Nominal price rigidities are analyzed from two different perspectives. From a qualitative point of view - as Kashyap (1995) - we look for coherent signs which confirm the presence of fixed costs of adjustment, and therefore the validity of state-dependent pricing rules. Our data concern a mail order Italian company and confirm that individual prices do not mimic the aggregate price index, as it was already claimed by Kashyap (1995) and Tsiddon (1993) for US and Israeli data. Second, we estimate by ordered probit models the probability to have nominal price adjustments (increase, rigidity or decrease) as a function of last period real price and rivals' price level. Price point strategies are also investigated. We observe a common performance for all brands' prices which supports a (S, s) rule hypothesis.


If the benthic boundary in optically shallow waters is spatially inhomogeneous or sloping, the underwater light field is inherently three‐dimensional (3D). Numerical simulations of 3D underwater radiances were made for environmental conditions observed in shallow Bahamian waters. The simulations show that if the pattern of bottom reflectance for an inhomogeneous but level bottom has a spatial scale much smaller than the bottom area seen by a radiometer, the inhomogeneous bottom can be replaced by a homogeneous bottom whose reflectance is the areaweighted average of the actual bottom reflectances. For large‐scale patterns of bottom reflectance, the 3D light fields near the edges of bottom patches of different reflectances can be predicted from analytical models incorporating the sensor geometry and one‐dimensional (1D) light fields computed for homogeneous bottoms, with errors of order 10% when compared to the exact 3D solutions. The same holds true for uniformly sloping bottoms, whose 3D light fields can be modeled in terms of the 1D light fields computed for level bottoms, with errors of less than 10% for bottom slopes of 20° or less.


The Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is a biologically rich area supporting large standing stocks of krill and top predators (including whales, seals and seabirds). Physical forcing greatly affects productivity, recruitment, survival and distribution of krill in this area. In turn, such interactions are likely to affect the distribution of baleen whales. The Southern Ocean GLOBEC research program aims to explore the relationships and interactions between the environment, krill and predators around Marguerite Bay (WAP) in autumn 2001 and 2002. Bathymetric and environmental variables including acoustic backscattering as an indicator of prey abundance were used to model whale distribution patterns. We used an iterative approach employing (1) classification and regression tree (CART) models to identify oceanographic and ecological variables contributing to variability in humpback Megaptera novaeangliae and minke Balaenoptera acutorstrata whale distribution, and (2) generalized additive models (GAMs) to elucidate functional ecological relationships between these variables and whale distribution. The CART models indicated that the cetacean distribution was tightly coupled with zooplankton acoustic volume backscatter in the upper (25 to 100 m), and middle (100 to 300 m) portions of the water column. Whale distribution was also related to distance from the ice edge and bathymetric slope. The GAMs indicated a persistent, strong, positive relationship between increasing zooplankton volume and whale relative abundance. Furthermore, there was a lower limit for averaged acoustic volume backscatter of zooplankton below which the relationship between whales and prey was not significant. The GAMs also supported an annual relationship between whale distribution, distance from the ice edge and bathymetric slope, suggesting that these are important features for aggregating prey. Our results demonstrate that during the 2 yr study, whales were consistently and predictably associated with the distribution of zooplankton. Thus, humpback and minke whales may be able to locate physical features and oceanographic processes that enhance prey aggregation.


Mucus overproduction in inflammatory and obstructive airway diseases is associated with goblet cell (GC) metaplasia in airways. Although the mechanisms involved in GC metaplasia and mucus hypersecretion are not completely understood, association with oxidative stress and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling has been reported. To explore the mechanisms involved in oxidative stress–induced GC metaplasia, cultures of differentiated normal human bronchial epithelial cells grown at the air–liquid interface were exposed to reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by xanthine/xanthine oxidase. EGFR activation and signaling was assessed by measuring EGF and transforming growth factorrelease and EGFR and MAPK phosphorylation. The GC population was evaluated by confocal microscopy. ROS-induced EGFR activation resulted in GC proliferation and increased MUC5AC gene and protein expression. Signaling was due to pro-EGF processing by tissue kallikrein (TK), which was activated by ROS-induced hyaluronan breakdown. It was inhibited by catalase, a TK inhibitor, and EGF-blocking antibodies. Exposure to recombinant TK mimicked the ROS effects, increasing the expression of MUC5AC and lactoperoxidase. In addition, ROS induced the antiapoptotic factor Bcl-2 in a TK-dependent fashion. In conclusion, ROS-induced GC metaplasia in normal human bronchial epithelial cells is associated with HA depolymerization and EGF processing by TK followed by EGFR signaling, suggesting that increases in TK activity could contribute to GC metaplasia and mucus hypersecretion in diseases such as asthma and chronic bronchitis. The data also suggest that increases in GC population could be sustained by the associated upregulation of Bcl-2 in airway epithelial cells.


This title offers a fascinating, unique history of the Supreme Court as seen from the perspective of "The New York Times". "The New York Times on the Supreme Court", the second volume in the new imprint TimesReference from CQ Press, uses carefully chosen articles from "The Times" to explore the history and influence of the Supreme Court. Author Kenneth Jost provides expert analysis and presents selected news stories, letters to the editor, and Op-Ed essays from the paper to look at the development of the Court and its relationship to the other branches of government and to the states. Later chapters explore key themes - including freedom of ideas, the rights of political participation, equal protection of the law, crime and punishment - and the appropriate major cases, which are accompanied by decision dates, verdicts, and who wrote the majority opinion. "The New York Times on the Supreme Court" is the ideal choice for high school classrooms and media studies courses covering the judicial system and the media's role in American politics.


The archipelagic nation of Solomon Islands in the sw Pacific experienced a debilitating internal conflict between 1998 and 2003. What began as an ethnic conflict evolved into a wider breakdown of law and order that led to the progressive collapse of government, closure of commercial enterprises and threat of national bankruptcy. In mid-2003 the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (ramsi) was mobilised and deployed under the auspices of the Pacific Islands Forum. Led and largely funded by the Australian government, ramsi sought to restore security and stability to the troubled nation through a combination of policing and law enforcement, institutional strengthening with central government agencies and measures aimed at reviving and growing the national economy. Ten years later and the mission is undergoing drawdown and the transition of its development programs into regular bilateral and multilateral aid programs. While ramsi has made a substantial contribution to the restoration of security and stability in the aftermath of conflict, many outstanding challenges remain. These include issues of political economy and how these are impacting on the quality of governance, service delivery and nation-building, as well as longstanding structural issues with the formal economy, set against prevailing patterns of population growth and internal migration. These challenges are examined in the context of Solomon Islands socio-economic characteristics and recent history with a view to assessing the country's prospects for enduring stability in the post-ramsi era.


A maturing literature across the social sciences suggests important impacts of the intergenerational transmission of crime as well as peer effects that determine youth criminal activities. This paper explores these channels by examining gender-specific effects of maternal and paternal incarceration from both own-parents and classmate-parents. This paper also adds to the literature by exploiting across-cohort, within school exposure to peer parent incarceration to enhance causal inference. While the intergenerational correlations of criminal activities are similar by gender (father-son/mother-son), the results suggest that peer parent incarceration transmits effects largely along gender lines, which is suggestive of specific learning mechanisms. Peer maternal incarceration increases adolescent female criminal activities and reduces male crime and the reverse is true for peer paternal incarceration. These effects are strongest for youth reports of selling drugs and engaging in physical violence. In contrast, the effects of peer parental incarceration on other outcomes, such as GPA, do not vary by gender.


Abstract The Islamic Republic of Iran located on the largest transit routes for opiates smuggled in the world and opium is the most common drug of choice in this country. A meta-analysis study was conducted to estimate the opium abuse prevalence for Iranian young people. The meta-analysis was designed according to MOOSE guideline for review of observational studies. Factors related to heterogeneity of prevalence in national level was assessed using meta-regression multivariate model. The PubMed/Medline, ISI/Web of Science, and Scopus/Elsevier databases and reference lists of eligible articles were searched. A total of 52,173 samples were included in analysis (32,116 college students and 20,057 high school students). The pooled prevalence of opium abuse in male, female, and mixed was 6.0% (95% CI = 5.0–7.0%), 2.0% (95% CI = 1.0–2.0%), and 4.0% (95% CI = 3.0–5.0%), respectively. Meta-regression model found that prevalence was significantly higher in older students, and in studies with multistage sampling, and was lower in newer conducted studies. The prevalence of opium abuse in Iranian youth students is higher than for other countries as well as sampling methods, and the level of education and age is in association with variation in prevalence across provinces. Declining prevalence among male students during past 30 years is notable.


This contribution deals with the modelling and analysis of stability problems for thin composite annular plates interacting with elastic heterogeneous subsoil. The object of analysis is an annular plate with a deterministic heterogeneous microstructure and the apparent properties smoothly varying along a radial direction. The aim of contribution is to formulate two macroscopic mathematical models describing stability of this plate. The considerations are based on a tolerance averaging technique. The general results are applied to the analysis of some special stability problems. The obtained results of critical forces with those obtained from finite element method are compared.


Innovative regulatory programs are encouraging firms to police their own regulatory compliance and voluntarily disclose, or confess, the violations they find. Despite the win-win rhetoric surrounding these government voluntary programs, it is not clear why companies would participate and whether the programs themselves do anything to enhance regulatory effectiveness. Tasked with monitoring the legality of its own operations, why would a firm that identifies violations turn itself in to regulators rather than quietly fix the problem? And why would regulators entrust regulated entities to monitor their own compliance and enforce the law against themselves? This paper addresses these questions by investigating the factors that lead organizations to self-disclose violations, the effects of self-policing on regulatory compliance, and the effects of self-disclosing on the relationship between regulators and regulated firms. We investigate these research questions in the context of the US Environmental Protection Agency's Audit Policy.


This paper proposes distributed shared memory cluster architecture with load balancing. The architecture is based on dynamic task scheduling approach for distribution and assignment. It enhances the performance of communication across clusters for data access. The proposed dynamic load balancing model uses the concept of work stealing, which intelligently balances the load among different nodes. The work stealing consistently provides higher system utilization when many jobs are running with varying characteristics. This results in efficient use of the system. The performance analysis shows the proposed architecture to outperform the previously proposed distributed shared memory clusters in terms of scalability and efficiency.


The Web represents a collection of socio-technical activities inter-operating using a set of common protocols and standards. Online banking, web TV, internet shopping, e-government and social networking are all different kinds of human interaction that have recently leveraged the capabilities of the Web architecture. Activities that have human and computer components are referred to as social machines. This paper introduces HTP, a socio-technical model to understand, describe and analyze the formation and development of social machines and other web activities. HTP comprises three components: heterogeneous networks of actors involved in a social machine; the iterative process of translation of the actors' activities into a temporarily stable and sustainable social machine; and the different phases of this machine's adaptation from one stable state to another as the surrounding networks restructure and global agendas ebb and flow. The HTP components are drawn from an interdisciplinary range of theoretical positions and concepts. HTP provides an analytical framework to explain why different Web activities remain stable and functional, whilst others fail. We illustrate the use of HTP by examining the formation of a classic social machine (Wikipedia), and the stabilization points corresponding to its different phases of development.


A preliminary and limited nematode survey was conducted in the three main banana-producing areas of South Africa, namely Onderberg, Hazyview (both in Mpumalanga Province), and the South Coast of Kwazulu/Natal Province. Root and soil samples were taken from 'Chinese Cavendish' (AAA), 'Dwarf Cavendish' (AAA), 'Grand Nain' (AAA), 'Williams' (AAA) and 'Goldfinger' (syn. 'FHIA-01', AAAB). The burrowing nematode, Radopholus similis, the coffee root-lesion nematode, Pratylenchus coffeae, mixed populations of root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne incognitaand Meloidogyne javanica,and the spiral nematodes, Helicotylenchus dihystera, H. multicinctus, H. pseudorobustus, and Scutellonema brachyurusoccurred in all three areas with the root-knot and spiral nematodes being most abundant. Radopholus similis, a well known damaging pest on banana, was detected at low population levels. Other species found were Rotylenchulus reniformis, Paratylenchus minutus, and Paratrichodorus minor. 'Chinese Cavendish', 'Williams', 'Grand Nain' and 'High Noon' (AAAB) were also evaluated in the glasshouse for their response to R. similisand mixed populations of M. incognitaand M. javanica. 'Grand Nain' was more susceptible to R. similisthan 'High Noon', which allowed lower final nematode densities. It was also found that large numbers of mixed populations of M. incognitaand M. javanicadid not have a negative effect on the growth of banana plants in the glasshouse. 'Chinese Cavendish' and 'High Noon' had high root gall ratings and nematode numbers in the roots, but the root systems still appeared fairly healthy.


Spurred by security and safety challenges, research efforts in thermographic sensors have advanced greatly, resulting in better performance in remote surveillance, object recognition, guidance and so on. This comprehensive survey provides a thorough account of the recent deployment of infrared sensors in modern applications of computer vision, as well as in-depth descriptions of the worlds best machine vision algorithms and intelligent analytics. The book will help readers understand the motivations, activities, trends and directions of researchers and engineers in the machine-perception field, and offers them a view of the future in this rapidly evolving area. Features: Offers an up-to-date and in-depth coverage of theoretical and experimental work in sub-areas of machine perception in infrared, thermal, hyperspectral, intensified and laser imagery Highlights new trends and directions in the field of applied machine vision *beyond* the visible spectrum Covers applications including homeland security, public transportation, surveillance, medical and military Emphasizes the merging of machine perception applications and non-visual imaging in intensified, near infrared, thermal infrared, laser, polarimetric and hyperspectral bands Presents advanced techniques for identifying unique infrared signatures and classifying small-resolution objects above and under the soil Focuses on describing successful non-contact, thermal video analysis methodologies to compute vital-signs measurements on the human face, neck and breast Deals with automatic moving-object detection in airborne, low-resolution near-infrared and thermal videos Illustrates fusion and registration techniques of multiple disparate multi-channel visible and thermal sensors for accurate image segmentation Discusses multi-target tracking using laser and infrared sensors, as well as augmented human-computer interaction using infrared eye tracking. Provides a critical analysis of state-of-the-art techniques in the field of computer vision, including comparison of existing methods and benchmarking This practical and broad-ranging text offers researchers, advanced students and software engineers alike a thorough understanding of the theory and experimental field-operational characteristics of key algorithmic building blocks of computer vision systems, using non-visual infrared imagery. It contains enough material for a two-semester upper-division or advanced graduate course on topics related to machine vision and its applications. Dr Riad Ibrahim Hammoud is a Senior Research Scientist at Delphi Electronics & Safety and also the successful Springer author of the following books: Passive Eye Monitoring, Face Biometrics for Personal Identification, and Interactive Video.


The Open-Borders Network: How a Web of Ethnic Activists, Journalists, Corporations, Politicians, Lawyers, and Clergy Undermine U.S. Border Security and National Sovereignty Kevin Lamb Representative Government Press, Raleigh, 2009 The Open Borders Network delves into the inner workings of diverse and powerful special interests who are lobbying for the concept of a borderless society. Although public opinion polls repeatedly show a wide majority of Americans favoring strong controls on immigration, the author, Kevin Lamb, notes that: "Lawmakers are deadlocked on immigration reforms, in part, because of their inability to reconcile their constituents' desire to clamp down on illegal immigration with highly aggressive, well-organized ethnic constituency groups." He describes how politicians ranging from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Senator Larry Craig from conservative Idaho have, for different reasons, promoted amnesty for illegal aliens and opposed construction of a border fence. This book is far more than an overview of the politics involved in the immigration debate. Each chapter is devoted to the details of how the money and momentum is on the side of those seeking permanent resident status for the estimated 12-15 million illegal aliens in America. Funding of the pro-immigration lobby is an extraordinary piece of the puzzle. Corporations seeking cheap labor and their allies-tax-exempt foundations with a multi-cultural political agenda-lead the way. According to Lamb's research, the Ford Foundation seeded the militant Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund with a grant of $2.2 million. La Raza ("The Race"), which maintains a network of 300 affiliate community-based organizations, is supported by the Ford Foundation, Bank of America, PepsiCo, CitiBank, Wal-Mart, Comcast, and Verizon. In 2006, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), one of many groups carefully dissected in the book, received $5 million from Comcast to organize a voter registration drive in Hispanic communities. Comcast asserts this was part of its goal of "attracting and retaining a multicultural workforce." LULAC is also subsidized by Tyson Foods - a company with a history of smuggling illegal aliens into the USA. Tyson's has donated over 200 million meals that are distributed by LULAC's community organizers (a position from which Barack Obama launched his meteoric rise to power). Financial support from corporate interests and tax-free foundations for pro-immigration legal work - one of the most effective weapons in the arsenal of the pro-immigration army (and they have many as Lamb documents)-is impressive. Steps taken by state and local legislatures to address a variety of immigration issues, ranging from crime to voter fraud, are often met with a step backward in court. …


Introduction: High incidences of Buerger's disease (43-62%) in India draw our attention towards available treatment modalities in such patients. Patients with this disease are in severe pain and agony. Pain relief by any means remains first and foremost priority in such patients and if patient is able to sleep even one pain free night it is a boon for the patients. The purpose of study was to test the hypothesis that lumber sympathetic block relieves the pain of ischemic limb in Buerger's disease. Aims and Objectives: To study the effect of chemical lumber sympathetic block on visual analog score (VAS) score and walking distance of the patients. Materials and Methods: Lumber sympathetic block was given under C-arm guidance with 17.5 cm long 22 G spinal needle at L3 and L4 level. Diagnostic block was given initially with plain bupivacaine 0.25% with two needle technique. Total seven blocks series were given in all patients. Final block was given with phenol 8%, 8 ml at L3 and L4 level. In postoperative period, VAS score was observed. Effect of block on walking distance was assessed on 3 rd day before giving next block. Statistical analysis: Software Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 11.5 was used for statistical analysis. Data were analyzed by paired t-test and P-value < 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: Both VAS and walking distance improved significantly after each successive block. Healing of ulcers of foot is also noted. Conclusion: Despite advances in treatment modalities in such patients, lumber sympathetic block is still very cost-effective, safe, and least-invasive technique in treating painful ischemic legs.


Collaborative law is "a voluntary, contractually based alternative dispute resolution process for parties who seek to negotiate a resolution of their matter rather than having a ruling imposed upon them by a court or arbitrator." Collaborative practice may be seen as merely the newest branch of the growing Alternative Dispute Resolution tree. But that view would underestimate its potential impact and mistake its aims. Collaborative lawyers such as Forrest S. Mosten challenge the dictum that negotiation must occur "in the shadow of the law." Collaborative practitioners find legalistic prescription too confining in their - and their clients' - search for real-world solutions to the legal, financial, and emotional dilemmas which arise during family dissolution and reorganization. Collaborative practice aims to radically alter the culture of lawyering and knock the ground out from under the major premises of the adversarial system. Collaborative Law is, in short, subversive. That word implies an undermining and an upheaval. But of what? Of the fundamental idea that the client brings the lawyer a problem for the lawyer to solve. Mosten targets his audience of "potential collaborative professionals," advising them to reject "adversarial jousting" and devote themselves instead to fostering client empowerment. Mosten is well aware that clients - especially those in the grip of the raging emotions which often fuel the break-up of a family - may not be in the best psychological position to use empowerment wisely. But he insists that the best role for counsel to play in this maelstrom is to foster the client's development of "a rational sense of self to overcome fierce and long-held reactive emotions" toward his or her spouse. Indeed, the attorney should not only model good lawyering but also teach effective client behavior. "People are not born clients," and the role of a client seeking his or her best interests (instead of one simply pushing positions) needs to be learned. The best teacher, Mosten believes, is a collaborative lawyer. His Collaborative Divorce Handbook provides a step-by-step guide to the concepts, tools, and strategies needed to enter or improve upon collaborative practice. But, more significantly, Mosten's text provides a compelling call to re-center legal practice around the client in a fundamentally different way.


Summary Bladder grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Pneumoridae) are a unique group of nocturnal, specialized herbivores, endemic to coastal regions of Southern Africa. Adult males are characterized by an inflated abdomen, which develops at the final molt, and a signaling system capable of producing high intensity calls detectable by conspecifics at distances of up to 2 km. Female response to male calls leads to reciprocal duetting and pair formation. We have found an alternative form to the dominant inflated male tactic in three pneumorid species. These alternate males are incapable of flight and lack the air-filled abdominal bladder used in long-range acoustic communication; but may be found in copula with mature females in the field. Here we address the issue of neoteny/paedogenesis in the alternate male by comparing the morphology of inflated and uninflated adult male Bullacris membracioides with that of ultimate and penultimate nymphal instars, to determine whether these forms follow a common developmental trajectory. We then compare the behavioral responsiveness of inflated and noninflated morphs to conspecific advertisement calls, to ascertain whether alternate males have the potential to actively exploit the mate location system of duetting pairs. Morphometric analyses indicate that alternate males are a distinctly divergent form from the primary male developmental tactic. We conclude that males following the alternate tactic eavesdrop on the duets of inflated males and females to exploit the acoustic mate location system. This satellite tactic has potential impact on several aspects of pneumorid biology contributing to biasing sexual selection, sensory drive, and ultimately speciation events.


Respiratory motion has long been recognized as an important factor affecting the precision of radiotherapy. After the introduction of the 4D CT to visualize the respiratory motion in 3D, the internal target volume (ITV) has been widely adopted as simple method to take the motion into account in treatment planning and delivery. The ITV is generated as the union of the CTVs as the patient goes through the respiratory cycle. Many issues have been identified with the ITV. In this session three alternatives for the ITV will be discussed: 1) An alternative motion-inclusive approach with better imaging and smaller margins, called mid-position CT. 2) The tracking approach and 3) The gating approach. The following topics will be addressed by Marcel van Herk ("Is ITV the correct motion encompassing strategy"): Magnitude of respiratory motion, effect of motion on radiotherapy, motion encompassing strategies, and software solutions to assist in motion encompassing strategies. Then Paul Keall ("Make margins simple: Use real-time target tracking") will discuss tracking with: clinical drivers for tracking, current clinical status of tumor tracking, future tumor tracking technology, and margin margin challenges with and without tracking. Finally Daniel Low will discuss gating ("Gating is the best ITV killer"): why ITV in the first place, requirements for planning, requirements at the machine, benefits and costs. The session will end with a discussion and live demo of motion simulation software to illustrate the issues and explain the relative benefit and appropriate uses for the three methods.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Explain the 4D imaging and treatment planning process. 2. Summarize the various approaches to deal with respiratory motion during radiotherapy 3. Discuss the tradeoffs involved when choosing one of the three discussed approaches. 4. Explain in which situation each method is the best choice Research is partly funded by Elekta Oncology Systems and the Dutch Cancer Foundation; M. van Herk, Part of the research was funded by Elekta Oncology Systems and the Dutch Cancer Foundation.


Detailed thermodynamic, kinetic, geometric, and cost models are developed, implemented, and validated for the synthesis/design and operational analysis of hybrid solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)-gas turbine-steam turbine systems ranging in size from 1.5 MWe to 10 MWe. The fuel cell model used in this research work is based on a tubular Siemens-Westinghouse-type SOFC, which is integrated with a gas turbine and a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) integrated in turn with a steam turbine cycle. The current work considers the possible benefits of using the exhaust gases in a HRSG in order to produce steam, which drives a steam turbine for additional power output. Four different steam turbine cycles are considered in this research work: a single-pressure, a dual-pressure, a triple-pressure, and a triple-pressure with reheat. The models have been developed to function both at design (full load) and off-design (partial load) conditions. In addition, different solid oxide fuel cell sizes are examined to assure a proper selection of SOFC size based on efficiency or cost. The thermoeconomic analysis includes cost functions developed specifically for the different system and component sizes (capacities) analyzed. A parametric study is used to determine the most viable system/component syntheses/designs based on maximizing the total system efficiency or minimizing the total system life cycle cost.


To support effective data exploration, there has been a growing interest in developing solutions that can automatically recommend data visualizations that reveal interesting and useful data-driven insights. In such solutions, a large number of possible data visualization views are generated and ranked according to some metric of importance (e.g., a deviation-based metric), then the top-k most important views are recommended. However, one drawback of that approach is that it often recommends similar views, leaving the data analyst with a limited amount of gained insights. To address that limitation, in this work we posit that employing diversification techniques in the process of view recommendation allows eliminating that redundancy and provides a good and concise coverage of the possible insights to be discovered. To that end, we propose a hybrid objective utility function, which captures both the importance, as well as the diversity of the insights revealed by the recommended views. While in principle, traditional diversification methods (e.g., Greedy Construction) provide plausible solutions under our proposed utility function, they suffer from a significantly high query processing cost. In particular, directly applying such methods leads to a "process-first-diversify-next" approach, in which all possible data visualization are generated first via executing a large number of aggregate queries. To address that challenge, we propose an integrated scheme called DiVE, which efficiently selects the top-k recommended view based on our hybrid utility function. DiVE leverages the properties of both the importance and diversity metrics to prune a large number of query executions without compromising the quality of recommendations. Our experimental evaluation on real datasets shows the performance gains provided by DiVE.


Taiwan adopted its National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme in 1995. Presently, the scheme covers virtually all of the island's citizens. However, it is under the threat of a serious imbalance between expenditure and revenue. As spending has become unsustainable, everyone has realised the need for financial reform. However, the reform process itself is beset by political confrontations. There is a need to deepen the understanding of the relationships and dependencies among the policy actors. With a view to helping address this problem, this study empirically examines the multiple types of ties prevailing between the policy actors and the resulting power distribution while the DPP government was working earnestly towards reforming the NHI's financial system in the period 2000-2008. Apart from official documents, data are drawn from a network survey coupled with semi-structural interviews of 62 policy actors including government officials and related unofficial policy participants. Measures such as the in-degree centrality index and core/periphery model, betweenness centrality, structural hole index (effective size), density index, E-I index and CONOOR procedure (Blockmodeling and multidimensional scaling - MDS) are used to identify the major participants and network structures in the NHI domain and assess their relative influence-powers on the basis of information transmission patterns, resource exchanges, action-set coalition relationships and reputational attributions. It is shown that, although the public sector and the medical associations were at the helm of the NHI reform, financial reform remained unfulfilled mainly because of poor communications among societal actors. We then performed a social network analysis and systematically mapped the prevailing political conflicts among diverse policy stakeholders. We confirm that SNA is an effective research tool for political feasibility evaluation; it can facilitate smoother policy adoption by enhancing better interactions within networks.


Industrial presence in the community, affect the patterns of thought and behavior patterns of the surrounding community, as well as with industrial presence Kauman village gamelan influence on changing patterns of behavior, especially behavior of Javanese culture that exists in these communities, however there are some behaviors that still exist and persist in the community, based on the phenomenon, the writers interested in conducting research on the topic GAMELAN INDUSTRY AND BEHAVIOR OF CULTURE IN THE COMMUNITY (Historical Study of the emergence of industrial gamelan and cultural behavior in rural communities Kauman, Karangrejo subdistrict, district Magetan), with the formulation of the problem of how the history of the emergence of industrial gamelan? And how culture shapes behavior after the emergence of industrial gamelan? This study is a descriptive kualitaatif, but when viewed from the nature of the problem into the category of historical research, which intends to understand the basis of a phenomenon in the past and its relevance in the present, with research subjects consist of competent Kauman rural communities with research topics, using purposive sampling technique in the determination of the sample, while data mining is done by the method of interview, observation and documentation, and research sites in the village Kauman, Karangrejo subdistrict, district Magetan, with the usage of descriptive qualitative data analysis techniques. This study uses the theory of social action and rationality put forward by Max Weber, who saw that social reality is basically made up of individuals and social action that has meaning, which is summarized in the classification of some types of social action based on the concept of rationality. The second theory is a theory of symbolic interactionism of George Herbert Mead, which refers to the specific nature of the interaction between humans, that humans interpret each other and mutually define the actions, not just a mere reaction of one's actions terfadap others. Results from research that, the history of the emergence of industry in the village gamelan Kauman, Diponeggoro uprising began in 1825, many fugitives from Mataram beerupaya save themselves up to the village Kauman dimilkinya and develop expertise that is as instrument maker and evolved into an industry that still existed until now, associated with cultural behaviors after the emergence of gamelan industry experienced several changes along with the growing rationalization of society with non-performance rituals of fasting and changes in format and appearance of puppets and gamelan campursari presence, but still there are some cultural behaviors, which still reflects the world view of Java which includes how to use results-oriented industries in the heritage legacy in our children and grandchildren, as well as how to maintain the business through long-suffering, resilient to the exam and maintain the existing tradition.


I. INTRODUCTIONAs the U.S. Supreme Court prepared to hear three days of oral argument about the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in early 2012,1 C-SPAN co-founder and CEO Brian P. Lamb wrote a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts asking the Court to permit cameras in the courtroom for the arguments. Given the Court's past rejections of his requests to allow cameras in the courtroom, Lamb tried a targeted approach: "[W]e ask you and your colleagues to set aside any misgivings you have about television in the Courtroom in general and permit cameras to televise live this particular argument."2 In recent decades Lamb and C-SPAN have carried the banner for live video at the Supreme Court, dedicating a prominent portion of the C-SPAN website3 to the effort and regularly discussing the topic on the program "America and the Courts." In his letter, Lamb appealed to the Justices' sense of the importance of their work:We believe the public interest is best served by live television coverage of this particular oral argument. It is a case which will affect every American's life, our economy, and will certainly be an issue in the upcoming presidential campaign. Additionally, a five-and-a half hour argument begs for camera coverage - interested citizens would be understandably challenged to adequately follow audio-only coverage of an event of this length with all the justices and various counsel participating.4Lamb anticipated that the Court might consider cameras and accompanying electronic broadcast equipment in the courtroom obtrusive, and he promised C-SPAN would minimize disruption of court proceedings and serve as the pool provider to facilitate video access to all interested broadcasters without the need for multiple organizations' cameras.5Lamb and C-SPAN were not the only ones who thought broadcasting oral arguments in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius6 would be a good idea. Just weeks before oral argument, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois introduced a bill in Congress to require television cameras in oral arguments unless a majority of the Justices concluded it would violate the due process rights of at least one participant.7 Predictably, the legislation went nowhere. But news media organizations formed a chorus in favor of cameras. In the run-up to the health care oral arguments, news organizations that editorialized in favor of cameras in the Supreme Court included the St. Petersburg Times, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Portland's Oregonian, Boston Globe, Hufflngton Post, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times} Former Solicitor General Kenneth Starr wrote an op-ed in the New York Times pointing out the irony of the Court's reluctance to allow cameras in light of the Court's own opinions in free-speech cases that manifest a "stubborn insistence on freedom of communication in a democratic society."9The Justices, apparently, were underwhelmed by it all. Roberts declined the broadcast invitation from Lamb as well as a similar one from Grassley, who responded by taking credit for the Court having released same-day audio recordings in twenty cases since Bush v. Gore10 in 2000. n In the health-care case, the Court again acquiesced to sameday audio release rather than waiting until the end of the week.12 During three days of oral argument, the lack of cameras may have contributed to a frenzied atmosphere in which reporters scrambled in and out of the courtroom to provide live updates, and at least one observer was accused of live tweeting from the courtroom in violation of Court rules.13Although the fight over cameras in the Supreme Court is not new, this Article seeks to shift the debate - in line with invitations from the Justices themselves14 and in concert with a thus-far relatively small number of other scholars15 - from a legal discussion to a conversation about the effects of televising Supreme Court oral arguments. …


The first generation of genetically modified (GM) crop varieties sought to increase farmer profitability through cost reductions or higher yields. The next generation of GM food research is focusing also on breeding for attributes of interest to consumers, beginning with 'golden rice', which has been genetically engineered to contain a higher level of pro-vitamin A and thereby boost the health of poor people in developing countries. This paper analyses empirically the potential economic effects of adopting both types of innovation in Asia, including its impact on rice producers and other poor households. It does so using the global economy-wide computable general equilibrium model known as GTAP. The results suggest the farm productivity gains (even if extended beyond GM rice to include those from adopting other GM grains and oilseeds) could be dwarfed by the welfare gains resulting from the potential health-enhancing attributes of golden rice, which would boost the productivity of unskilled workers among Asia's poor.


Using WFPC2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope, we have created deep color-magnitude diagrams in the V and I passbands for approximately 105 stars in a field at the center of the LMC bar and another in the disk. The main-sequence luminosity functions (LFs) from 19 ≤ V ≤ 23.5, the red clump and horizontal branch morphologies, and the differential Hess diagram of the two fields all strongly imply that the disk and bar have significantly different star formation histories (SFHs). The disk's SFH has been relatively smooth and continuous over the last ~15 Gyr, while the bar's SFH was dominated by star formation episodes at intermediate ages. Comparison of the LF against predictions based on Padova theoretical stellar evolution models and an assumed age-metallicity relationship allows us to identify the dominant stellar populations in the bar with episodes of star formation that occurred from 4 to 6 and 1 to 2 Gyr ago. These events accounted for ~25% and ~15%, respectively, of its stellar mass. The disk field may share a mild enhancement in SF for the younger episode, and thus we identify the 4 to 6 Gyr episode with the formation of the LMC bar.


The rectus femoris muscle is the most frequently involved quadriceps muscle in strain pathologies. The majority of quadriceps muscle belly injuries can be successfully treated conservatively and even significant tears in the less active and older population, non-operative management is a reasonable option. The authors report the delayed presentation of a 17-year-old male who sustained an injury to his rectus femoris muscle belly while playing football. This young patient did not recover the functional outcome required to get back to running and participating in sport despite 15 months of physiotherapy and non-operative management. Operative treatment using the ligament augmentation and reconstruction system ligament to augment Kessler repair allowed immediate full passive flexion of the knee and an early graduated physiotherapy programme. Our patient was able to return to running and his previous level of sport without any restrictions.


This thesis will illustrate how pretend play can be used in the home for educational purposes. The major emphasis of the work will be emergent literacy, however, application principles can be applied in all subject areas. Parents who desire to expand their child's literacy skills while exposing the child to an arts enriched home environment need ideas and tools developed with supportive research to strengthen and focus their efforts. These tools will greatly expand parental resources by offering several principles as a guide for adapting existing classroom materials for home use. The following Seven Components form the core foundation for adapting pretend play materials to aid the home learning environment curricula: (1) Child as Active Participant (Vygotsky; Piaget). (2) Parent as Role Model for Dramatic Play and Literacy, serves as Facilitator, and Co-player (Haight and Miller; Vygotsky). (3) Physical environment could be anywhere: car, office, or bedroom. (4) Resource material: should be able to use common found objects in home, with limited preparations or expense. (5) Play Content needed to provide elements of literacy: cognitive learning, symbol representation, oral language, self-expression, listening and comprehension (Goodman). (6) Promote creative and fun learning experience with a relaxed, informal atmosphere. (7) Play should be process and discovery oriented, and not for performance (Brown and Pleydell; Tuge). This thesis will also examine the preliminary results of a study for parents and children who applied a curriculum developed with the core components and explored the participants' interest level in such activities. Recommendations for further research will also be made. Degree MA College and Department Fine Arts and Communications; Theatre and Media Arts Rights http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/ BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Anderson, Kelly King, "Pretend Play at Home: Creating An Educationally Enriched Environment for Emergent Literacy Among Preschool-Aged Children" (2005). All Theses and Dissertations. 627. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/627 Date Submitted 2005-07-15 Document Type Thesis Handle http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd962


Abstract Purpose: To examine if the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) core set for stoke contains problems that are relevant for the persons living with stroke as expressed in the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS). Methods: Cross-sectional study of 242 persons with previous stroke. The agreement between the perceived problems in the SIS items and problems in the categories of Comprehensive ICF Core Set for stroke were analyzed using percent of agreement and Kappa statistic. Results: The analyses between 57 items of the SIS and 31 second-level categories of the ICF were conducted. The problems in domains of "Mobility", "Activities of daily living", "Hand function", "Strength" in the SIS had moderate agreement when compared to ICF categories. The SIS domains of "Emotion" and "Communication", as well as some aspects of the "Memory" had slight or fair agreement with corresponding ICF categories. The results of the study suggest that there is acceptable agreement between persons after stroke and health professionals in the physical aspects, but rather poor agreement in the cognitive and emotional aspects of functioning. Conclusions: Health professionals do not fully capture the magnitude of emotional or social problems experienced by persons after stroke when using the ICF Core Set as a framework for evaluation. Implications for Rehabilitation The ICF Core Set for Stroke provides comprehensive list of possible health and health related outcomes for persons after stroke. Problems reported in condition-specific patient-reported outcome scales can be important in decision making in rehabilitation. Patients and health professionals tend to agree more on physical than cognitive problems. Examination of the relevance of the ICF cores set for stroke by comparing with the Stroke Impact Scale.


A large surface area, scalable porosity, and versatility have made nanofibres one of the most widely investigated morphologies among the nanomaterials. The characteristic properties of nanofibres have made them useful in a broad range of applications, such as filters, membranes, tissue engineering, wound dressings, protective clothing, reinforcement in composite materials, and sensors. So far, various top-down and bottom-up approaches were proposed to produce nanofibres. In this paper, a comprehensive review is presented on non-electro fiber spinning techniques, along with their mechanisms. The parameters of these techniques are also discussed in detail, while process-specific gains were emphasized according to the end uses. This review paper also provides a literature insight into the biomedical, filtration, optical, and energy applications of nanofibres produced via the most typical and widely used methods.


This analysis of marine ecosystem-based management (EBM) and marine protected area (MPA) networks in the Philippines demonstrates that local-level governance and institutional dynamics are central to management effectiveness. Using survey and interview data from 36 communities in the Central Visayas, key variables are identified that are correlated with and predictive of marine protected area success. Empirically based management guidelines are: (1) EBM and MPA design must be context appropriate, (2) capacity development to develop MPA leadership and the technical skills are a good investment, (3) strict and fair punishment for infractions of legitimate rules should be utilized and appear to be welcomed by local residents, and (4) conflict and controversy are a predictable part of MPA design and implementation and need to be planned for. Most importantly, while scaling up management interventions can make both biological and institutional sense, there is a point at which institutional capacity is exceeded. This study strongly suggests that in the Philippines, and likely many other tropical contexts, establishing large-scale EBM, MPA networks, or extensive centrally planned zonation schemes based primarily on national law, international targets, and command-and-control policy are likely to fail. The pressing imperative of ocean-wide environmental decline should not be used to justify infeasible and poorly designed management interventions that ignore local dynamics and institutional constraints.


Dual‐frequency cloud and precipitation radar systems are being actively developed and installed on different platforms. The use of two radar frequencies (with at least one frequency outside the Rayleigh type of scattering for hydrometeors of interest) allows independent estimates of hydrometeor effective size. With these estimates, radar‐based retrievals of such important parameters as cloud mass content or precipitation rate can be potentially performed with better accuracy compared to single‐ frequency radar measurements. This study presents quantitative assessments of the effects of nonsphericity of ice cloud particles which influence the dual‐frequency ratio used for characteristic size estimates.


Sustainable competitive advantages are fundamental to a firm's long-run success. A sustainable competitive advantage is derived from a firm's resources or capabilities that are unique to the firm, cannot be easily duplicated by competitors, and offer customers special value (Barney 1991; Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson 1995). Without sustainable competitive advantages, a firm cannot expect to make above-average returns in the long run. Management of human resources has been acknowledged as an important factor in developing sustainable competitive advantage (Pfeffer 1995; Lado and Wilson 1994; Kydd and Oppenheim 1990). Unlike other resources (plant and equipment or product design, for example), superior human resources tend to be very difficult for competitors to duplicate. Companies such as Walmart, Southwest Airlines, and Nucor Steel have grown large and earned outstanding returns by nurturing their human resources (Harris and Kliener 1993; Pfeffer 1995; Jacobson 1993). Because small businesses tend to be more labor-intensive than large businesses (Miller 1987), building competitive advantage through human resources may be particularly important to small business managers. Certain human resource management (HRM) practices have been identified as crucial to developing sustainable competitive advantage through human resources. These practices include selectivity in recruiting, high wages, training, performance-based rewards, job security, teamwork, flexibility, information sharing, and empowerment (Pfeffer 1995; Lado and Wilson 1994). When these practices are present, firms are more likely. to utilize human resources effectively in building a sustainable competitive advantage. Labor unions can have a major impact on a firm's HRM practices. It has been argued that unions not only limit an organization's discretionary authority to change workplace practices, but also have a negative effect on productivity (Holly and Jennings 1994). Also, union workers generally report lower job satisfaction and higher conflict with management than do non-union workers (Freeman 1994). Unions can also affect the median wage of the workforce. The unionized blue collar worker's median wage is about 70 per cent higher than that of his/her non-unionized counterpart (Bureau of Labor Statistics 1993). It is important to note, however, that many observers argue that unions can be and often are a positive influence on firms and productivity. Bluestone and Bluestone (1992) argue that unionized firms keep management working to improve productivity in order to satisfy workers' demands for higher wages. The Harvard model argues that unions provide an excellent means for getting workers' valuable opinions aired and for "shocking" management into adopting better practices (Turnbull 1991). Labor unions have begun to recognize that small businesses are excellent candidates for organizing activities. A national survey of employees conducted by Louis Harris and Associates for the AFL-CIO Committee on the Evolution of Work (AFL-CIO 1985) indicated that there were high levels of dissatisfaction with wages, working conditions, and benefits among employees of non-unionized small firms (Brown, Hamilton, and Medoff 1990). Additionally, as they have lost members in many large firms due to downsizing, unions have begun to concentrate their organizing efforts on small firms (Brown, Hamilton, and Medoff 1990). Despite the debate on unions' impact on the workplace, no empirical research has been published comparing changes in HRM practices in firms in which unions have won elections to firms in which unions have lost elections. The goal of this study is to begin to fill this void in the literature by examining the perceptions of top managers of small firms regarding how various HRM practices changed in their firms after union elections. Given the role of HRM practices in developing sustained competitive advantage, this is an important issue for small firms that face union elections. …


This exercise provides hands-on experience in visualizing and understanding the difficult concept
of immunoglobulin gene rearrangment and isotype switching. Students loop, ligate (tape), and cut
strips of paper DNA to simulate the looping and joining of heavy chain gene segments. Students begin
with a strip of germ line DNA, rearrange the DNA, form a primary RNA transcript, process it into
mRNA, translate a nascent polypeptide, and produce the final heavy chain. At the completion of this
activity students will understand immunoglobulin gene rearrangements and isotype switching enough to
start with nascent DNA and create any isotype of immunoglobulin.


We investigated the intrinsic (i.e., metabolic character of autotrophs) and extrinsic (i.e., nutrients and light availability) controls on the variation in autotrophic nitrogen (N) cycling in stream ecosystems based on 15N isotopic incorporation into five autotrophic components (biofilm, filamentous algae, bryophytes, and submerged and emergent macrophytes) differing in structural complexity and metabolic character. Autotrophs from a stream site with depleted 15N signatures and relatively low concentrations of dissolved inorganic N (DIN) were translocated to three reaches downstream of the same stream with higher 15N–DIN signatures and DIN concentrations and different light availability. After the translocation, autotrophs showed an asymptotical increase in their 15N signatures, achieving isotopic equilibrium with the stream water, from which we calculated N uptake and turnover rates for each autotrophic compartment at the three reaches. Uptake rates were highest when both DIN and light availability were also highest. Differences in DIN uptake rates were greater across reaches than among autotrophs, suggesting that autotrophic DIN uptake at both organism and community level is principally controlled by extrinsic factors (e.g., DIN concentration and light incidence). In contrast, variation in N turnover rates was larger among the different autotrophs than among the study reaches, suggesting a stronger control by intrinsic rather than extrinsic factors.


Abstract. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are ubiquitous in the atmosphere and are
important for atmospheric chemistry. Large uncertainties remain in the role
of the ocean in the atmospheric VOC budget because of poorly constrained
marine sources and sinks. There are very few direct measurements of air–sea
VOC fluxes near the coast, where natural marine emissions could influence
coastal air quality (i.e. ozone, aerosols) and terrestrial gaseous emissions
could be taken up by the coastal seas. To address this, we present air–sea flux measurements of acetone,
acetaldehyde and dimethylsulfide (DMS) at the coastal Penlee Point
Atmospheric Observatory (PPAO) in the south-west UK during the spring
(April–May 2018). Fluxes of these gases were measured simultaneously by eddy
covariance (EC) using a proton-transfer-reaction quadrupole mass
spectrometer. Comparisons are made between two wind sectors representative
of different air–water exchange regimes: the open-water sector facing the
North Atlantic Ocean and the terrestrially influenced Plymouth Sound fed by
two estuaries. Mean EC (± 1 standard error) fluxes of acetone, acetaldehyde and DMS
from the open-water wind sector were −8.0 ± 0.8, −1.6 ± 1.4
and 4.7 ± 0.6 µmol m−2 d−1 respectively ("−" sign
indicates net air-to-sea deposition). These measurements are generally
comparable (same order of magnitude) to previous measurements in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean at the same latitude. In comparison, the Plymouth Sound
wind sector showed respective fluxes of −12.9 ± 1.4, −4.5 ± 1.7
and 1.8 ± 0.8 µmol m−2 d−1. The greater deposition
fluxes of acetone and acetaldehyde within the Plymouth Sound were likely to
a large degree driven by higher atmospheric concentrations from the
terrestrial wind sector. The reduced DMS emission from the Plymouth Sound
was caused by a combination of lower wind speed and likely lower dissolved
concentrations as a result of the estuarine influence (i.e. dilution). In addition, we measured the near-surface seawater concentrations of
acetone, acetaldehyde, DMS and isoprene from a marine station 6 km offshore.
Comparisons are made between EC fluxes from the open-water and bulk air–sea
VOC fluxes calculated using air and water concentrations with a two-layer (TL)
model of gas transfer. The calculated TL fluxes agree with the EC
measurements with respect to the directions and magnitudes of fluxes,
implying that any recently proposed surface emissions of acetone and
acetaldehyde would be within the propagated uncertainty of 2.6 µmol m−2 d−1. The computed transfer velocities of DMS, acetone and acetaldehyde
from the EC fluxes and air and water concentrations are largely consistent with
previous transfer velocity estimates from the open ocean. This suggests that
wind, rather than bottom-driven turbulence and current velocity, is the main
driver for gas exchange within the open-water sector at PPAO (depth of
∼ 20 m).


We report a comparison of the molecular and electronic structures of dithio- and diselenophosphinate, (E2PR2)(1-) (E = S, Se; R = (i)Pr, (t)Bu), with thorium(IV) and uranium(IV) complexes. For the thorium dithiophosphinate complexes, reaction of ThCl4(DME)2 with 4 equiv of KS2PR2 (R = (i)Pr, (t)Bu) produced the homoleptic complexes, Th(S2P(i)Pr2)4 (1S-Th-(i)Pr) and Th(S2P(t)Bu2)4 (2S-Th-(t)Bu). The diselenophosphinate complexes were synthesized in a similar manner using KSe2PR2 to produce Th(Se2P(i)Pr2)4 (1Se-Th-(i)Pr) and Th(Se2P(t)Bu2)4 (2Se-Th-(t)Bu). U(S2P(i)Pr2)4, 1S-U-(i)Pr, could be made directly from UCl4 and 4 equiv of KS2P(i)Pr2. With (Se2P(i)Pr2)(1-), using UCl4 and 3 or 4 equiv of KSe2P(i)Pr2 yielded the monochloride product U(Se2P(i)Pr2)3Cl (3Se-U(iPr)-Cl), but using UI4(1,4-dioxane)2 produced the homoleptic U(Se2P(i)Pr2)4 (1Se-U-(i)Pr). Similarly, the reaction of UCl4 with 4 equiv of KS2P(t)Bu2 yielded U(S2P(t)Bu2)4 (2S-U-(t)Bu), whereas the reaction with KSe2P(t)Bu2 resulted in the formation of U(Se2P(t)Bu2)3Cl (4Se-U(tBu)-Cl). Using UI4(1,4-dioxane)2 and 4 equiv of KSe2P(t)Bu2 with UCl4 in acetonitrile yielded U(Se2P(t)Bu2)4 (2Se-U-(t)Bu). Transmetalation reactions were investigated with complex 2Se-U-(t)Bu and various CuX (X = Br, I) salts to yield U(Se2P(t)Bu2)3X (6Se-U(tBu)-Br and 7Se-U(tBu)-I) and 0.25 equiv of [Cu(Se2P(t)Bu2)]4 (8Se-Cu-(t)Bu). Additionally, 2Se-U-(t)Bu underwent transmetalation reactions with Hg2F2 and ZnCl2 to yield U(Se2P(t)Bu2)3F (6) and U(Se2P(t)Bu2)3Cl (4Se-U(tBu)-Cl), respectively. The molecular structures were analyzed using (1)H, (13)C, (31)P, and (77)Se NMR and IR spectroscopy and structurally characterized using X-ray crystallography. Using the QTAIM approach, the electronic structure of all homoleptic complexes was probed, showing slightly more covalent bonding character in actinide-selenium bonds over actinide-sulfur bonds.


I tested the importance of both total cover and cover quality to the foraging ability of large Fundulus heteroclitus fish in tanks. Total cover was measured as the combined areas of all the indi- vidual structures, viewed as shadows. I divided total cover by the bottom area of the tank to form Ct/At, an index that measures the total amount of structure available in a given area for prey to hide behind. Cover quality was measured as the width of each individual structure divided by the width of the indi- vidual prey organism (Cw/Pw). This index measures how visible a prey organism is when hiding be- hind an individual structure. Both of these complexity indices are dimensionless and potentially ap- plicable to any habitat type and habitat scale. I predicted that prey survivorship should increase hyperbolically with increasing Ct/At, because increasing the amount of structure within a habitat in- creases the amount of the habitat blocked off from detection, but with diminishing returns. Past ex- periments demonstrated that increased Ct/At does increase prey survivorship, but the shape of the re- lationship was unclear. I also predicted that prey survivorship should increase hyperbolically with increasing Cw/Pw. I predicted this by simulating a prey organism hiding behind a flat structure being viewed by a predator from all potential angles. In this simple simulation, the 'average amount of the prey hidden from view' increased hyperbolically with increasing Cw/Pw to an asymptote of 0.5. I per- formed 2 experiments to test these ideas. In the first, I kept Ct/At constant between treatments and var- ied the width of the individual structures relative to the width of shrimp prey Paleomonetes spp. In the second experiment, I kept the inter-structural space widths nearly constant between treatments and varied Ct/At. The prey for the second experiment were mobile amphipods. I tested the hypothesis that survivorship and treatment were independent using log-linear models for both experiments. I found that there was no significant difference in survivorship between treatments for the Cw/Pw experiment, and there was a significant difference in survivorship between treatments for the Ct/At experiment. The relationship between Ct/At and prey survivorship appeared to increase hyperbolically, as pre- dicted. Finally, I used the results of the Ct/At experiment, and results from a past study, to form a mod- eled regression equation of the survivorship surface for large F. heteroclitus feeding on amphipods for various levels of Ct/At and Sp/Pr (inter-structural space size/predator width). This equation was highly significant, and fit the data well. In this regression, amphipod survivorship increased hyperbolically with increasing Ct/At, and decreased sigmoidally with increasing Sp/Pr.


Diane alfano Chairman and CEO Dave BliDe Publisher The Journal of FIXED INCOME During substantial market declines, we have observed correlations among investments increase dramatically. Clearly, systematic risk is dominating asset returns and reducing the benefit of diversification. We begin this issue of The Journal of Fixed Income with an article by Siamak Javadi, Seoyoung Kim, Tim Krehbiel, and Ali Nejadmalyeri that provides a measure of time-varying correlation of default risk based on information extracted from credit default swap spreads. Their evidence indicates that this measure is also associated with the incidence of bankruptcy filings and market illiquidity. To value bonds with embedded options that are a function of future interest rate paths, a process for generating those paths and the correlation among rates must be assumed. In the next article, Vincenzo Russo and Frank J. Fabozzi derive the volatility of a coupon bond from the stochastic durations under the two-factor Hull-White interest rate model. The parameters of the Hull-White model then are calibrated using an option-pricing model with swaption quotes. Next, Ren-Raw Chen, Pei-Lin Hsieh, and Jeffrey Huang provide a more eff icient solution for the LIBOR market model. Their approach, consistent with empirical evidence, has the f lexibility to shift from a normal probability distribution in a low-rate environment to a log-normal probability distribution in a high-rate environment. In 2014, the Treasury introduced f loating rate notes in order to lower its borrowing cost and attract a new clientele to add to its funding base. In the next article, Karan Bhanot and Liang Guo examine the risk and return characteristics of this market and conclude that the U.S. Treasury generally achieved its objectives. Optimal risk transfer in the insurance market is essential for welfare maximization. In our final article, Denis-Alexandre Trottier and Van Son Lai clearly show that a combination of using reinsurance contracts for small losses and catastrophe bonds for large losses is the optimal hedging strategy. That is, the optimal mix affects capacity and leads to the desired coverage at the least cost. We hope you enjoy this issue of The Journal of Fixed Income. Your continued support of the journal is greatly appreciated.


Inorganic nitrogen loading was simulated using two dynamic catchment scale models, Integrated Nutrients in Catchments–Nitrogen (INCA-N) and the Generalized Watershed Loading Functions (GWLF). The simulated N loading was compared to a standard method to calculate annual loading using measured discharge and discharge-weighted concentrations. The main aim of the study was to compare these three estimation approaches with regards to their performance in hydrologically variable years in a small headwater catchment in southern Finland. Inter-annual variability of INCA-N and GWLF was compared with measured inorganic N concentrations at the catchment outlet. In years where snow melt dominates the annual discharge pattern all methods gave concurrent annual loading estimates. However, the loading estimates differ between the studied methods in years where large rainfall events in late summer or autumn dominate the annual discharge pattern, or when the model was not able to reproduce the spring discharge maximum properly. The results suggest that both models can be useful tools in estimating dissolved inorganic nitrogen loading from a catchment under changing climate conditions, providing that the key influencing driver, hydrology, is well captured.


In spite of the drugs available for the reatment of diabetes and high blood lipids but still accompanied by undesirable side effects, and so a wide attention and tendency for herbal and poly herbal treatment because of th e lack of side effects, and low cost and accessibility. Celery seeds, also known scientifically as Apium graveolens belong to the plant family Apiaceae . Analysis of the active ingredients of th e ethanol extract of celery seeds proved the presence of different compounds, including terp enes and fatty acids, but fatty acids were the largest proportion of the rest of the subs tances that were examined through GCMS. The aim of the current study is to verify the e ffectiveness of ethanolic extract of A. graveolens in reducing hyperglycemia and high lipids in hype rglycemic mice . Fourty male mice were used in the current study and mice were divided into 4 equel groups. . Group-1 (control) received distilled wate r (50μl ) orally and standard diet. Group-2 (drug control) orally and injected with STZ (150 mg/Kg) intraperitonially and received distilled water (50μl per day) orally with HFD . Group-3 injected with STZ and received glyburide (p.o) 0.5 mg/kg per day as stand ard drug with HFD for 28 days . Group-4 injected with STZ and received ethanolic ex tract of celery seed (400 mg/kg) per day by gastric lavage as well as HFD. After the treatment was completed, blo od samples were collected for analysis and isolation of liver and pancreas tissue for the hist ological examination. The ethanolic extract of A. graveolens showed a significant decreasing in the level of blood glucose, lipid profile , serum (C-pe ptide) , improved (GSH), and reduction Kerbala journal of pharmaceutical sciences. No. (13) 2017 ةينلاديصلا مولعلل ءلابرك ةلجم ددعلا ) 3 1 ( 11 in level of MDA when compared with untreated group. The presence of variety of active consistuents in A. graveolens like flavonoids , turbines and unsaturated fatty ac ids may be the reason for the antihyperglycemic and antihyp erlipidemic effects.


Background: There has been much research into innovations, quality, barriers and satisfaction with online learning. In the rush for development however, there has been little empirical evidence of the effectiveness of online courses in promoting student learning. Study Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the influence of an online learning course on student exam results. Methods: Methods: The study design was a cross-sectional survey. The online learning course was supplementary material for a first year biological sciences module in a four year nursing degree programme. Students' access to the course was monitored automatically throughout the academic year. Student exam results and profile were collated from the School database. The data was analysed using SPSS version 16. Results: 195 students participated in the study of which 95% were female and 36% mature students. The sample consisted of students from two strands of the degree: General nursing (84%) and Intellectual Disability (ID) nursing (16%). There was a significant difference in the exam results of General and ID nursing students. There was a significant difference in the usage of the online course depending on mode of entry to the degree programme with mature students making greater use of the online learning course. Spearman's correlation identified a very significant relationship between exam results and usage of the online course ( n  = 185, r  = 0.288, p  = 0.0001 (one tailed)). This indicated that usage of the online course accounted for 8% of the variability in exam results. Conclusions: This study would appear to indicate that usage of the online course was related to improved higher exam results as students who used it most had better exam results. These findings go some way in establishing the evidence that is needed to justify the time, effort and cost of the implementing online courses.


This research aimed to review the use of second-person reference in advertisement translation, work out the general rules, and provide guidance to translators. Using second-person reference is common in the advertising discourse. Addressing audiences directly involves their attention and in this way enhances their memorization of the advertised message. Second-person reference can be realized via second-person pronouns and the imperative tone. In this study, we investigated the differences between Chinese and English advertising texts. The statistics based on the corpus demonstrated a tendency of using second-person pronouns in the English texts and using imperatives or the implicit way of second-person reference in the Chinese texts. Analyses were provided as to the adjustment made in advertisement translation, referring to the basic human needs and communicative principles.


In the absence of adequate state support, societies in the developing world have long relied on community support for humanitarian relief. Such community networks provide a readily available platform for delivery of humanitarian relief services. Wireless technologies can play an important role in enabling humanitarian relief applications that strengthen these community networks by facilitating the flow of information amongst the community members. Nevertheless, given the welfare nature of the activity, these applications face some strict design constraints that emerge from the larger socio-political-economic landscape. This paper presents a systematic approach to unearth the requirements that these domains may impose on the design of wireless enabled information and communication oriented humanitarian relief services, wiHRS. We describe SEAM, a systems thinking inspired conceptual framework that provides the theoretical underpinnings of the modeling apparatus used in this paper. As an example, we demonstrate the relevance of this framework to the design of wiHRS by analyzing the economics of enhanced information flow in community networks and how this analysis can be exploited to reflect on the financial viability of such services by, say, soliciting support from financial risk management instruments like insurance schemes.


Sound reflections from most finite surfaces, such as overhead reflector panels, include a component known as edge diffraction. Edge diffraction is the scattered energy required to maintain a continuous sound field despite the discontinuity in acoustical impedance presented by the scatterer. Edge diffraction can interfere with primary scattered energy to produce comb filtering at receiver locations. Several decades ago, the effect of changing the edge profile of loudspeaker boxes was investigated with the goal of producing a smoother frequency response. By rounding the edges of loudspeaker boxes, the edge diffraction could be decreased noticeably [H. F. Olson, J. Aud. Eng. Soc. 17 (1), 22-29 (1969)]. In the current study, boundary element methods are used to study the results of rounding the edges of suspended reflector panels with the same intent of diminishing the boundary wave to achieve a smoother response across the audience area. Specific attention is given to the spatial range and frequency range over which this effect can be achieved.


In this paper, we discuss the possible applications of a solid-state ring laser comprising a feedback loop for stabilizing the bidirectional regime and a magneto-optic element for frequency-shifting the counterpropagating modes. In a first simple two-mode configuration, this device is shown to be sensitive to small changes in the rotation rate and external magnetic field. In a second more sophisticated version, the magnetic sensitivity can be significantly reduced thanks to multioscillator operation. The results of our proof-of-principle four-mode experiment are discussed, and some improvements are suggested toward a high-performance solid-state ring laser gyroscope without lock-in.


We welcome Andrew Haig's critique of our paper, "Disability & Health: A research agenda" in Social Inclusion. Our paper sought to identify research priorities to better understand, provide enhanced services and a better quality of life for people with disabilities, particularly in relation to their health and wellbeing. Haig's critique makes several important points that deserve serious consideration. His comments reflect a view of the relationship between disability and health which is different from the one we have espoused. Specifically, Haig argues that (a) disability is a health problem, (b) medical rehabilitation should be separated from Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR), and (c) the evidence base for medical rehabilitation is much stronger than for CBR. We address each of these points below arguing that while some types of disability clearly result from health problems; often disability is not experienced as a health problem; and sometimes, disability in interaction with restricted access is the cause of health problems.


Relativistic jets are a powerful, spectacular, yet poorly-understood phenomenon associated with accreting black holes and neutron stars. The question of the internal structure - matter content and magnetic field - of relativistic jets is of prime importance for our understanding of the underlying physics. The study of circular polarisation is both challenging and potentially very rewarding, and when applied to relativistic jets has the potential to probe the structure of the jets in unique ways. This book compiles the contributions, both theoretical and observational, from a three-day workshop held in Amsterdam in July 2002, concerning the study of circular polarisation from relativistic jet sources.


The Law's Conscience is a history of equity in Anglo-American juris-prudence from the inception of the chancellor's court in medieval England to the recent civil rights and affirmative action decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Peter Hoffer argues that equity embodies a way of looking at law, including constitutions, based on ideas of mutual fairness, public trusteeship, and equal protection. His central theme is the tension between the ideal of equity and the actual availability of equitable remedies. Hoffer examines this tension in the trusteeship constitutionalism of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson; the incorporation of equity in the first American constitutions; the antebellum controversy over slavery; the fortunes of the Freedmen's Bureau after the Civil War; the emergence of the doctrine of "Balance of Equity" in twentieth-century public-interest law; and the desegregation and reverse discrimination cases of the past thirty-five years. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was the most important equity suit in American history, and Hoffer begins and ends his book with a new interpretation of its lessons.


Guaranteed-Service Approach (GSA) was used to set safety stocks for multi-echelon inventory systems. This approach assumes that each stock can use operating flexibility measures such as expediting and overtime to fulfill excessive customer demand superior to a bound as a supplement to its safety stock. In this paper, we consider a two-level distribution inventory system with Poisson final demand and fixed costs at each stock controlled by a (R, Q) policy. We use the GSA to optimize the policy with the consideration of operating flexibility costs and fixed order costs. A deterministic mathematical programming model is established for the problem. This model is solved by a line search for finding the optimal target cycle service level to customer and an iterative procedure for solving the model. Numerical experiments on randomly generated instances demonstrate the efficiency of the procedure.


This thesis introduces, as major contribution, a new definition of strategically stable set of equilibria by considering a new class of perturbed games obtained by adding a set of irrelevant players and a collection of dominated strategies to the initial game. Both variations have no effect on the set of equilibria of the original game but allow to widen the resulting stable sets of equilibria up to satisfy all the properties proposed in Kohlberg and Mertens [1986] and in Mertens [1989]. Besides a new fictitious game is proposed to define a new single valued Nash equilibrium refinement, namely refined equilibria, and to extend strategic stability to correlated equilibria. In both cases the desired goals are not reached even if there are significant positive results: a refined equilibrium satisfies the invariance property improving on the concept of proper equilibrium. This result stems from a setting that is closer to the forward induction than the backwards induction approach: a single valued solution concept that always conforms with backwards induction cannot verify the property of invariance. Similarly the concept of stable correlated equilibria improve on both perfect and acceptable correlated equilibria since it can be applied to nplayer games and it excludes equilibria that are not perfect.


The recently proposed DEtection TRansformer (DETR) has established a fully end-to-end paradigm for object detection. However, DETR suffers from slow training convergence, which hinders its applicability to various detection tasks. We observe that DETR's slow convergence is largely attributed to the difficulty in matching object queries to relevant regions due to the unaligned semantics between object queries and encoded image features. With this observation, we design Semantic-Aligned-Matching DETR++ (SAM-DETR++) to accelerate DETR's convergence and improve detection performance. The core of SAM-DETR++ is a plug-and-play module that projects object queries and encoded image features into the same feature embedding space, where each object query can be easily matched to relevant regions with similar semantics. Besides, SAM-DETR++ searches for multiple representative keypoints and exploits their features for semantic-aligned matching with enhanced representation capacity. Furthermore, SAM-DETR++ can effectively fuse multi-scale features in a coarse-to-fine manner on the basis of the designed semantic-aligned matching. Extensive experiments show that the proposed SAM-DETR++ achieves superior convergence speed and competitive detection accuracy. Additionally, as a plug-and-play method, SAM-DETR++ can complement existing DETR convergence solutions with even better performance, achieving 44.8% AP with merely 12 training epochs and 49.1% AP with 50 training epochs on COCO val2017 with ResNet-50. Codes are available at https://github.com/ZhangGongjie/SAM-DETR .


Sea level variation is a main contributor in controlling the evolution of coastal lagoons as well as determining risks of coastal flooding. This work investigates both long and short-term sea level variability in the Ria de Aveiro, a tide-dominated shallow coastal lagoon located on the western coast of Portugal. The 27 year series of available sea level observations from the permanent tide gauge, at the mouth of the Lagoon, has been analyzed for changes in the different sea level components: tides, surges and mean sea level. The various tidal constituents show interesting local short-term variations in amplitude and phase but no long-term trends. There is no evidence of an increase in weather effects on sea levels and of mean sea level over the period analyzed. Short (1-3 month) sea level data collected during two surveys (1987/8 and 2002/3) in the lagoon are compared. Results show that there has been a significant change in the tidal characteristics of the Lagoon with a general increase in amplitude and decrease in phase for most harmonic constituents.


The genetic architecture of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is known to consist of contributions from gene-disrupting de novo mutations and common variants of modest effect. We hypothesize that the unexplained heritability of ASD also includes rare inherited variants with intermediate effects. We investigated the genome-wide distribution and functional impact of structural variants (SVs) through whole genome analysis (≥30X coverage) of 3,169 subjects from 829 families affected by ASD. Genes that are intolerant to inactivating variants in the exome aggregation consortium (ExAC) were depleted for SVs in parents, specifically within fetal-brain promoters, UTRs and exons. Rare paternally-inherited SVs that disrupt promoters or UTRs were over-transmitted to probands (P = 0.0013) and not to their typically-developing siblings. Recurrent functional noncoding deletions implicate the gene LEO1 in ASD. Protein-coding SVs were also associated with ASD (P = 0.0025). Our results establish that rare inherited SVs predispose children to ASD, with differing contributions from each parent.


Symmetries built into a neural network have appeared to be very beneficial for a wide range of tasks as it saves the data to learn them. We depart from the position that when symmetries are not built into a model a priori, it is advantageous for robust networks to learn symmetries directly from the data to fit a task function. In this paper, we present a method to extract symmetries learned by a neural network and to evaluate the degree to which a network is invariant to them. With our method, we are able to explicitly retrieve learned invariances in a form of the generators of corresponding Lie-groups without prior knowledge of symmetries in the data. We use the proposed method to study how symmetrical properties depend on a neural network's parameterization and configuration. We found that the ability of a network to learn symmetries generalizes over a range of architectures. However, the quality of learned symmetries depends on the depth and the number of parameters.


We have investigated how the addition of 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) alters the formation of disordered and ordered phases in a film of poly(3-hexyl-thiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT). By combining in situ time-resolved absorption spectroscopy with 60 ms time resolution, optical and transmission electron microscopy and spatially resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy, we show that, in addition to the excitonic coupling, the film formation process during spin-coating as well as the subsequent long-time film drying process differ significantly when DIO is added to a solution of P3HT. During spin-coating, the addition of DIO reduces the actual time for transformation from disordered to ordered phase, even though it increases the time until the disorder–order transition sets in. In place of a solidification front, we observe an all-over solidification throughout the entire film. The phase separation between nonaggregated and aggregated phase increases when using DIO, with compositional variation in the content of aggrega...


Pogge's proposal for a Global Resources Dividend (GRD) has been criticized because its likely effects would be less predictable than Pogge supposes and could even be counterproductive to the main aim of relieving poverty. The GRD might also achieve little with respect to its secondary aim of promoting environmental protection. This article traces the problems to Pogge's inadequate conception of natural resources. It proposes instead to conceive of natural resources in terms of 'ecological space'. Using this conception, redistributive principles follow with a more definite logic from Pogge's own supporting moral argument. The proposed alternative approach also promises a more direct contribution to Pogge's secondary aim of resource conservation and environmental protection. I conclude that if any redistributive resource-based tax should be levied on nations, then there are at least four decisive reasons to favour levying a tax related to a nation's per capita utilization of ecological space rather than the GRD.


In 2010, an estimated 50 million people were uninsured in the United States. A portion of the uninsured reflects unemployment rates; however, this rate is primarily a reflection of the fact that when most health plans meet an individual's needs, most times, those health plans are not affordable. Research shows that people without health insurance are more likely to experience financial burdens associated with the utilization of health care services. But even among the insured, underinsurance has emerged as a barrier to care. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made the most comprehensive changes to the provision of health insurance since the development of Medicare and Medicaid by requiring all Americans to have health insurance by 2016. An estimated 30 million individuals who would otherwise be uninsured are expected to obtain insurance through the private health insurance market or state expansion of Medicaid programs. The success of the ACA depends on the design of the essential health benefits (EHB) package and its affordability. Essential Health Benefits recommends a process for defining, monitoring, and updating the EHB package. The book is of value to Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and other U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agencies, state insurance agencies, Congress, state governors, health care providers, and consumer advocates.


The article addresses specifics of trade secret protection under international investment law. As a particular example, it analyzes protection of pharmaceutical regulatory data against the background of the growing public policy campaign for broader access to clinical trial data and the recent unprecedented practice of the European Medicines Agency of disclosing clinical dossiers submitted for drug marketing approval. Given the significant role of foreign direct investment in the global pharmaceutical industry and substantial, exponentially increasing costs incurred by drug originator companies in conducting clinical trials, the prospect of investor-state dispute over data disclosure does not appear purely hypothetical. The question is whether investor-state arbitration is an apt instrument to protect originators' data against disclosure by drug regulatory authorities. The analysis suggests that the application of standards of international investment protection depends on the specifics of information at issue, its value, and functions in investors' commercial operations. With regard to pharmaceutical test data, it is argued that the prospects of investor-state arbitration are rather unfavorable for the investor, when data is disclosed to support policy objectives in public healthcare and medical innovation.


Transport costs data are a key input for trade analysis and for industry-level studies focusing on spatial distribution and logistics. Surprisingly, good transport estimates at a detailed spatial level for the EU are not readily available. This Policy Insight presents a new freely available dataset containing estimates of distance and time related transport costs between all NUTS-2 EU regions. This Insight briefly illustrates both the main assumptions behind the construction of the dataset and its core characteristics. The estimates take into account both the time needed and the distance covered by a representative truck travelling along optimal routes between samples of points within the EU regions. The resulting dataset contains an origin-destination cost matrix in euros at the region pair level. Moreover, the sampling approach allows calculating average transport costs within each region. Both arithmetic and harmonic averages are considered - the latter may be more relevant for interaction modelling such as the estimation of trade gravity equations.


Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common nerve entrapment with a prevalence ranging between 2.7–4.9%, depending on the definition, in a representative adult population (1). Among a pooled analysis of US working populations, prevalence of electrodiagnostically verified CTS was 7.8% and incidence rate 2.3 per 100 person-years (2), while in an Italian working population the incidence rate was 1.4 per 100 person-years (3). The lifetime prevalence of carpal tunnel release (CTR) has been estimated at 3.1% and incidence rate at 1.73 per 1000 person-years in a normal population (4), and somewhat higher (3.35–2.98 per 1000 person-years during an eight-year follow-up) in a population of working age (5), suggesting that a considerable proportion of those with CTS undergo surgical treatment. CTR is an effective treatment to relieve the symptoms of CTS in both the short- and long-term (6).

In this issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health , Newington et al's systematic review (7) looked at return to work (RTW) times after CTR and reports a median RTW time of four weeks. This is in a good agreement with the Swedish recommendations for length of sickness absence after CTR (8). Only six studies reported information about the heaviness of work, and – quite expectedly – the RTW times were clearly longer for those with manual duties than non-manual duties, and the longest for those with heavy manual duties. In fact, we lack information about to what extent CTR is effective both as regards symptoms and resumption of work activities among those with heavy manual duties. As CTS can be considered in many jurisdictions as an occupational disease among workers with hand-intensive duties, some of those workers may have had their CTS compensated as an occupational disease under workers' compensation and retrained to lighter duties after surgery. Change of occupation and retraining to lighter duties may lie behind the finding that those with workers' compensation showed a longer RTW time compared with those without workers' compensation or with another type of health insurance. Other processes may also delay RTW, such as litigation for compensation of CTS as an occupational disease. This difference between the compensation systems cannot therefore be directly interpreted as a result of a more generous compensation for sickness absence from the workers' compensation system compared with a national or other insurance.

Newington et al's review is carefully conducted, transparent, and points out clearly that there is rather little well-documented evidence base on RTW times after CTR. Although a total of 56 studies were included, many of them reported only one summary estimate – often a mean – of the length of sickness absence duration or time to RTW. A minority reported a median, and only eight studies provided a range or interquartile range in addition. Moreover, a quarter of the studies did not even provide the number of persons that were included in their RTW analysis.
A main reason for the poor documentation in the reviewed studies may be that the length of sickness absence or time to RTW has not been the primary outcome in most randomized controlled trials assessing the effectiveness of CTR. Even when time to RTW was reported, a very important aspect of sustainability of RTW was not considered. A recent review of RTW outcomes recommended to consider sustainability of RTW in the outcome, and suggested – based on recent studies on other outcomes – to use four weeks or 28 days as the criterion of sustainability (9). Indeed, a recent study from Finland reported a median time of 34 days for sustainable RTW (for 30 days) after CTR in the public sector (10). It would be interesting to know whether there is a difference between any RTW and sustainable RTW, however, so far, no study seems to have addressed this. With regard to recommendations for the length of sickness absence after CTR, time to sustainable RTW would serve as a better evidence base than any RTW.

Work participation and long work careers are becoming critical for the sustainability of aging societies. CTR is a fairly common procedure, often carried out due to difficulties or inability to perform work duties. It is rather paradoxical that we know so little about the extent to which this procedure can restore work ability and enhance return to earlier or amended duties and not even how long it typically takes to return to work after CTR. Hopefully, this review will reach clinicians and researchers in both the occupational health and clinical community, such as surgeons, physical therapists, and occupational therapists, and motivate them to pay more attention to RTW to different types of duties after CTR and how to measure this important outcome.