With the advent of network function virtualization (NFV), outsourcing network processing to the cloud is growing in popularity amongst enterprises and organizations. Such outsourcing, however, poses a threat to the security of the client's traffic because the cloud is notoriously susceptible to attacks. We present SafeBricks, a system that shields generic network functions (NFs) from an untrusted cloud. SafeBricks ensures that only encrypted traffic is exposed to the cloud provider, and preserves the integrity of both traffic and the NFs. At the same time, it enables clients to reduce their trust in NF implementations by enforcing least privilege across NFs deployed in a chain. SafeBricks does not require changes to TLS, and safeguards the interests of NF vendors as well by shielding NF code and rulesets from both clients and the cloud. To achieve its aims, SafeBricks leverages a combination of hardware enclaves and language-based enforcement. SafeBricks is practical, and its overheads range between ∼0–15% across applications.


Molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) is a technique to produce a template-shape cavities in polymer matrix with memory of the template/target molecule for chemical sensor front-end development. In this study, it has been shown that the incorporation of graphene sheet congo-red (GSCR) has enhanced the performance of Organic Thin Film Transistor (OTFT) amino acid (serine) chemical sensor. The sensor has a lower detection limit of 70 ppm serine concentration with a good repeatability and reproducibility. The GSCR-MIP sensor has a good potential for other application such as detecting amino acid biomarkers for early detection of cancer disease in blood.


Design trade-offs for a low-voltage two-stage amplifier in the HP CMOS14 process are presented and some of the issues of low-voltage analog design are discussed. The design of a new constant-transconductance input stage that has a rail-to-rail common-mode input range is described, along with the rail-to-rail class-AB output stage. The performance specifications and area of this amplifier are compared with a similar design in a previous process, CMOS34.


Semimetals with extremely large magnetoresistance have attracted significant interest because of their possible nontrivial electronic structures, unusual transport properties, and also deep connections to high-energy physics. In this paper, we synthesize the GdSb single crystal and systematically characterize its crystal structure, magnetism, and electric transport properties. It is found that this compound crystallizes in the NaCl-type structure with a space group Fmm and experiences an antiferromagnetic phase transition at 23.4 K. Electric transport measurements reveal that this compound is metallic, in which spin disorders induced a resistivity anomaly emerging around its magnetic transition temperature. Intriguingly, obvious resistivity plateaus are observed at low temperatures, when the compound is subjected to the external magnetic field, showing an extremely large magnetoresistance effect up to 12 100% at 2 K and 9 T. Through the Hall resistivity measurement and first-principles band structure calculations, GdSb is believed to be a multi-band and compensated semimetal, in which the total carrier concentrations of electrons and holes are almost comparable. The electron–hole compensation and ultrahigh mobility of GdSb can contribute to the large magnetoresistance in this compound.


A number of energy-aware routing protocols were proposed to seek the energy efficiency of routes in Multihop wireless networks. Among them, several geographical localized routing protocols were proposed to help making smarter routing decision using only local information and reduce the routing overhead. However, all proposed localized routing methods cannot guarantee the energy efficiency of their routes. In this article, we first give a simple localized routing algorithm, called Localized Energy-Aware Restricted Neighborhood routing (LEARN), which can guarantee the energy efficiency of its route if it can find the route successfully. We then theoretically study its critical transmission radius in random networks which can guarantee that LEARN routing finds a route for any source and destination pairs asymptotically almost surely. We also extend the proposed routing into three-dimensional (3D) networks and derive its critical transmission radius in 3D random networks.


In recent decades, up to the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century, Canadian division-of-powers jurisprudence seems to have been in a period of quiescence, with modern doctrine imposing few constraints on the federal government's implementation of national programs. In this paper, the author argues that adopting provincial interjurisdictional immunity as the Supreme Court of Canada clearly chose to do in the  Canadian Western Bank  case and other cases, must imply further changes to recent federalism doctrine, potentially including the reaffirmation of spheres of genuine provincial exclusivity or even provincial paramountcy.


Abstract Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a highly stigmatised condition, with treatment often involving multidisciplinary care. As such, understanding and comparing the attitudes of emerging mental health and medical professionals towards AN, within the content of sex-based differences, is pertinent to facilitate the development of targeted stigma interventions. Aims: Examine the volitional stigmatisation of AN in emerging medical and mental health professionals. Method: Participants (N = 126) were medical (n = 41) and psychology students (n = 85) who completed a range of attitudinal outcome measures (e.g. Causal Attributions Scale, Eating Disorder Stigma Scale, Opinions Scale, Characteristics Scale and Affective Reaction Scale). Results: Across both disciplines, men were found to exhibit significantly higher eating disorder (ED) stigma, considered AN to be a more trivial and weak illness, and attributed greater levels of blame and responsibility to AN sufferers. Men also had significantly lower biogenetic causal attributions. Compared with psychology students, medicine students exhibited slightly greater anticipation of negative reactions in response to AN, obtained higher selfish/vain scores and considered sociocultural factors to contribute "a lot" in the development and maintenance of AN. Conclusions: Overall, results indicate interventions aimed at improving ED mental health literacy are needed, specifically targeting males and potentially medical students.


Attention networks have proven to be an effective approach for embedding categorical inference within a deep neural network. However, for many tasks we may want to model richer structural dependencies without abandoning end-to-end training. In this work, we experiment with incorporating richer structural distributions, encoded using graphical models, within deep networks. We show that these structured attention networks are simple extensions of the basic attention procedure, and that they allow for extending attention beyond the standard soft-selection approach, such as attending to partial segmentations or to subtrees. We experiment with two different classes of structured attention networks: a linear-chain conditional random field and a graph-based parsing model, and describe how these models can be practically implemented as neural network layers. Experiments show that this approach is effective for incorporating structural biases, and structured attention networks outperform baseline attention models on a variety of synthetic and real tasks: tree transduction, neural machine translation, question answering, and natural language inference. We further find that models trained in this way learn interesting unsupervised hidden representations that generalize simple attention.


CsPbCl3 is a promising material to construct future short wavelength optoelectronic devices based on inorganic perovskite semiconductors. In this study, CsPbCl3 microcrystals were synthesized by a solution phase process. It was found that the photoluminescence (PL) intensities of the CsPbCl3 microcrystals can increase by up to five times under persistent irradiation of UV light without peak shifting, accompanied with an increased absorption coefficient above the band gap and decreased PL lifetime. This PL enhancement is a reversible process with excitation light switching on and off. The photoactivation process of the CsPbCl3 microcrystals is attributed to the passivation of the trap states.


Background and Aims: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients suffer from significant morbidity and diminished life quality. The plant cannabis is beneficial in various gastrointestinal diseases, stimulating appetite and causing weight gain. Our aims were to assess whether treatment with inhaled cannabis improves quality of life, disease activity and promotes weight gain in these patients. Methods: Patients with long-standing IBD who were prescribed cannabis treatment were included. Two quality of life questionnaires and disease activity indexes were performed, and patient's body weight was measured before cannabis initiation and after 3 months' treatment. Results: Thirteen patients were included. After 3 months' treatment, patients reported improvement in general health perception (p = 0.001), social functioning (p = 0.0002), ability to work (p = 0.0005), physical pain (p = 0.004) and depression (p = 0.007). A schematic scale of health perception showed an improved score from 4.1 ± 1.43 to 7 ± 1.42 (p = 0.0002). Patients had a weight gain of 4.3 ± 2 kg during treatment (range 2–8; p = 0.0002) and an average rise in BMI of 1.4 ± 0.61 (range 0.8–2.7; p = 0.002). The average Harvey-Bradshaw index was reduced from 11.36 ± 3.17 to 5.72 ± 2.68 (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Three months' treatment with inhaled cannabis improves quality of life measurements, disease activity index, and causes weight gain and rise in BMI in long-standing IBD patients.


In response to growing concerns about cyberbullying, states and the federal government have begun new legislative initiatives to address cyberbullying. Several of these initiatives specifically encompass bias-based cyberbullying, while in other states, bias-based cyberbullying falls within the parameters of hate crime laws. This article broadly considers the subject of bias-based cyberbullying, which is defined as cyberbullying based on a victim's actual or perceived characteristics such as race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and nation origin. This article begins with a case study of the suicide of Rutger's student, Tyler Clementi, and the decision by the State of New Jersey to pursue criminal charges under its hate crime statute against Dharun Ravi. This article next provides an overview of hate crime laws, and specifically examines the rationale for the passage of hate crime statutes, the characteristics included within those statutes, and the types of federal and state hate crime laws, including penalty enhancement and substantive bias statutes. Finally, this Article explores existing research on bias-based cyberbullying, examines legislative initiatives to address bias-based bullying, discusses the absence of empirical data about bias-based cyberbullying, and provides suggestions for future research.


Abstract There is a risk of introducing survey error at every stage of any study involving a survey: design, data collection, processing, and analysis. Effectively managing the survey sample from the time of sample selection through the survey lifecycle is essential to producing highquality data on schedule and within budget. Managing the survey lifecycle using software systems that are not fully integrated can result in error and cost inefficiencies. The development of an integrated data collection and management system that supports monitoring of survey error has the potential to reduce errors and improve operational efficiencies. This system, referred to as Nirvana, uses a standardized database, protocol, and terminology. It integrates case status and history information across modes of data collection and tracing as well as sample and contact information. Nirvana also centralizes questionnaire development, quality monitoring, and support for real-time survey management decisions.


As spreading at known interarc basins occurs to the west of westward-dipping subduction zones, and movement of the lower plates is also to the west, it is suggested that all plates move chiefly westward. Rates of motion are equal to a net difference between eastward and westward transport on semidiurnal tidal bulges. Eastward-dipping subduction zones at the leading edges of plates that are primarily continental are overridden by less dense material and are forced to step westward. Yet lines of downbending of westward-dipping subduction zones are fixed with respect to the lower mantle, and interarc basins result from westward movement of their adjacent plates. These fixed subduction zones can be used to calibrate previously measured movement between plates; they suggest that the westward transport imparted during each tidal cycle is as much as 0.3 mm.


Biography strengthens the historian's attempts to decipher the behaviour of individuals and also provides a historical window on a certain era, contributing to our knowledge and understanding of the past. Biographical studies of those who were involved in parliamentary politics between 1910 and 1990, the prime ministers, presidents, cabinet ministers, party leaders, humble backbenchers and unsuccessful parliamentary candidates can help to explain why the white minority, after decades of acquiescing the abuse of South Africa's limited democratic tradition, decided to peacefully surrender its political power. And yet, despite the proven value of political biography in the United States and Britain, the library shelves of South African universities are bare of biographies on pre-1990 parliamentary politicians by professional historians. This article explains the reasons for this dearth of biographies, as well as the reasons why it is essential for professional historians to write them and concludes with a recommendation on how such biographies should be written.


The Malaysian food processing industry has been experiencing a major transformation, driven by the emergence of large retail chains and the changing consumption patterns and lifestyles. However, no empirical studies have been conducted to investigate the attempts undertaken by companies in the industry in taking advantage of supply chain management and outsourcing applications. Moreover, a critical review of outsourcing models from literature showed that the majority of the models developed were ambiguous, assumed outsourcing is only limited to non-core functions and lack a clear-cut decision making methodology. Also, none of the examined models was developed specifically for the food processing industry.
Therefore, this research aims to provide a detailed analysis of the outsourcing and the supply chain activities in the Malaysian Food processing industry and develop a model for outsourcing decision making in the food processing industry that will allow companies to decide their outsourcing policy for any intended outsourcing project.
Data for this research were collected through literature review, expert interviews, and survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire was used to gather empirical data on outsourcing and supply chain management issues in the Malaysian food processing industry. Five hundred questionnaires were mailed to randomly chosen companies in a 5-month period that yielded a response rate of 11%. The outsourcing decision making model was developed using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), and validated by conducting structured interviews with 25 purchasing managers from different food processing companies and analyzed using the Expert Choice Software (v. 9.5).
The results indicated that modern SCM principles have not penetrated well into the Malaysian food processing sector. Only 44% of the respondents have strategic partnership(s), and 39% indicated an increase in strategic partnerships(s) in the last three years. Companies outsource both core and non-core function. The top five outsourced functions were packaging (60.4%), import/export management (58.3%), transportation management (58.3%), processing (56.3%), and warehousing (54.2%). Main reasons influenced the respondents to resort to outsourcing included suppliers' compatibility (83%), lack of in-house capability (73%), and complexity of function (56%). Lack of advanced communication systems and competition scored the highest as the most obstacles faced in SC execution with 3.39 and 3.32 respectively. The outsourcing model output indicated that those companies that outsource to solve short-term problems tend to adopt a short-term outsourcing policy which does not emphasize on relationship. On the contrary, companies that tend to outsource to transform their businesses through significant improvements tend to outsource strategically in which strategic partnership must be sought. Otherwise, investing and performing internally is the best alternative.
The contribution of this research is that it has presented empirical evidence on the practices of outsourcing and SCM in the Malaysian food processing industry. Moreover, an outsourcing model was developed to assist food processing companies in identifying their outsourcing policies in accordance with the objectives of the outsourcing project.


Although practical realisation of a fully functioning quantum computer is still a long way off, recent progress both experimentally and theoretically is paving the way for possible implementations. One of the leading approaches is quantum optics, where photons are used as carriers of quantum information, and are manipulated in both linear and non-linear optical circuits. More recently, advances in integrated quantum photonics are enabling the realisation of compact and stable quantum gates and circuits. This approach provides routes to enhancing the complexity of quantum optic experiments, and ultimately towards the development of advanced quantum technologies. This study presents an overview of recent developments in the field of integrated waveguide quantum circuits. Key building blocks required for the realisation of quantum circuits are presented, and a rudimentary version of Shor's quantum factoring algorithm is demonstrated. Planar waveguide quantum circuits provide a high-performance platform from which quantum technologies and experimental quantum physics using single photons can be developed, and a new generation of quantum information and computing devices can be monolithically integrated onto a single optical chip.


Segregation is one of the quality standards that must be monitored during the fabrication and placement of Portland cement concrete. Segregation refers to separation of coarse aggregate from the cement paste, resulting in inhomogeneous mixture. This study introduces a digital imaging based technique to quantify the segregation of Portland cement concrete from 2D digital images of cut sections. In the previous studies, segregation was evaluated based on the existence of coarse aggregate fraction at different geometrical regions of a sample cross section without considering its distribution characteristics. However, it is shown that almost all particle fractions can form clusters and increase the degree of segregation, thus deteriorating the structural performance of concrete. In the proposed methodology, a segregation index is developed by based on the spatial distribution of different size fractions of coarse aggregate within a sample cross section. It is shown that degradation in mixture's homogeneity is controlled by the combined effect of particle distribution and their relative proportions in the mixture. Hence, a segregation index characterizing the mixture inhomogeneity is developed by considering not only spatial distribution of aggregate particles, but also their size fractions in the mixture. The proposed methodology can be successfully used as a quality control tool for monitoring the segregation level in hardened concrete samples.


Modern stream processing engines (SPEs) process large volumes of events propagated at high velocity through multiple queries. By continuously receiving watermarks, which are marker events injected into the stream to signify that no further events are expected beyond a designated timestamp, SPEs can infer stream progress to correctly process window operators. While stream progress is useful information for query execution, it is only utilized to ensure input completion. We argue that to improve performance, stream progress should be leveraged in the design of SPE subsystems. In this thesis, we demonstrate the significant advantages of leveraging stream progress to solve two important SPE problems: query scheduling, and query sample processing. First, existing SPE schedulers generally aim to minimize query output latency by minimizing, in turn, the mean propagation delay of events in query pipelines. However, for queries containing commonly used blocking operators such as windows, we show that a superior approach would be to prioritize the queries based on stream progress. Through the design and development of Klink, we leverage stream progress to unblock window operators and to rapidly propagate the events to output operators. Secondly, sample query processing limits input to only a subset of events such that the sample is statistically representative of the input while ensuring output accuracy guarantees. However, output latency can be significantly increased because relevant watermarks can suffer from large ingestion delay due to long or bursty network latencies. Window computations that account for stragglers can add significant latency while providing inconsequential accuracy improvement. We propose Aion, an algorithm that utilizes sampling to provide approximate answers with low latency by minimizing the effect of stragglers through leveraging control over stream progress. We integrate Klink and Aion into the popular open-source SPE Apache Flink. We demonstrate that Klink delivers hefty performance gains on benchmark workloads, reducing mean and tail query latencies by up to 60% over existing scheduling policies. Similarly, using different benchmark workloads, we demonstrate that Aion reduces stream output latency by up to 85% while providing 95% accuracy guarantees.


This incisive book explores the current state of educational interpreting and how it is failing deaf students. The contributors, all renowned experts in their field, include former educational interpreters, teachers of deaf students, interpreter trainers, and deaf recipients of interpreted educations. "Educational Interpreting" presents the salient issues in three distinct sections. Part 1 focuses on deaf students their perspectives on having interpreters in the classroom, the language myths that surround them, the accessibility of language to them, and their cognition. Part 2 raises questions about the support and training that interpreters receive from the school systems, the qualifications that many interpreters bring to an interpreted education, and the accessibility of everyday classrooms for deaf students placed in such environments. Part 3 presents a few of the possible suggestions for addressing the concerns of interpreted educations, and focuses primarily on the interpreter. The contributors discuss the need to (1) define the core knowledge and skills interpreters must have and (2) develop standards of practice and assessment. They also stress that interpreters cannot effect the necessary changes alone; unless and until administrators, parents, teachers, and students recognize the inherent issues of access to education through mediation, little will change for deaf students."


Polyimide is widely used in film form as a passivation material for power semiconductor devices such as Si, SiC, and GaN. The magnitude of the electric field at the edge termination area of these semiconductor devices is becoming higher due to the increase of operational voltage and/or demand for shrinking the edge termination area to increase device active area. Hence, it is concerned that the accumulation of space charge in the encapsulation and passivation material may affect the insulation performance of these devices, for example, the degradation of withstand voltage due to distortion of the internal electric field caused by space charge accumulation. To design space charge resistance of semiconductor devices, it is important to understand the space charge behavior in polyimide films with a thickness of several to several tens of micrometers. This chapter addresses practical implementation, specifications, and issues on space charge in polyimide insulation on power semiconductor devices focusing on the space charge measurements in thin polyimide films using the latest developed LIMM method and DC conductivity measurements.


An engrossing progress report by an economic and cultural geographer tackles the number one issue related to utilization of plant genetic resources today. The era of free and unencumbered access to new crop varieties appears to be passing (Koo et al. 2004). This development in intellectual property (IP) raises concerns about its implications for food production and human health. New global regulations are reshaping our cultural and natural environments. This work involves an investigation of the role that global institutions (World Trade Organization, United Nations, World Bank) play in constructing new commodities (genetic resources, cultural products, and types of specialized labor) and in modifying the market economies to which they give rise. Debates about the function of the nation state and how its sovereignty is undermined by the emergence of these new global institutions are examined. Cross-cultural analysis of alternative forms of environmental regulation illustrates the culturally embedded nature of knowledge production. Indigenous folk, social movements, and NGO's now play key roles in contemporary geo-political conflicts. The history of the development of global regulatory institutions and regimes in the post-WWII period, their intended purposes and operational structures, are followed by theoretical debates about the 'transboundary' nature of environmental issues and of the need for a global approach to their control. Case studies on genetic resources and IP rights, commodification of cultural property, food safety governance, and global regulation of specialized labor markets illustrate the impact that their regulations are having in shaping local environments. Henry Shands, head of the USDA's Genetic Resources division, suggested that DNA extraction techniques are advancing so rapidly that it is now even possible to use dried herbarium specimens as sources of replicable DNA. This development has created consternation amongst the holders of scientific and academic collections. Parry investigates why these impacts are so geographically uneven and considers what powers nation states and non-state NGOs and indigenous groups have to mediate these effects through alternative, localized, systems of regulation. Koo et al. (2004:1,297) point out that concerns over IP seem to be diverting policy attention from more fundamental negative trends, notably, the slowdown of investment in agricultural R&D worldwide, especially research targeted to poor people's food crops. This weakens domestic capacities to conduct agricultural R&D in many poor countries, especially throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Parry's outsider status provides her an opportunity to speak out without reprisal. It is undeniable that this subject is riddled with contradictions and qualms. All plants have genetic potential. There is a need to rank species according to the likelihood of exploitation, based on objective criteria. Gene bank collections of genetic resources must genuinely be accessible to all. Sites must be selected carefully. Access must not be denied for geopolitical reasons. Are farmer's rights and benefits lost in bureaucratic considerations? Read Wolfgang's (1995) report on challenges to patents on native technology from constituents of the neem tree. Who benefits under benefit sharing? The central government, or the descendants of those farmers whose efforts at crop selection and breeding over hundreds of generations, led to welladapted landraces? Suppose farmers whose successful discoveries are out of favor with the central government, their current status is problematic, or those are residents scattered in refugee camps or incarcerated as prisoners of conscience? Annoyingly, footnotes force readers to refer repeatedly to notes at the end of the volume. There are numerous typographical errors: spelling, hyphenation, superscripts, incorrect placement of information in tables, etc. Parry tackled a difficult subject with adroitness. She does not preach, but reports the facts and leaves readers to draw their own conclusions. Her compilation may irritate some; it will certainly provoke discussion. This book is essential reading for all researchers involved with plant genetic resources—including field botanists, botanical gardens, gene banks, breeders, chemists, pharmacologists, and everyone interested in using plant germplasm—because it critically assesses one of the fundamental issues of our times.


One argument for school choice and competition-driven school improvement is that it might lead schools to provide distinctive options for families—and a better fit between schools and student needs. For example, schools might differ in terms of academic theme, instructional hours, or extracurricular offerings. However, where choice and competition are accompanied by other policies such as testbased accountability, the ability of schools to stand out from the pack may be lessened. This brief examines differentiation among New Orleans public schools and finds that New Orleans schools differentiate themselves on certain measurable characteristics, creating an education market made up of distinct groups of schools and schools that seem unique. We also compare school differentiation in New Orleans to other cities.


Through close readings of excavated texts from Guōdian, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of the way in which meaning is produced in early Chinese philosophical texts. It is the first book on early China to cast light on the relationship between material conditions and ideas and shows how, in an evolving manuscript culture, texts were used by different social groups.


This paper examines the incidence of the federal income tax exemption of interest on state and local bonds, applying a fixed-savings, simplified general equilibrium approach to estimate incidence effects on both the sources and uses of income. In contrast to traditional empirical work that allocates the benefit of tax exemption only to current holders of tax-exempt bonds based on current interest rates, we incorporate the fact that the existence of tax exemption causes the taxable interest rate to rise and the tax-exempt rate to fall. As a consequence, on the sources side, tax exemption can increase after-tax income for holders of both taxable and tax-exempt bonds. On the uses side, consumers of both private and public goods are affected by the higher cost of funds to private and federal government borrowers, the lower cost of funds to state and local borrowers, and the lower cost of funds to private-sector entities with access to the proceeds of tax-exempt borrowing. Overall, higher income individuals remain the primary beneficiaries of tax exemption on the sources side with this new approach, but less so than under the traditional approach. On the uses side, households who consume a relatively large share of state and local public services, such as those with several school-age children, receive significant net benefits.


Objectives The aim of this pilot study was to investigate associations between IL-6 and COX-2 expression in gingival biopsies and both clinical diagnosis and genotypes in the IL-6 and COX-2 genes. Design A case-control study included 41 gingival biopsies obtained from Caucasian patients grouped according to clinical diagnosis of gingival health (n = 10), gingivitis (n = 15) or chronic periodontitis (n = 16). Immunohistochemistry analyses were performed to determine COX-2 expression in lamina propria, IL-6 expression in lamina propria and gingival epithelium and level of inflammatory cell infiltrate. Individual DNA was extracted and genotyped by real-time PCR for IL6 SNPs rs 2069827 and rs 2069825 and for COX-2 rs 6681231. Results The percentage of cellular COX-2 expression was associated with the extent of periodontal disease (Arbes index p = 0.026) and inflammatory infiltrate (p<0.0001). No association was observed between IL6 haplotypes and cells positive to IL-6 or COX-2 in gingival tissues. The COX-2 rs 6681231 was associated with cells positive to IL-6 in the connective tissue (p = 0.032). Conclusions COX-2 expression in gingival tissues may be a marker of periodontal disease severity. COX-2 rs 6681231 may be associated with IL-6 local production in gingival tissues.


In order to cope with the challenges of climate change, fundamental changes are needed in established systems of service provision and consumption. A key rationale for climate policy making is that it induces firms and other actors to develop new 'climate-friendly' technologies. The goal of this project was to study the strategies of firms, inter-firm alliances and associations in the tension field of climate policies and innovative technologies. Each of the three modules focused on a selected set of the relations depicted in the diamond. Empirical analyses were carried out in the fields of energy supply and transportation. Our results show that existing climate policies do not necessarily trigger technological innovation. In order to be effective, climate policies have to be stringent and must be embedded in long-term visions and political goals (D1). The policy challenges might be even more pronounced if radical innovations (e.g. decentralized energy technologies) shall be stimulated. For fundamentally new technologies to develop and succeed, firms from different sectors have to come together and work towards common goals. Such networking as well as knowledge creation in the field have to be supported by a variety of policies – some rather generic, some more technology-specific (D3). Climate policies, in other words, have to be complemented by sector- and technology-specific stimuli for innovation. While in the case of emerging technological fields, the effects of networking and alliance-building may be desirable for system changes, we observe the adverse effect in established sectors such as the car industry. Lobby networks and associations in established industries typically counteract effective climate policy making in order to protect existing products and market shares (D2). As a matter of fact, policy making has to tackle different fields in different ways in order to achieve the goal of fundamentally transforming existing systems towards more sustainable modes of production and consumption.


This paper studies how the technological ecosystem extension facilitates the technology substitution in an emerging industry. Specifically, this paper has three findings: 1) the technological ecosystem with an expanded scope including supply, demand and intermediaries; 2) two type of ecosystem extension as the bottom-up and top-down ecosystem extension; 3) the determinants of sustaining the ecosystem extension. We have conducted in-depth interviews in the Chinese low-speed electric vehicle industry, which adopted the bottom-up ecosystem extension by comparing with the traditional car industry with top-down ecosystem extension to the emerging EV industry. This paper also offers managerial implications to the focal firms and policy makers to capture the emerging opportunities within an ecosystem.


The prevalence of diabetes has been on a growing trend worldwide; accordingly, it has increased from 4.5% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2014 (1). The aim of controlling diabetes is to achieve a hemoglobin a1c (HbA1c) level of lower than 7%. However, this target cannot be fulfilled in almost 50% of the diabetic patients. Poor blood glucose control is a risk factor for the complications associated with diabetes mellitus (2, 3).
Oral hypoglycemic drugs are typically used to control this disease. In case of failure in achieving the normal blood glucose level, another oral drug or insulin may be required (4(.
According to the literature, only 20% of the diabetic patients are interested in insulin initiation. Furthermore, insulin initiation in these patients is challenging for the health care providers (5).
The barriers to insulin initiation can be categorized in terms of their relationship with the health care providers and patient.
According to the previous studies, the barriers related to the health care providers include the fear of hypoglycemia, lack of sufficient time to educate the patients, patient's low socioeconomic status, lack of sufficient knowledge and experience, absence of a common language with the patients, and poor patient-staff relationship.
On the other hand, the barriers related to the patients entail inconvenience and limitation in lifestyle, loss of independence, social embarrassment, poor self-efficacy, needle phobia, depression, failure to receive convincing answers from the health care providers about the benefits and risks of insulin, incomplete conceptualization of diabetes, use of traditional herbal treatments, and fear of weight gain due to using insulin (3, 4, 6-9). Regarding this, delay in insulin initiation is a common practice.
Research has shown that around 50% of the patients with poor diabetes control do not initiate insulin therapy timely, and that even insulin initiation is delayed for 3-5 years after receiving no response from oral hypoglycemic drugs. Therefore, this issue requires the direction of special attention because except for a few barriers, including low socioeconomic status, the rest of the aforementioned barriers can be altered and resolved by the health care providers (8).
Nurses are among the most important members of the health care providers, who are in contact with patients.
They are the ones who should provide the diabetic patients with knowledge and specialized skills to educate and motivate the patients regarding insulin consumption.
In this respect, they can contribute to the fulfillment of treatment objectives, which include the reduction of complications and achievement of a suitable HbA1c level (10).
In addition, there is a need for evidence-based scientific documents as a basis for delivering essential education to the patients.
In order to achieve this evidence, an electronic search was conducted using the international databases, including the web of science (ISI), Pubmed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, with the keywords of "initiate or starting", type II diabetes", and "insulin". The search results indicated that the number of interventional studies investigating the field of nursing and "insulin initiation" was very limited.
Accordingly, among the Persian electronic databases, such as SID (Scientific Information Database) and Magiran, only one "descriptive, cross-sectional" study was found (11).
Using various studies, the barriers to insulin initiation were listed and investigated. The review was indicative of the implementation of only a few nursing interventions to overcome these barriers. Considering the importance of insulin initiation and the significant role of nurses as the facilitators of this process, there was a gap in the interventional studies targeted toward guiding the nurses in the clinical practice in this regard.
Consequently, the researchers are suggested to give more attention to this dimension of diabetes management and take more effective and practical steps to overcome the barriers to insulin initiation in type II diabetic patients.


Dating and sexual relations are basic processes in the lives of most human beings. However, dating and sexual relationships in HIV positive peoples' lives are fraught with challenges. Limited knowledge of these challenges is recorded. Studies focusing on the challenges of serodiscordance, ARVS, adherence, side effects of ARVS, condoms, reproduction, disclosure and stigma are plentiful, however studies addressing dating and sexual challenges of HIV positive people are sadly lacking. The study described and explored the dating and sexual challenges faced by HIV infected people. The systems and ecosystems approach provided the theoretical framework for the study. A descriptive and exploratory design was chosen for this study. Purposive and snowball sampling was utilised to access respondents for this study. Data was collected qualitatively, using semi-structured interviews with 12 HIV positive respondents. The interviewed lasted between 1 to 2 hours. This study found that People living with HIV (PLHIV) experience many challenges in their dating and sexual lives. The challenges varied amongst the respondents. The challenges were divided into the following themes: disclosure; stigma; rejection and discrimination; dating options to pursue; serosorting or abstaining; guilt; anger; blame; social disconnection; negative self esteem and fear; physical, medical and psychological factors; impact of ARVS; sexual changes/sexual dysfunction; reproduction; community/society; the media; counselling, awareness and education about dating and sexual relationships; government and the consequences of relationships ending. The study encouraged further research on the topic. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT DECLARATION LIST OF TABLES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DEDICATION ABBREVIATIONS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.


This article is a first step in an effort to critically examine the continued vitality of the community regime for regulating spousal property. Specifically, the article examines the American community property regimes in light of how they measure up against non-community property states in terms of creditor protection. The results are often surprising. The community regime grants creditors access to a variety of property for all manner of debts. For instance, the entirety of the community property, including the non-debtor spouse's wages, may be seized in some community property states for the other's premarital debts. That the non-debtor spouse has no connection to the debt and, indeed, that it carries no benefit for the family is irrelevant. Nearly everything brought in by the spouses during marriage may be seized for it. Such a result would never obtain in the forty-one non-community property states, of course, where a creditor is fairly allowed to seize only the property of the party with whom he engages. A community creditor often receives quite a windfall. Exploration of other creditor rights demonstrates similar bizarre results. The neutral observer might correctly conclude that the community property regime in the twenty-first century is really little more than a creditor collection device. After exposing the exceptional creditor bent of the community property regime, the article goes on to explore the problem with the community's approach to debt collection. Examining the history of the regime's adoption and retention shows that the community has strayed so far from its goals of protecting women and attracting settlement in community property states that it is almost unrecognizable. Moreover, such a departure is unnecessary in light of the reasonable expectations of the creditors involved with the spouses and the protection they are granted by other, more general, laws. The article concludes by suggesting that the community needs to begin utilizing a more "common law" approach to debt collection if it is to remain a viable marital property regime for the centuries to come.


In an effort for Universitas of Slamet Riyadi (UNISRI) mission is to provide education, to the spirit of entrepreneurship, the development of entrepreneurship for students will be developed within the University of Slamet Riyadi. To create an independent entrepreneur based accordance with the field of science and technology, mentoring and entrepreneurial training activities for students must be done with planning and commitment. Therefore, through the implementation of The Grant Program for Entrepreneurship based Science and Technology of the University of Slamet Riyadi (Iptek bagi Kewirausahaan "IbK" UNISRI) has the goal of creating new entrepreneurial independent, professional and business ethics-based science and technology in accordance with the study of scientific fields, improving business management skills for students, and create entrepreneurial training methods that are appropriate for students or graduates so that they can develop themselves in industrial societies.Methods for achieving the objectives and specific targets include entrepreneurship training, and practice in the field or internships, as well as study visits. Entrepreneurial training conducted by resource persons on a scheduled basis according to their expertise, whether originating from inside or outside the UNISRI. This training is intended to provide knowledge of entrepreneurship, encourage the growth of entrepreneurship motivation, increase understanding of management in the organization, production, finance or marketing, creating a business plan or feasibility study, and provides an understanding of business ethics for students. While apprenticeship implemented to give practical experience of entrepreneurship to students through the daily work involved in a business unit. In addition to students who have begun or alumni who are interested in entrepreneurship or new alumni pioneering efforts, it will further improve the entrepreneurial activity that has been previously occupied.Based on the objectives, specific targets for entrepreneurial science and technology program for students Unisri can produce independent entrepreneurs and science and technology-based professional and business ethics and young entrepreneurs who are ready to move in society. It also produces a more diverse business cluster with the products or services produced by the students have the advantage of science and technology and be able to compete, the business cluster food (fruit juice, a variety of snacks), services (computer, photography, rental ornamental.The activity of IbK UNISRI that have been implemented in 2014, the results can be summarized as follows: the necessary business who genuinely requires careful planning through a blend of academic and student activities at universities, recruitment of tenants (participants) takes techniques and strategies, tenant assistance should always be done in a sustainable manner, the tenant must be motivated by examples of real entrepreneurs, and tenants need to be given incentives venture capital and technology as a trigger to immediately take actions in self-employment.


Wind erosion process can lead to several environmental consequences: desertification, land degradation, air pollution, etc. This last one is related to particulate matter emissions from granular materials commonly found on industrial sites, such as ore and coal. The particle size distribution of these granular materials usually consist of a mixture of a wide range of diameters, which include larger particles that are non-erodible even with strong gusts of wind. The non-erodible particles play a protective role for erodible particles, paving the surface and reducing emissions. The main objective of this thesis is to estimate more accurately emissions due to wind erosion considering the influence of the pavement caused by non-erodible particles. An analytical model was proposed to quantify emissions from particle beds and stockpiles with a wide size distribution. The effects of pavement process are incorporated in the model through the decrease of the mean friction velocity on the erodible surface as the non-erodible particles accumulate. Previous works have defined a mathematical relation between the evolution of the friction velocity over the erodible surface and the geometry of the roughness elements. Nonetheless, the formulation was only valid to limited cover rates of non-erodible particles. Numerical simulations were carried out in this work to extend the formulation in order to include other cases encountered in real situations (with larger amounts of non-erodible particles). The proposed emission model describes the relationship between the minimum value of friction velocity (at which emissions cease), taking advantage of the numerical findings, and the final eroded depth of the bed, which in turn, provides the emitted mass. Wind tunnel experiments were carried out in order to better understand the pavement phenomenon and estimate emissions from a bed of particles containing a bimodal size distribution. The experimental results were also used to validate the modeling, including the global emitted mass and the final characteristics of the bed surface. A good agreement was found between experimental and modeled results for the global emissions and the bed eroded depth. The erosion model was extended for application in stockpiles. In this case, the erodibility of the particles is more complex as the friction velocity and the threshold conditions are not spatially homogeneous. The idea of the model was to subdivide the pile in isosurfaces in which the threshold conditions and the friction velocity are constant and then treat each one of these areas as a different source where the emission model can be applied. Wind tunnel experiments were carried out in order to estimate emissions from a sand pile containing a bimodal size distribution. The modeled and the experimental results were compared for the configuration of an isolated stockpile and a good agreement was found between the estimated and the measured emitted mass. The impact of the presence of a building and a successive parallel stockpiles on the overall particles emission was also evaluated. Wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulations were carried out for several configurations evaluating the effects of: (i) main wind flow orientation, (ii) wind flow velocity, (iii) gap between the obstacle and (iv) amount of non-erodible particles. It was found that the flow interferences between the obstacles increase emissions. Therefore, all wind perturbations have a significant impact and have to be accounted in dust emission estimation and modeling.


For sophomore/junior-level signals and systems courses in Electrical and Computer Engineering departments. This text provides a clear, comprehensive presentation of both the theory and applications in signals, systems, and transforms. It presents the mathematical background of signals and systems, including the Fourier transform, the Fourier series, the Laplace transform, the discrete-time and the discrete Fourier transforms, and the z-transform. The text integrates MATLAB examples into the presentation of signal and system theory and applications.


Graphene oxide (GO) is an emergent engineered nanomaterial that shows great potential for use in agricultural applications, such as promoting crop production and controlling insect pests. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widely distributed and can enter crops via contaminated water, soil and air. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the potential risks of the co-exposure of crops, such as rice, to GO and PAHs. However, information regarding the effects of GO on PAH toxicity and the specific molecular responses to GO is lacking. The present work revealed that GO significantly enhanced the accumulation of PAHs by 26.4–92.5% in rice and that PAH accumulation was also influenced by temperature and glycerol. GO further promoted increased aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and cytochrome P450 levels, which are induced by PAHs. The altered proteins, including ascorbate peroxidase (APX), aquaporins and those involved in ATP synthesis, were mainly associated with oxidative stress and transmembrane transport. Amino acid metabolism was the primary metabolic pathway influenced by GO and PAHs. Arabinose and pentanoic acid were positively associated with the uptake of PAHs and oxidative stress, respectively, during co-exposure to GO. The abovementioned results highlight the potential risks and specific molecular mechanisms of emergent engineered nanomaterials during co-exposure with traditional organic pollutants.


Teaching Visual Culture. Curriculum, Aesthetics and the Social Life of Art Kerry Freedman (2003). New York and Reston VA: Teachers College Press and the National Art Education Association. 189 pages. ISBN 0-8077-4371-2 (paper), 0-8077-4372-0 (cloth).We are well-served by this book, because, as Doug Blandy states on the back cover, "This book successfully blends theory with provocative arts education applications." And there can be no doubt that this is a timely book that moves us toward a pedagogy of visual culture in art education. At the 40th NAEA Convention in 2000 there were just seven presentations that included the words "visual culture" in their titles. Just four years later, in addition to special "visual culture" issues of both Art Education (March 2003), and Studies in Art Education (Spring, 2003), two NAEA Advisorys (Spring, 2002 and Spring 2003), and three small thematic conferences, there were, at the 44th NAEA Convention in Denver, four times as many presentations focusing on aspects of visual culture education. Kerry Freedman, together with art educators such as Paul Duncum and Kevin Tavin, has been a major force in directing art educators' attention to visual culture and its implications for education.The book begins with an attempt to theorize visual culture in education. For Freedman, visual culture is "all that is humanly formed and sensed through vision or visualization and shapes the way we live our lives" (p. 1). Although she also sees the "fine arts" as part of visual culture, Freedman, along with a growing group of art educators, challenges teachers to attend particularly to "the objects, meanings, purposes, and functions of the visual arts students make and see every day" (p. 2). An early section labeled "Remnants of Social Theory that Shape Social Practice: Lessons from the History of Art Education" presents a careful and balanced analysis of the lingering influence of the Enlightenment-an analysis that includes and highlights internal contradictions. But there are other aspects noticeably absent from this historical section. For example, those art educators, like Freedman, who are the most articulate advocates of visual culture education today, need to acknowledge their debt to influential predecessors. The seminal work in the 1960s of Vincent Lanier, Corita Kent, and especially June K. McFee, needs to be affirmed. This reviewer was surprised to find that McFee's (1966) "Society, Art, and Education" contribution to the Penn. State Seminar is absent from Freedman's references. At that time McFee recognized that images were becoming more pervasive than texts and stated: "We need careful content analysis of the values being projected through mass media, as well as continued study of the diversity of values being projected in American society ..." (p. 139). In the same year Vincent Lanier (1966) wrote:In addition to the many curricular uses of the newer media in art education, these essentially technological materials offer a qualitative contribution of considerable significance. Still and motion picture photography, television, auto-instructional devices and computers are of our time. The boys and girls now in our classes have grown up with technology since infancy. They live in a world of speed and change and mechanization. What is quite often incredible to their teachers, they can accept as a matter of course! (p. 6)Earlier, other art educators (e.g., Danna, 1929; Teachers College, 1942) had challenged the old constructs of knowledge about the visual arts and concerned themselves with foci and approaches that are again being embraced. To those familiar with histories of our field, Freedman's statements such as, "However, the new technological presence of visual images and objects, the ease and speed with which they can be produced, and the power of their pervasiveness demands changes in curriculum" (p. 87) is an old call, to which art education has, I agree, been slow to respond. …


Oxygen multi-step therapy for Varicose Veins: Oxygen as an energy carrier, all mechanisms in the human organism during growth, its maintenance and its physical and mental activity require energy. This becomes particularly clear to the patient during cardiac work, breathing work in the lungs, skeletal muscles and intellectual work. The pathology of the microcirculation in the capillaries depends largely on the oxygen partial pressure and on the blood pressure in the supplying arteries and the high pressure in the draining veins.


Elastohydrodynamically lubricated point contact was investigated using a two-way partitioned fluid-solid interaction (FSI) model. Ansys Mechanical finite element modelling software was used to compute elastic (and plastic) deformation of the solid bodies, while Ansys Fluent computational fluid dynamics software was used to model the fluid with the Navier-Stokes equations. The current model is not limited by Reynolds equation assumptions, allowing for the investigation of pressure, viscosity and temperature variation across point contact elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) films. Solid body material stress distribution and fluid behavior such as cavitation were also investigated. The details of model development are described. Validation of the model is presented across a range of loads and speeds for cases when the Reynolds equation is applicable. The results are in excellent agreement. Various slide-to-roll ratios were investigated considering a non-Newtonian fluid with thermal effects to characterize lubricant properties within the EHL film. Results demonstrate notable lubricant viscosity and temperature variations within the EHL film thickness both along and perpendicular to the rolling direction for cases with high slide to roll ratio. Cavitation was also considered and cavitation bubble lengths were found to agree well with results found in open literature. Finally, the effects of material plasticity on solid body response were investigated. The FSI model developed in this research provides new insights on a classical EHL problem.


Patrick Matthew's (1831) prior-publication of the complete hypothesis of natural selection "anticipated" Darwin's Origin of Species by 28 years and Darwin's and Wallace's (1858) Linnean papers on the same topic by 27. Founded on the premise that no naturalist read it before 1860, Darwin's and Wallace's claims of duel independent discovery of Matthew's hypothesis have been accepted by the scientific community. However, the central premise upon which those claims have been accepted — that no naturalist read Matthew's ideas before 1858 — is a proven fallacy, because the famous and hugely influential naturalist Loudon reviewed Matthew's book in 1832, commenting that it appeared to have something original to say on "the origin of species". The fact that Loudon was a naturalist has been totally ignored until now. Furthermore, it is newly discovered that after reviewing Matthew's book he went on to edit the journal that published two of Blyth's highly influential papers on organic evolution. Blyth was Darwin's most prolific and helpful correspondent on the topic. Further new discoveries reveal that, besides Loudon, whose work was well known to Darwin and his associates, six other naturalists read Matthew's book and then cited it years before 1858. One, Selby, sat on several scientific committees with Darwin, and was a friend of his father. Selby went on to edit Wallace's famous Sarawak paper on organic evolution. Another, Robert Chambers, a correspondent of Darwin, who met with him, went on to write the influential Vestiges of Creation, which both Darwin and Wallace admitted was an influence on their work. Undeniable potential knowledge-transfer routes did exist before 1858, therefore, between those who read Matthew's ideas and commented upon them in the literature, and Darwin and Wallace. In light of the fact that influential naturalists, known to both Darwin and Wallace, did read Matthew's original ideas before 1858, veracity in the history of discovery requires now an investigation into the possibility of cryptomnesia or deliberate pre-1860 plagiarism by Darwin and Wallace. In that regard, the notion of "knowledge contamination" is proposed and presented in a three-fold typology of escalating culpability for replicators of prior published work with citation. Future research in this area should turn to the neglected correspondence and private journal archives of those naturalists known to Darwin and Wallace who read Matthew's ideas before 1860.


This article examines obedience and authority through the lens of sixteenth-century women's correspondence as a way of unlocking the gendered nature of deferential behavioral codes and social attitudes in early modern England. Above all, it is interested in looking at women's status and place within the household, the ways in which familial relationships (and indeed the writing of letters) could encourage the formation of habits of submissiveness and furnish individuals with a language of subordination as well as sponsor ties of familial loyalty which privileged the collective interests of the family over those of the individual. Conversely, it demonstrates how social position might bequeath women significant power and influence both within the family and on the wider political stage and generate respect for legitimate female authority more broadly.


Indonesia has committed to reducing its emissions from land use, land use change and forestry - by 26% by 2020. One way the country plans to meet this target is by reducing its emissions from deforestation and forest degradation through the REDD+ mechanism. By implementing REDD+, Indonesia will become eligible to receive financial payments based on forest carbon credits. A substantial amount of Indonesia's carbon emissions are caused by deforestation and forest degradation from land conversion activities, forest fires and illegal logging, with the latter having significant impacts as a driver of deforestation. Therefore, initiatives to curb illegal logging will have to form a central part of any emission reduction strategy. REDD+ has the potential to help reduce illegal logging activities by creating financial incentives to encourage compliance with the law, changes in behaviour and wider governance reforms. Since 2001, several initiatives in Indonesia have attempted to address the problem of illegal logging. These include international initiatives such as the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process; bilateral agreements between Indonesia and major importers of timber; and market instruments such as timber certification. National initiatives include joint security sweeps to combat illegal logging, anti-money laundering approaches to tackle illegal finance in the sector and the expansion of timber plantations to increase the supply of timber. This occasional paper explores ways in which the ongoing design of REDD+ mechanisms and institutions can benefit from these experiences.


This article analyses how the monies generated for, and from, corporate financial crimes are controlled, concealed, and converted through the use of organisational structures in the form of otherwise legitimate corporate entities and arrangements that serve as vehicles for the management of illicit finances. Unlike the illicit markets and associated 'organised crime groups' and 'criminal enterprises' that are the normal focus of money laundering studies, corporate financial crimes involve ostensibly legitimate businesses operating within licit, transnational markets. Within these scenarios, we see corporations as primary offenders, as agents, and as facilitators of the administration of illicit finances. In all cases, organisational structures provide opportunities for managing illicit finances that individuals alone cannot access, but which require some element of third-party collaboration. In this article, we draw on data generated from our Partnership for Conflict, Crime, and Security Research (PaCCS)-funded project on the misuse of corporate structures and entities to manage illicit finances to make a methodological and substantive addition to the literature in this area. We analyse two cases from our research—corporate bribery in international business and corporate tax fraud—before discussing three main findings: (1) the ostensible legitimacy created through abuse of otherwise lawful business arrangements; (2) the effective anonymity and insulation afforded through such misuse; and (3) the necessity for facilitation by third-party professionals operating within a stratified market. The analysis improves our understanding of how and why business offenders misuse what are otherwise legitimate business structures, arrangements, and practices in their criminal enterprise.


Cryopreserved cells and tissues are increasingly used for stem cell transplantation and tissue engineering. However, their freezing, storage, and thawing is associated with severe damage, suggesting the need for better cryopreservation methods. Here, we show that activation of caspase-3 is induced during the freeze-thaw process. Moreover, we demonstrate that prevention of caspase activation by the caspase inhibitor zVAD-fmk strongly improves the recovery and survival of several cryopreserved cell types and hematopoietic progenitor cells. A short preincubation with the caspase inhibitor after thawing also enhances the colony-forming activity of hematopoietic progenitor cells up to threefold. Furthermore, overexpression of Bcl-2, but not the blockade of the death receptor signaling, confers protection, indicating that cryoinjury-associated cell death is mediated by a Bcl-2-controlled mitochondrial pathway. Thus, our data suggest the use of zVAD-fmk as an efficient cryoprotective agent. The addition of caspase inhibitors may be an important tool for the cryopreservation of living cells and advantageous in cell transplantation, tissue engineering, and other genetic technologies.


In a process with a large number of process variables (high-dimensional process), identifying which variables cause an out-of-control signal is a challenging issue for quality engineers. In this paper, we propose an adaptive step-down procedure using conditional T2 statistic for fault variable identification. While existing procedures focus on selecting variables that have strong evidence of a change, the proposed step-down procedure selects a variable having the weakest evidence of a change at each step based on the variables that are selected in previous steps. The information of selected unchanged variables is effectively utilised in obtaining a powerful conditional T2 test statistic for identifying the changed elements of the mean vector. The proposed procedure is designed to utilise the correlation information between fault and non-fault variables for the efficient fault variables identification. Further, the simulation results show that the proposed procedure has the better diagnostic performance compared with existing methods in terms of fault variable identification and computational complexity, especially when the number of the variables is high and the number of fault variables is small.


Introduction Most people when asked say they would prefer to die at home. However, 'Death in Usual Place of Residence' (DiUPR) does not give any real insight into the quality and experiences of care received. Additionally, DiUPR involves other family members resident in the home environment and their needs, preferences and experiences also need consideration. Aim(s) and method(s) The aim of this work was to explore the experiences of patients and informal caregivers receiving at-home care from a specialist palliative care service. We undertook individual interviews with 11 patients and 10 significant others. We used the Pictor technique, a novel interview tool used to sensitively explore networks of support and experiences of palliative care. Interviews were analysed thematically. Results Caring for a loved one at home was acknowledged as draining, but participants were effusive about the excellent at-home professional support they received from the specialist service. The care provided evidently recognised the needs of both patients and their families. Effective co-ordination of care, including liaison with other services was especially appreciated. Conclusion(s) With increasing trends towards DiUPR, it is vital that there are sufficient well-resourced palliative care services available in the community to support both patients and their families at the end of life. Pictor is a useful means to obtain detailed insight into individual experiences of end of life care. Care co-ordination emerged as key concern for patients receiving End of Life Care and their families.


The aim of this study was to determine whether there are differences in the attitudes of Dentistry School Professors from two universities, one private and one public, concerning HIV-positive patients or HIVpositive health care professionals. A questionnaire was handled to all professors at the Aracatuba Dental School of Sao Paulo State University - FOA-UNESP (public) and Lins Dental School of the Piracicaba Methodist University - FOL-UNIMEP (private). When asked if they would be willing to be treated by an HIV-infected health care professional, 38.9% of the 77 professors at FOA-UNESP replied that they would accept only non-invasive treatments and 13% would not accept any kind of treatment; the same applied to 42.4% and 15.2% of the 33 FOL-UNIMEP professors. Among the 54 professors at FOA-UNESP and 27 at FOL-UNIMEP providing clinical service, only 31.5% and 18.5% stated that they treat HIV-infected persons like any other patient. The results were very similar in both schools. Although they reported that they taught their students not to act in a discriminatory manner towards HIV-positive patients, the professors themselves showed prejudice towards infected patients and professionals. Consequently, this topic must be further debated in the academic milieu.


Background and objective: In recent years, there has been growing interest in the minimally invasive surgical techniques used for the performance of total hip arthroplasty (THA). Among these, direct anterior approach–minimally invasive surgery (DAA-MIS) has generated scientific interest because of its soft-tissue–preserving nature. Data from studies involving obese patients in relation to minimally invasive techniques such as DAA-MIS are controversial, while further comparative studies are needed between nonobese and obese patients. The aim of this study was to compare pain levels, functionality and quality of life between obese and nonobese hip osteoarthritic patients who underwent THA via DAA-MIS. Subjects and methods: This nonrandomized study included 60 patients aged > 50 years. Patients were divided into two equal groups according to their body mass index (< 30 kg/m2 vs. ≥ 30 kg/m2). Measurements were recorded prior to surgery and postoperatively (6th and 12th weeks). Pain was measured using the Face Pain Scale–Revised. Functionality was measured with the Timed Up & Go test and the modified Harris Hip Score-Greek version. Quality of life was evaluated using the 12-item International Hip Outcome Tool–Greek version. The protocol of this study was approved by both the Ethics Committee and Scientific Research Council of the "KAT" General Hospital of Attica, Athens, Greece (ref: ΔΣ234/12-03-2019) on March 12, 2019. Results: Six weeks after DAA-MIS, both obese and nonobese patients had significantly less pain (Face Pain Scale-Revised), higher functionality (Timed Up & Go test and modified Harris Hip Score-Greek version) and better quality of life (12-item International Hip Outcome Tool–Greek version), compared to preoperative measurements (P < 0.001). The improvement in all overall outcomes continued, with a further statistically significant difference in the 12th week's measurements (P < 0.001). There were no statistically significant differences between groups at the 6th and 12th postoperative weeks (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Both obese and nonobese patients benefited from the DAA-MIS procedure. The obesity should not be considered as a contraindication to DAA-MIS in patients undergoing THA. Trial registration: This study analyzes part of data collected for an ongoing larger trial [World Health Organization's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ISRCTN15066737)].


Emerging technological and societal developments have brought new challenges for the protection of personal data and individuals' rights. The widespread adoption of social networking, participation, apomediation, openness and collaboration stretches even further the concepts of confidentiality, privacy, ethics and legality; it also emphasizes the importance of electronic identity and data protection in the health field. Governments across the Atlantic have adopted legal instruments to defend personal data and individuals' rights, such as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (1996) in USA, the Recommendation No. R(97)5 on the Protection of Medical Data issued by the Council of Europe (1997) in addition to specific legislation adopted by each EU Member State as part of the Data protection Directive 48/95 transposition process. These reflect policy makers' concerns about the need to safeguard medical and health-related information. On the other hand, bottom up developments such as the widespread usage of "PatientLikeMe" and the availability of industry based platforms for user-owned electronic medical records (i.e. Google Health or Microsoft Health Vault) are often pointed at, arguing that users do not really care about data protection as long as sharing such data produces more value than it destroys. There is, however, a clear evidence gap as to the attitudes of Europeans with respect to this issue. The purpose of this paper is to identify and characterize individuals' perception, behaviors and attitudes towards health-related information and health institutions regarding electronic identity and data protection. The research is based on Eurobarometer 359 "The State of Electronic Identity and Data Protection in Europe", a representative sample of people in EU27 conducted in December 2010. The survey was conducted in each 27 EU Member States via a national random-stratified samples of ~ 1,000 interviews; overall, 26,574 Europeans aged 15 and over were interviewed face-to-face in their homes. The questionnaire asked questions about data disclosure in different context, including health. Specifically, it included questions related to health and personal information, disclosure in Social Networking Sites and on eCommerce sites, trust in health institutions, approval required for disclosure and sensitivity of DNA data. Specifically, we will provide an encompassing portrait of people's perceptions, behaviors and attitudes across EU27, we will examine the influence of socio-demographic traits and Internet use on such attitudes and behaviors. We will explore significant differences across major regional block. Finally, we will present results from factor analysis that aimed to identify commonalities between variables, and from cluster analysis, use to create typologies of individuals concerning health-related behaviors. Empirical analysis allows to broaden and deepen understanding of the consequences of data protection in Medicine 2.0. Our data also call for further, joint research on this issue, which links demand and supply of medical and health-related data. Indeed, not all people need or want the same level of detail: researchers and physicians clearly need to access more while end users or insurance companies can live with less information. This is one of the crucial points regarding the revision of the Data Protection Directive in Europe (Directive 95/46). []


The aim of this paper is to explore how school staff members involved in Student Health and Welfare conferences reflect on individual students with high levels of truancy based on their personal relationships. Using positioning analysis, the transcriptions of 15 interviews with staff were analysed. The school staff's reflections on the individual students covered three areas: health, social well-being and education. The results show the ways in which positions were shaped and illustrate a reflexive process that developed continually throughout the staff's relationships with the students. The staff positioned the students and indicated attributions of the students; however, the attributions were predominately negative. With each position, the staff's view of students as subjects or objects and their relationships to the students are described in terms of mutual or one-way dialogue.


In 2006, Brazil's newly initiated national database for Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) highlighted that 43% of fatal RTAs on federal highways involved a truck. Truck drivers have greater exposure to cardiovascular risk factors and studies have suggested a link between poor cardiovascular health and involvement in RTAs. In 2007, the Brazil Federal Highway Police and the Social Transport Service joined forces with other agencies to implement Health Operations on Highways, a nationwide campaign to detect health risk factors in truck drivers, provide them with information about health and traffic safety and to ultimately reduce the number of traffic accidents on highways. This study evaluates baseline data of 91 health operations conducted across Brazil in 2013, where 11,572 truck drivers were tested for different cardiovascular risk factors (body weight/fat, abdominal/cervical circumference, hypertension, hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia). Our study demonstrates, for the first time, how data from the Health Operations on Highways initiative can be used to highlight geographical variation in the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in professional truck drivers across all Brazilian states and also highlights unwarranted variation in the prevalence of these risk factors in truck drivers relative to the general population. Insights from our study can be used to design and implement health and care initiatives to minimize cardiovascular risk among truck drivers in a targeted way. Furthermore, the results of this study have important policy implications for Brazil and any other country dealing with a high rate of RTAs involving truck drivers.


Meteorological and glaciological models of snow accumulation and meltwater runoffare used with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts climate analyses, to simulate the current/recent surface mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its interannual variations. The usefulness of the technique is demonstrated by compar-ison with shallow ice-core data (of net snow accumulation) and passive microwave satellite data (of net runoff). Our method will be used with the forthcoming ECMWF ERA-40 reanalysis to produce a novel dataset of temporal and spatial variations of SMB across the Ice Sheet for the past 40 years. It should help elucidate the cause(s) of recent changes in surface elevation of the Ice Sheet observed by aircraft/satellite laser/radar.


Due to the different properties of the dynamical simulation of multi-body systems, it is important to introduce a classification that allows for the right selection of a simulation type according to the user's needs. The proposed classification divides simulations with respect to the main characteristics, such as speed, accuracy, processing power, preparation work, resulting in the need for very different models of the rover. Using the SOLERO rover as an example, problems are shown that can occur when developing a rover model, e.g. hyper-statism. Applying simulation techniques, the rover geometry can be optimized regarding special metrics and the performance of different rovers can be compared. Experimental results of the implementation of a torque control algorithm underline the need and gain of the use of simulations in a development project.


It is shown how the results of a previous paper [ J. Opt. Soc. Am.52, 20 ( 1962)] may be used to deduce computing formulas for the aberration produced by refraction at either a spherical or aspheric surface. The secondary and higher-order aberrations are seen to fall into two parts, one independent of, and the other dependent on, the aberrations of prior surfaces. The method is illustrated by deriving the computing formulas for the primary and secondary aberrations. The computing formulas are applied to a triplet, and the results are compared with the values of the ray aberration found by ray tracing.


Depleted gas reservoirs are potential sites for CO2 storage; therefore, it is important to evaluate their storage capacity. Historically, there have been difficulties in identifying the reservoir drive mechanism of gas reservoirs using traditional P/z plots, having direct impacts for the estimation of the original gas in place (OGIP) and dependent parameters for both theoretical and effective CO2 storage capacity estimation. Cole plots have previously provided an alternative method of characterization, being derived from the gas material balance equation. We use production data to evaluate the reservoir drive mechanism in four depleted gas reservoirs (Hewett Lower Bunter, Hewett Upper Bunter, and North and South Morecambe) on the UK Continental Shelf. Cole plots suggest that the North Morecambe and Hewett Upper Bunter reservoirs experience moderate water drive. Accounting for cumulative water influx into these reservoirs, the OGIP decreases by up to 20% compared with estimates from P/z plots. The revised OGIP values increase recovery factors within these reservoirs; hence, geometrically based theoretical storage capacity estimates for the North Morecambe and Hewett Upper Bunter reservoirs increase by 4 and 30%, respectively. Material balance approaches yield more conservative estimates. Effective storage capacity estimates are between 64 and 86% of theoretical estimates within the depletion drive reservoirs, and are 53 – 79% within the water drive reservoirs. Supplementary material: A more detailed description of the aquifer modelling is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3803770.v1


The blueprint of ultra-lightweight authentication protocols is very important to the pervasive deployment of low-cost RFIDs. This paper examines the security of a new ultra-lightweight RFID authentication protocols SASI. SASI, a newly recommended ultra-lightweight RFID protocol with enhanced sued security than earlier implemented protocols i.e. LMAP, M2AP, and EMAP [10, 7, 3]. A proposed idea is given for its improvements. Since RFID tags are pervasive and at times even insensible to the human user, all modern RFID protocols are planned to battle tracking so that the position confidentiality of the human RFID user is not dishonored. An additional design measure for RFIDs is the squat computational attempt essential for tags, in view that the majority of tags are passive devices that originate power from an RFID reader's transmitted signals. Along this element, a class of ultra lightweight RFID authentication protocols have been planned that use only the most basic bitwise and arithmetic procedures like OR, XOR, addition, simple rotation, bit rotation etc. The rest of paper is organized as follows. In section 2 a brief introduction to the technology is presented. In section 3 we have analyzed some RFID protocol and SASI is discussed in detail. Existing problem is discussed in next section. Our proposed idea is explained in section 5. Steps in our algorithm along with complexity are given in section 6. Finally we conclude in section 7, along with future directions.


Background: Physical exercise has been identified as a potential intervention to improve quality of life in women with breast cancer. We sought to summarize the available evidence concerning the effects of exercise on breast cancer patients and survivors. Methods: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, CancerLit, PEDro and SportDiscus as well as conference proceedings, clinical practice guidelines and other unpublished literature resources. We included only randomized controlled trials that examined exercise interventions for breast cancer patients or survivors with quality of life, cardiorespiratory fitness or physical functioning as primary outcomes. We also extracted data on symptoms of fatigue, body composition and adverse effects. Results: Of 136 studies identified, 14 met all the inclusion criteria. Despite significant heterogeneity and relatively small samples, the point estimates in terms of the benefits of exercise for all outcomes were positive even when statistical significance was not achieved. Exercise led to statistically significant improvements in quality of life as assessed by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–General (weighted mean difference [WMD] 4.58, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.35 to 8.80) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Breast (WMD 6.62, 95% CI 1.21 to 12.03). Exercise also led to significant improvements in physical functioning and peak oxygen consumption and in reducing symptoms of fatigue. Interpretation: Exercise is an effective intervention to improve quality of life, cardiorespiratory fitness, physical functioning and fatigue in breast cancer patients and survivors. Larger trials that have a greater focus on study quality and adverse effects and that examine the long-term benefits of exercise are needed for this patient group.


In the Mediterranean basin, the limited availability of rice genetic resources restricts the success of breeding programs. Although mutation induction is a powerful alternative to generate desired novel variations, current rice mutant resources have little relevance in the Mediterranean breeding programs that require well-adapted cultivars for maximum performance. In this work a genome-wide mutation induction has been used on rice cv Bahia, a japonica cultivar well adapted to the Mediterranean climate and cultural practices, to increase its genetic variability and to facilitate the generation and selection of interesting agronomical traits. Bahia mutant collections were generated by irradiating seed batches with either 30 Gy fast neutrons or 250 Gy gamma rays. After initial screening of M2 plants and followed by evaluation of M3 and M4 generations in open field, elite genotypes were selected. The selected lines carried morphological and physiological changes of agronomical interest such as earliness, culm height reduction, yield increase and spontaneous spots appearance in leaves. The mutants are useful as breeding materials for improving varieties in the Mediterranean.


Starting with my own travel experiences, and with the help of poets, Elizabeth Bishop, Jorie Graham, and Emily Dickinson, I create a theory of displacement, called Vertigo. Vertigo is not only a sense of falling, but a sense of detachment from reality that I felt traversing through different cultures, languages, and worlds for the first time. Vertigo is a liminal, transformative space that allows an individual to experience the created nature of their own worldview and culture. This is also a physical experience, as Bishop, Graham, and Dickinson give evidence to in their poetry, as the individual experiences a heightened sense of their physical bodies. This work acknowledges the privileged position of the traveler, and reveals that often the observations we make in this privileged position can be moves of colonization. Poetry is one way to both acknowledge these moves, and to also show what we can learn from these moments when we continue to question and explore. Additionally, poetry, as a medium of mindful reflection, allows for a language that is capable of handling the physical knowledge of the body; the mental mapping of the cultural and personal realities of the individual; and also the geographic and political landscapes that surround an individual or population, simultaneously. With this understanding, the theoretical framework for displacement, bodies, and place, which Bishop, Graham, and Dickinson give us, is the foundation for exploring how poetry can provide knowledge for more "scientific" writing, such as, cultural geography or cognitive science.


An overview of systematics, the naming, classifying and ordering of life, shows that it has never been more relevant than in the present time of environmental crisis and species loss. Only 1.9 million of the many millions of species have been named and classified, making it difficult to use and conserve them. Molecular techniques combined with cladistic methods and high-powered computing ability are producing predictive phylogenies of many groups of organisms and are bringing us closer to working out an accurate tree of life. Evolutionary development is a rapidly expanding field that is helping to explain the molecular mechanisms that control development processes. In future deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) barcoding of organisms is likely to be in general use to identify organisms, but it will not replace the study of the morphology of organisms. The data basing of large museum and herbarium collections is greatly enhancing the use of collections for systematics research. E-alpha taxonomy using standardised descriptors is gradually gaining momentum.

Key Concepts:

Systematics and naming is basic to all other studies of organisms.

It is urgent to increase systematic work because of the continuing loss of species.

DNA barcoding is going to be an invaluable tool, but will not altogether replace morphological studies. It is most useful for linking different stages of organisms: seedlings with parent plants, larvae with adult insects.

Evolutionary development (Evo-Devo) is helping our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of floral development and changes.

Phylogeography is helping to elucidate the historic movements of organisms around the world.

Modern systematics leads to predictive classifications which are most useful for the discovery of new useful chemicals in organisms.

Alpha taxonomy is still pertinent and necessary for the practical identification of species and for the users of taxonomy.

E-alpha taxonomy is leading to a better standardisation of descriptors of organisms.

Keywords:

systematics;
molecular taxonomy;
cladistics;
phylogeny;
phylogeography;
barcoding;
evolutionary development;
classification;
databases;
alpha taxonomy


Simulation-based analysis methods make few restrictions on the system design and scale to very large and complex systems, therefore they are widely used in timing analysis of complex industrial embedded systems. This paper presents a statistical approach to validation of temporal simulation models extracted from complex embedded systems, by introducing existing mature statistical methods to the context. The proposed approach firstly collects sampling distributions of response time and execution time data of tasks in both the modeled system and the model, based on simple random samples (SRS). The second step of the approach is to compare the sampling distributions, regarding interesting timing properties, by using the non-parametric two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The evaluation using a fictive system model inspired by a real robotic control system with a set of change scenarios, shows a promising result. The proposed algorithm can identify temporal differences between the target system and its extracted model, i.e., the algorithm can assess whether the extracted model is a sufficiently accurate approximation of the target system.


OBJECTIVE
Giant cell tumors of the maxillofacial skeleton are uncommon, they are usually late manifestation of primary hyperparathyroidism. A series of five clinical cases in four women and one man presenting as the giant cell lesions in the maxilla and/or mandible are discussed.

METHODS
Biopsy of the lesions, biochemical and hormonal analyses, densitometry and parathyroid scintigraphy were carried out.

RESULTS
Biopsy of the lesions showed giant cell tumor of bone. The medical history and laboratory analyses showed primary hyperparathyroidism. Bone density loss was documented and scintigraphy revealed the presence of parathyroid adenomas in four cases. Surgical treatment of hyperparathyroidism, and in the second step - after 6-12 months - the subsequent excision of residual brown tumors in all cases was performed.

CONCLUSIONS
One should have in mind that osteolytic bone lesions may be due to metabolic disease of the bone. Accurate diagnosis enabling the proper treatment should be carried out, avoiding unnecessary harm to the patients.


This thesis studies the ways in which female characters in Chaucer's poetry use language. Differences between feminine and masculine discourse in the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde are examined, along with factors shaping the poetic articulation of the feminine in the Middle Ages. Part I sets out the background material which provides the context for the close readings of Parts II and III. Since the framework within which Chaucer's female characters speak is poetic, the first chapter is concerned with contemporary views about how poetic meaning is produced: what is the status of the author? How does the author read - and rewrite - his or her sources? Which rhetorical conventions govern literary representation, and how is the literary text justified? Part I also considers why rhetoric should be an issue as regards women in the Middle Ages, and what modes of signifying are available to women in social, spiritual and literary contexts. Perspectives on appropriate female behaviour and discourse are gained through an examination of the rhetorical traction, works of devotional and didactic instruction, and the conventions of fin'amor. Parts II and III present a close reading of Chaucer's poetry. The readings are informed by the perspectives outlined in Part I, and by modern literary theories, and involve some assessment of the applicability of recent theory to Chaucer's poetry. The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde are both seen as vitally concerned with poetic practice and theory, and with the poetic representation of female characters. The poet's representation of the heroines in the course of the Legend provides a critique of the conception of poetry articulated by the god of Love in the Prologue. The hermeneutical and representational difficulties that the poet of the Troilus experiences with his poem are intimately linked with his treatment of Criseyde. The thesis considers the intersection between poetics and the poetic representation of the feminine.


AIM
To determine whether syringe exchange programs' (SEPs) dispensation policy is associated with syringe coverage among SEP clients.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional samples of SEPs and their clients.

SETTING
SEPs in California, USA.

PARTICIPANTS
Twenty-four SEPs and their injection drug using (IDU) clients (n = 1576).

MEASUREMENTS
Clients were classified as having adequate syringe coverage if they received at least as many syringes from the SEP as their self-reported injections in the last 30 days. SEPs were classified based on their syringe dispensation policy. Dispensation schemes ranging from least restrictive to most are: unlimited needs-based distribution; unlimited one-for-one exchange plus a few additional syringes; per visit limited one-for-one plus a few additional syringes; unlimited one-for-one exchange; and per visit limited one-for-one exchange.

FINDINGS
Adequate syringe coverage among SEP clients by dispensation policy is as follows: unlimited needs-based distribution = 61%; unlimited one-for-one plus = 50%; limited one-for-one plus = 41%; unlimited one-for-one = 42%; and limited one-for-one = 26%. In multivariate analysis, adequate syringe coverage was significantly higher for all dispensation policies compared to per visit limited one-for-one exchange. Using propensity scoring methods, we compared syringe coverage by dispensation policies while controlling for client-level differences. Providing additional syringes above one-for-one exchange (50% versus 38%, P = 0.009) and unlimited exchange (42% versus 27%, P = 0.05) generally resulted in more clients having adequate syringe coverage compared to one-for-one exchange and per visit limits.

CONCLUSION
Providing less restrictive syringe dispensation is associated with increased prevalence of adequate syringe coverage among clients. SEPs should adopt syringe dispensation policies that provide IDUs sufficient syringes to attain adequate syringe coverage.


The vegetation of the Rheban spit, Tasmania is described and discussed. The vegetation
on the frontal dunes, which have largely been developed in the last twenty years,
can be divided into three zones, one dominated by Ammophila arenaria, one dominated by
small herbs, and one dominated by Pteridium esculentum and Banksia marginata. The beach
ridge vegetation cannot be divided so clearly into zones, but continuous variation is
demonstrated through the use of polar ordination. The saltmarsh vegetation is briefly
described, and the case for the preservation of the vegetation of the spit outlined.