Abstract:Nicki Minaj, the best-selling female rapper in history, rose to fame at the same time that the hip-hop industry changed in dramatic ways. Over the past two decades, hip-hop minimized the presence of women rappers, shifted toward a business model of merchandising, and marketed to larger and whiter audiences. How, then, did Minaj rise to fame and become one of the most visible African American women in popular culture in recent decades? Using Collins's (2006) "new black body politics," we find that Minaj pushes the boundaries of blackness through her use of alter egos and her "Black Barbie" persona. She creates her body as a "body-product" for mass consumption by fans through social media. Finally, we find that Minaj offers a "brand" of feminism that is highly marketable because it merges a language of critique and oppression. Her strategy of accommodationist politics appeals to the broadest possible audience because for some, her music is feminist, while for others, it fits comfortably into existing controlling narratives of black womanhood.


SUMMARY In this paper, a new biomimetic tendon-driven actuation system for prosthetic and wearable robotic hand applications is presented. It is based on the combination of compliant tendon cables and one-way shape memory alloy (SMA) wires that form a set of agonist–antagonist artificial muscle pairs for the required flexion/extension or abduction/adduction of the finger joints. The performance of the proposed actuation system is demonstrated using a 4 degree-of-freedom (three active and one passive) artificial finger testbed, also developed based on a biomimetic design approach. A microcontroller-based pulse-width-modulated proportional-derivation (PWM-PD) feedback controller and a minimum jerk trajectory feedforward controller are implemented and tested in an ad hoc fashion to evaluate the performance of the finger system in emulating natural joint motions. Part II describes the dynamic modeling of the above nonlinear system, and the model-based controller design.


Conceptual models are aimed at providing formal representations of a domain. They are mainly used for the purpose of understanding and communicating about requirements for information systems. Conceptual modeling has acquired a large body of research dealing with the semantics of modeling constructs, with the goal to make models better vehicles for understanding and communication. However, it is commonly known that different people construct different models of a given domain although all may be similarly adequate. The premise of this paper is that variations in models reflect vagueness in the criteria for deciding how to map reality into modeling constructs. Exploring model variations as such can contribute to research that deals with the semantics of modeling constructs. This paper reports an exploratory study in which empirically obtained model variations were qualitatively analyzed and classified into variation types. In light of the identified variation types, we analyzed two ontology-based modeling frameworks in order to evaluate their potential contribution to a reduction in variations. Our analysis suggests that such frameworks may contribute to more conclusive modeling decision making, thus reducing variations. However, since there is no complete consistency between the two frameworks, in order to reduce variations, a single framework should be systematically applied.


Surface energy and roughness are well-known to be the two key factors for fabricating surfaces with superhydrophilicity or superwettability, and thousands of outstanding achievements have been reported on the basis of these two aspects in recent decades. However, for the physical chemistry community, it is still a challenge for making man-made superhydrophilic surface with universal and easy operating. Here, we describe the development of fluorine-induced superhydrophilicity (FIS) method to fabricate superhydrophilic interfaces via oxy-fluoridation process, in which the fluorine atoms are linked to metal or semimetal atoms in the form of −O–M–F (M is metal or semimetal atom), and a superhydrophilic interface can be obtained owing to the strong polarity bond of (semi)metal oxy-fluoride. Simulation results showed that hydrogen bonds are formed between water molecules and oxy-fluoridized (semi)metallic interfaces. The value of this FIS has been demonstrated through the successful surface treatment for Ti, Zn...


WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE ADVANCEMENT IN AN URBAN SCHOOL DIVISION? By Elizabeth W. Roberson, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2010 Major Director: Henry T. Clark, Ph.D. Associate Dean, School of Education The purpose of this research was to study the relationship between emotional intelligence and administrative advancement in one urban school division; however, data acquired in the course of study may have revealed areas that could be further developed in future studies to increase the efficacy of principals and, perhaps, to inform the selection and training process for prospective administrators. This phenomenon, then, might increase aspirants' opportunities for advancement and augment the pool of potential leadership candidates as well. The open-minded administrator realizes that extremely well honed interpersonal skills are critical in order to inspire and emotionally move others to work towards a shared vision. Without a high degree of emotional intelligence, such a collaborative climate may not be created easily. Attuned to the feelings of others, leaders rich in EQ can help their peers to achieve at high levels and work comfortably in a cooperative way. The self-report version of the Emotional and Social Competence Inventory (ESCI) (Goleman, 1998) was administered electronically to principals and assistant principals in one urban school division. In turn, each principal or assistant principal was asked to provide an email address for four other individuals capable of assessing their interpersonal skills via the 360 degree version of the ESCI. Data were collected using the statistical package, SPSS, and analyzed using a variety of statistical analyses. Variables included level of emotional intelligence, age, gender, ethnicity, and level of school (elementary, middle or high); number of times an individual applied for an administrative position; the length of time it took to be appointed to such a position; and the number of administrative positions held. This was a nonexperimental, quantitative comparative/descriptive study.


Background: World Health Organization considers to control the cardiovascular diseases as health
priority in developing countries. Life course is a biopsychsocial approach to chronic diseases and
childhood-adolescence is a major course for development of this diseases.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the mediating role of cognitive emotion
regulation in relationship between childhood-adolescence socioeconomic status and cardiovascular
risk factors in middle age.
Methods: This descriptive-correlational study was conducted in Cardiology Department of Bu-Ali
Sina Hospital in Qazvin in 2017. Two hundred five middle age persons were chosen by judgmental
sampling. The study tools were childhood-adolescence socioeconomic status researcher-made
questionnaire, Garnefski cognitive emotion regulation scale and Framingham 10 year risk
assessment of cardiovascular disease. Data were analyzed by path analysis.
Findings: Results demonstrated that negative cognitive emotion regulation mediated the
relationship between childhood-adolescence socioeconomic and cardiovascular diseases status. The
direct effect of childhood-adolescence socioeconomic status on negative cognitive emotion
regulation and this negative cognitive emotion regulation on the cardiovascular disease were
approved.
Conclusion: Likely, policies for improving socioeconomic status in childhood-adolescence and
interventions teaching for the appropriate emotion regulation can stop the development of
cardiovascular disease risk and play a basic role in prevention of it.
Keywords: Socioeconomic status, Cardiovascular diseases, Emotion


Background: Nanoparticles are used in various applications due to unique mechanical and physicochemical properties such as their increased surface area to volume ratio and quantum effects. This study was designed to investigate the cytotoxic effects of zinc oxide nanopaticles on hematological and biochemical parameters BALB/c mice. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 28 adult male mice BALB/c, were divided into four groups (one control group and three experimental groups). The mice in the experimental groups orally received Zinc Oxide nanoparticles with doses of 50, 100 and 300 mg/kg for 14 days. The control group received distillated water only. On 15th day, some hematological and biochemical parameters were studied on the blood samples collected. Results: Results showed that Zinc Oxide nanoparticles cause changes in blood cells. In high concentration, nanoparticles increased some of factors such as white blood cells, hemoglubin, MCV and neutrophil and besides decreased amount of RBCs, pLTs, hematocrit, lymphocytes, glucose and kratenin significantly (p<0.05). Conclusion: The findings showed that zinc oxide nanoparticles cause harmful effects due to the considerable variations in hematological and serum parameters in mice in a dose-dependent way.


The possible environmental "side effects" of pharmaceuticals to the environment have not yet been investigated extensively. Among the veterinary drugs, the antibiotics are an important group, due to their extensive use and their potential to also affect environmental bacteria. The main entry path for veterinary antibiotics into the environment is the application of manure of treated farm animals onto agricultural land. In this thesis, it was investigated whether antibiotics excreted with animal manure can affect soil bacteria. Antibiotic-related changes in soil bacterial communities were studied in microcosms.
 The main technique applied is named pollution-induced community tolerance (PICT). PICT is based on the idea that the exposure to a toxicant leads to an increase in the tolerance of the community as a whole to that toxicant, e.g. by the disappearance of sensitive species. This tolerance increase, in turn, can be used to detect toxic effects of a substance. For PICT analyses with antibiotics based on substrate utilization in multiwell plates, it turned out that soil nutrient amendment (such as manuring) is essential.

Changes in the community composition can also become apparent by changes in the pattern of different organic substances the bacteria can respire (CLPP). In a methodological analysis, it was shown how CLPP tests could be improved by new calculation methods and practical test details. A third technique, based on the composition of the community DNA (16S rDNA DGGE), was applied to study the most numerous community members.

Three different classes of antibiotics were tested with these methods. The PICT method was able to demonstrate effects for all three classes, while both CLPP and DGGE failed to detect the effect of one antibiotic each. Different methods should thus be applied simultaneously in bacterial ecotoxicology. Further, tetracyclines were more toxic than sulfonamides and macrolides: the community doubled its tolerance at a concentration of 1.3 mg oxytetracycline per kg of soil. As tetracyclines have been detected in agricultural soils in significant concentrations, they are more likely to pose a risk than the other classes. It has further been investigated whether the specificity of PICT studies is limited by co-tolerance, thus an increase in tolerance to a toxicant the community was not exposed to. In this study, bacteria were only co-tolerant to very similar substances.

Antibiotic resistance was another research question addressed. It is not known to what extent antibiotic resistant bacteria prevail in the environment, and how that is linked with antibiotic use in humans and farm animals. In PCR analyses, resistance genes detected in pig manure were shown to be transferred to soils. However, this was found in microcosms, but not in field studies. The "background" of resistance at the field sites before manure application was already high, such that no effect of the manure application on the resistance gene diversity could be found. It is concluded that the relevance of antibiotic use and the concomitant resistance development in the environment cannot yet sufficiently be determined, but must be investigated further.


A large literature has been generated about sustainability, and many organizations, governments, communities and citizens have focused on it. Yet, given how quickly the limits of the current models of the global economy are being approached, we must accelerate the rate at which we learn to operate differently. This first volume of the Emerald series Organizing for Sustainable Effectiveness learns from some of the pioneers articulating these challenges and organizing to address them. There is an urgent need to grow the knowledge bases to guide the transition. Each chapter in this volume, crafted to bring together the knowledge of practice and theory, is based on rich empirical data about particular cases in which organizations are, individually or collectively, working to build a more sustainable future. Contributors bring theoretical knowledge to bear on these case examples and test the applicability of the formal knowledge base about management and organizations, while refining, modifying, and extending it to increase its usefulness in addressing the challenges of organizing for sustainable effectiveness.


Two contrasting end-members of passive continental margins, here referred to as wide and narrow margins, are present in the South Atlantic, although some margin segments are intermediate between these two styles. Narrow margins are characterized by a large bounding fault (>4 km throw) near the shelf edge; a sharp transition zone (10–20 km wide) from normal thickness to substantially thinned continental crust or oceanic crust; where the total width of extended continental crust is usually less than 100 km. Wide continental margins are characterized by a broad continental shelf and a wide zone (50–600 km) of thinned crust with an even distribution of faults. Wide margins usually have a more gentle continental shelf and slope. Narrow–narrow, wide–wide, and wide–narrow conjugate margin pairs exist in the South Atlantic and are suggested to be controlled mainly by the opening kinematics and the thermal structure of the lithosphere during rifting. Basement structure and strain rate appear to have exerted little control on the style of margin extension. Although basement architecture appears to control the trend of the initial rifts, the positions of fracture zones which separate narrow and wide segments, and the rate of lateral rift propagation.


There is a vigorous debate on liberalization of the heavily regulated agricultural markets in India. A crucial institutional characteristic is the role of state-regulated brokers in wholesale markets. Relying on data from a unique survey in Uttarakhand, a state in North India, we find that regulations on margins are ineffective, since most brokers charge rates that significantly exceed the regulated ones. We also find that a majority of farmers self-select into long-term relationships with brokers. These relationships allow some of the farmers to interlink credit and insurance markets to the agricultural output market. This interlinkage does not, however, appear to be an instrument for farmer exploitation (since it does not lead to worse inputs, higher interest rates, or lower implicit output prices) but is seemingly an extra service provided by brokers to establish farmer loyalty and thereby ensure future supplies.


Continuous/Lifelong learning of high-dimensional data streams is a challenging research problem. In fact, fully retraining models each time new data become available is infeasible, due to computational and storage issues, while naive incremental strategies have been shown to suffer from catastrophic forgetting. In the context of real-world object recognition applications (e.g., robotic vision), where continuous learning is crucial, very few datasets and benchmarks are available to evaluate and compare emerging techniques. In this work we propose a new dataset and benchmark CORe50, specifically designed for continuous object recognition, and introduce baseline approaches for different continuous learning scenarios.


Background Patients with resected colorectal cancer remain at a high risk for developing metachronous neoplasia in the remnant colorectum. The aim of this study was to identify baseline clinical and colonoscopic features predictive of metachronous neoplasia after curative resection of colorectal cancer. Methods The baseline clinical and colonoscopic data and follow-up details of 503 patients who had colonoscopic surveillance after curative colorectal resection between January 2000 and October 2005 in a single tertiary institution were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were done to identify risk factors for metachronous adenoma. Results Metachronous adenomas were diagnosed in 176 patients (35.0%) and advanced adenomas in 39 (7.8%) during the follow-up period (35.7±20.9 mo). Among the clinical and colonoscopic factors at baseline, advanced age (≥60 y) (odds ratio (OR)=3.64; 95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.55-8.52), the presence of advanced synchronous adenoma (OR=4.38; 95% CI, 1.77-10.85), and longer total follow-up period (OR=1.03; 95% CI, 1.01-1.04) were independently correlated with developing advanced metachronous adenoma. Patients who had synchronous tubular adenoma without advanced features at baseline were not found to have an increased risk for future development of advanced metachronous adenoma compared with those in the synchronous adenoma-free group (OR=1.75; 95% CI, 0.69-4.43, P=0.650). Conclusions Our data showed that patients with advanced synchronous adenoma at baseline were identified to have an increased risk of advanced metachronous neoplasia during a longer follow-up period but those with tubular adenoma without advanced features at baseline were not.


This paper extends and refines previous work on clustering of polarization-encoded images. The polarization-encoded images used in this work are considered as multidimensional parametric images where a clustering scheme based on Markovian Bayesian inference is applied. Hidden Markov Chains Model (HMCM) and Hidden Hierarchical Markovian Model (HHMM) show to handle effectively Mueller images and give very good results for biological tissues (vegetal leaves). Pretreatments attempting to reduce the image dimensionality based on the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) turns out to be useless for Mueller matrix images.


The intent of this paper is to examine the basics of the legal, social and ethical issues implicit in commercial data mining ventures. With the advances in middleware and the enhancements to Business Intelligence tools, mining of the virtual data warehouses is expanding faster than the processes that control them. The question is, "How can organizations apply the 5 pillars of Information Assurance to this mining operation, while not alienating the individuals from whom the information is collected? What are the legalities of confidentiality, and how do we prevent the invasion of privacy. Who is truly the owner of the data being captured, stored, and interrogated?" The ethical questions with regard to the ability to collect versus the correctness of collecting available data, as well as insider snooping of the collected data will be explored. Lastly, the recent findings on the social impact of the data's integrity and authentication will be reviewed in the light of the Choice Point exploit.


An annually laminated, uranium-series dated, Holocene stalagmite from southeast Ethiopia has been analysed for growth rate and δ13C and δ18O variations at annual to biennial resolution, in order to provide the first long duration proxy record of decadal-scale rainfall variability in this climatically sensitive region. Our study site (10°N) is climatically influenced by both summer (June—August) and spring (March—May) rainfall caused by the annual movement of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and modulated by large-scale anomalies in the atmospheric circulation and in ocean temperatures. Here we show that stalagmite growth, episodic throughout the last 7800 years, demonstrates decadal-scale (8—25 yr) variability in both growth rate and δ 18O. A hydrological model was employed and indicates that this decadal variability is due to variations in the relative amounts of rainfall in the two rain seasons. Our record, unique in its combination of length (a total of ~1000 years), annual chronology and high resolution δ18O, shows for the first time that such decadal-scale variability in rainfall in this region has occurred through the Holocene, which implies persistent decadal-scale variability for the large-scale atmospheric and oceanic driving factors.


Recent decades have witnessed increasing consumption levels, and associated production levels, notably in the Western industrialised world. Past and future trends in household metabolic rates and the environmental impacts thereof are studied within the interdisciplinary research programme HOMES (Household Metabolism Effectively Sustainable). Drawing on empirical research largely from the Netherlands, it was concluded that Dutch trends follow the general Western patterns. Considering the driving forces underlying these developments, there appear no short-term signs of shifts towards sustainable household consumption patterns. In order to cut down the environmental impacts of household consumption, sustainable options that aim to reduce household metabolic rates have to be (re)designed, and ways to implement them need to be identified. Changes in lifestyles might significantly reduce or increase the environmental impacts of consumer activities. We present the results of a scenario-based study in which the environmental impacts of various lifestyles are compared with long-term sustainability objectives. Specific options for reducing the energy requirements of various consumer lifestyles are identified for different time frames: present day, short term (2005) and mid term (2015). The results presented can be summarised as follows: while present trends are towards unsustainability and environmental deterioration, a reversal of these trends is feasible if this reversal starts very soon and is continued for decades.


Cybersecurity-related capabilities play an ever-growing role in national security, as well as securing the functions vital to society. The national cyber capability includes the resilience of companies running critical infrastructures, their cyber situational awareness (SA) and the sharing of cybersecurity information required for cyber SA. As critical infrastructures become more complex and interdependent, ramifications of incidents multiply. The EU Network and Information Security Directive calls for cybersecurity collaboration between EU member states regarding critical infrastructures and places the most crucial service providers and digital service providers under security-related obligations. Developing better SA requires information sharing between the different interest groups and enhances the preparation for and management of incidents. The arrangement is based on drawing correct situation-specific conclusions and, when needed, on sharing critical knowledge in the cyber networks. The target state is achieved with an efficient process that includes a three-level—strategic, operational and technical/tactical—operating model to support decision-making by utilizing national and international strengths. In the dynamic cyber environment strategic agility and speed are needed to prepare for incidents. A R T I C L E I N F O : RECEIVED: 12 JUN 2019 REVISED: 28 AUG 2019 ONLINE: 22 SEP 2019 K E Y W O R D S : cybersecurity, situational awareness, information sharing, critical infrastructure, vital societal func-


Dyspepsia is a symptom, or a combination of symptoms, that indicates the presence of an upper gastrointestinal tract problem. Typical symptoms include epigastric pain or burning, early satiation and postprandial fullness, belching, bloating, nausea or discomfort in the upper abdomen. Most people with dyspepsia do not seek medical care for their symptoms, although 25% of the developed world's population suffers from dyspepsia annually. Rates range between 13-40% in different countries. Antacids remain safe, simple and effective agents for the symptomatic treatment of gastric acid-related symptoms. Evidence supports a test-and-treat approach in patients with non-dominant heartburn dyspepsia symptoms. In addition to antacids, dyspepsia is treated with proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), H 2 blockers or cytoprotective agents, for example, sucralfate. Prokinetic drugs, for example metoclopramide, domperidone and erythromycin, also have a role to play in the treatment of dyspepsia. All patients should be offered general treatment, including advice on self-treatment, lifestyle changes, patient empowerment, and the management of long-term symptoms. Pharmacists are well placed to provide counselling and support to people suffering from dyspepsia. © Medpharm


Java-ML is a collection of machine learning and data mining algorithms, which aims to be a readily usable and easily extensible API for both software developers and research scientists. The interfaces for each type of algorithm are kept simple and algorithms strictly follow their respective interface. Comparing different classifiers or clustering algorithms is therefore straightforward, and implementing new algorithms is also easy. The implementations of the algorithms are clearly written, properly documented and can thus be used as a reference. The library is written in Java and is available from http://java-ml.sourceforge.net/ under the GNU GPL license.


AIM
We aimed to implement a systematic nurse-caregiver conversation, examining fidelity, dose and reach of implementation; how implementation strategies worked; and feasibility and mechanisms of the practice change.

BACKGROUND
Appropriate hospital care for people living with dementia may draw upon: information from the patient and family caregiver about the patient's perspective, preferences and usual support needs; nursing expertise; and opportunities the nurse has to share information with the care team. Within this context, planned nurse-caregiver communication merits further investigation.

METHODS
In Phase I, we established the ward staff's knowledge of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, prepared seven nurse change leaders, finalised the planned practice change and developed implementation plans. In Phase II, we prepared the ward staff during education sessions and leaders supported implementation. In Phase III, evaluations were informed by interviews with change leaders, follow-up measures of staff knowledge and a nurse focus group. Qualitative data were thematically analysed. Statistical analyses compared nurses' knowledge over time.

RESULTS
Planned practice change included nurses providing information packs to caregivers, then engaging in, and documenting, a systematic conversation. From 32 caregivers, 15 received information packs, five conversations were initiated, and one was completed. Knowledge of dementia and Alzheimer's disease improved significantly in change leaders (n = 7) and other nurses (n = 17). Three change leaders were interviewed, and six other nurses contributed focus group data. These leaders reported feeling motivated and suitably prepared. Both nurses and leaders recognised potential benefits from the planned conversation but viewed it as too time-consuming to be feasible.

CONCLUSIONS
The communication initiative and implementation strategies require further tailoring to the clinical setting. A caregiver communication tool may be a helpful adjunct to the conversation. Implementation may be enhanced by more robust stakeholder engagement, change leader inclusion in the reference group and an overarching supportive framework within which change leaders can operate more effectively.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Nurse-caregiver communication in this context requires inititatives tailored to the clinical setting with input from all stakeholders.


The unreported decision in Aircraft Completions Centre (Pty) Ltd v PJ Rossouw and Others (W) (case 23790/2001) endeavours to provide a summary of the law relating to attorney-and-client bills of costs. The principal question of law discussed by the court in this matter revolves around the basis of taxation to be applied when one party (the costs debtor) has been ordered or has agreed to pay the costs of the other (the costs creditor) as taxed on attorney-and-client scale.


This book makes a clear presentation of the traditional topics included in a course of undergraduate parallel programming. As explained by the authors, it was developed from their own experience in classrooms, introducing their students to parallel programming. It can be used almost directly to teach basic parallel programming.


Background:  Comparatively, industry clusters in Africa have retrogressed over the years while their counterparts in Asia, Europe and America serve as engines for innovation and economic development. The textile industry cluster in most African economies has been threatened and is negatively affecting productivity, employment and revenue generation. Their survival, growth and sustainability are critical because of the sector's contribution to national development Objective:  In this ariticle we investigate the role fators such as stakeholder relation among actors in the textile ecosystem, influence of supply chain networks, third-party pressures and technological changes affected the development of textile clusters in Ghana and how the country can rebuild the clusters. Method:  Using partial least-square structural equation modelling techninque, we tested theoritical hypotheses using survey data from firms in the industrial enclave of Ghana. Result:  The findings from the study acknowledges a sharp decline in the productivity and performance of firms in various industrial sectors especially the textile cluster. The influx of copycat products coupled with the firm's inability to adapt to changing production technology have been a key influencer in the deteriorating state of the textile industries. Again, gaps in stakeholder interactions and underutilised supply chain networks create bottlenecks that hinder the competitiveness and performance of these enterprises. Conclusion:  On the contrary, findings from our study suggest external pressure from donors, multinationals and political influencers do not affect the performance and competitiveness of the textile sector as suggested by previous studies. Resuscitating the industry sector requires deliberate effort to improve coordination, information and technology sharing between key actors.


After a failure of "One-Size-Fits-All" approach on traditional treatment of diseases, the age of multi-faceted personalized medicine came into being for tailoring therapy to get the best response in the highest safety margin. Personalized drug dosage is one of the promises of personalized medicine and is of great importance for critical medical treatments such as anesthesia. General anesthesia induces a reversible state of unconsciousness in the patient due to the synergetic action of a cocktail of drugs. A general anesthesia cocktail is made up of a hypnotic, such as propofol, an analgesic, such as opioid-based or paracetamol, and a myorelaxant drug, such as midazolam. The delivery rate of these individual drugs in the cocktail has to be continuously monitored and balanced to achieve and maintain the desired level of sedation in the patient to avoid severe psycho-physical complications of over-/under-doses. To this end, the common practice nowadays is to use Target Control Infusion (TCI) pumps, which regulate the delivery of anesthetic compounds according to their mathematical pharmaco-kinetic models that estimate the right dose for the injection on the basis of patients' health data. However, implementation of these models have been done considering a population that does not cover all individuals, hence, falling in the category of "One-Size-Fits-All" approach and fail to reproduce the inter-patient variability in metabolism. Therefore, one of the main challenges in general anesthesia practices is the monitoring of the Depth Of Anesthesia (DOA) in patients to be able to tune the drug dosage according to individual's responses. One of the most widely used methods for DOA monitoring in Europe is the BiSpectral Index (BIS), a statistical predictor that is evaluated from ElectroEncephaloGram (EEG) signal. However, there exist several limitations regarding this technique such as being indirect measure of DOA and prone to be affected by artifacts and production of different signals in case of different anesthetics. To overcome these limitations, there is a need for a Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) system capable of continuously measuring the actual concentration of each infused drug in the blood of patient during DOA for a safer, reliable and personalized anesthesia delivery. In this thesis, we present the design, the implementation and the validation of a complete TDM system for long-time and continuous monitoring of anesthetics' concentrations. The complete TDM system consists of: (i) a custom-built Raspberry-Pi (RPi)-based electronic board to drive, (ii) the electrochemical sensors for propofol, paracetamol and midazolam detection, that are encapsulated into (iii) a fluidic device to drive the sample on the sensing sites, and (iv) an Android-based Internet of Things (IoT) network architecture to keep the anesthesiologist always connected with the sedated patient. Thanks to the IoT network,


Determination of persulphate using photochemical exchange reaction of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) has been investigated. It is an inexpensive, faster and convenient quantitative method. Sodium nitroprusside is a photolabile complex which undergoes photochemical ligand exchange reactions rapidly. Some recent efforts have been made to utilise such reactions for the estimation of some nitrogen containing anions and electron rich organic molecules. The progress of the reaction is observed spectrophotometrically. The effects of different parameters like pH, change of concentration of sodium nitroprusside, concentration of ligands, light intensity etc. on percentage error was investigated. The efforts were made to minimise the percentage error and some optimum conditions were obtained. Such reaction can be used for the determination of persulphate in the range of millimoles to micromoles; hence it is important to know whether such estimations can be done successfully and that too with the desired accuracy.


Molecular modeling techniques have been widely used in drug discovery fields for rational drug design and compound screening. Now these techniques are used to model or mimic the behavior of molecules, and help us study formulation at the molecular level. Computational pharmaceutics enables us to understand the mechanism of drug delivery, and to develop new drug delivery systems. The book discusses the modeling of different drug delivery systems, including cyclodextrins, solid dispersions, polymorphism prediction, dendrimer-based delivery systems, surfactant-based micelle, polymeric drug delivery systems, liposome, protein/peptide formulations, non-viral gene delivery systems, drug-protein binding, silica nanoparticles, carbon nanotube-based drug delivery systems, diamond nanoparticles and layered double hydroxides (LDHs) drug delivery systems. Although there are a number of existing books about rational drug design with molecular modeling techniques, these techniques still look mysterious and daunting for pharmaceutical scientists. This book fills the gap between pharmaceutics and molecular modeling, and presents a systematic and overall introduction to computational pharmaceutics. It covers all introductory, advanced and specialist levels. It provides a totally different perspective to pharmaceutical scientists, and will greatly facilitate the development of pharmaceutics. It also helps computational chemists to look for the important questions in the drug delivery field.


Since 1918, the tax code has included 26 USC § 104(a)(2), an exclusion from gross income for civil lawsuit damages for "personal injuries or sickness." In 1996, by adding one word—"physical"—to the provision (twice), Congress narrowed the exclusion's scope dramatically. Now, damages compensating for a broken arm (a "personal physical injury") are tax-free, but those arising out of claims for, say, sexual harassment or race discrimination are fully taxable. Such injuries, the statute says, are insufficiently "physical" to merit exclusion from income. Using the recent #MeToo movement as a jumping-off point and borrowing the language and methodologies of feminist legal theory, this Comment scrutinizes the ways in which § 104(a)(2) systematically disadvantages the people most likely to bring such harassment and discrimination claims—female and minority taxpayers. By analyzing every § 104(a)(2) Tax Court case in the past decade, I first find quantitative support for the proposition that female and minority taxpayers are indeed disproportionately impacted by § 104(a)(2). With this on-the-ground impact in mind, I then critically analyze the doctrines courts use to apply § 104(a)(2), highlighting inconsistencies in the provision's application that impose an additional layer of costs on these same disadvantaged taxpayers. In an effort to resolve these inconsistencies, I propose two classes of solutions. First, I suggest a number of tactical and interpretive strategies that lawyers and judges can employ to ensure the provision is applied more equitably. And second, I recommend an amendment to § 104(a)(2) that would equalize its disparate impacts and align it more closely with Congress's stated purposes for enacting it. These solutions would help bring the policy expressed by § 104(a)(2) more closely in line with the priorities of the society that must abide by it.


The aim of this project is to produce a highly functional marketing platform for racing drivers. The platform provides valuable functionality to the customer, and act as a catalyst to grow their social media following. The project will be provided using modern languages, frameworks and tooling. This platform includes a custom theme engine, which will allow the mobile application's look and feel to be configured from the backend platform. The platform employs multi-tenancy on the backend - data is segmented by customer and surfaced to the customer's personal mobile applications on the front end. The platform will be developed with security in mind. The data will be kept safe and confidential, and there will be no overspill of data between tenants.

RFBase is a marketing platform for modern race drivers. Gaining the marketing edge is more important than ever, with drivers fighting for sponsorship and race drives, getting the word out is a top priority. RFBase gives them a platform to deliver News, Driver Bio, Race Calendar, Social Streams and Push Notifications to their fanbase. I achieve this by supplying the driver with a login to the platform where they can generate all of their content. They will also get two white-labeled mobile applications, deployed to the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. Drivers can take residency on the home screens of their most loyal fans, and use RFBase to deliver quality,
exclusive content.

Upon evaluation I found that this product does address the needs of many racing drivers. Drivers are very excited at the prospect of having their own app in the app store, and see a benefit to having this personal stream to broadcast to their fanbase. The theming engine was a big hit among all users - the ability to customise the look and feel of the applications on the fly being identified as a big selling point.


Abstract : The Air Force is in a period of downsizing, both aircraft and personnel. In recent years, the service has cut hundreds of aircraft from its fleet and decreased military end-strength, but has not substantially reduced its infrastructure. Consequently, the cost to operate and maintain Air Force Bases is not decreasing. Mitigation methods are needed to manage the costly burden of excess infrastructure. A new Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round will help the Air Force reduce unnecessary infrastructure and alleviate precious resources necessary for weapon modernization and improved readiness. Cost savings through BRAC can help the Air Force achieve reduced spending and realign itself to post-war budget reductions and a constrained fiscal environment. This research analyzed new severe weather and energy factors at 62 major Air Force Bases in the United States. Adding these new factors should better account for other potential costs and savings associated with BRAC. To estimate these costs, a Monte Carlo simulation is used to forecast annual costs and account for uncertainty with tornado and hurricane risks, along with annual electricity and natural gas costs. Annual cost estimates of these four factors range from approximately $1-million to $100-million dollars. Each base is ranked in a 1-to-n list, according to the total annual cost of the four factors, from highest to lowest. The base with highest annual cost is the best candidate, according to the new proposed criteria, to be eligible for a future BRAC round. If a base is selected for closure, forecasted costs are avoided and ultimately become savings that help offset other expenses in a BRAC scenario.


Astrocytes are highly heterogeneous in their phenotype and function, which contributes to CNS disease, repair, and aging; however, the molecular mechanism of their functional states remains largely unknown. Here, we show that activation of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), a protein deacetylase, played an important role in the detrimental actions of reactive astrocytes, whereas its inactivation conferred these cells with antiinflammatory functions that inhibited the production of proinflammatory mediators by myeloid cells and microglia and promoted the differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. Mice with astrocyte-specific Sirt1 knockout (Sirt1–/–) had suppressed progression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of CNS inflammatory demyelinating disease. Ongoing EAE was also suppressed when Sirt1 expression in astrocytes was diminished by a CRISPR/Cas vector, resulting in reduced demyelination, decreased numbers of T cells, and an increased rate of IL-10–producing macrophages and microglia in the CNS, whereas the peripheral immune response remained unaffected. Mechanistically, Sirt1–/– astrocytes expressed a range of nuclear factor erythroid–derived 2–like 2 (Nfe2l2) target genes, and Nfe2l2 deficiency shifted the beneficial action of Sirt1–/– astrocytes to a detrimental one. These findings identify an approach for switching the functional state of reactive astrocytes that will facilitate the development of astrocyte-targeting therapies for inflammatory neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis.


Voiced by an anonymous group of hybrid machines, from some point in the near future, The Signal and the Noise exposes the parallels of computer coding and genetic coding in humans and animals. The work's narrators look at these creatures as inefficient machines and consider ways of editing and improving their code.

The film draws upon the latest advances in DNA sequencing technology, as well as new ways of controlling behaviour, such as Optogenetics, to propose a future vision of hybrid computing devices that are used to monitor and repair living things, resulting in better performing humans and animals.

Whilst the work appears to be a piece of science fiction, all of the technologies and ideas discussed are based on actual advances and research, and visions of how things might materialise in the future.


9026 Background: Aromatase inhibitor (AI)-associated bone loss increases fracture rates. Vitamin D might play a role in minimizing this fracture risk. We sought to assess the association between 25-hydroxy-Vitamin D concentrations ([25(OH)D]) at baseline, after 3-months of supplementation, and bone loss after 1 year on AI therapy. Additionally, we investigated the relationship between [25(OH)D] increments ([25(OH)D] at 3 months minus baseline) and AI-associated bone loss.

METHODS
Prospective cohort study including a consecutive women initiating AIs for early breast cancer from January/2006 to June/2009 (N=230). Serum [25(OH)D] was measured at baseline and at 3 months, and bone loss was defined as: lumbar spine (LS) absolute loss (baseline minus 1-year BMD) and bone loss rate (absolute loss over baseline BMD). Participants were supplemented with daily oral calcium (1g) and vitamin D3 (800 IU) and, in those with baseline [25(OH)D] was <30 ng/ml,with additional oral 16,000 IU every 2 weeks if. Linear regression models were fitted to adjust for potential confounders. For the current analyses, we included those whithout basal osteoporosis and, hence, not eligible for bisphosphonate therapy.

RESULTS
In the overall population (N=156), increasing levels of [25(OH)D] at 3 months were inversely correlated to LS bone loss rates (adjusted beta for each 10ng/ml -0.41 [95%CI - 0.68 to -0.13], p=0.005) and to absolute bone loss (-0.004 g/cm2, [-0.007 to -0.004], p=0.003) at 1 year. [25(OH)D] increments at 3 months were also protective (adjusted beta for each 10 ng/ml for bone loss rates: -0.46 [-0.71 to -0.21], p<0.001; for absolute bone loss: -0.004 [-0.007 to -0.002], p<0.001). Of note, in the subset with baseline deficiency, baseline [25(OH)D] appeared directly related with BMD loss, although this was of borderline significance (adjusted beta for each 10 ng/ml 1.1, 95%CI -0.008 to 2.25, p-val 0.07).

CONCLUSIONS
[25(OH)D] increments due to supplementation prevents AI-associated bone loss, independently of baseline [25(OH)D]. Hence, vitamin D supplements, with higher dosage than the standard 400 to 800 IU/day, might be useful to minimize bone loss in low risk women starting on AIs.


In 1689 the Scottish Parliament overthrew the Church of Scotland's Episcopal government and replaced it with a Presbyterian church structure. Traditionally, historians have interpreted these events as evidence of the Episcopal Church's lack of popularity and as symptomatic of a trend towards modernization and secularization within Britain as a whole. The Scottish Episcopal Church: Religious Conflict in the Late Stuart Period suggests a reconceptualization of the period. Far from being unpopular, the Scottish Episcopal Church enjoyed considerable support throughout the country. This had several important implications for not only Scotland, but for Britain and Europe as a whole. The reformation in Scotland was not a fait accompli established with a few acts of Parliament, but rather a protracted struggle over ecclesiology and theology that began in the sixteenth-century with John Knox, George Buchanan, and Andrew Melville; this was an endeavor only truly resolved in the early eighteenth-century. The Scottish Episcopal Church examines this process and explores the continued centrality of religion in politics and society. The Scotland that produced some of the Enlightenment's greatest minds remained gripped with religious fervor at this time and, the Scottish Episcopalians created and developed an alternate view of church and state relations that contrasted with the Whig vision typically associated with the eighteenth-century. It was a political vision of a nation based on an indefeasible, hereditary, divine right monarchy in which the


This paper deals with a unitary and systematic design of some weighting, or amplifying circuits based on a simple externally linear internally nonlinear (ELIN) model described by a pair of generally nonlinear functions F and F -1 . We put into evidence two model parameters for determining the conditions to fit both nonlinearities in order to get a linear operation in large signal domain. These parameters also helps with finding out opportunities to control linearly circuit parameters by an external signal or program them by suitably sizing and reconfiguring components. Both Voltage-mode (V-M) and current-mode (C-M) types of cells can be easily analysed and compared in this mean. Using such very general F - F -1 models not only known circuit topologies may be quickly and directly analysed but other new simple modular V-M or C-M weighting/amplifying cell schematics could be derived.


ABSTRACT Actin and actin-binding proteins are incorporated into HIV-1 particles, and F-actin has been suggested to bind the NC domain in HIV-1 Gag. Furthermore, F-actin has been frequently observed in the vicinity of HIV-1 budding sites by cryo-electron tomography (cET). Filamentous structures emanating from viral buds and suggested to correspond to actin filaments have been observed by atomic force microscopy. To determine whether the NC domain of Gag is required for actin association with viral buds and for actin incorporation into HIV-1, we performed comparative analyses of virus-like particles (VLPs) obtained by expression of wild-type HIV-1 Gag or a Gag variant where the entire NC domain had been replaced by a dimerizing leucine zipper [Gag(LZ)]. The latter protein yielded efficient production of VLPs with near-wild-type assembly kinetics and size and exhibited a regular immature Gag lattice. Typical HIV-1 budding sites were detected by using cET in cells expressing either Gag or Gag(LZ), and no difference was observed regarding the association of buds with the F-actin network. Furthermore, actin was equally incorporated into wild-type HIV-1 and Gag- or Gag(LZ)-derived VLPs, with less actin per particle observed than had been reported previously. Incorporation appeared to correlate with the relative intracellular actin concentration, suggesting an uptake of cytosol rather than a specific recruitment of actin. Thus, the NC domain in HIV-1 Gag does not appear to have a role in actin recruitment or actin incorporation into HIV-1 particles. IMPORTANCE HIV-1 particles bud from the plasma membrane, which is lined by a network of actin filaments. Actin was found to interact with the nucleocapsid domain of the viral structural protein Gag and is incorporated in significant amounts into HIV-1 particles, suggesting that it may play an active role in virus release. Using electron microscopy techniques, we previously observed bundles of actin filaments near HIV-1 buds, often seemingly in contact with the Gag layer. Here, we show that this spatial association is observed independently of the proposed actin-binding domain of HIV-1. The absence of this domain also did not affect actin incorporation and had a minor effect on the viral assembly rate. Furthermore, actin was not enriched in the virus compared to the average levels in the respective producing cell. Our data argue against a specific recruitment of actin to HIV-1 budding sites by the nucleocapsid domain of Gag.


Within a single decade (334–325 BC) Alexander III of Macedon conquered much of the known world of his time, creating an empire that stretched from the Balkans to India and southern Egypt. His clear intention of establishing permanent dominion over this huge and culturally diverse territory raises questions about whether and how he tried to legitimate his position and about the reactions of various groups subject to his rule: Macedonians, Greeks, the army, indigenous elites. Starting from Max Weber's "Herrschaftssoziologie", the 15 authors discuss Alexander's strategies of legitimation as well as the motives his subjects may have had for offering him obedience. The analysis of monarchical representation and political communication in these case-studies on symbolic performances and economic, administrative and religious measures sheds new light on the reasons for the swift Macedonian conquest: It appears that Alexander and his staff owed their success not only to their military talent but also to their communication skills and their capacity to cater to the expectations of their audiences.


In this provocative book, Roger Finke and Rodney Stark challenge popular perceptions about American religion. They view the religious environment as a free market economy, where churches compete for souls. The story they tell is one of gains for upstart sects and losses for mainline denominations. Although many Americans assume that religious participation has declined in America, Finke and Stark present a different picture. In 1776, fewer than 1 in 5 Americans were active in church affairs. Today, church membership includes about 6 out of 10 people. But, as Finke and Stark show, not all denominations benefited from this growth. They explain how and why the leading eighteenth-century churches began their descent, while two newcomer sects, the Baptists and the Methodists, gained ground. They also analyze why the Methodists then began a long, downward slide, why the Baptists continued to succeed, how the Catholic Church met the competition of ardent Protestant missionaries, and why the Catholic commitment has declined since Vatican II. The authors also explain why ecumenical movements always fail. In short, Americans are not abandoning religion; they have been moving away from established denominations. A "sect-church process" is always under way, Finke and Stark argue, as successful churches lose their organizational vigor and are replaced by less worldly groups. Some observers assert that the rise in church membership rates indicates increased participation, not increased belief. Finke and Stark challenge this as well. They find that those groups that have gained the greatest numbers have demanded that their followers accept traditional doctrines and otherworldliness. They argue thatreligious organizations can thrive only when they comfort souls and demand sacrifice. When theology becomes too logical, or too secular, it loses people.


Background: Local and international non-governmental organizations play a pivotal role in a relief operation. However, as the number of disasters and their complexity is increasing, the challenges these organizations face during a relief operation are also growing exponentially. It is crucial for relief organizations to not only understand but also to prioritize the factors, which can make their supply chain work better. Therefore, this research aims at understanding the relationship between the key success factors, which can dramatically enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the relief operation. Moreover, this study also highlights how LNGOs and INGOs differentiate between these KSFs and how they rank them.

Methods: To address the objective of this study, the Likert scale style questionnaire was developed and distributed online to all such NGOs (worldwide), which take part in the relief operation. The collected data was then tested for its empirical significance on SPSS using Spearman's Rho, Pearson Chisquare, to understand the relationship and importance of these factors. Whereas, the odds ratio was calculated to rank each KSF.

Results: The results of the study indicate that there exist strong correlation among all selected factors and all KSFs affect INGOs supply chain at least twice as much as they do of LNGOs.

Conclusion: According to our findings and in the light of literature discussed in this research, a successful relief supply chain depends not only on greater and stronger coordination & collaboration but also on sharing information and resources among LNGOs and INGOs.


Despite the importance of peers in forming role expectations, fostering group identity, and facilitating job learning, limited theory and empirical evidence exist on the antecedents of street-level peer relationships. To address this gap, the authors draw on social capital and social exchange theories to develop hypotheses about the micro-social foundations of street-level bureaucrats' peer selection. The hypotheses are tested using a rich data set from an intraorganizational network of teachers in a large urban school implementing a reform that strongly promoted frontline innovation. Both structural and instrumental considerations, such as seeking peers possessing characteristics and resources valued by the reform, figure prominently in the work relations of street-level bureaucrats. These results imply that the introduction of improvement initiatives requiring frontline participation, in addition to altering work practices, may also alter social networks within the frontline of an organization in a manner that favors some frontline workers over others.


This paper describes the feasibility and application of a fluidic-based technology, called hydrodynamic separation (HDS), to separate suspended particles from liquid. It uses customized fluid flow patterns in a curved channel to create a pair of Dean vortexes that focus particles into a concentrated band near one channel wall. A splitter at the end of the channel divides the flow into a clean effluent stream and a concentrate stream. The focusing of particles is primarily due to a combination of hydrodynamic forces (drag, virtual mass, and shear), which causes a size rather than density dependent separation. This enables separation of particles with densities identical or close to that of their surrounding fluid, allowing this technology to be especially useful in situations where traditional methods are challenged, such as removal of buoyant particulates from primary clarifiers or separation of unsettleable activated sludge in secondary clarifiers. We tested HDS-based separators with samples that include neutrally buoyant polystyrene beads, activated sludge, primary clarifier effluent and powdered activated carbon to demonstrate its efficacy. In each case, high separation efficiency was achieved which reaffirmed our commitments to evolve HDS technology into an effective pretreatment solution.


One of the consequences of living in this century of machine and technology development is poverty in movement and reduction in physical activity. This study aimed to examine the predictive factors of physical activity in health volunteers based on the structures of Pender's health promotion model. This study was perform 80 health volunteers working at urban and rural health centers that were selected by multistage random sampling. Data were gathered by using a questionnaire for which the validity and reliability were confirmed. The results showed that despite a relatively high awareness about the benefits of physical activity (earning an mean score of 30.6 ± 3.8on perceived benefits out of 40), 55% of participants did not have a good physical activity. There was a significant positive correlation between physical activity behavior and health promotion model variables such as perceived barriers, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy. A total of 66.8% of the variance of physical activity behavior were explained by health promotion model variables that among them, self-efficacy, positive feelings associated with the behavior, and situational influences were the strongest predictor. According to the results, physical activity in health volunteers is low and interventions are needed to improve this behavior. The design of training programs for promotion of physical activity should be focused on strategies to strengthen self-motivation in individuals and families at their homes and improve workplaces.


Background: This study aimed to determine the efficacy and safety of membrane sweeping on the duration of pregnancy at term and induction rate. The study design was a randomized controlled trial. Method: The study conducted at the King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from January 1, 2011 to January 1 2012. One hundred and sixty women with uncomplicated pregnancy attending the antenatal clinic and delivery room were randomized to membrane sweeping (study group, n = 80) or no sweeping (control group, n = 80) at 38 weeks of gestation. Results: Most of the women who underwent membrane sweeping entered spontaneous labor (90 vs. 75%), with a significant difference in mean gestational age (39.5 ± 0.9 vs. 40.0 ± 1.2, P = 0.004). The overall incidence of pregnant women at 41 week gestation was 10 % in women who underwent membrane sweeping and 25% in the controls (OR 3.0, 95% CI 1.2 - 7.3, P = 0.01). The induction rate was less in study compared to control group (10 % vs. 25%; P = 0.01). There were no differences in the incidence of cesarean delivery, or maternal or fetal morbidity between the two groups. Conclusion: Sweeping of the membranes at term is safe and reduces the incidence of post-date gestation. Most women required only a single cervical sweeping. J Clin Gynecol Obstet. 2014;3(1):30-34 doi: http://dx.doi.o rg/10.14740/jcgo225 w


Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is a neurological disease characterised by ascending paralysis that can lead to respiratory muscle compromise and death. Although the exact trigger of GBS is unknown, case control studies have shown that it often follows an acute infectious illness. In recent years, serological and cultural studies have suggested that Campylobacterjejuni is the infectious agent most commonly associated with the development of GBS. Culture confirmation of C. jejuni infections has been achieved in up to 50% of GBS patients, in spite of the fact that many GBS patients with antecedent Campylobacter infection are likely to have already cleared their stools of the organism by the time neurological symptoms begin. Campylobacter infection is now classified as the most common cause of bacterial food poisoning in the Western world. In Tasmania, over 400 cases are notified each year. Given this prevalence it is not clear why only a small number of patients with C. jejuni enteritis develop GBS whilst the majority do not. Two possibilities exist; the first being that susceptibility is determined by host-specific factors; the second is that bacterial strain-specific factors determine whether patients develop GBS. The aim of this investigation is to determine the importance of the second factor. The specific objectives being to define specific bacterial markers that might be used to determine those strains of Campylobacter associated with the development of GBS.
The way in which infection with C. jejuni leads to GBS is unknown, however, there is evidence suggesting that Gml ganglioside in the core of the lipopolysaccharide of certain strains of C. jejuni may stimulate an immune response to this epitope in infected patients. It is hypothesized that this immune response may then lead to an autoimmune peripheral neuropathy because the Gml in the bacteria is identical to that in the nerve cell.
This study investigated the epidemiology of Campylobacter infection within the Tasmanian community by collecting isolates from patients notified to the Department of Health in Tasmania. This culture collection was then used to develop a robust method for speciation of isolates. This included development of a multiplex PCR for the hippurate gene/16S rRNA gene with subsequent dot blot hybridisation using labeled probes. Using this system, 237 enteritis strains were identified as C. jejuni, 10 C. co/i, 2 C. lari and 1 C. upsaliensis.
C. jejuni serotype 0:19 appears to be over-represented in most published studies of GBS but campylobacters of this serotype do not account for all Campylobacter isolates from GBS patients. Potential markers of GBS-associated campylobacters investigated in the present study included the use of a Cholera Toxin Binding Assay for Gml -like epitopes in bacteria cell walls, a PCR for serotype 0:19 strains and Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE). While 33% of all Tasmanian strains were found to be Gml positive, no isolates were found to belong to the serotype 0:19. Further, computer-assisted analysis of PFGE profiles showed no similarity between GBS strains of C. jejuni and Tasmanian strains of Campylobacter.
Subtractive hybridisation was used to produce a DNA library containing sequences that are over-represented in GBS-associated strains of C. jejuni. This library has been used to screen GBS and non-GBS-associated strains of C. jejuni. A unique DNA sequence, present only in the GBS-associated strains, has been identified and a PCR-based assay developed to detect this gene (Veh). The gene has homology to a sequence (Cj1013c), determined as part of the recently completed C. jejuni genome sequencing project, which is a gene of unknown function. Further studies to define gene function have been hampered by the lack of a suitable mutagenesis system for C. jejuni. Veh has been cloned in a shuttle vector to enable its mobilisation into other transfer systems.
It is hoped that in the future, identification of Campylobacter strains containing the Veh gene will lead to prompt treatment of patients infected with these strains thereby decreasing the incidence of GBS and its associated morbidity and mortality.


Purpose of reviewTo summarize findings, discuss problems and define new questions from the past phase III trials in anaplastic gliomas. Recent findingsThe current standard of care for first-line treatment in anaplastic gliomas is radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The next steps are to define the role and optimal sequencing of combined modality treatment focusing on radiotherapy and temozolomide and to develop trials with novel targeted treatments. The feature of necrosis in oligodendroglial tumors needs to be further studied, and molecular prognosticators will take more room. These include O6-methylguanylmethyltransferase promoter methylation, isocitrate dehydrogenase mutations and epidermal growth factor receptor amplification. Further, the notion that all anaplastic oligodendroglial tumors with or without a relevant astrocytic component fall into the same prognostic category and the obvious difficulties to type and to grade anaplastic gliomas pose an enormous burden on local diagnosis. The current and upcoming trials including the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer 26053/22054 trial aim at solving some of these issues with an initial central pathology review. SummaryAnaplastic gliomas are an important group of brain tumors to develop future molecularly targeted therapies and should therefore be in the main focus of academic and industrial drug development, which aims at efficacy and avoiding long-term side effects.


Background In real life, outcomes in wet age related macular degeneration (W-AMD) continue to fall behind the results from randomized controlled trials. The aim of this trial was to assess if outcomes can be improved by an intervention in healthcare organization following recommendations of the Chronic Care Model (CCM). Methods Multi-centered randomized controlled clinical trial. The multifaceted intervention consisted in reorganization of care (delivery by trained chronic care coaches, using reminder systems, performing structured follow-up, empowering patients in self-monitoring and giving decision-support). In the control usual care was continued. Main outcome measures were changes in ETDRS visual acuity, optical coherence tomography (OCT) macular retinal thickness and quality of life (NEI VFQ-25 questionnaire). Results 169 consecutive patients in Swiss ophthalmology centers were included. Mean ETDRS baseline visual acuity of eyes with W-AMD was 57.8 (± 18.7). After 12 months, the between-group difference in mean change of ETDRS visual acuity was -4.8 (95%CI: -10.8 to +1.2, p = 0.15); difference in mean change of OCT was +14.0 (95% CI -39.6 to 67.6, p = 0.60); difference in mean change of NEI VFQ-25 composite score mean change was +2.1(95%CI: -1.3 to +5.5, p = 0.19). Conclusions The intervention aiming at improving chronic care was not associated with favorable outcomes within 12 months. Other approaches need to be tested to close the evidence-performance gap in W-AMD. Trial Registration Controlled-Trials.com ISRCTN32507927


Forty years after world leaders from Vancouver to Vladivostok signed up to the ten principles of the Helsinki Final Act, in this CEPS Essay Erwan Fouere considers the historic significance of the agreement that laid the foundations for today's Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The author concludes with a number of recommendations that recall the principles of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 and argues that, if participating states are willing to uphold them, these principles have even greater relevance today for the resolution of Europe's complex and protracted conflicts.


This paper describes a system supporting knowledge sharing in and between networked organizations. Knowledge resources are stored in a structured way, supporting the flexible association of access levels to knowledge resources and thus giving an organization the possibility to share knowledge while securing knowledge resources which are categorized as critical for competition. The system considers explicit knowledge stored in a Web-based information system and the implicit knowledge of human experts. Both types of knowledge are described by meta-data, in terms of an ontology and/or user created keywords/tags. These meta-data are used to find relevant knowledge sources, cluster these resources and to recommend certain resources to users. In this paper we introduce the system through a usage scenario at the university where students and university staff use the system to share knowledge.


Difficulties in contract enforcement impede international transactions in the world economy and domestic transactions in transition economies. In Contracts in Trade and Transition, Dalia Marin and Monika Schnitzer explain how barter as an economic institution can facilitate contract enforcement across national borders in international trade and within borders in transition countries. The authors show that international countertrade--tying an export to an import--emerged in the 1980s in response to the international debt crisis when Western creditors refused to finance imports to developing countries and Eastern Europe. Barter--the exchange of goods without the use of money--reemerged in transition economies in the 1990s in response to a domestic debt crisis when banks in transition countries were reluctant to provide finance to firms. Countertrade and barter introduce a deal-specific form of collateral that addresses the lack of creditworthiness of countries and firms. Drawing on contract theory, the authors argue that parties might want to pay in goods rather than cash or link an export with an import as in countertrade to solve incentive problems that otherwise would prevent any trade from taking place. The incentive problems they discuss are the technology transfer problem to developing countries and the "lack of trust" problem in the former Soviet Union.


Governments have largely turned to public-private partnerships (PPPs) to manage public services. Although it is difficult to analyze PPPs as discrete and alternative forms of public service organization, they all constitute some forms of partial outsourcing of activities that contribute to the realization of a public service. In water industries, the most common form of PPPs is the concession, in which a private firm finances and operates the public service of water while the infrastructure remains public. This report seeks to answer the question of whether PPPs have contributed successfully to the quality and improvement of water public services all around the world. The paper is organized in three sections. In the first section, the different supposed advantages and costs of PPPs are presented. The second section reviews some of the most important studies on the efficiency of PPPs in water industries. The last section provides some recommendations to improve the use of PPPs in water public services.


In this paper, based on abundant data from Sina Weibo, we perform a comprehensive and in-depth empirical analysis of repostings and draw some conclusions. First, in regards to quantity, reposting takes up a large proportion of daily microblog activity. Second, the depth of repostings follows an exponential distribution and the first three orders of repostings hold 99 percent of the total amount of reposting, which provides an important foundation for solving the question of Influence Maximization. Third, the time interval for repostings also obeys exponential distribution. Therefore, we have built a dynamic information propagation model in terms of conclusions drawn from Weibo data and the Continuous-Time Markov Process. Due to the basis of the temporal network, our proposed model can change with the time and structure of a network, thus giving it good adaptability and predictability as compared to the traditional information diffusion model. From the final simulation results, our proposed model achieves a good predictive effect.


The research aims to explore the association between behavioral habits and chronic diseases, and to identify a portfolio of risk factors for preventive healthcare. The data is taken from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) database of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the year 2012. Using SPSS Modeler, we deploy neural networks to identify strong positive and negative associations between certain chronic diseases and behavioral habits. The data for 475,687 records from BRFS database included behavioral habit variables of consumption of soda and fruits/vegetables, alcohol, smoking, weekly working hours, and exercise; chronic disease variables of heart attack, stroke, asthma, and diabetes; and demographic variables of marital status, income, and age. Our findings indicate that with chronic conditions, behavioral habits of physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption are negatively associated; soda, alcohol, and smoking are positively associated; and income and age are positively associated. We contribute to individual and national preventive healthcare by offering a portfolio of significant behavioral risk factors that enable individuals to make lifestyle changes and governments to frame campaigns and policies countering chronic conditions and promoting public health.


A machine gun overpowers a nine-year-old girl, erratically spraying bullets and accidentally killing her instructor; a perturbed mother slays her son and then takes her own life; a convicted felon circumvents federal prohibitions to access a firearm to commit suicide; and, perhaps most notably, Navy SEAL war veteran Chris Kyle, focus of the movie "American Sniper," was murdered while attempting to help another veteran recover from post-traumatic stress disorder. We have all seen the headlines, but we have largely ignored the source of this heartbreak. The ramifications of these examples are not merely cinematic, but also involve families suffering from grievous loss. Much ink has been spilled over these news stories, yet only a minimal amount of attention has been paid to the legal issues involved. Other than preventable tragedy, what is the common denominator in these stories? All of these misfortunes took place at a lawfully operating gun range.Few debates are as heated as those involving the Second Amendment right to bear arms and the role of the state in regulating that right. Despite this extensive discussion, the issue of firearm violence on gun ranges has been close to nonexistent. Loopholes in the regulatory framework for gun ranges plague our loved ones and threaten public safety across the country.This Article argues that, unlike gun ownership, gun rental does not implicate the core protections of the Second Amendment as defined in District of Columbia v. Heller. Heller explains that the Second Amendment confers an individual right "to keep and bear arms" for the purpose of self-defense in the home. However, this right refers only to ownership, and renters — by definition — do not own rented firearms. Moreover, gun rentals are, at best, only tangentially related to an individual's right to self-defense.To close the loopholes in the current regulatory framework, this Article proposes rational gun rental regulations that will ultimately increase safety on gun ranges and minimize the loss of life that has become all too familiar in many areas of the country. These regulations include: (1) treating on-premises and off-premises gun rentals the same; (2) requiring National Instant Criminal Background Check System checks for non-gun owners who borrow weapons; (3) limiting the types of guns permitted for rental; and (4) imposing minimum age requirements. Because gun rental regulations do not implicate any ownership or self-defense interests, this Article argues that these regulations should receive rational basis constitutional review only. Given the government's strong interest in ensuring public safety and the relatively minor burden imposed on gun renters, gun rental regulations would easily pass muster under this standard. Further, even if a court were to find that gun rental regulations warrant intermediate constitutional scrutiny, this Article demonstrates that these regulations would also survive a heightened level of review.


Missing value imputation is a fundamental problem in spatiotemporal modeling, from motion tracking to the dynamics of physical systems. Deep autoregressive models suffer from error propagation which becomes catastrophic for imputing long-range sequences. In this paper, we take a non-autoregressive approach and propose a novel deep generative model: Non-AutOregressive Multiresolution Imputation (NAOMI) to impute long-range sequences given arbitrary missing patterns. NAOMI exploits the multiresolution structure of spatiotemporal data and decodes recursively from coarse to fine-grained resolutions using a divide-and-conquer strategy. We further enhance our model with adversarial training. When evaluated extensively on benchmark datasets from systems of both deterministic and stochastic dynamics. NAOMI demonstrates significant improvement in imputation accuracy (reducing average prediction error by 60% compared to autoregressive counterparts) and generalization for long range sequences.


Parallel computer systems are suitable for solving computationally intensive numerical methods such as finite-volume and finite-element methods for solving partial di.erential equations. A program and associated data are distributed among the processors. The aim is to find a distribution where the communication is as low as possible. This leads to the mesh-partitioning optimization problem, which is known to be an NP-hard. Ant-colony algorithm (ACA) is a relatively new metaheuristic search technique for solving general optimization problems. We experimentally study ACA for solving the mesh-partitioning problem.


This is a thesis report concerning mobile services within telematics for a telephone controlled motor lock. This report constitutes a pre-study on how to develop this from an idea to a fully operational product. The basic idea is to make it possible to control a lock no matter where you are in the world. This thesis is made in association with the company Creab/Trosso Las in Karlskrona, Sweden and I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those that in some way have been involved in this project. First I would like to thank Tommy Romlin and Ola Corneliusson at Creab/Trosso Las for their patience with the project. I would also like to thank my first examiner Ulrick Rodin as well as my new examiner Gunnar Rahlen for their support in this. A special thanks to my family for their support during this thesis.


An analytical model is developed in this paper which relates the major component of micro-EHL pressure responses to lubricant properties, roughness geometry, contact load, velocity, and slide-to-roll ratio. Analyses are then conducted showing the effects of system parameters on this micro-EHL pressure. For a Newtonian lubricant with an exponential pressure-viscosity law, this pressure would be large unless the contact practically operates right at pure rolling. The magnitude of the pressure rippling is largely independent of the slide-to-roll ratio, and smaller wavelength components of the surface roughness generate larger micro-EHL pressures. With less dramatic pressure-viscosity enhancement such as the two-slope model, the micro-EHL pressure is generally smaller and sensitive to the slide-to-roll ratio, larger with higher sliding in the contact. Furthermore, this pressure-viscosity model yields a micro-EHL pressure that becomes vanishingly small corresponding to sufficiently small wavelength components of the roughness. For a shear-thinning non-Newtonian lubricant, such as the Eyring model, with an exponential pressure-viscosity law, substantially less micro-EHL pressure rippling is generally developed than its Newtonian counterpart. While the pressure rippling is insensitive of the slide-to-roll ratio like its Newtonian counterpart, it vanishes corresponding to sufficiently small wavelength components of the roughness. The analyses revealed that a key factor resulting in a smaller micro-EHL pressure with the two-slope model or the Eyring model is the lower viscosity or shear-thinned effective viscosity in the loaded region of the contact. Since EHL traction is proportional to this viscosity, contacts lubricated with oils exhibiting higher traction behavior would develop larger micro-EHL pressures and thus would be more vulnerable to fatigue failure.


Abstract This paper describes teacher educators' understanding of language for classroom communication in higher education. We argue that teacher educators who are aware of their personal practical knowledge of language have a better understanding of their students' language use and provide better support for knowledge construction. Personal practical knowledge originates from teachers' professional practice and is based on their past experience, current awareness and future expectation. Data from focus group interviews with teacher educators (N = 35) were used for content analysis. Findings demonstrate an emerging conceptualization resulting in two language modalities of personal practical knowledge, specified as: 'language-sensitive and interpersonally oriented' and 'language-focused and pedagogically oriented.' The insights contribute to building a professional practical knowledge base of language and communication-oriented teaching.


Abstract. Seasonal snow samples obtained at 46 sites in 6 provinces of China in January and February 2010 were analyzed for a suite of chemical species and these data are combined with previously determined concentrations of insoluble light-absorbing particles (ILAP), including all particles that absorb light in the 650–700 nm wavelength interval. The ILAP, together with 14 other analytes, are used as input to a positive matrix factorization (PMF) receptor model to explore the sources of ILAP in the snow. The PMF analysis for ILAP sources is augmented with backward trajectory cluster analysis and the geographic locations of major source areas for the three source types. The two analyses are consistent and indicate that three factors/sources were responsible for the measured light absorption of snow: a soil dust source, an industrial pollution source, and a biomass and / or biofuel burning source. Soil dust was the main source of the ILAP, accounting for ~53% of ILAP on average.


We calculate the ray trajectory of light as it propagates along a medium with a Gaussian and Lorentzian graded index of refraction. The trajectory was determined by solving the differential equation obtained from Snell's Law applied to the interface with a varying index of refraction. For both the Gaussian and Lorentzian graded index of refraction, the ray trajectory follows a sinusoidal path whose frequency depends on the full width at half maximum of the graded index profile. The initial direction of the path of light inside the medium determines the amplitude of the sinusoid. We believe that calculating the trajectory of light inside a medium with a varying index of refraction may help students have a better understanding of waveguides.


This title will analyse the practice of international courts and tribunals to the valuation of investment claims against states. It pays specific attention to the question of interest. Specific guidance on how valuation issues should be approached will be invaluable to counsel, advisors, judges and arbitrators in international judicial proceedings. This issue of valuation represents one of the most important aspects in international investment disputes. The parties involved have an obvious interest in an appropriate solution to the question of quantum. The sums involved are high and this is particularly true in the context of private foreign investment. With the increase of international investment both in the developing as well as the developed world, there is a growing need for a stable and predictable approach to quantum. However, until recently, the issue of valuation has attracted rather little attention both in international jurisprudence and legal writing. The present book now meets the needs of foreign investors and host States by setting the issue of valuation on a more solid ground. It provides an analysis of how international courts and tribunals have handled cases until now. The emphasis lies on the correct identification of the legal basis claim to inform the valuation method. The author concludes with suggestions and proposals as to how valuation should be handled by legal councils, experts, judges and arbitrators in international judicial proceedings.


Non-Abelian fractional supersymmetry algebra in two dimensions is introduced utilizing Uq(sl(2, R)) at roots of unity. Its representations and the matrix elements are obtained. The dual of it is constructed and the corepresentations are studied. Moreover, a differential realization of the non-Abelian fractional supersymmetry generators is given in the generalized superspace defined by two commuting and two generalized Grassmann variables. An invariant action under the fractional supersymmetry transformations is given. E-mail address: email@example.com E-mail addresses: firstname.lastname@example.com and email@example.com.


Digital technologies are revolutionizing the practices of teaching and learning at colleges and universities all around the world. With the emergence of internet and web technologies, tertiary institutions are increasingly exploring the potential use of e-learning technologies to cater for the ever growing demands of flexible teaching needs in distance education. The teaching institutions are making significant efforts in e-learning development and investing significantly in associated information technology infrastructure with the expectation of high return on their investment. However, in spite of this effort and investment the teachers and faculty do not always use the technology as expected and more often e-learning systems continue to be underutilised. This research investigates the factors that influence or inhibit the adoption of e-learning systems in the universities, institutes of technology and polytechnics in New Zealand. A cross section of teaching staff from different tertiary institutions was surveyed to ascertain their views on adopting learning management systems (LMS) in their teaching process. The survey questionnaire is based on factors that are being advocated by well known practitioners and academics, which were identified through a literature review. The study reveals three key groups of factors: individual, system and organisational, affecting the adoption of e-learning systems in the tertiary institutions. The report introduces a theoretical framework for user acceptance of e-learning systems and presents a detailed analysis for factors relating to: (a) individual characteristics (b) individual perceptions (c) LMS system characteristics (d) external system characteristics (e) organisational support and (f) organisational characteristics. The results show that whilst individual factors have significant contribution to the LMS adoption, the system and organisational factors are most crucial for user acceptance in elearning systems. The users ranked that release time for staff, the ease of use of LMS, perceived usefulness of LMS, training and support to develop online content and the reliability of information and communication technology infrastructure are the five most essential factors for staff uptake in e-learning systems.


This paper investigates the role of service quality to customers in the efficiency assessment of water companies in England and Wales. To achieve this, data envelopment analysis techniques are employed to compute the technical efficiency of the water companies following two approaches: (i) traditional assessment based on quantity variables (without the inclusion of service quality variables) and, (ii) alternative assessment considering quantity and service quality variables as undesirable outputs. The analysis covers 22 water and sewerage companies and water only companies providing drinking water services. The results indicate that the traditional efficiency assessment reveals a high level of technical efficiency suggesting that the English and Welsh water industry is mature and one of the challenges it faces is improving the service quality. When introducing service quality variables in the evaluation, the average scores of technical efficiency slightly decrease. It suggests that on average water companies do not necessarily provide high quality of service meaning that the traditional efficiency assessment favours their performance. Quality of service supplied to customers within a water sector matters and should be taken into account during the benchmarking process as it could assist regulated companies and regulators to improve performance and incentives respectively.


A deduction for treble damages paid for breach of the taxpayer's National Health Service Corps medical service obligation was erroneously denied under IRC 265(a)(1) in 'Stroud v. US', 906 F. Supp. 990 (1995). The provision does not apply because taxpayer's damages were not a cost of earning a tax-exempt scholarship which had been received many years earlier, but rather a deductible cost of buying out one employment obligation in order to earn taxable income in another. The history of IRC 265(a)(1) is analyzed and criticized. In 'Keane v. CIR', 75 TCM 2046 (1998), the taxpayer's deduction for current interest on a note for damages for breach of an NHSC scholarship contract was erroneously denied (as in Stroud as well). The note was not for a student loan, as the court stated, but for deductible damages as in Stroud. The origin of the government's claim for damages was not the scholarship awarded in the remote past, but rather the more proximate breach of the scholarship contract. The origin of the claim doctrine is analyzed as it applies to two possible origins in the past. Also, both courts are criticized for overlooking the only relevant issue as to deductibility of the interest, namely, whether the physicians were employees or self-employed. The rule that employee business interest is personal and nondeductible is analyzed and criticized.


Using a support vector machine (SVM) requires to set the values of two types of hyperparameters: the soft margin parameter C and the parameters of the kernel. To perform this model selection task, the method of choice is cross-validation. Its leave-one-out variant is known to produce an estimator of the generalization error which is almost unbiased. Its major drawback rests in its time requirement. To overcome this difficulty, several upper bounds on the leave-one-out error of the pattern recognition SVM have been derived. Among those bounds, the most popular one is probably the radius-margin bound. In this report, we establish a generalized radius-margin bound dedicated to the multi-class SVM of Lee, Lin and Wahba.


This project is an excerpt from an ongoing ethnographically based exploration of Black women hair care professionals in the Los Angeles area and the domesticity of public service. The work extrapolates and applies the narrated experiences of the Black woman hair care professional (BWHCP) into the interlocking spheres of race, culture, performance, and the social marketing of identity in both the formal and informal economy. The project is an experimental ethnography working at the intersections of critical and interpretive methodologies that foreground the author/ethnographer's critical and poetic reflections on the process of interpreting ethnographic data and the experience of engaging the cultural familiar. The project further argues that in the practices and cultural performances of these women — the local is political and the political is global.


The failure of rock mass under loading is resulting from preexisting flaws, such as cracks, pores and other defects. However, the propagation and coalescence mechanism among multi-group cracks is still a puzzle, especially to the engineering rocks in site. In this study, the failure of rock samples with two groups of preexisting parallel cracks under the axial load were numerically investigated by the Rock Failure Process Analysis code (RFPA) from a mechanics point of view. The simulated results reproduce the rock failure process: at the first loading stage, the particle is stressed and energy is stored as elastic strain energy with a few randomly isolated fractures. As the load increases, the isolated fractures are localized to form a macroscopic crack. At the peak load, the isolated fractures unstably propagate in a direction parallel to the loading direction following tortuous paths and with numerous crack branches. Finally, the major crack passes through the rock sample and several coarse progeny cracks are formed. Moreover, in the vicinity of the contacting zone the local crushing is always induced to cause fines. On the base of the simulated results, it is found that the dominant breakage mechanisms are catastrophic splitting and progressive crushing. It is pointed out that the particle breakage behavior strongly depends on the heterogeneous material property, the irregular shape and size, and the various loading conditions. Because of heterogeneity, the crack propagates in tortuous path and crack branching becomes a usual phenomenon. The failure process of rock sample demonstrated that due to the high stress concentration at the cracks tip or some weaker strength elements which are not on the cracks surface initiate some micro-fractures, those cracks and fractures may gradually become larger and larger, more and more with the progress of loading so that join into the branch cracks leading to the rock failure in the end. Not only did the output of the numerical simulation study compare well with the experiment results, but also the further insights of the mechanism of cracks propagation and coalescence process in rock mass were obtained.


How do economic policy mistakes happen? One view is that policy makers are benevolent, and errors arise because economic theories are inadequate. Another is that policy makers pursue sectional interests that may have no relation to any academic consensus on good policy. This paper examines a third alternative: policy makers want to do the right thing (although they have political preferences), and the academic consensus is correct, but policy makers do not follow it because they rely on imperfect intermediaries. I use this framework to examine the global switch to fiscal austerity in 2010.


Present work shows the feasibility of decentralized energy options for the Tumkur district in India. Decentralized energy planning (DEP) involves scaling down energy planning to subnational or regional scales. The important aspect of the energy planning at decentralized level would be to prepare an area‐based DEP to meet energy needs and development of alternate energy sources at least‐cost to the economy and environment. The geographical coverage and scale reflects the level at which the analysis takes place, which is an important factor in determining the structure of models. In the present work, DEP modeling under different scenarios has been carried out for Tumkur district of India for the year 2020. DEP model is suitably scaled for obtaining the optimal mix of energy resources and technologies using a computer‐based goal programming technique. The rural areas of the Tumkur district have different energy needs. Results show that electricity needs can be met by biomass gasifier technology, using biomass feedstock produced by allocating only 12% of the wasteland in the district at 8 t/ha/yr of biomass productivity. Surplus electricity can be produced by adopting the option of biomass power generation from energy plantations. The surplus electricity generated can be supplied to the grid. The sustainable development scenario is a least cost scenario apart from promoting self‐reliance, local employment, and environmental benefits. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2011