arrangement of oppositely charged amino and carboxy groups. Conjugation of oligosaccharides to fluorophores or gold nanoparticles enables direct and rapid imaging of homogalacturonan and chitosan with unprecedented precision in diverse plant, fungal and animal systems. We demonstrated their potential for providing new biological insights by using them to study homogalacturonan processing during Arabidopsis thaliana root cap development and by analyzing sites of chitosan deposition in fungal cell walls and arthropod exoskeletons.


Epitaxial spin filter tunnel junctions based on the ferromagnetic semiconductor europium monoxide, EuO, are investigated by means of density functional theory. In particular, we focus on the spin transport properties of Cu(100)/EuO(100)/Cu(100) junctions. The dependence of the transmission coefficient and the current-voltage curves on the interface spacing and on the EuO thickness is explained in terms of the EuO density of states and the complex band structure. Furthermore we also discuss the relation between the spin transport properties and the Cu-EuO interface geometry. The level alignment of the junction is sensitively affected by the interface spacing, since this determines the charge transfer between EuO and the Cu electrodes. Our calculations indicate that EuO epitaxially grown on Cu can act as a perfect spin filter, with a spin polarization of the current close to 100%, and with both the Eu-5d conduction band and the Eu-4f valence band states contributing to the coherent transport. For epitaxial EuO on Cu a symmetry filtering is observed, with the \Delta_1 states dominating the transmission. This leads to a transport gap larger than the fundamental EuO band gap. Importantly the high spin polarization of the current is preserved up to large bias voltages.


Nearly two decades since the last nuclear power station was built and began operating in the UK, nuclear energy is firmly back on the political agenda domestically and elsewhere in the world. Yet since the 1980s, little research has investigated perceptions of nuclear power in the UK, particularly those of communities living in very close proximity to such facilities. Using biographical narrative interviews (n = 61), we explore how local residents living close to two nuclear power stations in the UK (Bradwell, Essex and Oldbury, South Gloucestershire) have come to view their local facility. We reveal how the power station is constructed through processes of familiarisation and/or the normalisation/normification of risk as part of everyday life; how this ordinariness is juxtaposed with moments of extraordinariness in which, due to direct and mediated events, the power station is reframed as a risk issue; and how risk awareness is associated with moments of anxiety which ebb and flow through our interviewees' lives. We conclude that biographical experiences dynamically unfolding through space and time can be interrupted by risk events (mediated and direct, real and symbolic, nuclear and non-nuclear) to disrupt the usually taken-for-granted ordinariness of a power station's presence in a particular locality. Our findings suggest that those involved in debate about new nuclear build must be sensitive to the heterogeneity of the extraordinary in nuclear affairs and the importance of socio-cultural histories of place.


Although much interest has been generated regarding the functions speaking centers serve and the effects consultations can have, minimal research has addressed the dynamics of consultations themselves. This study documents what speaking center clients and consultants identify as barriers in consultations and how they address them. Analysis of qualitative survey data obtained from university speaking center clients and consultants shows that emotional intelligence, empathy, and interpersonal trust serve as necessary underlying components of successful consultations. ********** With persistent and increasingly urgent demands that students demonstrate effective oral communication, colleges and universities have turned to speaking centers (also known as communication centers) to tutor students who may need special assistance (Hobgood, 2002). These speaking centers often conduct consultations using a peer-to-peer method, with trained student consultants mentoring other students in one-on-one consultations. The objective of speaking centers is to develop public communication competencies, focusing on public speaking and other oral presentation skills. The communication between consultants (speaking center tutors/mentors) and clients (users of services) determines the success of speaking centers. Ineffective communication within speaking centers can inhibit trust, effective listening, and constructive consultations. On the other hand, effective communication within speaking centers can enable clients to explore their public speaking capabilities while receiving constructive criticism to heighten their speaking potential. While speaking centers strive to use effective communication, it is impossible to prove the effectiveness of communication without research on the actual communication that occurs within speaking centers. This type of research also shows the effects of communication in the speaking center as a workplace. Studying communication within speaking centers is the only way to measure the success of speaking centers. As speaking centers are becoming more prevalent in colleges and universities, this type of research allows one to look at the communication dynamics that can improve their operation and maximize their effectiveness. Consultant-client relationships are an integral part of speaking centers. Though this relationship begins to evolve within minutes, it has a critical impact on the success of speaking centers. While some communication barriers may be inevitable, many can be addressed and overcome. If communication barriers are not overcome, the client may feel uncomfortable, unwilling to work with the consultant, and more importantly, unwilling to return to the speaking center for help in the future. Furthermore, communication barriers can diminish the credibility of speaking centers if not addressed appropriately. By studying consultant-client relationships in speaking centers, one is able to look into empirical data that shows what the client and consultant experience and value during consultations. From studying the consultant, one not only identifies communication barriers during consultations, but ways they are addressed and overcome. Studying an entire staff at a speaking center can align consultants' communication barriers with those of the clients. The data from the clients gives an idea of ways that their needs can be met. Looking at the similarities and differences between the communication barriers of consultants and clients can identify the factors responsible for effective consultations. Currently, little scholarly research has been done on speaking centers. Searching the Communication and Mass Media Complete database using the phrase "speaking centers" and synonyms yielded only eight articles. Three were announcements of communication conferences, four concerned the services of labs from a specific university, and one dealt with listening. A literature search using the same search terms on the PsycInfo database generated only one hit that was associated with speaking centers. …


Abstract The Aktoprak Basin, Turkey, provides important clues regarding regional palaeoclimatic changes which have not so far been elucidated.The purpose of the present study is to fill this gap using mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic characterization of cyclic sedimentation within Neogene sedimentary units.Early Miocene alluvial-fan to cyclic shallow-lacustrine sediments of the Aktoprak Basin consist of conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone, marl, limestone and palaeosol. The increasingly fine upward grain size and bed thicknesses suggest that the alluvial fan was fed by an ephemeral braided river.The cyclic sandflat-mudflat-shallow-lake succession is predominantly composed of small-scale sandstone-mudstone beds.Sandstone intervals in the sedimentary cycles are interpreted to be a result of sedimentation from shallow, ephemeral braided-river channels, the deposits having evolved under water-saturated conditions in response to climate changes.The mudstone intervals are interpreted as having been laid down via sedimentation during distal sheet floods which developed either under sub-aerial exposure or in a water-saturated environment. Palaeocurrent measurements indicate that the general transport direction in the Early Miocene was from east to west.The lacustrine sediments of the Aktoprak Basin consist of calcite + quartz + feldspar + serpentine coexisting mainly with smectite ± palygorskite ± illite ± chlorite. Illite and chlorite are either detrital, having originated from basement units, or the illite formed authigenically from smectite.Calcite and clay appear as cement-building conglomerate, sandstone and mudstone. The clay content decreases with increasing calcite and the presence of an inverse relationship between CaO and other oxides may correspond to an inverse relationship between calcite and other minerals.Furthermore, Al2O3, Fe2O3, TiO2, MgO, Ni, Co, Cu, Sr, Ba and Zr values in the smectitebearing mudstone and sandstone are consistent with the chemical compositions of rocks in the surrounding area, mainly ophiolitic and volcanogenic ssociations.Micromorphologically, the development of smectite as a cement on leached feldspar, the occurrence of palygorskite fibres as bridges between crystals and rock fragments, as well as the presence of 'edging' smectite flakes suggest an authigenic origin.Field observations, mineralogy, geochemistry and the results of δ18O and δ13C isotopic determinations reveal that periodic palaeoclimatic changes were controlled by alternating wet and dry periods that resulted in a relative upward decrease in precipitation of authigenic smectite ± palygorskite within the sections, under the influence of geochemical and pH fluctuations in meteoric water within the shallow-lake environment.


Modern trade agreements have come to include many and varied obligations for domestic regulation and administration. These treaty-based commitments aim primarily to improve the freedom of firms to operate in the global economy by aligning the ways in which governments regulate markets and private actors engage governments through administrative law. They strike at the core of how economies are ordered and entail important distributional questions. An increasingly prevalent and diverse — but hitherto largely neglected — type of treaty obligation prescribes specific procedures for domestic administrative decision-making. This Article frames such treaty requirements for regulatory procedures as instruments of remote control. They are negotiated for by government officials in strong states that seek to advance the interests of the commercial interests they take to represent. These commitments empower private actors — predominantly well-organized business interests — to directly use these procedures to pursue and defend their interests in other states. To make this case, the Article for the first time synthesizes McNollgast's conception of regulatory procedures in the purely domestic context as instruments of political control and Putnam's theorization of international treaty negotiations as a two-level game. By applying this new synthesis to trade agreements, the Article shows how procedural obligations can be designed to stack the deck to favor certain private interests and why treaty negotiators may find it easier to agree on procedures than substantive commitments. The Article uses its synthetic conception to explain the accelerating rise of procedural requirements in post-war international economic law and demonstrates its explanatory potential by analyzing the variation between strong regulatory procedures for intellectual property rights and weak procedural protections for the environment in the newly-revived Trans-Pacific Partnership.


We evaluate the performance of an IEEE 802.15.4a ultra-wide band (UWB) physical layer, with an energy-detection receiver, in the presence of multi-user interference (MUI). A complete packet based system is considered. We take into account packet detection and timing acquisition, the estimation of the power delay profile of the channel, and the recovery of the encoded payload. Energy detectors are known to have a low implementation complexity and to allow for avoiding the complex channel estimation needed by a Rake receiver. However, our results show that MUI severely degrades the performance of the energy detection receiver, even at low traffic rate. We demonstrate that using an IEEE 802.15.4a compliant energy detection receiver significantly diminishes one of the most appealing benefits of UWB, namely its robustness to MUI and thus the possibility to allow parallel transmissions. We further find that timing acquisition and data decoding both equally suffer from MUI.


The definitive guide to OpenBSDForeword by Henning Brauer, OpenBSD PF DeveloperOpenBSD, the elegant, highly secure Unix-like operating system, is widely used as the basis for critical DNS servers, routers, firewalls, and more. This long-awaited second edition of Absolute OpenBSD maintains author Michael Lucas's trademark straightforward and practical approach that readers have enjoyed for years. You'll learn the intricacies of the platform, the technical details behind certain design decisions, and best practices, with bits of humor sprinkled throughout. This edition has been completely updated for OpenBSD 5.3, including new coverage of OpenBSD's boot system, security features like W^X and ProPolice, and advanced networking techniques.You'll learn how to: Manage network traffic with VLANs, trunks, IPv6, and the PF packet filter Make software management quick and effective using the ports and packages system Give users only the access they need with groups, sudo, and chroots Configure OpenBSD's secure implementations of SNMP, DHCP, NTP, hardware sensors, and more Customize the installation and upgrade processes for your network and hardware, or build a custom OpenBSD releaseWhether you're a new user looking for a complete introduction to OpenBSD or an experienced sysadmin looking for a refresher, Absolute OpenBSD, 2nd Edition will give you everything you need to master the intricacies of the world's most secure operating system."The definitive book on OpenBSD gets a long-overdue refresh." -Theo de Raadt, OpenBSD Founder


Analysis of greensand reservoirs all over the world has challenged geologists, engineers, and petrophysicsts. One challenge is to identify from core data the degree to which deformation of the reservoir rock affects hydrocarbon production. In the central part of the North Sea, massive allochtonous Paleocene greensands form reservoirs for oil. We study the deformation of one oil-zone sample from one of these reservoirs by sonic measurements, uniaxial compression testing, and image analysis of backscatter electron micrographs before and after testing.


It has been reported that the diet of rural women in most African countries differs considerably from that of their urban counterparts, with the urban diet composed of more refined carbohydrates and fatty food. This study examines anthropometric and biochemical profiles and the association between these parameters in pre-menopausal, post-pubertal black South African women. A representative sample of 500 participants, randomly selected in Mangaung, Bloemfontein in the Free State Province, using township maps obtained from the Bloemfontein Municipality were recruited to participate. Younger women were aged 25-34 years and older women 35- 44 years. Anthropometric and biochemical profiles were determined according to standard methods. From the original sample of 500 women, 496 were eligible to participate. Of the younger women 30.1% and of the older women 27.7% were overweight, while 23.3% of younger women and 24% of older women had a body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m2, indicating obesity. Most women had a waist-hip ratio (WHR) age groups had a body fat percentage >25% (92.5% and 94% respectively of younger and older women). Of the younger women 6.8% and of the older women 13.8% had triglyceride (TG) levels higher than the reference range. Total cholesterol levels fell within the reference range for 79.8% of the younger women and 71.3% of the older women. Glucose and insulin levels were within reference ranges for most women of both age groups. A significant association was found between insulin sensitivity and BMI and between insulin sensitivity and TG levels in both age groups. No significant association was found between waist circumference and elevated glucose levels in both age groups. A significant difference between insulin sensitivity and WHR was observed in the older group of women. The prevalence of overweight and obesity reported in this population may pose a potential risk for the development of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Keywords: Black women, anthropometric indicators, biochemical parameters, obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus