Silica supported and unsupported PdAu single atom alloys (SAAs) were investigated for the selective hydrogenation of 1-hexyne to hexenes under mild conditions. The catalysts were prepared by adding a trace amount of Pd (0.4 at%) into the surface of pre-formed Au nanoparticles through a sequential reduction method. TEM and XRD analyses indicate the formation of PdAu nanoparticles and ATR-IR confirms the single atom dispersion of Pd in the Au matrix. In time-resolved batch reactor studies, we found that the Pd single atoms improved the hydrogenation activity of Au by nearly 10-fold but did not decrease the high selectivity to partial hydrogenation products. The enhanced reactivity is attributed to the Pd single atoms (isolated Pd atoms in the Au surface) facilitating molecular hydrogen dissociation leading to the availability of weakly bound atomic hydrogen on the otherwise inert gold surface. Higher than 85% selectivity to hexenes was observed, which is significantly greater than that of monometallic Pd catalysts. Model catalyst studies were conducted to investigate the formation and reactivity of the Pd/Au(111) SAAs. Scanning tunneling microscopy of Pd/Au(111) surfaces confirms the formation of PdAu single atom alloys at low Pd coverage with the Pd preferentially located in the vicinity of the herringbone elbows of the reconstructed Au(111) surface. Temperature-programmed desorption experiments confirm that single Pd atom sites dissociate hydrogen and bind both CO and H atoms more weakly as compared to extended Pd surfaces.


The very existence of an employment relationship places the human rights of a worker at risk. Employers can, and frequently do, exercise their managerial and disciplinary powers in a manner that interferes with the most fundamental rights of the individual worker. Adequate safeguards against such infringements are necessary if individuals are to receive full protection of their rights. This book examines how far the labour laws of England and Wales offer such guarantees, with a particular focus on dismissal law. The chapters reflect on the relationship between employment, labour, and human rights before conducting a detailed and critical analysis of the scope, shape, and application of domestic employment law. The framework for evaluation is drawn from the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, as it develops a principled and tailored approach to how the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights should be enforced in working relationships. Statutory mechanisms, such as the law of unfair dismissal, and common law causes of action are examined and found to be lacking in their capacity to vindicate and enforce the human rights of workers. The book culminates in the proposal and elaboration on an innovative solution, the Bill of Rights for Workers, that would draw on the successes of human rights and labour law instruments to render the Convention rights directly enforceable in the relationship between a worker and their employer.


The COVID 19 brings a major transformation in every sector of business. Most of the business sector are worst affected during this pandemic period. Successful sustainable business strategy in the post pandemic period only can help revival of the business. The post pandemic has many consequences for instance pay cuts and layoffs etc. all the business sector in general and banking sector in particular. The financial services will be globally reformed at an unacceptable level across the world. Government across the world after 2008 crisis had made major financial reforms for greater transparency of transactions and reduce risk in order to make financial services more safer. Many banking sectors worldwide are going to reform their bank structure. The present study relates to giant multinational bank operating across globe HSBC under consideration. The post pandemic revival strategy HSBC is committed to implement its restructuring plan considering market structure, tax transparency, capital and liquidity. HSBC bank reported 48% fall in profit before taxes in Q1 2020 as compared to the last year. HSBC disclose declines of revenue in three major segments that is adjusted pre-tax profit collapsed by 84% in retail banking and wealth management, 70% in commercial banking business and 35% in global banking and market segment.


To examine the effect of timing and severity of summer pruning on flower bud initiation and vegetative growth, 4-year-old 'Bing' cherry trees (Prunus avium L.) were pruned at 31,34,37,38, or 45 days after full bloom (DAFB) with heading cuts 20 cm from the base of current-season lateral shoot growth,or at 38 DAFB by heading current-season lateral shoot growth at 15, 20, 25, or 30 cm from the base of the shoot. The influence of heading cut position between nodes also was examined by cutting at a point(20 cm from the shoot base) just above or below a node, or in the middle of an internode. Summer pruning influenced the number of both flower buds and lateral shoots subsequently formed on the shoots. All of the timings and pruning lengths significantly increased the number of both flower buds and lateral shoots, but differences between pruning times were not significant. There was significantly less regrowth when shoots were pruned just below a node or in the center of an internode, rather than just above a node, suggesting that the length of the remaining stub may inhibit regrowth somewhat. The coefficient of determination (r 2 ) between flower bud number and regrowth ranged from -0.34 to -0.45.In young high-density sweet cherry plantings, summer pruning may be useful for increasing flower bud formation on current-season shoots. The time of pruning, length of the shoots after pruning, and location of the pruning cut can influence subsequent flower bud formation and vegetative regrowth.


In Terenure, a pleasant suburb of Dublin, it has snowed. Gina Moynihan, girl about town, recalls the trail of lust and happenstance that brought her to fall for "the love of her life," Sean Vallely. As the city outside comes to a halt, Gina remembers their affair: long afternoons made blank by bliss and denial. Now, as the silent streets and falling snow make the day luminous and full of possibility, Gina awaits the arrival of Sean's fragile, twelve-year-old daughter, Evie-the complication, and gravity, of this second life. In this extraordinary novel, Anne Enright speaks directly to the readers she won with The Gathering. Here again is the momentous drama of everyday life; the volatile connections between people; the wry, accurate take on families, marriage, and brittle middle age. With The Forgotten Waltz Enright turns her attention to love, following another unforgettable heroine on a journey of the heart. Writing at the height of her powers, this is Enright's tour de force, a novel of intelligence, passion, and distinction.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of the vestibular rehabilitation (VR) exercises by means of an assessment before and after the application of the Brazilian version of the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) questionnaire.

METHOD
Twelve patients were studied, the following procedures were carried out: anamnesis, otorhinolaryngological and vestibular evaluation, and the application of the DHI before and after the VR.

RESULTS
Clinically resting tremors and subjective postural instability were the motor complaints most frequently associated with complaints of vertigo in 12 cases (100%); in the vestibular exam, all the patients presented abnormalities, frequently from the uni and bilateral peripheral vestibular deficiency syndromes in 10 cases (83.3%); there was significant improvement in the physical, functional and emotional aspects of the DHI after the completion of the VR.

CONCLUSION
The VR following the Cawthorne and Cooksey protocol were shown to be useful in managing subjective complaints of several aspects evaluated in this protocol.


Predators have to secure a high energy intake in the face of changing anduncertain environments. Through the evolution of predator-prey interactionsmanifold mechanisms have emerged to avoid predation. So called secondary de-fences commonly involve the possession of toxins or deterrent substances whichare not directly observable by predators. However, many defended species useconspicuous signals as warning flags in combination with their secondary de-fences (aposematism). The field of aposematism has a renewed interest in therole of the predator and details of the predator's aversive learning process. Asthe selective agent, aversive learning is an important aspect of predator avoid-ance.We present an experience-based aversive learning model of foraging be-haviour in uncertain environments [1]. In particular, we use Q-learning as amodel-free implementation of Temporal Difference learning motivated by grow-ing evidence for neural correlates in natural reinforcement settings. We gaininsights on how aversive learning influences foraging in uncertain environmentsand discuss similarities and differences to the net energy maximisation approachof classical optimal foraging theory.In our model the predator has the choice of including an aposematic preyin its diet or to forage on alternative food sources. We show how the preda-tor's foraging behaviour and energy intake depends on toxicity of the defendedprey and the presence of Batesian mimics. We introduce the precondition ofexploration of the action space for successful aversion formation and show howit predicts foraging behaviour in the presence of conflicting rewards which isconditionally suboptimal in a fixed environment but allows better adaptation inchanging environments. We present fitness distributions of learning predatorscompared to a primary mutation strategy in a set of different environmentalconditions. [1] Jan Teichmann et al. "The application of temporal difference learning inoptimal diet models." Journal of theoretical biology, 340 (2014): 11-16.


BACKGROUND
Errors involving medication use are common. Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) can improve prescribing practices. Few studies have examined the effect of CPOE in combination with decision support tools on prescribing practices in the outpatient setting. Less is known about prescribers' adherence to laboratory monitoring recommendations.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate if reminders presented during CPOE for medications would increase physicians' compliance with guidelines for laboratory monitoring at initiation of therapy.

STUDY DESIGN
Randomized prospective intervention study.

METHODS
Two hundred seven primary care physicians in a group-model managed care organization were randomized to receive or not receive drug laboratory monitoring alerts within the CPOE system. Adherence to laboratory monitoring recommendations for patients prescribed selected medications was compared between physician groups.

RESULTS
There was no significant difference between the control and intervention group physicians in the overall rate of compliance with ordering the recommended laboratory monitoring for patients prescribed study medications. Laboratory monitoring was performed as recommended 56.6% of the time in the intervention group compared with 57.1% of the time in the control group (P = .31). In cases in which a statistically significant difference was demonstrated, improved compliance favored the intervention group (eg, 71.2% vs 62.3% [P = .003] for gemfibrozil and 75.7% vs 73.9% [P = .05] for statins).

CONCLUSIONS
As CPOE becomes more prevalent, additional research is needed to determine effective decision support tools. These findings then should be communicated to the developers and users of computerized medical record systems.


After extensive thinning of beechwood in the Chiltern Hills, Deschampsia caespitosa was seen to have become the dominant component of the vegetation on strongly contrasting soils. At three sites selected for study, the soils were more or less well-drained and ranged from an acid mull (pH 3· 7-4· 2) through a calcimorphic brown earth (pH 7· 0-8· 0) to almost pure chalk rubble (pH 7· 6-8· 3). These soils were characterized in terms of their moisture release curves and their seasonal fluctuations in water availability were monitored during 1971; a computer-based method for the derivation of matric potential directly from gypsum block resistance, employing a polynomial regression model and a temperature correction equation, is described. The chalk soil was found to hold the most available water, but severe water stress proved to be an infrequent contingency on all three sites. However, matric potentials of the order of -10 bar occurred in summer with no apparent ill-effect on D. caespitosa, indicating that its frequent occurrence in waterlogged habitats is not due to a high physiological requirement for water but to its manifestly broad edaphic tolerance coupled with a lack of competitive ability.


Social enterprises need to start measuring their performances in a systemic way, in order to support decision making and ensure accountability towards their stakeholders. In order to be as effective and successful than profit-making organizations, social purpose organizations need to be highly innovative in creating reporting practices and measurement systems because they are not as developed and extensive than the measurement systems for financial reporting. But because of hybridity nature of social enterprises, performance measurement and reporting processes are very complex and challenging for them. This conceptual paper aims to contribute to the existing literature by exploring and clarifying the ideas and ways to measure and report social value creation, and try to prose framework for social SMEs to choose proper performance measurement tool for different purposes. A range of performance measurement tools have been introduced and utilized by social enterprises. In this paper the proposed approach consists of a balanced scorecard and SROI. Balanced scorecard is one of the widespread management tools that enable organizations to consider both hard and soft sides of businesses. SROI is accepted as an internationally recognized measurement tool for social enterprises. Our proposed framework is based on previous impact measurement literature and on four case examples. The information of three presented cases is collected from the secondary sources (The SROI Network 2014) and the information from one single case is gathered by interviewing the CEO of the social enterprise. The results of this paper indicates that evaluating the performance effectively and reporting the results transparently are the key activities. At present to this list can be attached social value creation and its efficient measurement.


As part of the Megacities Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations (MILAGRO) study in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area in March 2006, we measured particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and other gaseous species and particulate properties, including light absorbing carbon or effective black carbon (BC), at six locations throughout the city. The measurements were intended to support the following objectives: to describe spatial and temporal patterns in PAH concentrations, to gain insight into sources and transformations of PAHs and BC, and to quantify the relationships between PAHs and other pollutants. Total particulate PAHs at the Instituto Mexi-cano del Petróleo (T0 supersite) located near downtown averaged 50 ng m −3 , and aerosol active surface area averaged 80 mm 2 m −3. PAHs were also measured on board the Aero-dyne Mobile Laboratory, which visited six sites encompassing a mixture of different land uses and a range of ages of air parcels transported from the city core. A combination of analyses of time series, back trajectories, concentration fields, pollutant ratios, and correlation coefficients supports the concept of T0 as an urban source site, T1 as a receptor site with strong local sources, Pedregal and PEMEX as intermediate sites, Pico Tres Padres as a vertical receptor site, and Santa Ana as a downwind receptor site. Weak intersite correlations suggest that local sources are important and variable and that exposure to PAHs and BC cannot be represented by a single regional-scale value. The relationships between PAHs and other pollutants suggest that a variety of sources and ages of particles are present. Among carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides (NO x), and carbon dioxide, particulate PAHs are most strongly correlated with NO x. Mexico City's PAH/BC mass ratio of 0.01 is similar to that found on a freeway loop in the Los Angeles area and approximately 8–30 times higher than that found in other cities. Evidence also suggests that primary combustion particles are rapidly coated by secondary aerosol in Mexico City. If so, their optical properties may change, and the lifetime of PAHs may be prolonged if the coating protects them against photodegradation or heterogeneous reactions.


The CDF Online Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) reconstructs 2D tracks by linking hit positions measured by the Silicon Vertex Detector to the Central Outer Chamber tracks found by the eXtremely Fast Tracker (XFT). The system has been completely built and assembled and it is now being commissioned using the first CDF run II data. The precision measurement of the track impact parameter will allow triggering on B hadron decay vertices and thus investigating important areas in the B sector, like CP violation and B(s) mixing. In this paper we briefly review the architecture and the tracking algorithms implemented in the SVT and we report on the performance of the system achieved in the early phase of CDF run II. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


Africa is a continent of growing strategic importance in the global war on terrorism. Over the past decade, it has seen a significant number of terrorist attacks and operations, both north and south of the Sahara. Many of these attacks have been led by, co-ordinated with, or purported to be in support of al Qaeda, but others have been launched by African organisations without significant external support. "African Counterterrorism Cooperation"provides an overview of terrorist threats in each African economic region and examines terrorism and counterterrorism efforts on the continent as a whole. Drawn largely from papers presented by distinguished experts at a recent conference sponsored by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, this volume comprises chapters on terrorism threats and vulnerabilities in Africa, the roles of the African Union and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, counterterrorism measures in East Africa, terrorism threats and responses in the Southern African Development Community Region, and counterterrorism initiatives in the Economic Community of West African States. The final chapter offers an overview of U.S. support for African counterterrorism efforts. Edited by Dr. Andre Le Sage and with a foreword by Gen. Carlton W. Fulford, Jr., USMC (Ret.).


The aim of this study was to investigate the dietary regimens reported by athletes competing at a major international competition and report whether these were based on nutrient composition, religious beliefs, cultural eating style, food intolerance or avoidance of certain ingredients. A questionnaire was randomly distributed to 351 athletes in the main dining hall of the athletes' village over the three main meal periods during the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games (23rd Sept-14th Oct, 2010). The majority (n = 218, 62%) of athletes reported following one or more dietary regimens, with 50% (n = 174) following a diet based on the nutrient composition of the food. Significantly more athletes from weight category and aesthetic sports (28%, p = .005) and from power/sprint sports (41%, p = .004) followed low fat and high protein regimens respectively. Other specialized dietary regimens were followed by 33% of participants, with avoidance of red meat (13%), vegetarian (7%), Halal (6%), and low lactose regimens (5%) reported most frequently. Significantly more athletes from non-Western regions followed a vegetarian diet (p < .001), while more vegetarians reported avoiding additives (p = .013) and wheat (p ≤ .001). A Western style of eating was the most commonly reported cultural regimen (72% of total with 23% from non-Western regions). Those following a Western diet were significantly more likely to report following a regimen based on nutrient composition (p = .02). As a high proportion of athletes from differing countries and sports follow specialized dietary regimens, caterers and organizers should ensure that adequate nutrition support and food items are available at similar events.


Economists, psychologists, and marketers are interested in determining the monetary value people place on non-market goods for a variety of reasons: to carry out cost-benefit analysis, to determine the welfare effects of technological innovation or public policy, to forecast new product success, and to understand individual and consumer behavior. Unfortunately, many currently available techniques for eliciting individuals' values suffer from a serious problem in that they involve asking individuals hypothetical questions about intended behavior. Experimental auctions circumvent this problem because they involve individuals exchanging real money for real goods in an active market. This represents a promising means for eliciting non-market values. Lusk and Shogren provide a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of experimental auctions. It will be a valuable resource to graduate students, practitioners and researchers concerned with the design and utilization of experimental auctions in applied economic and marketing research.


The identification of genes that are mutated in cancer cells can provide important clues to tumor pathogenesis. Working with a large collection of human colorectal tumors and matched normal tissue, Wang et al. have systematically sequenced the entire family of genes coding for an important group of cellular signaling enzymes called protein tyrosine phosphatases. Sequence alterations in phosphatase genes were found in about 25% of the tumors, and biochemical analysis confirmed that at least a subset of these alterations had functional effects on phosphatase activity. In addition to identifying potential tumor suppressor genes, this comprehensive sequencing approach may have future applications in the design of personalized cancer therapy. Z. Wang, D. Shen, D. W. Parsons, A. Bardelli, J. Sager, S. Szabo, J. Ptak, N. Silliman, B. A. Peters, M. S. van der Heijden, G. Parmigiani, H. Yan, T.-L. Wang, G. Riggins, S. M. Powell, J. K. V. Willson, S. Markowitz, K. Kinzler, B. Vogelstein, V. E. Velculescu, Mutational analysis of the tyrosine phosphatome in colorectal cancers. Science 304, 1164-1166 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The emergence of potential financial distress is an early indication of a decline in the company's financial condition. The purpose of this research is to determine the potential of financial distress at PT Anugerah, so that it will help management anticipate the potential financial distress in the company. In this research, the assessment of financial distress potential uses the Altman (Z-score) method and Springate (S-score) method. The type of data in this research is quantitative and qualitative sourced from secondary data and obtained through interviews, documentation, and observation. The data analysis technique used is a qualitative/descriptive analysis technique. The results of research study are the financial distress potential of PT Anugerah by using the Altman (Z-score) method in 2016-2019 shows PT Anugerah is in a non-financial distress condition, because the score is in the condition of Z''> 2.6. Furthermore, PT Anugerah financial distress potential using the Springate (S-score) method in 2016-2019 shows that PT Anugerah is in a non-financial distress condition, because the score is at S > 0.862.


This paper presents a provable and strong algorithm, termed Innovation Search (iSearch), to robust Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and outlier detection. An outlier by definition is a data point which does not participate in forming a low dimensional structure with a large number of data points in the data. In other word, an outlier carries some innovation with respect to most of the other data points. iSearch ranks the data points based on their values of innovation. A convex optimization problem is proposed whose optimal value is used as our measure of innovation. We derive analytical performance guarantees for the proposed robust PCA method under different models for the distribution of the outliers including randomly distributed outliers, clustered outliers, and linearly dependent outliers. Moreover, it is shown that iSearch provably recovers the span of the inliers when the inliers lie in a union of subspaces. In the challenging scenarios in which the outliers are close to each other or they are close to the span of the inliers, iSearch is shown to outperform most of the existing methods.


The PASADENA effect is a method for transient high-sensitivity proton spin-labelling by molecular addition of dihydrogen. When the parahydrogen mole fraction differs from the high-temperature limit of 1/4, this population difference constitutes a form of spin order which can be converted to magnetization observable by NMR. Large NMR signals are observed, if subsequent to the hydrogen addition, the two protons experience magnetic inequivalence and spin-spin coupling and if observation is made before spin-lattice relaxation restores the equilibrium spin order. The analogous effect for D2 is also possible. The kinetic mechanisms of the homogeneous hydrogenation catalysts which permit the realization of the PASADENA effect have been the target of the experimental applications. The enhancement of the NMR transitions has facilitated the determination of true molecular rate constants. Ordinarily, the activity of a catalyst is assessed by dividing the observed rate by the total catalyst concentration. However, the question as to whether most of the catalytic rate is due to a tiny fraction of active species or a large fraction with a relatively low molecular rate is not clearly addressed by such an analysis. This ambiguity is entirely avoided in the PASADENA studies, since only active catalyst molecules can contribute to the enhanced signals from which all kinetic inferences are made. The sensitivity enhancement has also led to the identification of a novel intermediate in the mechanism for the Rh(DIPHOS)+ catalyzed hydrogenation of styrene. The rate of conversion of this species into product and starting material has been studied using two-dimensional NMR. The dramatically improved sensitivity should make it possible to observe key catalytic intermediates which do not build up in sufficient quantity to allow detection by conventional NMR arising from Curie-Law magnetization. The study of surface sites which bind pairwise with H2 is also a potentially fruitful area for future experimental work. The ambient temperature NMR spectroscopy of surfaces is not often feasible due to sensitivity limitations. Simulations have been performed using typical shift and coupling parameters in an effort to characterize the enhanced lineshapes which can be expected. The inverse of the PASADENA effect has also been proposed, whereby the spin order of a molecule containing hydrogen is probed by measuring the branching ratio to ortho and para dihydrogen. This RAYMOND phenomenon (radiowave application yields modulated ortho number desorbed) has the potential for measuring precursor NMR with extraordinary sensitivity, since it finesses the need for detection of radiowaves.


A survey of literature reporting disturbances in liver function which accompany oral contraceptive use is presented. The survey comprises 21 reports of over 102 patients. 43 of 88 patients who gave information about previous pregnancies had experienced jaundice or pruritis during a previous pregnancy. The symptoms of jaundice usually appeared in the 1st cycle of contraceptive use. In all cases where such tests were taken the serum bilirubin alkaline phosphate serum transaminase and bromosulphalein (BSP) retention levels were elevated. The pathogenesis seems to have both toxic and genetic aspects. Among women using oral contraceptives who show no predisposition to liver dysfunction changes in liver function tests seem to be temporary. BSP retention and transaminase tests are the most sensitive to these changes. Low dosage gestagen tablets seem to have little influence on liver function. Both the estrogen mestranol and gestagen lynestrol can cause liver dysfunction. Jaundice caused by oral contraceptive use seems to be caused by intrahepatic cholestasis; a genetic factor is indicated in the pathogenesis of the cholestasis. Oral contraceptives seems to disturb the transportation phase not the storage phase of bile secretion. The Dubin-Johnson and the Budd-Chiari syndromes can be caused by use of oral contraceptives. Porphyria cirrhosis of the liver and bile disturbances can be aggravated by oral contraceptive use. The breaking down of drugs in the liver may be influenced by oral contraceptive use.


Administrative subpoena authority, including closely related national security letter authority, is the power vested in various administrative agencies to compel testimony or the production of documents or both in aid of the agencies' performance of their duties. Both the President and Members of Congress have called for statutory adjustments relating to the use of administrative subpoenas and national security letters in criminal and foreign intelligence investigations. One lower federal court has found the sweeping gag orders and lack of judicial review that mark one of the national security letter practices constitutionally defective. Proponents of expanded use emphasize the effectiveness of administrative subpoenas as an investigative tool and question the logic of its availability in drug and health care fraud cases but not in terrorism cases. Critics suggest that it is little more than a constitutionally suspect "trophy" power, easily abused and of little legitimate use. This is an abridged version — without footnotes, appendices, quotation marks and most citations to authority — of Administrative Subpoenas and National Security Letters in Criminal and Foreign Intelligence Investigations: Background and Proposed Adjustments, CRS Report RL32880.


Explores the important topic of the way the Church of England constructed a public discourse about the British Empire.

Between 1700 and 1850 the Church of England was the among the most powerful and influential religious, social, and political forces in Britain. This was also a momentous time for the British Empire, during which it developed and then lost the North American colonies, extended into India, and settled the colonies of Australia and New Zealand. Public understanding of this expanding empire was influentially created and promulgated by the Church of England as a consequence of its missionary engagement with these colonies, and its role in providing churches for British settlers. Rowan Strong examines how that Anglican Christian understanding of the British Empire shaped the identities both of the people living in British colonies in North America, Bengal, Australia, and New Zealand during this period - including colonists, indigenous peoples, and Negro slaves - and of the English in Britain.


The level and distribution of residual stresses in welds arises from the complex thermo-mechanical history of heat flow and thermal expansion at very high temperatures. It is not possible to make assessments of these with the methods that are used to determine service stresses. Simulation techniques have been developed over many years making it increasingly possible to predict residual stresses. These models need accurate materials data including, where applicable, the effect of phase transformations. In nuclear reactor pressure vessel welds, it is necessary to consider welding as a metallurgical problem as well as a thermo-mechanical one and FE simulations of these require a wide range of material data in order to create suitable input parameters.It is crucial that models of ferritic steel welds simulate the effects of phase transformations because the different phases have different thermal expansion coefficients. Partly due to differences in thermal expansion coefficient attributed to the different phases, but more significantly because of the associated transformation strain and transformation plasticity. Further to this, predicting the distribution of the phase fractions enables structural simulations to account for the distribution of mechanical properties throughout a weld. In this work, a simplified approach to producing an empirical model to simulate phase transformations in SA-508 Gr3 pressure vessel steel is presented. A commercial finite element package is used to implement the model which calculates the volume fraction of bainite, martensite and austenite and the thermal strains that evolve over the thermal excursions. The results of these FE simulations are compared to experimental data.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Paul F. Grendler, noted historian of European education, surveys Jesuit schools and universities throughout Europe from the first school founded in 1548 to the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. The Jesuits were famed educators who founded and operated an international network of schools and universities that enrolled students from the age of eight or ten through doctoral studies. The essay analyzes the organization, curriculum, pedagogy, culture, financing, relations with civil authorities, enrollments, and social composition of students in Jesuit pre-university schools. Grendler then examines the different forms of Jesuit universities. The Jesuits did almost all the teaching in small collegiate universities that they governed. In large civic–Jesuit universities the Jesuits taught the humanities, philosophy, and theology, while lay professors taught law and medicine. The article provides examples ranging from the first Jesuit school in Messina, Sicily, to universities across Europe. It features a complete list of Jesuit schools in France.


We investigate the light emission characteristics for single two level quantum dot (QD) in a realistic photonic crystal (PC) L3 cavity based upon the local coupling strength between the QD and cavity together with the Green's function in which the propagation function related to the position of the detector is taken into account. We find for a PC cavity that the line shape of the propagation function in frequency domain is identical to that of the cavity and independent on the detector's position. We confirm that this identity is not influenced by the horizontal decay of the cavity. Furthermore, it is revealed that the vacuum fluorescence spectrum of the coupled system never give the triplet in strong coupling regime. Our work demonstrates that the experimental spectral-triplet in coupled system of single QD and PC cavity cannot be individually understood by vacuum Rabi splitting without including other physics mechanism.


This dissertation examines how elementary principals develop collaborative work environments. Specifically, it explores how principals understand collaborative work, examines the strategies principals employ to encourage such an environment, the supports principals use when developing collaborative work environments and the challenges principals experience when trying to create one in his or her school. The study was conducted using a qualitative research design and an interpretivist approach was used to frame the research. Eleven elementary principals were interviewed for this study. The interviews were semi-structured and ranged in length from 45-60 minutes. Findings included an important emphasis on positive relationship building amongst teachers and the school principal in order to develop trust, the use of a distributed style of school leadership, the importance of communication and the significance of developing a positive school culture. Principals shared the supports that assisted them in developing collaborative working environments, such as monetary and staffing resources from the district school board, moral support from other principals and effective working relationships with their teacher union representatives. Challenges to the creation of a collaborative work environment included a lack of time and funding, staff members who were unwilling to work in a collaborative manner, as well as challenges that occur outside the school such as parental and union involvement. The implementation of a collaborative working environment in elementary schools could result in a reduced workload for both principals and teachers. This would be accomplished through the sharing of responsibilities amongst the staff.


The topic of the balance between public and private interests in land is one of growing importance and increasing controversy. The environmental movement of the last three decades has generated significant and varied government regulation, much of it placing restrictions on the use of privately owned land. In turn, the past few years have seen a growing property rights movement, largely in response to such regulation. The interplay between private and public interests affects all types of land ownership and property uses, but is perhaps most pronounced with regard to environmentally sensitive land. Effective protection of such property often requires that it be left in its natural state, thus minimizing development opportunities. This raises an increasingly critical question in our society: what rights do private property owners have in privately owned land and what rights should the public have in the same resource. In addressing this topic this article will do three things. Part One will first present a thumbnail sketch of the current balance of public and private rights as reflected in constitutional law, commonly known as the "takings" issue. This balance leans heavily towards the private side concerning the right to possess property and exclude others, as well as protecting against state interference with current uses. Part Two will then present what I consider to be the big picture rationale for striking the balance in this way, which is that property is a social construct designed to serve social as well as individual purposes. As such, private property rights have always been viewed as being subject to broader public interests, and private interests must end when they inflict harm on the broader public. Finally, Part Three will discuss whether recognizing a strong public or social interest in privately owned land is fundamentally unfair to private landowners, especially when the effect is to substantially lower property values.


PURPOSE
Quality assurance for small field fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy treatment is critical and challenging due to the resolution of detectors used for measurements. We evaluate whether COMPASS system can be used as a good QA tool for SBRT dose delivery.

METHODS
40 SBRT NSCLC cases were utilized in this study. PTV size ranged from 3cmx3.4cm to 8.1cmx6.7cm. Prescription doses to PTVs were 30Gy to 60Gy delivered in 3 to 5 fractions. For each case, a representative plan designed in Eclipse AAA using either RapidArc or dynamic-IMRT was sent to COMPASS for calculating predicted dose. The reconstructed dose distributions were updated by using the measurement corrections. Measurements were made using a MatriXX Evaluation system mounted on the gantry at a SDD of 76.2cm, with a resolution of 7.62mm. The target dose-volume parameters of D99%(dose received by 99% of target volume), D95%, D85%, D80%, D50%, D30%, D20%, D10%, D1%, average dose, and average gamma were analyzed against that of Eclipse. The OAR dose differences of the average dose and average gamma were also compared.

RESULTS
Compared to Eclipse, PTV average dose in COMPASS varied by 0.8% from predicated dose, and by 1.9% from reconstructed dose. PTV dose-volume parameters show good agreement on predicated dose(±3%) and relatively poorer agreement on reconstructed dose(±7%). PTV dose-volume parameters in low dose region show a better agreement than that in high dose region. The average gamma differences were up to 0.6 in PTV and 0.15 in OARs. The average absolute dose difference shows a maximum of 0.17Gy in OARs. There is no significant difference between VMAT and IMRT plans.

CONCLUSION
COMPASS can be used as an independent QA tool for small field SBRT. COMPASS predicated doses show a better agreement with Eclipse when compared to reconstructed dose distributions. The limitation of the MatriXX resolution should be considered.


In the variational cluster approximation (VCA) (or variational cluster perturbation theory), widely used to study the Hubbard model, a fundamental problem that renders variational solutions difficult in practice is its known lack of convexity at stationary points, i.e. the physical solutions can be saddle points rather than extrema of the self-energy functional. Here we suggest two different approaches to construct a convex functional of the self-energy. In the first approach, one can show analytically that in the approximation where the irreducible particle-hole vertex depends only on center of mass coordinates, the functional is convex away from phase transitions in the corresponding channel. Numerical tests on a tractable version of that functional show that convexity can be a nuisance when looking for instabilities both in the pairing and particle-hole channels. Therefore, an alternative phenomenological functional is proposed. Convexity is explicitly enforced only with respect to a restricted set of variables, such as the cluster chemical potential that is known to be otherwise problematic. Numerical tests show that our functional is convex at the physical solutions of VCA and allows second-order phase transitions in the pairing channel as well. This opens the way to the use of more efficient algorithms to find solutions of the VCA equations.


Environmental factors place a crucial role in reproductive management of buffaloes by regulating their estrous cycle. Conception occurs if breeding takes place in favorable season where availability of sufficient herbage and water. Influence of parity on selection of breeding seasonal, leads to conception, was not yet reported in murrah buffaloes. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out to analyse the influence of parity on selecting an optimal season for breeding among murrah buffaloes in south India. Sixty reproductively active murrah buffaloes belonged to southern part of Indian subcontinent were recruited in the study and grouped based on their parity. Estrus behaviour, date of mating and consequent pregnancy was recorded for every individual buffalo. A conception rate of 81.67% was achieved with natural mating. Among the 49 pregnant animals, 12 were nulliparous (n=19), 15 were primiparous (n=16) and 22 were multiparous (n=25). Conception rate was high during winter (32.65%), followed by autumn (26.53%), monsoon (20.41%) and pre-winter (20.41%). Major factors such as age, low reproductive efficiency during late winter and early autumn, delayed resumption after calving appears to affect the conception rate. Prolonged summer, extended from March to July, noticed in recent years decreases the duration of other seasons like spring and autumn. Effective breeding of nulliparous was witnessed on winter, primiparous during autumn and multiparous was scheduled from monsoon to pre-winter. The present study concludes that selection of optimal season for breeding was rather influenced by the parity of individual buffaloes.


ePPOC is a program which aims to improve services and outcomes for people experiencing chronic pain. It involves specialist pain services collecting a standard set of information to measure outcomes for their patients as a result of treatment. Deidentified information is sent to ePPOC for analysis, and results are fed back to participating services every six months. The information collected by services will also be used to develop a national benchmarking system to set goals and identify best practice within the sector, and will allow a coordinated approach to research into the management of chronic pain in Australasia. ePPOC is an initiative of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, supported by the Australian Pain Society, PainAustralia and the wider pain sector. It was launched in 2013 with a small number of pain management services trialling the measures and processes, and is being progressively rolled out to other services throughout Australia and New Zealand.


This paper uses innovative democratic forums carried out in Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom to examine people's ideas about welfare-state priorities and future prospects. We use a moral economy framework in the context of regime differences and the move towards neo-liberalism across Europe. Broadly speaking, attitudes reflect regime differences, with distinctive emphasis on reciprocity and the value of work in Germany, inclusion and equality in Norway, and individual responsibility and the work-ethic in the UK. Neo-liberal market-centred ideas appear to have made little headway in regard to popular attitudes, except in the already liberal-leaning UK. There is also a striking assumption by UK participants that welfare is threatened externally by immigrants who take jobs from established workers and internally by the work-shy who undermine the work-ethic. A key role of the welfare state is repressive rather than enabling: to protect against threats to well-being rather than provide benefits for citizens. UK participants also anticipate major decline in state provision. In all three countries there is strong support for continuing and expanding social investment policies, but for different reasons: to enable contribution in Germany, to promote equality and mobility in Norway, and to facilitate self-responsibility in the UK.


— Social network applications are becoming increasingly popular on mobile devices. A mobile presence service is an essential component of a social network application because it maintains each mobile user's presence information, such as the current status (online/offline), GPS location and network address, and also updates the user's online friends with the information continually. If presence updates occur frequently, the enormous number of messages distributed by presence servers may lead to a scalability problem in a large-scale mobile presence service. To address the problem, we propose efficient and scalable server architecture, called Presence Cloud, which enables mobile presence services to support large-scale social network applications. When a mobile user joins a network, Presence Cloud searches for the presence of his/her friends and notifies them of his/her arrival. Presence Cloud organizes presence servers into a quorum-based server-to-server architecture for efficient presence searching. It also leverages a directed search algorithm and a one-hop caching strategy to achieve small constant search latency. We analyze the performance of Presence Cloud in terms of the search cost and search satisfaction level. The search cost is defined as the total number of messages generated by the presence server when a user arrives; and search satisfaction level is defined as the time it takes to search for the arriving user's friend list. The results of simulations demonstrate that Presence Cloud achieves performance gains in the search cost without compromising search satisfaction.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: MRV has been proposed as a possible screening method to identify chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, which may play a role in MS. We report our initial experience comparing MRV and CV in MS patients to evaluate venous stenosis and collateral venous drainage. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Time-of-flight and time-resolved imaging of contrast kinetics MRV and CV were performed in 39 MS patients. The presence and severity of both IJ vein caliber changes and non-IJ collaterals were graded by using a 4-point scale by 2 radiologists in an independent and blinded manner. RESULTS: Both studies frequently showed venous abnormalities, most commonly IJ flattening at the C1 level and in the lower neck. There was moderate-to-good agreement between the modalities ( (cid:1) (cid:1) 0.55; 95% CI, 0.45%–0.65%). For collaterals, agreement was only fair ( (cid:1) (cid:1) 0.30; 95% CI, 0.09%– 0.50%). The prevalence of IJ segments graded mild or worse on CV was 54%. If CV was considered a standard, the sensitivity and specificity of MRV was 0.79 (0.71–0.86) and 0.76 (0.67–0.83), respectively. Degree of stenosis was related to the severity of collaterals for CV but not for MRV. CONCLUSIONS: IJ caliber changes were seen in characteristic locations on both MRV and CV in MS patients. Agreement between modalities was higher for stenosis than for collaterals. If CV is considered a standard, MRV performance is good but may require additional improvement before MRV can be used for screening.


Women are less susceptible than men to cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis as long as their blood estrogen levels are elevated. Valverde et al. show that estrogens can directly bind to a subunit of the maxi-K channel. These calcium-regulated potassium channels are key regulators of vascular smooth muscle cells, which constrict arteries and raise blood pressure. This acute estrogen effect does not require genome activation or generation of other intracellular signals. Valverde, M.A., Rojas, P., Amigo, J., Cosmelli, D., Orio, P., Bahamonde, M.I., Mann, G.E., Vergara, C., Latorre, R. (1999) Acute activation of maxi-K channels (hSlo) by estradiol binding to the β subunit. Science 285: 1929-1931. [Abstract] [Full Text]


Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of large-scale JP-4 pool fires with pool diameters of d = 2 m, 8 m, 16 m, 20 m and 25 m in a calm condition, as well as with pool diameters of d = 2 m, 20 m and 25 m under cross-wind conditions with wind velocities in a range of 0.7 m/s < uw < 16 m/s are performed. CFD prediction of emission temperatures T, surface emissive power (SEP) and irradiances E(Δy/d) at relative distances Δy/d in horizontal direction from the pool rim is carried out.
Also, for the theoretical understanding of large pool fires, the time dependent flame temperatures are of great interest.
CFD predicted vertical temperature profiles for different relative radial distances y/d = 0, y/d = 0.05 and y/d = 0.1 show that the absolute maximum flame temperatures are away (y/d = 0.05) from the flame axis and depend on d: 1300 K (d = 2 m), 1250 K (d = 8 m), 1230 K (d = 16 m), 1200 K (d = 25 m) which agree well with the measured temperatures. CFD predicted radial temperature profiles dependent on x/d are in agreement with measurements. For pool fire with d = 25 m, at x/d = 0.125 bimodal profiles are found, while for x/d = 0.25 unimodal temperature profiles exist.
The CFD simulation of the "derived" quantity SEP requires a definition of the flame surface. The present work presents three different ways to predict SEPCFD. The first way is the determination of isosurfaces of constant temperature which is defined as the flame surface. The second way considers that the flame surface results from the integration of many parallel two-dimensional distributions of incident radiation G(x, y) along the z-axis perpendicular to the xy-plane. In the third way a virtual wide-angle radiometer is defined at the pool rim and the irradiance E(Δy/d) as a function of Δy/d is simulated. To simulate the SEP, more exactly, the temperature dependent effective absorption coefficient of the dissipative structures (reaction zones, hot spots and soot parcels) and air as a four-step discontinuity function is developed.
CFD predicted values of JP-4 pool fires, obtained by the third way, are: 105 kW/m² (d = 2 m), 65 kW/m² (d = 8 m), 45 kW/m² (d = 16 m) and 35 kW/m² (d = 25 m). The SEPCFD value for d = 2 m under predicts the SEPexp by a factor of 0.8 whereas a good agreement is found between SEPCFD(d) and SEPexp(d) for d = 8 m, 16 m and 25 m. Based on the first way the SEPCFD values agree well with the measured SEPexp values if the flame surface temperature of 1100 K is used for d = 2 m, 500 K for d = 8 m and 400 K for d = 16 m and 25 m.
Instantaneous h(T), h(SEP) and time averaged histograms, lead to probability density functions of the emission surface temperatures (flame temperatures) pdf(T)and the surface emissive power pdf(SEP), determined by the second way. For example, from the predicted pdf(TCFD) and pdf(SEPCFD) for d = 16 m temperature and SEP are in the intervals of 648 K < TCFD < 1100 K and 10 kW/m² < SEPCFD < 80 kW/m². The measured values are in the intervals 633 K < Texp < 1200 K and 9 kW/m² < SEPexp < 114 kW/m². The CFD predicted functions pdf(T), pdf(SEP) are consistent with the measured pdfs.
CFD predicted time averaged irradiances E(Δy/d, d) under predicts the measured Eexp(Δy/d) at the pool rim Δy/d = 0 for d = 2 m by a factor of 0.8 and over predicts Eexp(Δy/d) up to the factor of 1.6 at Δy/d = 0.5 whereas for d = 8 m, 16 m and 25 m the irradiances ECFD(Δy/d) agree well with the measured Eexp(Δy/d). For example, Eexp(Δy/d) as a function of d at Δy/d = 0.5 the following values are found: 28 kW/m² (d = 2 m), 18 kW/m² (d = 8 m) and 5 kW/m² (d = 25 m).
The wind influence on large pool fire is a complex phenomenon. CFD simulation shows that the wind influences the flame length, flame tilt, flame drag, the flame temperatures T, the SEP and the irradiances E. With increasing wind velocity uw from 4.5 m/s to 10 m/s SEPCFD and ECFD(Δy/d) at the pool rim increase downwind by a factor of about 2 – 6 for d = 2 m and by a factor of about 2 – 7 for d = 20 m. In both cases ECFD(Δy/d) do not increase if uw > 10 m/s as it is found in experiments. In the upper section of the flames, depending on the flame tilt and drag, a decrease of flame temperature of several hundreds K is found.
With increasing wind velocity uw > 2.3 m/s the predicted flame tilt from the vertical becomes significant. The CFD results show that two counter rotating vortices at the leeward side of the fire are formed at the minimum uw = 1.4 m/s as observed in experiments. The predicted flame tilt and drag for d = 20 m begins from 20° and 1.1 at uw = 1.4 m/s and ends with 80° and 2.5 at uw = 16 m/s which agree with the experimental data. In a case of d = 2 m the flame tilt and drag reach values of 60° and 2.5 for uw = 4.5 m/s and 80° and 2.8 for uw = 16 m/s as in the experiments.
Flame temperatures T, surface emissive power SEP, irradiances E and the wind influence on large pool fires were at the first time predicted with CFD simulations. The CFD predictions are generally in good agreement with the measured values.
The CFD simulations allow (for future), the estimation of wind effects and also the important influence of multiple fires on the hazard potential.
The present work has, also shown that the hazard potential of large pool fires with CFD simulations of the thermal radiation can be estimated much better than before.


We present a new paradigm for planning by learning, where the planner is given a model of the world and a small set of states of interest, but no indication of optimal actions in these states. The additional information can help focus the planner on regions of the state space that are of interest and lead to improved performance. We demonstrate this idea by introducing novel model-checking reduction operations for First Order Decision Diagrams (FODD), a representation that has been used to implement decision-theoretic planning with Relational Markov Decision Processes (RMDP). Intuitively, these reductions modify the construction of the value function by removing any complex specifications that are irrelevant to the set of training examples, thereby focusing on the region of interest. We show that such training examples can be constructed on the fly from a description of the planning problem thus we can bootstrap to get a self-taught planning system. Additionally, we provide a new heuristic to embed universal and conjunctive goals within the framework of RMDP planners, expanding the scope and applicability of such systems. We show that these ideas lead to significant improvements in performance in terms of both speed and coverage of the planner, yielding state of the art planning performance on problems from the International Planning Competition.


The widespread occurrence of epidote minerals in metamorphic and igneous rocks as well as in many ore deposit types makes it a promising candidate for fluid inclusion studies. Apart from high- to very high-temperature and low- to intermediate-pressure conditions, epidote minerals are stable over a wide range of pressure and temperature in the continental and oceanic crust (e.g., Poli and Schmidt 1998). Yet fluid inclusion studies on epidote minerals are surprisingly scarce, even in fluid-saturated environments like certain vein-type deposits or hydrothermal-volcanic vugs and druses. For example, epidote minerals are not mentioned in the subject index of Roedder's (1984) outstanding summary and review of fluid inclusion studies and occurrences, which lists more than sixty different host minerals for fluid inclusions. Nonetheless, more recent studies showed fluid inclusions in epidote minerals to be the only direct witness of the physiochemical and compositional fluid evolution during certain geodynamic processes mainly found in fossil geothermal systems, ore deposits and high-pressure to ultra-high pressure rocks.

The aim of this review is to outline and summarize some aspects and interpretations of geodynamic processes, which are based on temperature ( T ), pressure ( P ), molar volume ( V ) and composition ( X ) data from fluid inclusions in epidote minerals as well as associated host minerals from various geological environments.

The review starts with a chapter on some typical mixed volatile solid-fluid equilibria involving epidote minerals, which are relevant for the here discussed environments. This is followed by a short introduction into the basic concepts of fluid inclusion research and the role of epidote minerals. The next section covers fluid inclusion studies on epidote minerals from active and fossil geothermal systems as well as low-grade metamorphic rocks and constraints on the P - T - X properties of the fluids present in these systems. This is followed by a short introduction …


BACKGROUND
Pre- and postoperative evaluation of the pediatric patient with a cerebrovascular malformation can be cumbersome. This may be due to several factors, including age and ability to verbalize. Functional evaluation scales have been devised, yet application to a retrospective study, where information can be limited, may not be possible. Simpler scales, serving the purpose of functional description and categorization would be beneficial in these cases.

METHODS
Between December 1997 and December 2003, 24 patients between the ages of 4 months to 17 years old underwent endovascular treatment for cerebrovascular lesions at our institution. The majority of the arteriovenous malformation cases underwent further radiosurgical treatment. Mean follow-up period from the time of the last endovascular or radiosurgical intervention was 22 months. A pediatric modification of the Rankin Disability Scale was used for evaluation of pre-procedural and post-procedural functional status.

RESULTS
Combined embolization/radiosurgical approach had 4% mortality and 4% morbidity rates. This combined technique achieved a 46% cure in a variety of pediatric vascular anomalies. Overall improvement in disability using the pediatric modification of the Rankin Scale was noted for all of the cases, and a tendency for improvement was noted in the arteriovenous malformation subgroup though not statistically significant, p = 0.0547.

CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that a pediatric modification of the Rankin Disability Scale can be used for functional evaluation in this population. Although other functional evaluation scales are available and validated, using a Rankin Disability Scale modification is straightforward, and it can provide functional categorization in retrospective studies.


In short-term portfolio optimization (SPO), some financial characteristics like the expected return and the true covariance might be dynamic. Then there are only a small window size w of observations that are sufficiently close to the current moment and reliable to make estimations. w is usually much smaller than the number of assets d , which leads to a typical undersampled problem. Worse still, the asset price relatives are not likely subject to any proper distributions. These facts violate the statistical assumptions of the traditional covariance estimates and invalidate their statistical efficiency and consistency in risk measurement. In this paper, we propose to reconsider the function of covariance estimates in the perspective of operators, and establish a rank-one covariance estimate in the principal rank-one tangent space at the observation matrix. Moreover, we propose a loss control scheme with this estimate, which effectively catches the instantaneous risk structure and avoids extreme losses. We conduct extensive experiments on 7 real-world benchmark daily or monthly data sets with stocks, funds and portfolios from diverse regional markets to show that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art performance in comprehensive downside risk metrics and gains good investing incomes as well. It offers a novel perspective of rank-related approaches for undersampled estimations in SPO.


Volcanic mountains in the East African Rift (e.g. Mt. Kenya, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Elgon) are some of the most productive agricultural regions, often dominated by coffee and banana cultivation. Consequently, these regions suffer from a high and increasing population density with a declining soil fertility status imposing pressure on the available land, which in turn results in encroaching into the national forests. This study documents the soil fertility constraints along the slopes of Mt. Elgon and explores its corresponding gradients in plant nutritional status. This research links the topography of Mt. Elgon to the prevailing soil types and their current fertility status. It reveals important relations and gradients between soil fertility parameters and its corresponding environment along the slope. Soil pH, soil available P and exchangeable K, Ca and Mg are significantly decreasing with elevation. Thereby, gradients and constraints in macroand micronutrient uptake by coffee and banana are revealed along the toposequence and different altitude-specific nutrient limitations are determined for both crops. K, Mn and Si uptake in both crops is decreasing with elevation along the slope, while the Mo and Ni uptake in both crops is increasing. With increasing elevation, B uptake is only decreasing in coffee and P uptake is only decreasing in banana. In addition, the antagonistic interaction between K and Mg limits the Mg uptake of both crops in the lower areas, while in the high region the Mg uptake is simply limited by low soil availability. It follows that a general fertilizer recommendation cannot be made in these regions and that the soil fertility problems along these slopes should be specifically addressed and appropriately managed according to the local requirements. ã 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).


As part of its 2014 annual work plan, the Office of Evaluation and Oversight
(OVE) is preparing the Country Program Evaluation (CPE) with Honduras for the period 2011-2014. This approach paper defines the evaluation's scope. This CPE therefore aims to analyze the Bank's relationship with the country, taking an independent and comprehensive view, particularly the program's relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability, including both financial and nonfinancial products offered by the Bank during the period under analysis. This evaluation is intended as an input to the new country strategy document being prepared by the Bank. This CPE is the fourth OVE evaluation of the Bank's program with Honduras. Past evaluations covered the periods 1990-2000 (document RE-263), 2001-2006 (document RE-328), and 2007-2010 (document RE-390). This CPE covers the Bank's program for the period 2011-2014.


During the last fifteen years, numerous peer-reviewed journals published articles about the incredible properties of so-called release-active "drugs" (RADs).1–24 It is claimed that these "drugs" are effective against tick-borne encephalitis, influenza, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, meningococcal meningitis, herpes, HIV, and other viral and bacterial infections, diabetes, erectile dysfunction, sleep disorders, obesity, chronic inflammatory joint diseases, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, chronic cerebral ischemia, benign prostatic hypertrophy, alcoholism, allergies, and many other health problems.18 25 In addition, it was publicly announced that they would provide new opportunities to overcome antibiotic resistance and significantly improve the prospects for the treatment of certain forms of cerebral palsy, schizophrenia, and stroke.26 Surprisingly, these innovative "drugs" contain no active molecules and can be considered a new brand of homeopathy. This indicates one of two possibilities: either we are at the brink of a revolution in medicine or that something went wrong with research published in numerous academic journals. We argue that the latter explanation is more likely and that this conclusion has severe implications for the scientific and healthcare enterprises.

Release-active 'drugs' (RADs)1–24 are manufactured by a single Russian company called OOO 'NPF 'Materia Medica Holding' (MMH).25 26 According to the original patent by its founder and CEO Epstein et al ,27 these preparations consist of ' activated forms of ultra-low doses of antibodies conventionally designated as potentiated (dynamised) antibodies (by analogy with the terminology used in homeopathic literature) for treatment of various pathological syndromes '. The problem is that typical dilutions of the active ingredient are so high (from 1:1024 to 1:101991) that no molecules of the initial antibodies should be present in the 'drug' itself. The inventors claim that although the 'drugs' activity ' originates from the initial substance, it does not depend on its negligible …


In a nation like India which consists of 655 million women, 48% of them are not aware of the proper usage of a sanitary napkin. Disposal of used sanitary pads is a major challenge across India. This study investigates how women manage menstrual waste and the amount of sanitary waste that ends up into landfill. Lack of awareness and immense taboo around menstruation in India adds up to the issues of proper sanitary waste management. This infectious waste, if not handled properly, would pose an immense threat to the oceans, land, and human health. So far while importance was given only to promoting the usage of sanitary napkins, it is equally important that the problems caused by dumping sanitary waste in landfills be addressed. Considering the various hazards caused by this widely accepted yet problematic disposal method, it is necessary to come up with a solution that is sustainable on every front. To avoid proliferation of the problem, a decentralized solution to handle the menstrual waste at its generation point is vital. With this study, we try to conclude best practices to be observed and put forth a solution that is more economical, viable and rational than landfill dumping. Keywords: Menstrual waste, Landfills, Land and water pollution, Health of waste pickers, Decentralized solution


OBJECTIVE We investigated sex and racial differences in insulin sensitivity, β-cell function, and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and the associations with selected phenotypic characteristics. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This is a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 3,108 GRADE (Glycemia Reduction Approaches in Diabetes: A Comparative Effectiveness Study) participants. All had type 2 diabetes diagnosed <10 years earlier and were on metformin monotherapy. Insulin sensitivity and β-cell function were evaluated using the HOMA of insulin sensitivity and estimates from oral glucose tolerance tests, including the Matsuda Index, insulinogenic index, C-peptide index, and oral disposition index (DI). RESULTS The cohort was 56.6 ± 10 years of age (mean ± SD), 63.8% male, with BMI 34.2 ± 6.7 kg/m2, HbA1c 7.5 ± 0.5%, and type 2 diabetes duration 4.0 ± 2.8 years. Women had higher DI than men but similar insulin sensitivity. DI was the highest in Black/African Americans, followed by American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asians, and Whites in descending order. Compared with Whites, American Indians/Alaska Natives had significantly higher HbA1c, but Black/African Americans and Asians had lower HbA1c. However, when adjusted for glucose levels, Black/African Americans had higher HbA1c than Whites. Insulin sensitivity correlated inversely with BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, triglyceride-to-HDL-cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-C), and the presence of metabolic syndrome, whereas DI was associated directly with age and inversely with BMI, HbA1c, and TG/HDL-C. CONCLUSIONS In the GRADE cohort, β-cell function differed by sex and race and was associated with the concurrent level of HbA1c. HbA1c also differed among the races, but not by sex. Age, BMI, and TG/HDL-C were associated with multiple measures of β-cell function and insulin sensitivity.


The University of Wollongong Graduate School of Medicine provides a 4 year graduate entry medical programme aimed at producing competent graduates with a vocation to serve in rural regional and remote Australia. This innovative programme includes a longitudinal integrated clinical placement for a full academic year in the third phase of the course. All students will live, learn and work in a rural regional or remote community and engage with all health services including primary care, hospitals and extended services. This initiative aims to extend the concept of community based health education and continuity of care as a core curriculum process.


Wastewater recycling for the purpose of public open space irrigation in regional Western Australia (WA) has become quite common. New Department of Health (DoH) guidelines governing water recycling in WA have recently been published. One of the main aims of this project is to help the Water Corporation's Wastewater Process Expertise Group (PEG) with the assessment of their recycling schemes. Eight schemes were assessed, for various parameters. A desktop assessment was initially conducted before a field visit and onsite assessment. The desktop assessment focused on Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) effluent quality and the presence of past approvals and a recycled water supply agreement. The onsite assessment's main components were the storage areas, further treatment systems and the irrigation areas. The onsite assessment found that most schemes were generally non-compliant in a minor way, such as insufficient signage. However, serious irrigation management issues and inappropriate end-use sites were found in Northam. The desktop assessment found that two sites are currently operating without DoH approval, Northam and Wagin and also that there are issues with WWTP effluent quality in Kojonup and Mundaring. Suitable recommendations to overcome these issues were made.

 Another main aim was in investigating alternatives for WWTP capital expansion to achieve wastewater treatment capacity increase or inflow reduction for selected sites. A Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) was performed to select the most suitable option from WWTP expansions works, residential greywater reuse and septic tanks. Water efficiency measures were also considered in the analysis but not considered further, as they were not seen as a suitable engineering measure. Residential greywater reuse was found to be the most preferred option and two systems were designed; an R20+ system for higher density town centre lots and a Rural Lifestyle system for larger plots. The R20+ system used a cluster-scale Nubian advanced greywater treatment system and the greywater can then be used indoors, for irrigation and stored over winter when not required. The Rural Lifestyle system used diversion devices for irrigation with untreated greywater. The R20+ system can successfully reduce inflows to a WWTP considerably and is also financially viable. However, the Rural Lifestyle system was found to achieve neither of these objectives. Recommendations were made for further study on the R20+ system and to integrate it into planning in the selected sites.


This article assesses the long-term economic and climatic effects of introducing price caps and price floors in hypothetical global climate change mitigation policy. Based on emission trends, abatement costs and equilibrium climate sensitivity from IPCC and IEA reports, this quantitative analysis confirms that price caps could significantly reduce economic uncertainty. This uncertainty stems primarily from unpredictable economic growth and energy prices, and ultimately unabated emission trends. In addition, the development of abatement technologies is uncertain. Furthermore, this analysis shows that rigid targets may entail greater economic risks with little or no comparative advantage for the climate. More ambitious emission objectives, combined with price caps and price floors, could still entail significantly lower expected costs while driving similar, or even slightly better, climatic outcomes in probabilistic terms.


A confi gurational theory of architecture (CTA) from a situated observer's viewpoint (SOV) is discussed. It includes the levels of description-proper, representation, and interpretation. It takes a bottom-up approach because a situated observer, who is on the ground with a building, typically builds her understanding of the building using immediately available elements, called perceptual primitives. Evidence from geometry, psychology/cognition, and spatial reasoning suggests that the level of description-proper of a CTA from a SOV must include unambiguously defi ned perceptual primitives and their perceivable elementary topological and projective relations. Subsequently, in the levels of representation and interpretation any complex relational properties of buildings must be constructed and their meanings must be explained using these perceptual primitives. Early space syntax (SS), with its foundations defi ned using such perceptual primitives as convex space and axial lines, helps capture the structure of visual experience of buildings but has limitations regarding a CTA from a SOV. More recently, SS theorists have revised the foundations of SS using much simpler perceptual primitives in an attempt to integrate the apparently disparate techniques of SS into a coherent mathematical system. As a result, they have eliminated many limitations of early SS regarding a CTA from a SOV. However, in order to become a CTA from a SOV, SS will still need to explain the importance of these newly defi ned perceptual primitives, and provide a framework for confi gurational studies using the mathematical system developed based on these primitives.


Dairy products are beneficial to human health, especially for formula-fed newborns. According to the regulation of FDA and China national food safety standard, food additives such as benzoic acid, sorbic acid, natamycin, lysozyme, saccharin sodium, and aspartame are not permitted to be added to milk powder. So, the establishment of accurate and convenient methods for the analysis of these food additives in milk powder is critical to people's health. For the reason of the complex matrix of infant milk powders, we compared six sample pretreatment methods (liquid-liquid extraction, organic precipitation, heavy precipitation, and three different solid-phase extraction (SPE) methods (C18, HLB, MAX)) from recovery, easy operation, time cost, and organic solvent usage aspects. Finally, Poly-Sery HLB cartridge was confirmed as the most appropriate material for its high recovery and time cost merits. We are also introducing two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2DLC) method for the simultaneous determination of five major proteins and seven food additives in milk powders. Optimization of switching mode, choice of columns, mobile phase, and flow speed was discussed. We also compared limit of detection (LOD), recovery, and sample treatment with the results of high-perfor-mance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results show that 2DLC is simpler, faster, and more accurate than the HPLC method.


I am in complete agreement with the suggestion by Matthew Falagas [1] that a unique author identification number (UAIN) would represent a major improvement for the use of databases of scientific publications. In this regard, I perceive that he has not mentioned several other important advantages that a UAIN system would provide, and that are worth pointing to:

1. When looking up someone's publications, the fact that the last name of a given person can vary from one paper to another can be as much of a problem as that of multiple authors with the same name. For example, these variations include women who change their last name after getting married (or divorced), middle initials that are sometimes included or omitted, translations from non-Roman alphabets that result in variable spellings, and people with last names composed of several terms that can sometimes appear in databases as split or truncated.

2. Contrarily to M. Falagas, I do not see any good reason why a UAIN system could not be retroactive. It is clearly in every scientist's interest to facilitate the job of other people who want to look up their work. I therefore believe that authors could be asked to register for a UAIN, and to validate their list of publications themselves, retroactively. Even for the most productive scientists, this would take only a few minutes, and the fact that they had registered for a UAIN allowing users to trace their whole list of publications could then be indicated in the display of search results from the various bibliographic databases. I also do not see any reason for "hiding" this UAIN. I suggest that it could be designed to be quite simple to remember and to communicate to others, for example: the first four or five letters of the last name followed by the initial of the first name followed by the year of first scientific publication followed by an incremental number depending on order of registration (my UAIN would be JOLY-E-89-01). It would therefore be something quite comparable in length and spirit to a car's licence plate and, like UK licence plates, it would provide an interesting clue regarding the seniority of its bearer.

3. This type of UAIN would therefore provide a very simple way to assess a person's productivity. It would also provide a very useful means to assess the actual impact of their work in terms of citations, by discriminating between self-citation and citations by others.

Today, most people are evaluated via the impact factor of the journals in which they have managed to publish their work, and not by the actual impact of the papers themselves. Although most scientists acknowledge that this is an extremely crude and unfair way of assessing the quality of someone's production, the impact factor lives on. By providing the simple means to track someone's bibliographic record and thus facilitate the evaluation of their productivity, I believe that the introduction of a UAIN system will not only help the scientific community to exploit bibliographic databases more efficiently, but also represent a major step towards getting rid of the despotic domination of the dreaded impact factors of journals as a means to evaluate the quality of scientific papers.


Osteoporosis is a condition that results from substantially weakened bone, increasing an individual's risk of fracture. Post-menopausal osteoporosis is the most common form of the condition, affecting 30% of post-menopausal women over the age of 50. Following the menopause, female oestrogen levels decline and this perturbs bone homeostasis by promoting an environment that is biased towards bone erosion. Osteoclasts are the cells responsible for eroding bone and are normally inhibited by oestrogen. However, the decline in oestrogen production results in increased osteoclast differentiation and activity. This rapidly decreases the bone mineral density and results in fracture-prone bone. Osteoclasts are derived from mononuclear myeloid progenitors found in the blood and bone marrow, which fuse to form large multinucleated cells that reside in the bone cavity. These progenitor cells are also responsible for replenishing monocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells. One class of receptors present on the surface of these cells, which are capable of dictating a cells function, are Fcγ receptors and modulation of Fcγ receptors has been shown to inhibit the differentiation of human monocytes to osteoclasts.

This thesis investigates Fcγ receptor modulation on murine osteoclastogenesis and in order to stimulate Fcγ receptors, both IgG and IgG complexes were used. IgG complexes were generated using Staphylococcus aureus Protein A (SpA) in combination with IgG to form SpA-IgG complexes (SIC). We show that IgG and SIC are capable of engaging with Fcγ receptors resulting in the inhibition of osteoclast differentiation. Furthermore, both IgG and SIC inhibit the transcription of mRNA essential for the fusion of progenitors and enzymes for the erosion of bone matrix. Therefore, IgG and SIC are capable of inhibiting murine osteoclastogenesis.

The murine model of osteoporosis was used to further investigate the ability of SIC to inhibit murine osteoclast differentiation. Previous studies have shown that when SpA is administered in vivo it is capable of binding circulating IgG to form SIC. We used this property to test the ability of SpA to bind to the surface of monocytes. SpA was found to bind with highest affinity to blood Ly6Chigh monocytes, which are known to differentiate in vitro to OCs. IgG and SIC were also able to inhibit the in vitro osteoclastogenesis of Ly6Chigh monocytes. It was hypothesised that SpA would co-opt IgG and inhibit the in vivo differentiation of progenitors to osteoclasts in the ovariectomy model of osteoporosis. To generate this animal model the ovaries were removed from the mice in order to simulate the menopause and induce bone loss. To assess the percentage of bone present after ovariectomy, we used micro-computer tomography and discovered that SpA was unable to prevent bone loss associated with ovariectomy. Therefore, SpA can bind to the surface of osteoclast progenitors but is unable to inhibit bone loss in the model of osteoporosis.
In addition to studying the role of Fcγ receptor modulation of osteoclastogenesis, the role of Bcl-3 (a negative regulator of NF-κB) in osteoclast differentiation and bone remodelling was also investigated. NF-κB is an essential signalling molecule and transcription factor involved in osteoclast differentiation. Previous research has shown that in the absence of Bcl-3 (Bcl-3-/-) aberrant cytokine responses to LPS and TNF- occur. Therefore, RANKL stimulation of WT and Bcl-3-/- osteoclast precursors was done to determine whether Bcl 3 /- animals responded aberrantly to RANKL. WT and Bcl-3-/- animals were able to generate in vitro osteoclasts, which were phenotypically and transcriptionally similar. However, comparison of in vivo osteoclast progenitors revealed that Bcl-3-/- animals had reduced CD115+ osteoclast progenitors compared to WT animals. Examination of the trabecular bone present in the proximal tibia revealed that Bcl-3-/- animals had a higher percentage of bone present that WT controls. Therefore, Bcl-3 does not effect in vitro osteoclast differentiation but further work needs to be done to understand the role of Bcl 3 in bone remodelling.

This thesis aimed to investigate whether SpA-IgG complexes or Bcl-3 could represent a novel avenue of therapeutic intervention in osteoporotic disease. In summation, SpA is able to form IgG complexes that can inhibit the differentiation of OCs in vitro; however, treatment of osteoporotic animals with SpA was unable to halt bone loss. This suggests that SpA-IgG complexes are able to modulate Fcγ receptors in vitro and skew progenitors from differentiation into osteoclasts but cannot overcome the prevailing pro-osteoclastogenic environment that results from ovariectomy. The presence of osteoclast progenitors was also shown to be partially dependent on Bcl-3 and as such Bcl-3 may be a novel target for therapeutic agents to target osteoclast progenitors in diseases like osteoporosis. However, the role of Bcl-3 in bone remodelling requires further investigation.


The growth of the processes of dissociated hippocampal neurons from 18‐ to 20‐day‐old rat fetuses has been studied in vitro using a method that permits cells to be maintained at relatively low plating densities for periods up to three weeks (Banker and Cowan, '77). Most of the cells are spherical or ovoid when they first attach to the substratum (either polylysine or collagen) but within 24 to 48 hours they begin to put out processes, and by the end of the first week in culture a significant proportion (∼45%) come to resemble normal pyramidal cells with a more‐or‐less triangular shaped soma, a single dominant dendrite‐like process emerging from the apex of the soma, and several "basal dendrites" arising from the opposite pole of the cell. Comparisons of the lengths of these dendrite‐like processes with those of hippocampal cells in the brains of animals sacrificed on the fourth post‐natal day and impregnated by a variant of the Golgi‐Cox method, indicate that in some cases the rate of process formation in vitro approximates that in vivo and that the general form of the neurons is remarkably like that of immature pyramidal cells. After a week in culture a second type of process can be recognized. These tend to be finer than those we have identified as dendrites; they are relatively uniform in diameter, frequently give off branches at right angles, and in the electron microscope can be seen to form synapses upon the larger processes and cell somata. These axon‐like processes differ from the axons of normal pyramidal cells in two important respects: (i) most commonly they arise from one of the dendritic processes, including, on occasion, the putative "apical" dendrites, and only rarely from the base of the perikaryon; (ii) there may be two or more such processes from a single cell. The thicker, tapering processes can be shown (after incubation in 3H‐uridine) to contain large amounts of RNA; newly‐synthesized RNA does not extend into the finer, axon‐like processes.


The pine processionary moths Thaumetopoea pityocampa and T. Wilkinsoni are among the most important Mediterranean pine defoliators. Although recent studies suggest that the two species may coexist in Turkey, the relevant literature lacks precise information on the occurrence and exact distribution of the two species in this country. In particular, whether the two sister taxa form a contact zone is still unknown. In this study, we aimed to reveal the limits of the ranges of the two species in Turkey by using nuclear (ITS-1, photolyase) and mitochondrial markers (COI). Multilocus molecular characterization of the two species showed for the first time that the two species co-occur in some of the sampling sites. In addition, we determined clear signatures of mitochondrial introgression between the two species, and therefore the existence of a possible hybrid zone within Turkey. These results bring up interesting questions relating to the evolution of the identified hybrid zone.


The magnetic anisotropy of two pentacoordinate trigonal bipyramidal (C3v symmetry) Co(II) complexes, [Co(Me6tren)Cl]ClO4 (1) and [Co(Me6tren)Br]Br (2), was investigated and analysed by magnetic studies, high field multifrequency electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and ab initio calculations. Negative D parameters expressing an Ising-type anisotropy (easy axis of magnetization) were found experimentally for both complexes. Calculations led to D values very close to the experimental ones, which allows a robust rationalisation of the magnetic anisotropy in these complexes. The wavefunctions of the ground and the first four excited states reveal that they are strongly multideterminantal i.e. linear combinations of several determinants. The most important contribution to the spin orbit coupling between the ground and lowest excited states stabilizes the largest MS = ±3/2 components of the S = 3/2 state and therefore brings a large negative contribution to D. The analysis of the difference between the magnitudes of the anisotropy of the two complexes led to the conclusion that a large Ising anisotropy is preferred when weak σ-donating ligands are in the equatorial plane and strong π-donating ones are in axial positions; thus providing an efficient tool to chemists to predict the magnetic anisotropy in these types of complexes. The investigation of the magnetic behaviour of a single crystal of 1 by micro-SQUID shows, as expected, the presence of an easy axis of magnetization. The magnetic behaviour is consistent with quantum tunnelling of the magnetization mediated by intermolecular three-dimensional antiferromagnetic exchange interactions. Upon dilution of the Co(II) molecules in the isostructural Zn(II) compound, a blocking of the magnetization below 2 K is demonstrated; it results in an opening of the magnetization hysteresis loop in zero applied magnetic field.


The first commercial aquaponics companies are starting up in Europe. The main focus has been on solving technology issues and optimizing production. However, increasing attention is now being paid to certification and regulations linked to aquaponics, as well as the marketing of products and services. The paper presents the results of a study whose main aim was to estimate consumers' knowledge about aquaponics and their acceptance of aquaponics products in different European regions. An on-line questionnaire was administered to the general public through the aquaponics network of Food and Agriculture COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action FA1305 "The EU Aquaponics Hub—Realising Sustainable Integrated Fish and Vegetable Production for the EU" in 16 European countries. The methodology includes univariate and multivariate statistical techniques. The results show that, on average, attitudes towards aquaponics were positive, showing no significant differences between those who already knew about aquaponics and those who only heard about it through the survey. More than 50% of respondents had never heard of aquaponics, whilst more than 70% had already heard of hydroponics. No more than 17% of respondents were willing to pay more for aquaponically produced products and no more than 40% more when compared to the price of products from conventional farming. The results confirm three different clusters of potential consumers of aquaponics products. They also suggest an urgent need for implementing integrated and holistic approaches involving all stakeholders in aquaponics, in order to define a marketing plan and efficient communication strategies. This COST action, other projects and public decision makers must invest in educating consumers about aquaponics through the organization of guided tours, thematic workshops and tastings of aquaponics products in order to raise their awareness about this new technology. It is absolutely urgent that public decision makers, in cooperation with aquaponics stakeholders, address the main institutional constraints, namely the introduction of aquaponics as an economic activity and the organic certification of aquaponics products.


Glaciers are melting rapidly. The concurrent export of microbial assemblages alongside glacial meltwater is expected to impact the ecology of adjoining ecosystems. Currently the source of exported assemblages is poorly understood, yet this information may be critical for understanding how current and future glacial melt seasons may influence downstream environments. We report on the connectivity and temporal variability of microbiota sampled from supraglacial, subglacial and periglacial habitats and water bodies within a glacial catchment. Sampled assemblages showed evidence of being biologically connected through hydrological flow-paths, leading to a meltwater system that accumulates prokaryotic biota as it travels downstream. Temporal changes in the connected assemblages were similarly observed. Snow assemblages changed markedly throughout the sample period, likely reflecting changes in the surrounding environment. Changes in supraglacial meltwater assemblages reflected the transition of the glacial surface from snow-covered to bare-ice. Marked snowmelt across the surrounding periglacial environment resulted in the flushing of soil assemblages into the riverine system. In contrast, surface ice within the ablation zone and subglacial meltwaters remained relatively stable throughout the sample period. Our results are indicative that changes in snow and ice melt across glacial environments will influence the abundance and diversity of microbial assemblages transported downstream. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements fro the degree M.A. Curationis in Nursing Science Department at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1997.


Purpose : The aim of this study is to compare the differences in dose calculation using the algorithms without and with heterogeneity correction on the treatment planning system. Materials and Methods : 25 patients with lung cancer and 11 patients with breast cancer were treated with three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT). For each patient, 2 treatment plans were generated using exactly the same beam configuration. In plan 1, the dose distribution was calculated using the Fast photon Effective algorithms. In plan 2, the dose was calculated using the Fast photon algorithms . Both of plans were generated by Prowess panther 4.6 (Prowess, Chico, CA) . Results: The differences in dose evaluation using heterogeneity correction and inheterogeneity correction was 1.5-2.9% for patients with lung cancer, 2.1-3.4% for patients with breast cancer. Conclusions: The results indicated that heterogeneity correction is an important dose computation of 3D-CRT plans.


High levels of sex hormones may lower immunocompetence, making it difficult for a person's body to fight off infections. Facial characteristics that reveal high levels of sex hormones might signal the presence of a robust immune system. In men, high testosterone levels are associated with prominent cheekbones, wide jaw, and long chin. In women, high estrogen levels are associated with prominent cheekbones, narrow jaw, and short chin. We examined whether facial features associated with immunocompetence positively covary with health. Participants from 2 groups of university students (67 women, 34 men, in total) completed daily measures of psychological, emotional, and physical health over a one-month period. Physiological fitness was assessed via cardiac recovery time following exercise. A facial photograph of each participant was rated along several personality dimensions, activity level, and attractiveness. Using the photographs, we measured participants' jaw width, chin length, and cheekbone prominence. Results provide unimpressive evidence for the hypotheses that (1) women displaying an estrogenized face and (2) men displaying a testosteronized face are physiologically, psychologically, and emotionally healthier. Discussion highlights directions for future work on whether facial structural characteristics might communicate information about underlying health.