In order to repair pavements systematically, development of a method for inspecting pavement distress automatically is being hoped for. It is difficult, however, to classify crack types directly have two or more types of connected cracks. This necessitates segmentation of regions containing overlapping and connected cracks so that crack types can be classified properly. This paper proposes a method of segmenting crack region using crack elements extracted from images of pavement surface. The proposed method consists of three steps: (1) encording the orientation of connection using low-resolution images of pavement surface, (2) reencording by using pavement images of hierarchical resolutions, and (3) segmenting the reigions by tracing and merging the pixels encoded as linear regions. By applying the method to images of actual pavement surface, the author succeeded in identifying transverse and longitudinaly crack regions, two-dimensional crack regions, and isolated crack regions. The proposed region segmentation method has made it possible to apply conventional crack types classification techniques to actual pavement surface.


The Chronicler used two types of sources in writing history: In general, the chronistic narration is based on the "Deuteronomistic history" as it is called today. Nonetheless, the Pentateuch in its priestly components is another key to its concept.
In his historical outline, the Chronicler is aware of differences of time: There is, first of all, the epoch of Moses and of the Mosaic institutions given to a wandering Israel. A new age, second, started with David gathering a scattered people toward the new center in Jerusalem.
These epochs are characterized by both continuity in the worship of Yhwh and discontinuity of theperformance of that worship. The ark, the mobile sanctuary in the tent of the desert, was now to find its definite place and house, to be built and inhabited by Yhwh, prepared by David and finally realized by Solomon.
According to the Chronicler, God's word had been present in both epochs, but in different forms. Originally, it was given orally to Moses. Yet, the history of Israel as described by Chronicles refers to written documents (kakkātûb). In light of their attribution in Chronicles we should not call them "priestly" – as it has been customary since the 19th century (de Wette, Wellhausen) –but more adequately "Mosaic" tradition.
For the Chronicler, such Mosaic tradition was applied and performed by David's Israel. Of prime importance is the new position of Levi, Moses' own tribe. According to the P-sources in the Pentateuch, the Levites had to do physical labour for the holy tent. But, in the era of the temple, they gained a new responsibility by interpreting, instructing and applying Tora in its broadest sense. The Priests's duties for their part are presupposed rather than itemized. Since the time of the Exodus – which is deliberately not a topic in Chronicles – they have remained the same.
Decisive for the Chronicler is the new presence of Moses' revelation in the ongoing history of Israel and its kings, accompanied and guided by Moses' tribe, the Levites.


FANTA reviewed evidence and country experiences in the management of acute malnutrition (MAM) in 11 South and Southeast Asia countries to examine how the different countries in the region have tackled acute malnutrition among children 6-59 months of age. The findings highlight the limited evidence base in South and Southeast Asia while echoing the need for nutrition services in the region. The review also identified a number of recommendations needed to scale-up MAM around leadership and coordination design of community-based management of acute malnutrition adoption of standardized monitoring and evaluation of programs and documentation and sharing of program experiences.


Recent results from a Phase III randomized trial comparing everolimus [a mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor] plus exemestane versus placebo plus exemestane provide encouraging evidence of a new option for treatment of advanced, hormone receptor positive (HR+) breast cancer (1). Oral endocrine therapy (ET) is the first line therapeutic strategy of choice for most women with metastatic HR+, Her2 negative breast cancer (2).


textabstractMultifactorial diseases such as type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease are caused by a
complex interplay of many genetic and nongenetic factors, each of which conveys a minor increase in the risk
of disease. Unraveling the genetic origins of these diseases is expected to lead to individualized medicine, in
which the prevention and treatment strategies are personalized on the basis of the results of predictive genetic
tests. This great optimism is counterbalanced by concerns about the ethical, legal, and social implications of
genomic medicine, such as the protection of privacy and autonomy, stigmatization, discrimination, and the
psychological burden of genetic testing. These concerns are translated from genetic testing in monogenic
disorders, but this translation may not be appropriate. Multiple genetic testing (genomic profiling) has
essential differences from genetic testing in monogenic disorders. The differences lie in the lower predictive
value of the test results, the pleiotropic effects of susceptibility genes, and the low inheritance of genomic
profiles. For these reasons, genomic profiling may be more similar to nongenetic tests than to predictive tests
for monogenic diseases. Therefore, ethical, legal, and social issues that apply to predictive genetic testing for
monogenic diseases may not be relevant for the prediction of multifactorial disorders in genomic medicine.


By a relatively simple method to estimate the tooth profile errors caused by misalignment of the hob, the relation between the tooth profile error of the gear and any type of radial run-out of the hob are calculated. The involute curve test chart waves usually under the influence of radial run-out of the hob but the almost true involute tooth profile is generated under a special run-out condition. The software made from BASIC language is developed to show hobbing machine operators the importance of hob tooling.


INTRODUCTION: Technology allows the creation of dynamic interfaces and graphics, which enables the construction of different scenarios that simulate biochemical events at cellular and molecular level. Furthermore, games have the ability to amuse and stimulate students and thus keeping them interested and receptive. Therefore, digital games must be explored as teaching aids once they have features that enhance the teaching process. OBJECTIVES: This project aimed to develop an educational software that contributes to the understanding of various events taking place in energetic metabolism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We developed a downloadable educational game in Java, divided into two levels, each of which tackle issues about the Krebs cycle, the respiratory chain and oxidative phosphorylation. Initially, the names of the components of the metabolic process appear randomly on computer screen and the user must follow clues to place them in the right sequence, until all the biochemical reactions are complete. In next phase, there is a quiz about details and clinical correlates related to the theme of the game. Finally, students have to answer a form in order to verify acceptance and relevance of the game. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS: The game was applied to 40 medical students from UFF. The game's subject matter and its difficulty were analyzed and more than 40% of students classified both respiratory chain and Krebs cycle as difficult. These findings highlight the need to establish new methods to enhance the teaching and learning processes and decrease the students' difficulties, which is the game's purpose. The game was very highly rated by students once they evaluated the game as an excellent educational aid and 92% of students agreed that it complements the content discussed in classroom. Finally, 97,5% of students said they would play again. CONCLUSION: Therefore, educational games could be an excellent tool to optimize learning.


Radical radiotherapy is one of the options for the management of prostate cancer. In external beam therapy, 3D conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) are the options for delivery of increased radiation dose, as vital organs are very close to the prostate and a higher dose to these structures leads to an increased toxicity. In brachytherapy, low dose rate brachytherapy with permanent implant of radioactive seeds and high dose rate brachytherapy (HDR) with remote after loaders are available. A dosimetric analysis has been made on IMRT and HDR brachytherapy plans. Ten cases from each IMRT and HDR brachytherapy have been taken for the study. The analysis includes comparison of conformity and homogeneity indices, D100, D95, D90, D80, D50, D10 and D5 of the target. For the organs at risk (OAR), namely rectum and bladder, V100, V90 and V50 are compared. In HDR brachytherapy, the doses to 1 cc and 0.1 cc of urethra have also been studied. Since a very high dose surrounds the source, the 300% dose volumes in the target and within the catheters are also studied in two plans, to estimate the actual volume of target receiving dose over 300%. This study shows that the prescribed dose covers 93 and 92% of the target volume in IMRT and HDR brachytherapy respectively. HDR brachytherapy delivers a much lesser dose to OAR, compared to the IMRT. For rectum, the V50 in IMRT is 34.0cc whilst it is 7.5cc in HDR brachytherapy. With the graphic optimization tool in HDR brachytherapy planning, the dose to urethra could be kept within 120% of the target dose. Hence it is concluded that HDR brachytherapy may be the choice of treatment for cancer of prostate in the early stage.


We utilize classical facts from topology to show that the classification problem in machine learning is always solvable under very mild conditions. Furthermore, given a training dataset, we show how topological formalism can be used to suggest the appropriate architectural choices for neural networks designed to be trained as classifiers on the data. Finally, we show how the architecture of a neural network cannot be chosen independently from the shape of the underlying data. To demonstrate these results, we provide example datasets and show how they are acted upon by neural nets, from this topological perspective.


Introduction: In contrast to cemented hip prostheses, the effect of washing the bone bed with jet-lavage prior to insertion of cementless stem components in primary hip arthroplasty (THA) is unclear. Jet-lavage potentially decreases the risk of fat embolisation during rasping and stem insertion and might help in avoiding bacterial contamination. An earlier animal study has shown less debris and better-organised trabecular structure of new bone when jet-lavage was used. We hypothesised that the primary stability of cementless femoral stems implanted after jet-lavage of the femoral canal prior to stem insertion would improve with earlier stabilisation, as measured with Radiostereometry (RSA), compared with insertion without prior jet-lavage. Methods: 40 patients with primary osteoarthritis operated on with a cementless titanium grit blasted stem are included in the study. The patients were randomised to either jet-lavage or control without any lavage of the femoral canal prior to insertion of the prosthesis. The stem migration pattern was measured with RSA at 0, 3, 12, 24 and 72 months. Results: At 6 years, 19 patients remained for analysis in the jet-lavage and 18 in the control group. We found no difference in extent or pattern of migration as measured with RSA. Both groups seemed to have stabilised within 3 months after a slight subsidence and retroversion. No stem was revised or considered loose as measured with RSA. Conclusions: Washing the bone bed with jet-lavage prior to insertion of cementless stems does not affect the stability of cementless femoral components. No adverse effects were observed.


As techno-science increasingly reaches into every aspect of life, formerly fast held distinctions between the inert and the active, the human and non-human and life and matter are cracking. From biotechnical engineering to the cataclysmic imminence of climate change, our very notions of what and how we consider life are under fire. What are the ethical, aesthetic and political stakes in understanding a world view in which humans are no longer at the centre? The Vibrancy Effect originates from a closed expert meeting organized by V2_ and Chris Salter that brought together artists, social scientists, natural scientists and humanities experts to explore the question of what matter does, to us and the world, and to bridge the gap between different disciplines conceptualizing and working with new notions of 'vibrant materiality' (Jane Bennett) and 'material agency' (Andrew Pickering).


Background: Burnout in the healthcare workers is formally defined as a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in situations that are emotionally demanding. Methods: Using a random stratified sampling method and taking into account geographical location, specialty and type of employment, 172 physiotherapists working both in the private and public sectors completed an anonymous questionnaire that included several aspects related to burnout; the MBI scale, questions related to occupational stress, and questions pertaining to self image. Results: Almost half (46%) of the 172 participants believed that their job is stressful. Approximately 57% of the physiotherapists who worked in the public sector and 40% of those who worked in the private sector (p = 0.038) reported that their job is stressful. In total, 21.1% of participants met Maslach's criteria for burnout. The point prevalence of burnout was as follows: (1) 13.8% of those who worked in the public sector and 25.5% of those in the private sector (2) 22.2% of males and 20% of females (3) 21.6% who were married, 18% who were single and 33.3% who were separated. Gender was found to be associated with the level of personal accomplishment (chisquared test; p = 0.049), as 17.8% of men compared with 24.3% of women reported high personal accomplishment. The number of years of working as a physiotherapist correlated negatively (r = -0.229, p = 0.004) with the total depersonalization score. Regression analysis showed that the perception that the job is stressful (p < 0.001) and the low salary (p = 0.016) were significant predictors of high emotional exhaustion scores, while age group (p = 0.027) predicted high scores of depersonalization and the employment sector (p = 0.050) as well as the low salary predicted high personal accomplishment scores.


This system provides a portable means to detect gas flow through a thin-walled tube without breaking into the tubing system. The flow detection system was specifically designed to detect flow through two parallel branches of a manifold with only one inlet and outlet, and is a means for verifying a space shuttle program requirement that saves time and reduces the risk of flight hardware damage compared to the current means of requirement verification. The prototype Purge Vent and Drain Window Cavity Conditioning System (PVD WCCS) Flow Detection System consists of a heater and a temperature-sensing thermistor attached to a piece of Velcro to be attached to each branch of a WCCS manifold for the duration of the requirement verification test. The heaters and thermistors are connected to a shielded cable and then to an electronics enclosure, which contains the power supplies, relays, and circuit board to provide power, signal conditioning, and control. The electronics enclosure is then connected to a commercial data acquisition box to provide analog to digital conversion as well as digital control. This data acquisition box is then connected to a commercial laptop running a custom application created using National Instruments LabVIEW. The operation of the PVD WCCS Flow Detection System consists of first attaching a heater/thermistor assembly to each of the two branches of one manifold while there is no flow through the manifold. Next, the software application running on the laptop is used to turn on the heaters and to monitor the manifold branch temperatures. When the system has reached thermal equilibrium, the software application s graphical user interface (GUI) will indicate that the branch temperatures are stable. The operator can then physically open the flow control valve to initiate the test flow of gaseous nitrogen (GN2) through the manifold. Next, the software user interface will be monitored for stable temperature indications when the system is again at thermal equilibrium with the test flow of GN2. The temperature drop of each branch from its "no flow" stable temperature peak to its stable "with flow" temperature will allow the operator to determine whether a minimum level of flow exists. An alternative operation has the operator turning on the software only long enough to record the ambient temperature of the tubing before turning on the heaters and initiating GN2 flow. The stable temperature of the heated tubing with GN2 flow is then compared with the ambient tubing temperature to determine if flow is present in each branch. To help quantify the level of flow in the manifolds, each branch will be bench calibrated to establish its thermal properties using the flow detection system and different flow rates. These calibration values can then be incorporated into the software application to provide more detailed flow rate information.


Background and purpose: Tablets and ointments are used to prevent, treat, and diagnose diseases in hospitals. Although it seems that these medications are sterile in the path of the building and packaging, their mishandling or wrong application method can cause them to be contaminated. Hence, the preservation of pharmaceutical forms from contamination before and after opening the cover in hospitals is an essential measure to be taken in health care. The objective of the present study was to investigate the challenges in fungal contaminants detection and recovery in some pharmaceuticals that were high intake for patients. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in 4 teaching hospitals on 4 types of tablets and 3 types of ointments that were high intake for patients in hospitals before and after opening and usage in Sari, Iran. Fungi were identified by using standard mycology procedures. Results: The results showed that among the samples of tablets after opening the cover in the delivery room and carrying them in container by trolley, and the samples of ointments after opening and usage, the contamination rates were 70.3% and 94.4-100%, respectively. Aspergillus species such as A. flavus and A. fumigatus were the most mold species and Rhodotorula spp . was the most yeast species isolated. However, it was documented that 16.7% of certain pharmaceuticals had fungal contamination ahead of opening. Conclusion : The results showed the contamination of ointments and tablets used in hospitals after opening the cover. Although the source of contamination was not investigated in the present study, the findings revealed that most of the contaminations could be due to the storage period and mishandling in pharmacies and wrong application methods after opening. Some isolated fungi can also be harmful to patients who have a weakened immune system.


Periodontal disease refers to infection in tissues of oral cavity that leads to building of plaque and other bacterial infections such as halitosis, gingivitis related to same. Management of such issues is a need of the hour. Although many measures have been taken but still some of the side effects are faced while having therapy from synthetic materials. The present review discusses about herbal medications that are undertaken to provide herbal therapy, wherein methods adopted in few past years are discussed and then a conclusion is drawn regarding the same. Further, the paper also discusses about some bioactive materials that can be adopted for providing therapy in case of chronic conditions of periodontal disease. The biomaterial discussed here includes bioactive glass, wherein at last the conclusion was drawn that the bioactive glass has enhanced bioactivity and biocompatibility which inhibits demineralization and promotes remineralization thereby preventing the development of plaque on teeth and preventing the issues caused due to gingivitis or gum disorders


Abstract Atherosclerosis begins in childhood. Not uncommonly, the first presentation of atherosclerosis is sudden cardiac death. It therefore makes sense that risk-factor modification to prevent the development or delay the onset of atherosclerosis needs to begin early in life. Dietary intervention is the key component for the primary prevention of hyperlipidaemia. However, if diet and lifestyle fail to correct hyperlipidaemia, drug therapy may have to be considered. All children and adolescents with high-risk lipid disorders such as familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), those with diabetes mellitus or other cardiovascular disease risk factors or with a family history of premature coronary artery disease should be considered for lipid-lowering therapy if diet and lifestyle intervention are ineffective. There are now numerous studies that have documented the safety and efficacy of statin therapy in both children and young adults. Based on these studies, it is now recommended that statin therapy be initiated in all male FH children from the age of ten years and at the onset of menses in females with FH. The initiation of statin therapy could be considered even earlier in FH children at high risk.


We integrate information-theoretic concepts into the design and analysis of optimistic algorithms and Thompson sampling. By making a connection between information-theoretic quantities and confidence bounds, we obtain results that relate the per-period performance of the agent with its information gain about the environment, thus explicitly characterizing the exploration-exploitation tradeoff. The resulting cumulative regret bound depends on the agent's uncertainty over the environment and quantifies the value of prior information. We show applicability of this approach to several environments, including linear bandits, tabular MDPs, and factored MDPs. These examples demonstrate the potential of a general information-theoretic approach for the design and analysis of reinforcement learning algorithms.


This thesis presents applications of the layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly technique in fabrication of thin films with a primary focus on design and development of electrochromic devices. The optical properties of electrochromic materials change as they alter between redox states. The morphology and properties of LbL-assembled thin films can be modified by varying several processing factors such as dipping duration, ion type, ion concentration, pH, molecular weight, and ionic strength. In the present work, several factors of LbL assembly process were manipulated to tailor electrochromic thin films of desired attributes. An electrochromic device (ECD) with fast optical switching speed was designed and constructed based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). This device exhibited optical switching speeds of 31 and 6 ms for coloration and decoloration respectively, on a 60 mm 2 area. Poly(aniline 2-sulfonic acid) (PASA) is a relatively new ionic polymer, and its electrochromic properties have not been previously investigated in much detail. PASA thin film showed several redox states corresponding to color changes from dark blue to gray as it passed different redox states. One particularly interesting and promising design for ECDs is dual electrochrome. Dual electrochrome ECDs based on PANI and polyaniline (PASA) are investigated in this thesis. The PANI/PASA thin film showed superior spectroelectrochemical properties compare to other ECDs reported here or elsewhere. An electrode with single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) coating was tested as the substrate for an ECD based on poly[2-(3-thienyl) ethoxy-4-butylsulfonate] (PTEBS) to examine performance of the electrochromic polymer on a substrate other than an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode. Compared to ITO, the SWCNT based device exhibited superior properties.


Wood ash has the properties to be an effective liming material, and research is needed to compare its effectiveness relative to agricultural lime on acidic agricultural soils. Wood ash at a calcium carbonate rate of 6.72 t ha−1 was compared with an equivalent rate of agricultural lime on a clay loam soil with an initial pH of 4.9. Replicated plots were managed under a barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)–canola (Brassica rapa L.)–pea (Pisum sativum L.) rotation for 4 yr (2002–2005). Soil pH increased in the order of: wood ash = lime > control (without lime or wood ash). Available soil P increased in the order of: wood ash > lime ≥ control. The effect of wood ash and lime application on pH and available P was greatest in the 0- to 5-cm depth, less but still significant in the 5- to 10-cm depth, and not significant below 10 cm. The effect on soil aggregation was: wood ash > lime > control. Averaged over 4 yr, application of wood ash increased grain yields of barley, canola, and pea by 49, 59, and 55%, respectively, compared to a corresponding increase of 38, 31, and 49% by agricultural lime. The increase in crop yield with wood ash compared with lime is attributed partly to increased P availability in wood ash-amended plots. It is concluded that wood ash applied at rates equivalent to agricultural lime improved some soil chemical and physical properties and increased crop production relative to agricultural lime.


Molecular photoswitches comprise chromophores that can be interconverted reversibly with light between two states with different photochemical and physicochemical properties. This feature renders them useful for diverse applications, ranging from materials science, biology (specifically photopharmacology) to supramolecular chemistry. With new and more challenging systems to control, especially extending towards biomedical applications, using visible or near-infrared light for photoswitch activation becomes vital. Donor-acceptor Stenhouse adducts are a novel class of visible light-responsive negative photochromes that provide a possible answer to current limitations of other photoswitch classes in the visible and NIR window. Their rapid development since their discovery in 2014, together with first successful examples of applications, demonstrate both their potential and areas where improvements are needed. A better understanding of DASA characteristics and its photoswitching mechanism has revealed that they are in fact a subset of a more general structural class of photochromes, namely Stenhouse photoswitches. This tutorial review aims at providing an introduction and practical guide on DASAs: it focuses on their structure and synthesis, provides fundamental insights for understanding their photoswitching behavior and demonstrates guiding principles for tailoring these switches for given applications.


There is an increasing interest in the literature regarding the risks for alcohol abuse, particularly at young ages. The current study aimed to contribute to this topic by assessing the role of the relevant predictors on alcohol consumption among adolescents and young adults. The sample comprised 364 participants (202 female) that were assessed with the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS - alcohol module), which addresses individual, family and social/environmental risk and protective factors on alcohol consumption. The outcome was defined as alcohol consumption severity in the last 30 days, assessed through a particular item of the GSHS. The regression analyses showed that the strongest predictors that may explain alcohol consumption were earlier onset of alcohol abuse and get into trouble because of alcohol abuse, although other risk factors related to exposure to Internet advertisements about alcohol might also explain alcohol consumption in young ages. The role of peers, particularly as regards to accepting drinks from friends was also a relevant predictor of alcohol consumption. Given these results, we consider that is important to ensure that alcohol advertising does not become available to children and adolescents, especially over the Internet. The results highlight also the importance of parents in supervising their children's behaviour mainly at a young age where alcohol initiation could have greater impact.


Achieving mass democracy was the great triumph of the twentieth century. Learning to live with it will be the greatest achievement of the twenty-first century. A rising tide of discontent is posing a major crisis for systems of mass democracy: the evidence is clear to see in reduced turnout and party membership and in opinion surveys. The failures of politicians have played their part but, Gerry Stoker argues, equally important are the dysfunctional political stances and styles adopted by many citizens. Democratic politics, he argues, is doomed to disappoint because it involves collective decision-making, demands complicated communication and generally produces a messy compromise. One size fits no-one. So what is the solution? Stoker suggests that democracy - and the political class - must create a new politics, making it as easy as possible for as many people as possible to express and debate their political preferences.


There are several different types of comorbidities exist in epilepsy. Cognitive comorbidities are learning problems that cause difficulty in school and can have lasting effects on educational and professional success;Psychiatric comorbidities are behavior and mood problems including attention deficit disorder, depression, anxiety disorders and combinations of these conditions. Comorbidities in epilepsy impair patients' health-related quality of life and may affect the clinical course of epilepsy. Comorbidities and epilepsy have a bidirectional relationship, sharing common underlying pathogenesis. This special issue updated readers with some of the most recent and exciting progresses including mechanisms, evaluation biochemical biomarkers for epilepsy and comorbidities as well as therapy aim to modify the progression of epilepsy (disease modification) and concomitant comorbidities through by targeting the disease process. It is hoped that such advances in cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry will translate into routine epilepsy clinical practice and provide markers of disease and more targeted treatments. The potential limitations and future efforts with open questions were also offered to stimulate the further research endeavors in the field.


Frostbuster is a new system, engine and technology, developed to protect fruit plantations from the frost damage. In order to raise domestic experiences and measurements, experimental approach has been initiated to prove the utility of the system under excessively low temperature in the plantation of the Siofoki Gyumolcstermesztesi Zrt (Fruit Growing Co. Siofok). The first opportunity ensued in the night of February 23-24, 2011, when the temperature sank to 12°C below zero. The question was to see whether we could prevent the drop of temperature by the frostbuster technique. The margin of an anticyclone staying on East Europe secured a stable condition to make tests. The only difference from the imaginable conditions of dangerous frosts was the heat keeping capacity of trees was weak, much inferior than compared with trees in full boom. As a consequence, the tree rows represented much lower heat-capacity and cooled down much quicker than blooming trees in springtime, i.e. their temperature was more variable. The other difference was, compared with an episode in spring that the hard frost lasted much longer than usually in spring. For testing the system, those conditions had even more advantage. Six meteorological stations helped us in measurement. Data-collectors were timed to 1 minute distances and the bulk of data proved to be beneficial for testing the Frostbuster. The results prove that the system is adequate to keep the temperature continuously higher than the surrounding field under excessively low temperatures. Further measurements are still needed to find the optimal solutions fitting to the growing site and its microclimate. Results presented offer a basis of further proofs.


Why do farm workers become more vulnerable as countries get richer? As countries get richer, the share of workers employed in agriculture falls. In richer countries, hired farm workers do ever more of the work on the fewer and larger farms that produce most farm commodities. These hired workers include local workers who lack the skills and contacts needed to get nonfarm jobs that usually offer higher wages and more opportunities as well as legal and unauthorized migrants from poorer countries who may not know or exercise their labor-related rights. Government enforcement of labor laws depends on complaints, and vulnerable workers rarely complain. The Prosperity Paradox explains why farm-worker problems often worsen as the agricultural sector shrinks and lays out options to help vulnerable workers. Analysis of farm labor markets in the US, Mexico, and other countries shows that unions and fair trade efforts to protect farm workers cover a very small share of all workers and are unlikely to expand quickly. Most labor-intensive fruits and vegetables are eaten fresh. Unsafe food that sickened consumers led to voluntary industry and later government-mandated food-safety programs to ensure that food is safe when it leaves the farm, with protocols enforced by both government inspectors and buyers who refused to buy from noncompliant farms. This food-safety model offers the most promise for a new era in protective labor policies.


Textural and compositional differences were found between gravity-flow sheets in an open-ocean environment on the northern slope of Little Bahama Bank (Site 628, Pliocene turbidite sequence) and in a closed-basin depositional setting (Site 632, Quaternary turbidite sequence). Mud-supported debris-flow sheets were cored at Site 628. Average mean grain size of the turbidite samples was lower, mud content was higher, and sorting was poorer than in comparable samples from Site 632. This reflects the deposition of proximal, low-energy turbidity currents and debris flows on a base-ofslope carbonate apron. No mud-supported debris-flow sheets were deposited in the investigated sediment sequence of Hole 632A. Many larger turbidity currents from around the margins of Exuma Sound may have reached this central ba sin setting, depositing sediments that had been transported over longer distances. Planktonic components dominate in the grain-sized fraction (500-1000 fim) of turbidite samples from Hole 628A, while platform detritus is rare. We inter preted this as resulting from the erosion and reworking of a large area of open-ocean slope sediments by gravity flows. In contrast, large amounts of benthic and platform components were found in the turbidite samples of Hole 632A. This may be explained by the fact that the slopes of the enclosed Exuma Sound are steep, and turbidity currents bypassed much of these slopes through pronounced channels, delivering more shallow-water detritus to the deep basin. Erosion of slope sediments, a possible source area of planktonic detritus, is assumed to be low. The small slope area in relation to the larger surrounding platform areas and lower production of planktonic components in the enclosed waters of Ex uma Sound may also explain the observed low number of planktonic components at Hole 632A. Turbidite material from both open-ocean and enclosed-basin environments was deposited at Site 635.


The devastating consequences of the HIV and AIDS epidemic are endangering many lives and shaking weak economies of the SubSahara Africa. The Church of Christ in Africa has decided to join hands with other players who are seeking appropriate responses to the epidemic. The Church has an important role of providing theological understanding upon which the response should be grounded. This study explores how the Free Methodist Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo could participate in the alleviation of suffering and loss due to the HIV epidemic in the region of Kivu. The eastern part of DRC, especially the Kivu region, has experienced a severe outbreak of HIV-related diseases as the aftermath of the six-year war (1996-2002) that has destroyed economic and medical infrastructures in the territory. The recent crisis is the result of rape, which was used as a cheap weapon of war and the impoverishment of the community due to political and economic instability in the area. This study therefore draws the attention of the Free Methodist Church to the urgent need of providing care to many poor people suffering from HIV-related diseases who are unable to access treatment or purchase medicines. It suggests that the doctrine of social holiness that has been the driving force behind the involvement of the Free Methodist Church in providing social services to poor community could be used as a theological framework for its intervention. The doctrine of social holiness is expressed in extending God's love and mercy to people who live in misery and marginalized, My argument is that, in the case of the Kivu region, the doctrine of social holiness could motivate the Free Methodist Church to meet the needs of those living with HIV and AIDS. As a matter of emergency the focus could be put on providing physical and spiritual care, and also care with justice. The doctrine of social holiness could be used to mobilize the community to provide care for the needy by sharing the theological insights about human sexuality, God's love, stewardship, acceptance of the other and restoring dignity to every person created in God's image. These theological themes could be integrated in formulating a theology of HIV that could become a tool in the hands of the Free Methodist church as it ministers to people living with HIV and AIDS in Kivu. This study advocates that, even though the response of the Free Methodist Church in responding to the HIV epidemic is still timid, there are enough potentialities in the doctrine of social holiness that could be re-examined and restated in order to meet the actual needs. The doctrine of social holiness requires that every believer who had received in his/her heart the love of God by faith may share this love with others, especially with the poor and marginalized. The misery and suffering of people living with HIV and AIDS in the Kivu region presents an opportunity to the Free Methodist Church in DRC to mobilize the community towards caring for the sick. The magnitude of the epidemic requires that the Free Methodist Church uses its theological foundation as a motivating factor in networking and lobbying other stakeholders in the region and externally so that those who are abandoned without care can find care and support.


Podiatrists belonging to the Hospital of Vic need a rehabilitation device which measures the
weight that a patient puts on his feet while undergoing rehabilitation.
During rehabilitation, the podiatrist asks the patient to exert a certain percentage of his weight on
his foot while he supports himself with a crutch. This percentage of weight will vary during the
course of rehabilitation.
The aim of this project is to develop a compact, cost effective, state of the art, dynamic weight
measuring instrument for the Podiatrists to check if a patient puts the desired amount of weight
on a broken leg during rehabilitation.
The equipment currently available in the market is expensive, static and bulky. The approach
followed to accomplish the target is by the use of sensors, microcontrollers, and display units for
processing information and displaying the results. A buzzer is used as an alarm when weight is
out of the safe range prescribed by the doctors.
Possible outcomes besides dynamic weight measurement include posture correction, quantitative
analysis of rehabilitation, ability to provide timeframe of recovery and ability to find the
effectiveness of the treatment adopted by the podiatrist.
In this project, I have worked on the mechanical and electronic design of the instrumented shoe
which includes conceptual design in pro Engineer wildfire 5.0, material selection for various sole
layers, sensor selection, microcontroller programming and simulation in Proteus software.
The project involved signing of a confidentiality agreement for granting funds to make a
prototype shoe, which would restrict or delay my presenting the project or divulge information to
SASTRA University. Due to this reason, the prototype was not made despite the hospital and the
lab being interested in the design.


In this paper, we present new progress on the study of the symmetric extension criterion for separability. First, we show that a perturbation of order O(1/N) is sufficient and, in general, necessary to destroy the entanglement of any state admitting an N Bose symmetric extension. On the other hand, the minimum amount of local noise necessary to induce separability on states arising from N Bose symmetric extensions with Positive Partial Transpose (PPT) decreases at least as fast as O(1/N^2). From these results, we derive upper bounds on the time and space complexity of the weak membership problem of separability when attacked via algorithms that search for PPT symmetric extensions. Finally, we show how to estimate the error we incur when we approximate the set of separable states by the set of (PPT) N -extendable quantum states in order to compute the maximum average fidelity in pure state estimation problems, the maximal output purity of quantum channels, and the geometric measure of entanglement.


Numerous problems that are encountered in various branches of science and
engineering involve ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Some of these problems
require lengthy computation and immediate solutions. With the availability of
parallel computers nowadays, the demands can be achieved.
However, most of the existing methods for solving ODEs directly, particularly
of higher order, are sequential in nature. These methods approximate numerical
solution at one point at a time and therefore do not fully exploit the capability of
parallel computers. Hence, the development of parallel algorithms to suit these
machines becomes essential. In this thesis, new explicit and implicit parallel block methods for solving a
single equation of ODE directly using constant step size and back values are
developed. These methods, which calculate the numerical solution at more than one
point simultaneously, are parallel in nature. The programs of the methods employed
are run on a shared memory Sequent Symmetry S27 parallel computer. The
numerical results show that the new methods reduce the total number of steps and
execution time. The accuracy of the parallel block and 1-point methods is
comparable particularly when finer step sizes are used.
A new parallel algorithm for solving systems of ODEs using variable step size
and order is also developed. The strategies used to design this method are based on
both the Direct Integration (DI) and parallel block methods. The results demonstrate
the superiority of the new method in terms of the total number of steps and execution
times especially with finer tolerances.
In conclusion, the new methods developed can be used as viable alternatives
for solving higher order ODEs directly.


Objectives. 1) Virtual bilateral TMJ reconstruction from magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of 28 children (age range: 2.7 - 16.9) with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) by means of state-of-the-art software and 2) quantitative intra- and interindividual comparison of joint deformation.
Methods. MR sections of all joints were assessed by two pediatric radiologists and reconstructed using Amira™. Subjects were divided into three age groups and two diagnostic groups (no/mild vs. severe deformation). After ascertaining normal distribution, intra- and interindividual joint comparisons were performed with ANOVA and ttests at α=0.05. Parameters not differing between sides and/or plane orientation were averaged intra-individually.
Results. Significant differences among age groups were found for: steepness of the anterior fossa slope (p=0.003), condylar volume (p=0.007), intercondylar angle (p=0.008), direct and curvilinear length of the anterior fossa slope (p=0.047 resp. 0.009) and medio-lateral condylar diameter (left p=0.023, right p=0.017). Severely deformed TMJs had a smaller intercondylar angle (p=0.009) and a shallower anterior fossa slope (p=0.021) than normal or mildly deformed joints.
Conclusion. Virtual 3D-reconstruction of TMJs of JIA children is feasible without ionizing radiation, but requires time and special skills. Across age groups and independent of radiological disease evidence, measurements on virtual models reflected morphological changes observed with conventional radiography during growth. Due to limited patient numbers in each age group, diagnostic (sub)groups could only be formed across all subjects. 3D-parameters of severely deformed joints seem to reflect altered joint growth and development. Future studies with larger cohorts may reveal further differences and should include healthy controls.


While the most ambitious polls are based on standardized interviews with a few thousand people, millions are tweeting freely and publicly in their own voices about issues they care about. This data offers a vibrant 24/7 snapshot of people's response to various events and topics. The sheer scale of the data on Twitter allows us to measure in aggregate how the various issues are rising and falling in prominence over time. However, the volume of the data also means that an intelligent tool is required to allow the users to make sense of the data. To this end, we built a novel, interactive web-based tool for mapping the conversation landscapes on Twitter. Our system utilizes recent advances in natural language processing and deep neural networks that are robust with respect to the noisy and unconventional nature of tweets, in conjunction with a scalable clustering algorithm an interactive visualization engine to allow users to tap the mine of information that is Twitter. We ran a user study with 40 participants using tweets about the 2016 US presidential election and the summer 2016 Orlando shooting, demonstrating that compared to more conventional methods, our tool can increase the speed and the accuracy with which users can identify and make sense of the various conversation topics on Twitter.


In the field of mechanics, it is a long standing goal to measure quantum behavior in ever larger and more massive objects. It may now seem like an obvious conclusion, but until recently it was not clear whether a macroscopic mechanical resonator -- built up from nearly 1013 atoms -- could be fully described as an ideal quantum harmonic oscillator. With recent advances in the fields of opto- and electro-mechanics, such systems offer a unique advantage in probing the quantum noise properties of macroscopic electrical and mechanical devices, properties that ultimately stem from Heisenberg's uncertainty relations. Given the rapid progress in device capabilities, landmark results of quantum optics are now being extended into the regime of macroscopic mechanics. The purpose of this dissertation is to describe three experiments -- motional sideband asymmetry, back-action evasion (BAE) detection, and mechanical squeezing -- that are directly related to the topic of measuring quantum noise with mechanical detection. These measurements all share three pertinent features: they explore quantum noise properties in a macroscopic electromechanical device driven by a minimum of two microwave drive tones, hence the title of this work: "Quantum electromechanics with two tone drive". In the following, we will first introduce a quantum input-output framework that we use to model the electromechanical interaction and capture subtleties related to interpreting different microwave noise detection techniques. Next, we will discuss the fabrication and measurement details that we use to cool and probe these devices with coherent and incoherent microwave drive signals. Having developed our tools for signal modeling and detection, we explore the three-wave mixing interaction between the microwave and mechanical modes, whereby mechanical motion generates motional sidebands corresponding to up-down frequency conversions of microwave photons. Because of quantum vacuum noise, the rates of these processes are expected to be unequal. We will discuss the measurement and interpretation of this asymmetric motional noise in a electromechanical device cooled near the ground state of motion. Next, we consider an overlapped two tone pump configuration that produces a time-modulated electromechanical interaction. By careful control of this drive field, we report a quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement of a single motional quadrature. Incorporating a second pair of drive tones, we directly measure the measurement back-action associated with both classical and quantum noise of the microwave cavity. Lastly, we slightly modify our drive scheme to generate quantum squeezing in a macroscopic mechanical resonator. Here, we will focus on data analysis techniques that we use to estimate the quadrature occupations. We incorporate Bayesian spectrum fitting and parameter estimation that serve as powerful tools for incorporating many known sources of measurement and fit error that are unavoidable in such work.


Introduction Approximately 400 000 US children seek medical attention for dog bites annually (CDC, 2008). A dozen die. Inhibitory control, the capacity to plan and suppress inappropriate approach responses under instruction or in novel situations (Rothbart et al, 2001), is linked to broad child injury risk (Schwebel & Plumert, 1999), but is poorly understood as a risk factor for pediatric dog bites. Method 82 children (mean 4.84 years; SD=0.91, 46% male) were recruited from Birmingham, USA and Guelph, Canada. All lived in homes with 1–3 dogs. Parents completed the inhibitory control scale of the Children's behaviour questionnaire (Rothbart et al, 1994) and items concerning children's history with dogs. Results Inhibitory control correlated to parent-report of children's history of almost being bitten by a dog, r=−0.27; uninhibited children were more likely to have almost experienced dog bites. Inhibitory control also related to parent-report of children's negative experiences with dogs that resulted in crying, r=−0.29, (uninhibited children more likely to have had negative incidents); of children playing rough with dogs, r=−0.31 (uninhibited children playing rough with dogs); and of parent concern that children's behaviour will anger their dog, r=−0.25 (parents of uninhibited children more concerned). Implications Current dog bite prevention strategies focus on dog control and owner education (eg, leash laws, animal training). These strategies help, but identification of child specific risk factors, such as inhibitory control, could aid development of other dog-bite prevention programs.


If architecture reads dwelling as being simultaneously located in space and exposed to a certain environmental character, places have to be analysed by means of the categories space and character. While space denotes the three-dimensional organization of the elements which make up a place, character signifies the general atmosphere which is the most comprehensive property of any place. A phenomenology of architecture comprises not just a survey of manifest atmospheres but also an investigation of their concrete determinants.
Atmosphere is made manifest through the detail: similar spatial configurations can have very different characters according to the concrete solution of their boundaries. How a boundary is depends upon its formal articulation, which is again related to the way it is "built". The outside-inside relation that the boundary establishes offers thresholds, transitions between the inside and the outside, a feeling of being sheltered and, ultimately, a total man-place relationship, a feeling of being in place.
Spanish architect Alejandro De la Sota developed a contemporary understanding of dwelling through the challenging design and construction of the Dominguez House between 1970 and 1980. This domestic project investigates the boundary as a key element in the relationship between man and place: man positions himself in place according to his own awareness of being through time. Through the case study of the Dominguez House (Spain), the paper examines the unfolding of an architectural exploration of the concept of dwelling. The work concludes presenting atmosphere as a key element for architecture to offer man a feeling of belonging.


Importance
The dome binding suture (DBS) used for nasal tip refinement creates the unwanted effects of nasal tip pinching owing to shadowing and loss of alar support. The hemitransdomal suture (HTS), however, refines the nasal tip while maintaining a natural contour between the nasal tip and the alar lobule. To our knowledge, no objective comparison between the DBS and HTS techniques has been described in the literature to date.

Objective
To determine whether the DBS or HTS technique results in an objectively satisfactory outcome in nasal tip contouring when assessed from the perspective of the basal view.

Design, Setting, and Participants
Postoperative basal view photographs of cosmetic rhinoplasty procedures performed on 112 Hispanic/Mestizo patients (85 [76%] women, and 27 [24%] men) in a facial plastic surgery practice in Chile, from May 2013 to May 2015 were reviewed. Only patients who underwent either DBS or HTS were included. Follow-up ranged from 6-24 months. Comparison of the nasal contour to the ideal tip-lobule line was performed and classified as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Satisfactory or unsatisfactory nasal tip contour in the basal view as analyzed by comparison with the ideal tip-lobule line.

Results
A total of 143 rhinoplasty procedures were performed over a 2-year period (May 2013-May 2015). A total of 112 patients met inclusion criteria. Of the 112 participants, mean (SD) age was 30 (9) years; 22 patients underwent DBS and 90 underwent HTS. Of the patients who underwent DBS, 5 of 22 (22.7%) had satisfactory contours. Of the patients who underwent HTS, 84 of 90 (93.3%) had satisfactory contours.

Conclusions and Relevance
Comparison of nasal contour in the basal view with the ideal tip-lobule line demonstrates a statistically significant improvement in the rate of satisfactory outcomes using the HTS compared with the DBS technique. This study is the first, to our knowledge, to provide objective data to support the use of this technique when performing tip contouring in rhinoplasty.

Level of Evidence
4.


Background. Aging is frequently accompanied by chronic diseases; as a consequence, older people are often exposed to polypharmacy that has been associated with negative health-consequences. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review of the literature reporting on the effectiveness of different approaches to reduce polypharmacy in the elderly.
Methods. We conducted a comprehensive literature search of MEDLINE, Scopus and ISI Web of Knowledge databases. Eligible studies were case-series reporting outcomes of interventions aimed at reducing polypharmacy and its consequences in the elderly. A quality appraisal of the studies included was performed.
Results. Nineteen studies were included, of which six conducted in community setting, seven in hospital setting, and six in nursing homes. Seventeen of them were judged as moderate quality, and two of them as poor quality. The majority of the interventions were carried out by pharmacists, alone (35%) or with other professionals (40%). Interventions consisted in pharmacotherapy reviews based on various tools and software; in some cases educational interventions were performed for review-performers and patients. Studies conducted in community-setting provided also a feedback to primary care physician. The outcomes included five categories: therapy's characteristics (e.g. number of drugs, appropriate prescriptions), quality of life, health-related outcomes, costs, healthcare services' utilization. Therapy-related outcomes were those more affected by all types of interventions.
Conclusion. Interventions aimed at reviewing patients' therapy are effective in optimizing the use of drugs, and could be considered also  in improving quality of life, healthcare costs, services' utilization, and health-related outcomes.


Colombia's unemployment rate rose to 20% during the late 1990s from less than 8% in 1994. This paper argues that this has been the result of high non-wage labor costs embodied in the legislation. The estimated own-wage labor demand elasticity is around 0.5, which implies that a reduction in those costs, while politically costly, can have a significant payoff in terms of equity and efficiency. We also find that adjustment costs of changing employment as well as wage elasticities were not affected by changes in the regulations regarding severance payments and dismissal costs. In this sense, structural reforms did have an impact on labor demand through its effect on relative prices alone. Finally, we conclude that the wage elasticity of labor demand increases (in absolute terms) during contractions. Hence, the increase in prices and the beginning of a recession had a significant effect on employment.


We argue that community networks played an important role in the emergence of Indian entrepreneurship in the early stages of the cotton textile and jute industry in the late 19th and early 20th century respectively, overcoming the lack of market institutions and government support. From business registers, we construct a yearly panel dataset of entrepreneurs in these two industries. We find no evidence of entry patterns being affected by price shocks or pre-industrial accumulation of wealth or experience in trading in the corresponding upstream sector. Firm directors exhibited a high degree of clustering of entrepreneurs by community. The dynamics of entry is consistent with a model of network-based dynamics.


This paper tests whether mothers and fathers differ in their spending on their daughters relative to their sons. We compare mothers' and fathers' willingness to pay (WTP) for specific goods for their children, diverging from the previous literature's approach of comparing the expenditure effects of mothers' versus fathers' income. Our method, which we apply in Uganda, allows us to estimate gender differences and explore mechanisms with greater precision. We find that fathers have a lower WTP for their daughters' human capital than their sons' human capital, whereas mothers do not. We then examine why spending patterns differ between mothers and fathers, e.g., altruism, personal returns to investing in children. We find evidence that altruism plays a role: fathers' WTP for goods that simply bring joy to their daughters is lower than their WTP for such goods for their sons, but mothers' is not.


English National Health Service Foundation Trusts are subject to a regulatory regime in which the level of monitoring and intervention is determined by performance against two key performance metrics: a 'financial risk rating', based on a number of performance metrics, such as the reported surplus margin and return on assets, and a 'prudential borrowing limit'. In this paper, we investigate the variation in financial reporting quality, proxied by discretionary accruals, with the incentives introduced by this regime. We find: first, that discretionary accruals are managed to report small surpluses; second, that, consistent with the avoidance of regulatory intervention in both the short and medium term, discretionary accruals are more positive when pre-managed performance is below intervention triggering thresholds and more negative when well above threshold; third, that, despite a move away from financial breakeven as the primary performance objective, there remains an aversion to small loss reporting. We further find that the level of discretionary accruals is driven by two metrics of strategic significance: the surplus margin (a measure of retained earnings) and the prudential borrowing limit (a measure of borrowing capacity).


The quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees enabled by the new IEEE 802.11 a/e Wireless LAN (WLAN) standard are specifically targeting the real-time transmission of multimedia content over the wireless medium. Since video data consume the largest part of the available bitrate compared to other media, optimization of video streaming for this new standard is a significant factor for the successful deployment of practical systems. Delay-constrained streaming of fully-scalable video over IEEE 802.11 a/e WLANs is of great interest for many multimedia applications. The new medium access control (MAC) protocol of IEEE 802.11e is called the Hybrid Coordination Function (HCF) and, in this paper, we will specifically consider the problem of video transmission over HCF Controlled Channel Access (HCCA). A cross-layer optimization across the MAC and application layers of the OSI stack is used in order to exploit the features provided by the combination of the new HCCA standard with new versatile scalable video coding algorithms. Specifically, we propose an optimized and scalable HCCA-based admission control for delay-constrained video streaming applications that leads to a larger number of stations being simultaneously admitted (without quality reduction to any video flow). Subsequently, given the allocated transmission opportunity, each station deploys an optimized Application-MAC-PHY adaptation, scheduling, and protection strategy that is facilitated by the fine-grain layering provided by the scalable bitstream. Given that each video flow needs to always comply with the predetermined (a priori negotiated) traffic specification parameters, this cross-layer strategy enables graceful quality degradation whenever the channel conditions or the video sequence characteristics change. For instance, it is demonstrated that the proposed cross-layer protection and bitstream adaptation strategies facilitate QoS token rate adaptation under link adaptation mechanisms that utilize different physical layer transmission rates. The expected gains offered by the optimized solutions proposed in this paper are established theoretically, as well as through simulations.


Tarantola et al. 2016 "Caring for patients with rabies in developing countries – the neglected importance of palliative care. " Tropical Medicine & International Health (21) p564–567. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26806229 Hemachudha T et al. 2013 "Human rabies: neuropathogenesis, diagnosis and management. Lancet Neurology (12) p498–513. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23602163 And see p35 of the WHO Expert Consultation on Rabies Second Report, 2013 WHO Technical Report Series 982 WHO (...)


On May 4 in Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute's new wing, called the Futures Center, will open to the public. When the institute's neoclassic main buiding was completed in 1932, it lacked the major exhibition hall planned for the southwest portion. Now a skylit atrium finishes the previously incomplete circulation system. Adding the new wing presented several structural challenges and produced some esthetic innovations: The central column is nonstructural, topped by a sculpture shaped like a perforated bucket. The floor grid is skewed twice and the wind bracing had to be hidden in the walls. An exterior stairway couldn't be anchored to its wall and on the roof is a five-sided pyramid. The new wing had to be dynamic but at the same time could not overwhelm the original building. Further complicating the design was the need to build theater and exhibition spaces over a four-story garage and integrate the two differential structural systems.


Vision traditionally occupies the height of the sensorial hierarchy. The sense of clarity and purity conveyed by vision, allows it to be explicitly associated with truth and knowledge. The law has always relied on vision and representation, from eye-witnesses to photography, to imagery and emblems. The law and its normative gaze can be understood as that which decrees what is permitted to be and become visible and what is not. Indeed, even if law's perspectival view is bound to be betrayed by the realities of perception, it is nonetheless productive of real effects on the world. This first title in the interdisciplinary series 'Law and the Senses' asks how we can develop new theoretical approaches to law and seeing that go beyond a simple critique of the legal pretension to truth. This volume aims to understand how law might see and unsee, and how in its turn is seen and unseen. It explores devices and practices of visibility, the evolution of iconology and iconography, and the relation between the gaze of the law and the blindness of justice. The contributions, all radically interdisciplinary, are drawn from photography, legal theory, philosophy, and poetry.


OBJECT
Atypical (WHO Grade II) meningiomas comprise a heterogeneous group of tumors, with histopathology delineated under the guidance of the WHO and a spectrum of clinical outcomes. The role of postoperative radiotherapy for patients with atypical meningiomas who have undergone gross-total resection (GTR) remains unclear. In this paper, the authors sought to clarify this role by reviewing their experience over the past 2 decades.

METHODS
The authors retrospectively analyzed all patients at their institution who underwent GTR between 1992 and 2011 with a final histology demonstrating atypical meningioma. Information regarding patients, tumor characteristics, and postoperative adjuvant therapy was gleaned from medical records. Time to recurrence and overall survival were analyzed using univariate, multivariate, and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses.

RESULTS
Forty-five patients who met the inclusion criteria underwent GTR for atypical meningiomas. By a median follow-up of 44.1 months, 22% of atypical meningiomas had recurred. There was no recurrence in 12 (92%) of 13 patients who received postoperative radiotherapy or in 19 (59%) of 32 patients who did not undergo postoperative radiotherapy (p = 0.085), demonstrating a strong trend toward improved local control with postoperative radiotherapy. No other factors were significantly associated with recurrence in univariate or multivariate analyses.

CONCLUSIONS
This retrospective series supports the observation that postoperative radiotherapy likely results in lower recurrence rates of gross totally resected atypical meningiomas. Although a multicenter prospective trial will ultimately be needed to fully define the role of radiotherapy in managing gross totally resected atypical meningiomas, the authors' results contribute to a growing number of series that support routine postoperative radiotherapy as an adjuvant treatment for these lesions.


Going along with the end of the "golden age" of the welfare state, the fordist paradigm of social housing has been considerably transformed. From the 1980s onwards, a new paradigm of social housing has been shaped in Germany in terms of provision, institutional organization and design. This transformation can be interpreted as a result of the interplay between the transformation of national welfare state and housing policies, the implementation of entrepreneurial urban policies and a shift in architectural and urban development models. Using an integrated approach to understand form and function of social housing, the paper characterizes the new paradigm established and nevertheless interprets it within the continuity of the specific German welfare resp. housing regime, the "German social housing market economy".


The purpose of the project was to create a piece of music that transcended musical genres and told the story of my coming of age in the first decade of the 21st century. The work featured both original text and original music and culminates in a live performance of the work. I wanted to tell a story. More specifically, I wanted to tell my story. The story of coming of age in the 21st century. I was 11 in the year 2000, I was 21 in 2010. My formative years correlate directly with the formative years of the 21st century. In this time, we've seen world first teeming with hope and optimism at the turn of the century. This optimism was quickly overcome by fear in September 2001. Since then we've seen a world marred by terrorism, wars, Hurricane Katrina, and other disasters, man-made and otherwise. Along with this, is my journey in understanding my own personal development, learning to deal with these issues and grappling with personal issues, including religion and personal relationships. The central theme of the project became "How do we find beauty in a broken world?" This question became the focal point for the entire work. Throughout the twelve movements of the work, I explored my own experiences with the previous decade using a loose narrative structure. I reflected on very specific events, 9/11, my trip to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and watching war on television and counter them with abstract reflections. As the text progresses we move from questioning the world around me "I need to find a place of quiet contemplation/to stop the darker parts of my imagination" to an understanding, "we are the beauty we've been looking for". To create the text, I worked closely with poet Linda Loomis, who helped me focus my thoughts and create a working framework for the project. The music also represents a coming together of two sides of my musical personality. While at Syracuse University, I've studied the art of classical composition, writing music for string quartet, art songs, and various other chamber ensembles. This work has been strictly in the classical domain. Additionally, I've lived a secret double life as a singer/songwriter, a hobby of mine since my teenage years. This work allowed me to unify these split sides of my musical life, creating a work that challenges definition and moves beyond the limitations of genre. By moving beyond these predefined genres, I've pushed myself as a composer, forcing myself to think outside the predefined boxes of "classical" and "folk" and instead create a music that is true to myself and my influences. My advisor, James Welsch, was instrumental in helping me move beyond preconceived notions of what I thought the music "should" sound like and find a more unique style. The final aspect of this project that really pushed my boundaries was the act of performing it myself. Since I began studying classical music, I've stopped performing. This project forced me to become a performer again, approaching music from a completely different angle than I had become used to. As part of this, I studied with voice professor, Jon English, who provided me with lessons to help build my vocal technique. Writing New Horizons has pushed my limits as a composer, performer, and all around musician. It has forced me to think outside of the box musically and helped me redefine what I think I can and can't do as an artist. Between collaboration with poets, professors, and fellow musicians, New Horizons has broadened my sensibilities as an artist, has introduced me to phenomenal artists in the Central New York area and has been an incredible learning experience.


Aside from the oceans, the world's forests constitute the most vital element in maintaining a climate which sustains life on Earth. The forests supply all living creatures with the basic elements essential for our survival. In this volume, experts, scientists and scholars from a wide range of disciplines set out to discuss a broad range of aspects concerning humans' relationship to forests. What do forests mean to us? Are we destroying them? And what can we do to achieve a healthy relationship between forests and mankind? In order for this relationship to become sustainable—and we claim it must be made so—all stakeholders in politics, industry and science must work together. With this anthology, we make a call for cooperation in sustainable policies towards a sustainable society. (Less)


This work introduces an alternative method for extracting calcareous microfossils from carbonate rocks using acetic and hydrochloric acids. The method, developed at the Laboratory of Micropaleontology, Dept. of Geology/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), has proved to be efficient in separating carbonate tests through the application of acids with controlled reaction time. Compared to traditional methods, especially to hydrogen peroxide digestion, the best results show an almost eight-fold increase in the number of extracted microfossil tests. The time required for the procedure does not exceed 2 hours.


In recent years researchers have argued that in order to fully understand perceptual cognitive expertise in sports, representative tasks must be used to preserve the tightly coupled links between perception and action that experts exploit. Previously, tasks have been considered as representative or not, with little evidence existing to indicate the degree to which a task is representative enough. This thesis primarily aimed to investigate experimentally representative tasks in cricket batting and the degree to which a laboratory-based task of cricket batting was able to represent batters' emergent perceptuo-motor behaviour for perceiving bowlers' delivery length. A secondary aim was to re-evaluate perceptuo-motor behaviours thought to contribute to skilled performance and their development. In chapter 2 skilled batsmen's foot movements were recorded in response to balls bowled to a range of lengths under in situ and video-based laboratory conditions. Kinematic analyses quantified decision-making skill and movement scaling. Analyses revealed the laboratory condition to have a high degree of fidelity. Skilled batter's Foot movements were reliably replicated and differences were found compared to a novice group. In chapter 3, response mode, occlusion condition and skill level were compared on the representative laboratory test developed in chapter 2. Analyses identified that skilled performance was only aided by maintaining coupled responses under occluded conditions, whilst no differences were observed under un-occluded conditions. Skilled performers were also shown to possess greater anticipation skills compared with novices under both coupled and un-coupled conditions. In Chapter 4, the effects of manipulating information present in situ, through simulated ball flight, and fully simulated training aids were compared in a novel experimental paradigm. Skilled batsmen faced deliveries across a range of lengths from a bowler (in situ), from a bowling machine (simulated ball flight) and from a ProBatter simulator (fully simulated action and ball flight). Results showed that simulated ball flight condition resulted in foot movements that were closer to in situ than the fully simulated condition, suggesting that if present, the link between bowling action and ball flight needs to be tightly coupled. These results demonstrate for the first time that representative tasks must not be considered unilaterally as representative or not, but instead the degree of representativeness should be quantified and evaluated against the expert behaviour under investigation. Determination of the degree of representativeness would allow researchers to apply findings to the performance environment with greater knowledge of their potential impact.


In early childhood education (ECE) classrooms, teachers navigate practices about how to allow space for students to make sense of new STEM-based ideas. We posit that such pedagogical moves require ample in-the-moment perseverance by the instructor. In this paper, we seek to explore the nature of such instructional perseverance in ECE classrooms and how it manifests when ECE educators are supporting young children to develop their STEM reasoning, with a primary focus on the mathematics discipline in a social justice context. Working with a dataset consisting of four ECE classroom episodes, we employed an analytical framework that captured evidence of instructional perseverance. We found that the instructional perseverance of the ECE teacher was integral to the development of STEM reasoning of her young students. We present an illustrative case that details the instructional perseverance of the ECE teacher and the related STEM reasoning of her students in the context of exploring income variance by race. We argue that teacher education development must address how ECE teachers can plan for and navigate in-the-moment instructional obstacles in order to support young students' STEM reasoning development, which positions students for productive STEM-based outcomes.


In a service-oriented Internet of things (IoT) deployment, it is difficult to make consensus decisions for services at different IoT edge nodes where available information might be insufficient or overloaded. Existing statistical methods attempt to resolve the inconsistency, which requires adequate information to make decisions. Distributed consensus decision making (CDM) methods can provide an efficient and reliable means of synthesizing information by using a wider range of information than existing statistical methods. In this paper, we first discuss service composition for the IoT by minimizing the multi-parameter dependent matching value. Subsequently, a cluster-based distributed algorithm is proposed, whereby consensuses are first calculated locally and subsequently combined in an iterative fashion to reach global consensus. The distributed consensus method improves the robustness and trustiness of the decision process.


This paper analyzes the effects of political presence in the boards of directors of cooperative banks. We refer our analysis to all politicians (almost 160.000) belonging to a political body in Italy. Overall, our dataset contains 1.858 board members referring to 127 cooperative banks. Results show that politically connected banks, in which politicians have executive roles in the board of directors, display higher net interest revenues, lower quality of the loans portfolio and lower efficiency relative to a control group of non-connected counterparts. Therefore, in the current debate on the reform of the statutes of the Italian cooperative banks, we argue that the problem is not for politicians to be in the boards but for them to hold executive positions.


This article develops the notion that institutional places and spaces are layered with meaning and that their architecture and design have a profound psychological and physiological influence on those who live and work within them. Mindful of the intrinsic link between 'beauty' and 'being just', the article explores the potential 'healing' or rehabilitative role of penal aesthetics. As many countries modernise their prison estates, replacing older facilities that are no longer fit-for-purpose with new, more 'efficient' establishments, this article discusses examples of international best (and less good) practice in penal and hospital settings. It reflects on what those who commission and design new prisons might learn from pioneering design initiatives in healthcare environments and asks whether the philosophies underpinning the 'architecture of hope' that Maggie's Cancer Care Centres exemplify could be incorporated into prisons of the future. The article was originally presented as a public lecture in the annual John V Barry memorial lecture series at the University of Melbourne on 24 November 2016.


The Asian financial crisis in 1997 revealed important deficiencies in the monitoring of short-term external debt, often the most important and also most volatile component of countries' external obligations. As underlined in the report prepared by the Working Group on Capital Flows of the Financial Stability Forum, "short-term flows entail liquidity risk and, therefore, are of special concern from a financial stability perspective". As a result, "special attention to the build-up of short-term debt is warranted". The new Joint BIS IMF-OECD-World Bank Statistics on External Debt collaboratively published by the four international organisations since March 1999 facilitate the monitoring of external debt. They bring together in one place and on a consistent basis creditor and market data disseminated by the individual agencies, and major components of short-term debt are identified separately. Conceptual and statistical discrepancies between creditor- and debtor-based statistics have, however, caused concern. As a consequence, the BIS, with support from a number of emerging market central banks, has undertaken a study to compare existing creditor and debtor data on external debt. The results are presented in this report, which mainly serves the following purposes: First, we explain conceptual and practical differences between creditor short-term external claims series, which are supplied mainly by the BIS, and the corresponding debtor series. Second, we discuss possible options for adapting the presentation of the BIS data (assuming unchanged reporting) to reduce perceived differences between creditor and debtor data. Third, senior statisticians and economists from nine emerging market central banks provide a description of the current collection and publication of external debt statistics in their respective countries. The report is divided into two parts. Part I of the report contains the results of the BIS comparative study, while Part II covers the national contributions on external debt statistics. Part I consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 describes recent progress in improving the accuracy of BIS creditor data. In Chapter 2 the main conceptual differences between official guidelines for the reporting of external debt, on the one hand, and reporting conventions for the main source of creditor data, the BIS consolidated and locational banking statistics, on the other, are discussed. There is currently no prospect of changing the reporting of BIS data, because these data are not collected for external debt monitoring purposes. However, one can adjust components of both BIS data sets to approximate more closely standard external debt concepts. On the basis of a survey of 22 developing countries and follow up visits to eight countries, Chapter 3 compares short-term creditor and debtor data in practice. The chapter identifies both general and specific sources of differences and describes the feasibility and limits of reconciliation. Chapter 4 discusses possible options for changing the presentation of BIS creditor data in the joint statistics to reduce differences from short-term debtor data. Part II of the report contains contributions by senior statisticians and economists from nine emerging market central banks for a workshop held at the BIS in April 2002 to discuss the results of the comparative study undertaken by the BIS. The contributions describe the current collection and publication of external debt statistics in the respective emerging market countries and provide additional analysis on the causes of differences between national debtor data and BIS creditor data on external debt. In addition, Part II of the report includes a contribution from the IMF on the new draft guide on external debt statistics.


This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of peer mediation programmes in 3 primary schools in Birmingham. It investigates whether the 'Iceberg' system of peer mediation training, and the setting up of a peer mediation service, can reduce bullying, and have an effect on the self- concept of Year 5 pupils.
The literature review section of the study reviews existing literature concerning peer mediation, humanism in education (humanistic values underpin the mediation process) behaviour management in schools and bullying. These are all areas that are revisited as part of the empirical research.
The empirical research has a quasi-experimental research design which uses both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The experiment was set up to answer the main research questions as objectively as possible, given the author's existing wider involvement in this area of work. Pre-test and post-test measures include pupil questionnaires and interviews with teachers and headteachers. The positivist framework of the main experiment, however, proved to be somewhat restrictive in answering some interesting new questions which emerged as a result of the programme not being implemented as planned in 2 of the experimental schools.
The findings suggest that peer mediation can be used as a strategy to reduce bullying and improve pupil feelings of empowerment and self-esteem provided it forms part of a wider strategy to empower pupils and improve their personal and social skills. The difficulties of carrying out an experiment in a school setting, however, make the results inconclusive and more research is recommended in order to understand the links between peer mediation, humanistic practices in the classroom, and the apparently central role of the headteacher


As part of a retrospective study of effects of organizational change on interpersonal relations, this paper discusses change talk among Australian employees of an American multinational manufacturing enterprise. Interviewees tended to feel pushed into change, discussing its effects in terms of the difficulties of adolescence and earlier experiences of sudden independence. Over time, what had been a simple and firm us and them division in intergroup relations between management and unions/workers had become more fluid and subtle, and perhaps more mature. Interview data are interpreted and then re‐interpreted in terms of theories of team development, nostalgia, and paternalism. It is argued that each interpretation makes differing, but complementary, assumptions about the nature of time. If developmental, progressive assumptions of organizational change are relaxed, further attention can be given to theorizing and researching subtleties in talk of the past.


ABSTRACT Previous research on the effects of visual framing of athletes has inferred that photographic visual frames drive visual behavior by demonstrating that visual frames influence picture viewers' evaluative ratings and memory for the pictures. This study uses eye-tracking methodology to ask if these previous findings are actually the result of visual frames driving eye gaze/visual behavior. The study operationalizes the selection function of framing as time to first fixation and the emphasis/salience function as dwell time. Results show large effects of type of visual frame on the time to first location fixation on the body compared to the face and dwell time on the body compared to the face. Results show that body framed pictures (athletic active and sexualized) drive visual behavior toward faster fixations on bodies and higher dwell time on bodies, while face framed pictures (athletic passive and personal frames) lead to faster fixations on faces and longer dwell time on faces. Additional analyses show that these effects are further influenced by the biological sex of both the athlete in the picture and the person viewing the picture.


Cybersecurity is now considered as one of the main challenges for the maritime sector. At the same time, the maritime transport industry remains one of the most relevant and driving sectors for the global economy in terms of both the number and operations of active companies, and infrastructure and investments, thanks to the policies pushed to attract the latter. Maritime information systems, whether on board ships or in ports, are numerous, built with standard components available on the market and in many cases designed without factoring in well the ever-growing cyber risk.
Digital infrastructure has become essential in operating and managing systems critical to the safety and security of shipping and ports. Specifically, Cyber-MAR is focused upon the simulation and emulation of the real world of maritime systems (e.g. Logistics, Supply Chain). This research effort will examine the creation of a federated Cyber Range (CR Cyber-MAR) which will include various platforms and interconnected systems on board a vessel or ashore, in order to allow a hyper-realistic simulation of cyber-attacks and trying to assimilate them into real-life. Then the identified CR Cyber range will be integrated in the Cybersecurity training needs for different levels of operators.
The investigation of the discussed topic will essentially use qualitative techniques, analysing data obtained from publications, official and commercial reports, and interviews of a targeted audience.


Understanding plasmid transfer dynamics remains a key knowledge gap in the mitigation of antibiotic resistance gene spread. Direct effects of exposure to stressors on plasmid uptake are well monitored. However, it remains untested whether evolution of strains under stress conditions modulates subsequent plasmid uptake. Here, we evolved a compost derived microbial community for six weeks under copper stress and non-exposed control conditions. We then tested the ability of isolated clones from both treatments to take up the broad host range plasmid pKJK5 from an E.coli donor strain. Clones pre-adapted to copper displayed a significantly increased probability to be permissive towards the plasmid compared to those isolated from the control treatment. Further, increased phylogenetic distance to the donor strain was significantly and negatively correlated with plasmid uptake probabilities across both treatments.


This article analyzes a Canadian immigration program that authorizes issuance of temporary work visas to 'exotic dancers.' In response to public criticism that the government was thereby implicated in the transnational trafficking of women into sexual exploitation, Citizenship and Immigration Canada retained the visa program de jure but eliminated it de facto. Using a legal and discursive analysis that focuses on the production of female labor migrants variously as workers, as criminals and as bearers of human rights, the article argues that the incoherence of Canadian policy can only be rendered intelligible when refracted through these different lenses. The article concludes by considering policy options available to the state in addressing the issue.


INTRODUCTION
Traditionally, opioids have been the cornerstone of therapy for patients suffering from cancer pain, regardless of the potential to develop opioid tolerance. In chronic pain patients who experience worsening pain despite increasing doses of opioids, the clinical role of opioid-induced hyperalgesia is gaining more recognition.

CASE
Presented here is the case of a 56-year-old man with recurrent squamous cell lung carcinoma and spinal metastases, suffering with intractable 8/10 pain on the visual analog scale in his chest, lower thoracic spine, and upper lumbar spine. He was admitted five times for pain control. In spite of escalating doses of oxycodone, morphine, and hydromorphone, the patient continued to experience severe pain. Also, he endured undesirable sedation, fatigue, and generalized weakness. The clinical picture suggested the possibility of opioid-induced hyperalgesia. We decreased the hydromorphone dose by 40-50% and started methadone. The patient's pain level dropped to a more acceptable 3/10. He was more alert, and his pain was tolerable until his death.

DISCUSSION
Opioid-induced hyperalgesia might be considered in a patient who has no evidence of disease progression, who is on clinically reasonable doses of opioids, and whose pain escalates as opioid doses are increased. A reduction of opioids and the addition of a low-dose N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist may provide a favorable clinical outcome in those patients who have failed to benefit from opioid rotation and other adjunctive pain treatments.


We present a numerical method for the detection and estimation of perfectly conducting inclusions in conducting homogeneous host media in . The estimation is based on the evaluation of an indicator function that depends on a single pair of Cauchy data (electric potential and current) given at the boundary of the medium. The indicator function is derived using Green's third identity with the fundamental solution for the Dirichlet Laplacian on the unit disc. Using a truncated Taylor expansion, the indicator function is expressed in terms of an integral over a perturbed inclusion boundary, resulting in a natural physical interpretation. The method is implemented numerically, tested on different example problems and compared to a decomposition approach based on the method of fundamental solutions. The method shows promising results and seems robust to noisy, low sampling-frequency data.


The study of U.S. elections as a part of introductory political science courses has become an increasingly difficult endeavour as students encounter the ever-changing landscape of electoral politics. Instructors seeking to equip students with the skills needed to navigate this complex terrain may look for partnerships with library faculty and staff as a means of bridging the research gap faced by students in these courses. This article examines the efficacy of a course-embedded librarian and information literacy training as a means of increasing student research confidence and competence. The findings of our quasi-experiment suggest that students participating in a course with an embedded librarian, information literacy training and an assignment based on the training session reported higher levels of research confidence and demonstrated the use and understanding of selected information literacy skills and concepts.


The VITAL (Validation of Integrated Telecommunication Architectures for the Long-Term) project has defined, implemented and demonstrated an open distributed telecommunication architecture (ODTA) for deploying, managing and using a set of heterogeneous multimedia, multi-party, and mobility services. The architecture was based on the latest specifications released by TINA-C. The architecture was challenged in a set of trials by means of a heterogeneous set of applications. Some of the applications were developed within the project from scratch, while some others focused on integrating commercially available applications. The applications were selected in such a way as to assure full coverage of the architecture implementation and reflect a realistic use of it. The VITAL experience of refining and implementing TINA specifications and challenging the resulting platform by a heterogeneous set of services has proven the openness, flexibility and reusability of TINA. This paper describes the VITAL approach when choosing the different services and how they challenge and interact with the architecture, focusing especially on the service architecture and the Ret reference point definitions. The VITAL adjustments and enhancements to the TINA architecture are described. This paper contributes to proving that the TINA-based VITAL ODTA allows for easy and cost-effective development and deployment of advanced end-user and operator services, and can indeed act as the basis for a virtual market place for telecommunications services.


We present a three-dimensional (3D) imaging method employing linear increasing gain to encode flying time of photons into intensity information. This method obtains both the reflectivity and the depth of scene from only two two-dimensional (2D) images. High linear accuracy between the depth and the intensity information is independent of the laser pulse shape. We demonstrated <1 m linear depth accuracies with two different kinds of laser pulse shape and a 3D scene reconstruction with supperresolution depth mapping when the targets are 800-1100 m away.


ABSTRACT Gorayeb, A.; Mendes, J.S.; Meireles, A.J.A.; Silva, E.V.; Brannstrom, C., and Freitas, A.L.R. 2016. Wind-energy development causes social impacts in coastal Ceará state, Brazil: The case of the Xavier community. In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 383–387. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. A significant increase in wind-power generation has occurred since 2008 in coastal regions of northeastern Brazil. Many wind farms have been erected on territories claimed by traditional communities, which have suffered changes in how they obtain resources as a consequence. Here we study the Xavier community, a settlement of 20 families and 66 people, located in the Camocim municipality of Ceará state. Xavier residents subsist on extractive activities such artisanal (non-mechanized) fishing, shellfish collection, and crop cultivation. But in 2009 one of Ceará's largest wind farms was established approximately 200 meters from the settlement. Although some may see these projects as low impact, wind farms in Ceará are being implemented in areas that are environmentally unstable, located within territories claimed by traditional communities, negatively affecting their livelihoods. This paper analyzes the social impacts caused by the establishment of the wind farm through participant observation, group workshops, and analysis of textual materials. Several problems are described, including the absence of basic infrastructure and employment; road blockages; privatization of common resources; noise from turbines; constant fear of accidents involving turbines; internal conflicts among Xavier residents caused after the implementation of the wind farm; and burial of lakes. Wind-farm construction negatively influenced this traditional community by threatening territory, cultural traditions, and food security.