Context: The processes of acquiring education in jewellery in Ghana has been dominated by the informal apprenticeship system and it forms the backbone of the workforce of the jewellery industry in Ghana. However, the patronage of informal jewellery apprenticeship in Ghana in recent times has been on decline even though it has the potential of training human resources to transform Ghana's precious mineral resources sector.This is based on the belief that jewellery trade and its training are shrouded in secrecy, in other words, the jewellery trade is considered to be a sacred profession where information on its operating systems are not allowed to be shared easily. It is believed to be associated with cult and magic, hence the reluctant to admit people who are from outside the family of particular jewellery enterprise. This study is sought to bring to fore the understanding nature, processes and challenges of the informal jewellery apprenticeship in Ghana. Approach: The study adopted the descriptive and phenomenology research designs (qualitative research methods). Jewellers who own a jewellery business and who are training other people through apprenticeships as well as people who are trained are observed and interviewed. A sample size was selected through purposive and convenience sampling techniques from four jewellery enterprises in Accra, Ghana. A thematic analysis plan was adopted to generate fndings of the study. Findings: The results show that for a person to train as a jeweller, s/he has to enrol by going through induction, futhremore fees (money and perishable items) are to be paid. The training content is driven by orders received by the master jeweller, thereby making it unstructured and lacking criteria for assessing the performance and progress of apprentice jewellers. Teaching and learning methods are usually on-the-job training that rely on demonstrations and observation.Conclusion: Informal jewellery apprenticeship in Ghana uses a fexible, cost-efective approach for transferring jewellery making skills from masters to apprentice jewellers, and it has substantial potential for improving skills training in the country. Sometimes the reluctant of some jeweller to train others is to keep the trade to family members only.


OBJECTIVE Comparison of the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and psychosocial problems in preterm-born and term-born children. DESIGN Cohort study (Amsterdam Born Children and their Development (ABCD) cohort). METHOD For 217 preterm-born children (mean gestation 34 weeks), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) scores were compared with 4336 term-born children at age 5-6 years. Associations between SDQ scores and SES (maternal education and perceived income adequacy) were examined with multivariate linear regression analysis. RESULTS Mothers of preterm-born children often had a lower level of education. The mean SDQ total score was significantly higher for preterm-born children (6.1; SD: 4.7) than for term-born children (5.2; SD: 4.1). No significant differences were found between preterm-born and term-born children in the SDQ scores reported by teachers. For preterm-born children, 16.1% of the mothers reported psychosocial problems compared with 10.1% for term-born children. Lower maternal education and lower income adequacy were significantly related to higher SDQ scores. Differences in SDQ score between preterm-born and term-born children were most pronounced in the group with highly educated mothers (Δ0.9; 95%-CI: 0.2-1.5) and high income (Δ0.9; 95%-CI: 0.3-1.6). CONCLUSION There was no additional effect of preterm birth on psychosocial problems in children with a low level of maternal education or inadequate income. This study corroborates earlier evidence regarding the disadvantageous effects of low SES on psychosocial development.


Graphical Requirements Modeling (GRM) consists of representing requirements in diagrams: requirements (and other relevant information) are represented as nodes, and relationships between them as edges. Relationships can show, for example, that one requirement refines another, that some are in conflict with others, that they are more or less desirable, and so on. Various software tools have been proposed over the years as a support to doing GRM, some capable of performing computations over diagrams, such as searching for text strings, or determining if a requirement is satisfied (and how much). We present yet another tool, available at AnalyticGraph.com. The tool departs from much of prior work in the following ways. (i) The tool is a web application, is available on-demand, and requires no installation of specialized software. (ii) Each model made with the tool gets its own permanent and unique URL, so that models can be linked in research papers. (iii) If a model on AnalyticGraph is linked in a paper, then any reader can click on the link, open a free account, and edit and run a copy of the linked model. (iv) The tool supports the definition of various requirements modeling languages. (v) Models are stored in a graph database, and standard graph queries (such as find the shortest path between two nodes) are included by default. (vi) It is possible to combine models made with various languages, and do computations over the resulting mixed models.


Protected areas are the flagship management tools to secure biodiversity from anthropogenic impacts. However, the extent to which adjacent areas with distinct protection levels host different species numbers and compositions remains uncertain. Here, using reef fishes, European alpine plants, and North American birds, we show that the composition of species in adjacent Strictly Protected, Restricted, and Non-Protected areas is highly dissimilar, whereas the number of species is similar, after controlling for environmental conditions, sample size, and rarity. We find that between 12% and 15% of species are only recorded in Non-Protected areas, suggesting that a non-negligible part of regional biodiversity occurs where human activities are less regulated. For imperiled species, the proportion only recorded in Strictly Protected areas reaches 58% for fishes, 11% for birds, and 7% for plants, highlighting the fundamental and unique role of protected areas and their environmental conditions in biodiversity conservation.


Papilion Lefevre syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder, which is characterized by palmarplantar hyperkeratosis, with rapidly progressive periodontitis and premature loss of both deciduous and permanent teeth. The etiology of PLS is multifactorial with genetic, immunological, and microbial factors playing a role in etiopathogenesis. This is a case report of prosthodontic rehabilitation of a 14-year-old boy with Papillon-Lefevre syndrome.


The Autonomous and Autonomic Systems initiative has as its vision the creation of self-directed and self managing systems to address today's concerns ofcomplexity and total cost of ownership while meetingtomorrow's needs for pervasive and ubiquitouscomputation and communication.The future of computing and communications isbeing researched under many areas; including gridcomputing, utility computing, pervasive computing,ubiquitous computing, invisible computing, worldcomputing, ambient intelligence, ambient networksand so on…The driving force behind these future paradigmsof computer-based systems is the increasingconvergence between proliferation of devices,wireless networking, and mobile software.Weiser first described what has become known asubiquitous computing as the move away from the"dramatic" machine, where hardware andsoftware's focus was on being so exciting that we asusers would not want to be without it, towardsmaking the machine "invisible", so embedded in ourlives it is used without thinking or recognising it ascomputing.Behind these different terms and research areas,lie three key properties: nomadic, embedded andinvisible. In effect, leading to, the creation of asingle system with (potentially) billions of networkedinformation devices and resulting in a ComplexityQuagmire?As such, the case can be made that all of the nextgeneration paradigms, in one form or another, willrequire an autonomic–self-managing–infrastructureto be able to provide the successful reality of thisenvisaged level of pervasiveness, invisibility andmobility.This talk reports on research and development,with examples from Biometric Identification andTracking Systems, Autonomic Communications, andSpace Exploration Systems, utilizing the biologicalmetaphor of the autonomic nervous system tocomputing and communications, in which computerbasedsystems self-regulate by using automaticreactions to defend, optimize and heal.


It is unclear why successful quitting at time of breast cancer diagnosis should remove risk from a significant lifetime of smoking. Studies concluding this may be biased by how smoking is measured in many epidemiological cohorts. In the late 1990s, a randomized trial of diet and breast cancer outcomes enrolled early‐stage female breast cancer survivors diagnosed within the previous 4 years. Smoking history and key covariate measures were available at study entry for 2,953 participants. Participants were followed for an average of 7.3 years (96% response rate). There were 10.1% deaths (83% from breast cancer). At enrollment, 55.2% were never smokers, 41.2% former smokers and 4.6% current smokers. Using current smoking status in a Cox regression, there was no increased risk for former smokers for either all‐cause mortality [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.11; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.87–1.41; p‐value = 0.42) or breast cancer mortality. However, when we categorized on extensive lifetime exposure, former smokers with 20+ pack‐years of smoking (25.8%) had a significantly higher risk of both all‐cause (HR = 1.77; 95% CI = 1.17–2.48; p‐value = 0.0007) and breast cancer‐specific mortality (HR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.11–2.37; p‐value = 0.01). Lifetime smoking exposure, not current status, should be used to assess mortality risk among former smokers.


A central assumption in our analysis of cosmic structure is that cosmological perturbations have a constant ensemble mean, which can be set to zero by appropriate choice of the background. This property is one of the consequences of statistical homogeneity, the invariance of correlation functions under spatial translations. In this article we explore whether cosmological perturbations indeed have zero mean, and thus test one aspect of statistical homogeneity. We carry out a classical test of the zero mean hypothesis against a class of alternatives in which primordial perturbations have inhomogeneous non-vanishing means, but homogeneous and isotropic covariances. Apart from Gaussianity, our test does not make any additional assumptions about the nature of the perturbations and is thus rather generic and model-independent. The test statistic we employ is essentially Student's t statistic, applied to appropriately masked, foreground-cleaned cosmic microwave background anisotropy maps produced by the WMAP mission. We find evidence for a non-zero mean in a particular range of multipoles, but the evidence against the zero mean hypothesis goes away when we correct for multiple testing. We also place constraints on the mean of the temperature multipoles as a function of angular scale. On angular scales smaller than four degrees, a non-zero mean has to be at least an order of magnitude smaller than the standard deviation of the temperature anisotropies.


Ten epithelial-specific monoclonal antibodies, including monoclonal antibodies to antigens that have been used extensively in immunodiagnosis and immunotherapy experiments, were tested for reactivity with 20 human carcinomas each of the colon, lung, and breast. The antibodies tested included B72.3, OC125, and antibodies to carcinoembryonic anti gen, the 17-1A antigen, and the milk fat globule mucin antigen (epithelial membrane antigen). Striking differences in the pattern of antigen distri bution were seen, with each antibody having a fairly consistent staining pattern, which was dependent on the tumor type. Two antibodies reacted with most or all tumor specimens and, when positive, reacted homoge neously with apparently every cell in the specimen. Other antibodies consistently produced a variegated staining pattern, typically with areas of positive cells surrounded by areas of negative tumor cells. A third pattern was strong localization to the luminal edge and/or secretions of glandular tumors; this pattern was seen primarily in colon carcinomas which have more well-developed glandular structures than breast or lung carcinomas. A correlation with biochemical properties of the antigens was evident, in that mucins or mucin-related antigens generally produced variegated staining of lung and breast carcinomas and luminal edge/ secretion staining of colon carcinomas. Such differences in antigen dis tribution are likely to be a major factor in developing methods for immunodiagnosis and immunotherapy.


AIM
T lymphocytes play a central role during the pathogenesis of periodontitis, and the imbalance between the pathogenic T-helper type 17 (Th17) and protective T-regulatory (Treg) lymphocytes determines the tooth-supporting alveolar bone resorption. Interleukin (IL)-35 is a novel anti-inflammatory cytokine with therapeutic properties in diseases whose pathogenesis is associated with the Th17/Treg imbalance; however, its role during periodontitis has not been established yet. This study aimed to elucidate whether IL-35 inhibits the alveolar bone resorption during periodontitis by modulating the Th17/Treg imbalance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Mice with ligature-induced periodontitis were treated with locally or systemically administrated IL-35. As controls, periodontitis-affected mice without IL-35 treatment and non-ligated mice were used. Alveolar bone resorption was measured by micro-computed tomography and scanning electron microscopy. The Th17/Treg-pattern of the immune response was analyzed by qPCR, ELISA, and flow cytometry.

RESULTS
IL-35 inhibited alveolar bone resorption in periodontitis mice. Besides, IL-35 induced less detection of Th17 lymphocytes and production of Th17-related cytokines, together with higher detection of Treg lymphocytes and production of Treg-related cytokines in periodontitis-affected tissues.

CONCLUSION
IL-35 is beneficial in the regulation of periodontitis; particularly, IL-35 inhibited alveolar bone resorption and this inhibition was closely associated with modulation of the periodontal Th17/Treg imbalance.


ABSTRACT
 The soybean aphid Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is an invasive economic pest of soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merrill) in the United States. Research has shown the endemic natural enemy community in the United States is capable of suppressing A. glycines below EILs, but this biological control is inconsistent, especially in simple agricultural landscapes. In the course of a 3-yr project (2006–2008) we sought to determine the affects of landscape composition, configuration, and plant nutrients (N, P, and K) on A. glycines and aphidophagous natural enemy abundance. Specifically, we tested whether nearby grasslands contribute to the abundance of natural enemies and the suppression of A. glycines. The study site was located around the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, composed of >2,000 ha of reconstructed prairie, located in Jasper County, IA. We sampled A. glycines, natural enemies, and plant nutrients in 100 soybean fields while characterizing the landscape surrounding each field. A. glycines abundance was lowest in 2006 but reached economically damaging populations in 2007 and 2008. The ratio of natural enemies to A. glycines decreased in each year of our study (2006 > 2007 > 2008). Variation in A. glycines and natural enemies was best explained by year and, to a lesser extent by plant nutrient levels and landscape variables. Results suggest grassland habitat did not significantly contribute to the biological control of A. glycines. Furthermore, yearly decline of natural enemy may have facilitated the colonization of A. glycines leading to outbreaks later in the season.


You aspire to lead with greater impact. The problem is you're busy executing on today's demands. You know you have to carve out time from your day job to build your leadership skills, but it's easy to let immediate problems and old mind-sets get in the way. Herminia Ibarra--an expert on professional leadership and development and a renowned professor at INSEAD, a leading international business school--shows how managers and executives at all levels can step up to leadership by making small but crucial changes in their jobs, their networks, and themselves. In Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, she offers advice to help you: * Redefine your job in order to make more strategic contributions * Diversify your network so that you connect to, and learn from, a bigger range of stakeholders * Become more playful with your self-concept, allowing your familiar--and possibly outdated--leadership style to evolve Ibarra turns the usual "think first and then act" philosophy on its head by arguing that doing these three things will help you learn through action and will increase what she calls your outsight--the valuable external perspective you gain from direct experiences and experimentation. As opposed to insight, outsight will then help change the way you think as a leader: about what kind of work is important; how you should invest your time; why and which relationships matter in informing and supporting your leadership; and, ultimately, who you want to become. Packed with self-assessments and practical advice to help define your most pressing leadership challenges, this book will help you devise a plan of action to become a better leader and move your career to the next level. It's time to learn by doing.


When David MacAdam, the editor of JOSA from 1964 to1975, was asked his opinion about significant OSA events in 1973, he thought first about all the interesting and important papers that had appeared in JOSA over the years. His list of JOSA milestones takes on special significance this year, which marks the 90th anniversary of the journal.


Polarization measurements of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows are a promising means of probing the structure, geometry, and magnetic composition of relativistic GRB jets. However, a precise treatment of instrumental calibration is vital for a robust physical interpretation of polarization data, requiring tests of and validations against potential instrumental systematics. We illustrate this with Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) Band 3 (97.5 GHz) observations of GRB 171205A taken ≈5.19 days after the burst, where a detection of linear polarization was recently claimed. We describe a series of tests for evaluating the stability of polarization measurements with ALMA. Using these tests to reanalyze and evaluate the archival ALMA data, we uncover systematics in the polarization calibration at the ≈0.09% level. We derive a 3σ upper limit on the linearly polarized intensity of P < 97.2 μJy, corresponding to an upper limit on the linear fractional polarization of ΠL < 0.30%, in contrast to the previously claimed detection. Our upper limit improves upon existing constraints on the intrinsic polarization of GRB radio afterglows by a factor of 3. We discuss this measurement in the context of constraints on the jet magnetic field geometry. We present a compilation of polarization observations of GRB radio afterglows, and demonstrate that a significant improvement in sensitivity is desirable for eventually detecting signals polarized at the ≈0.1% level from typical radio afterglows.


BMJ Open publishes all reviews undertaken for accepted manuscripts. Reviewers are asked to complete a checklist review form are provided with free text boxes to elaborate on their assessment. These free text comments are reproduced below. Some articles will have been accepted based in part or entirely on reviews undertaken for other BMJ Group journals. These will be reproduced where possible.


Already in 2002 Agarwal and Ferratt forecasted that talent shortage on the IT labor market will not cause a transient problem. They are proved correct, six years later the problem is not only existent but also worse. Recruiters in companies are more and more forced to break new ground to hire the needed number of IT professionals. The increasing usage of IT in particular Web 2.0 in recruitment therefore offered new opportunities to approach potential talents more focus oriented. An example for this growing opportunities is the virtual world Second Life. We conducted an empirical survey with almost 10.000 jobseekers (including over 700 degree holders in Computer Science and Information Systems) to explore the use of virtual communities as a support for the IT-staff recruitment. Combined with an exploratory single case study with IBM Entwicklung GmbH (IBM Research and Developement Germany) we brought evidence that virtual worlds might be a vital source to recruit IT-professionals in times of talent shortage.


Several lines of evidence suggest that magnetic fields grow rapidly in protogalactic and galactic environments. However, mean field dynamo theory has always suggested that the magnetic fields grow rather slowly, taking of order a Hubble time to reach the observed values. The theoretical difficulties only become worse when the system has a high magnetic Reynolds number, as is the case for galactic and protogalactic environments. The discrepancy can be reconciled if fast processes for amplifying the magnetic field could operate. Following the 2001 work of Balsara and coworkers, we show that an interstellar medium that is dominated by realistic energy input from supernova explosions will naturally become a strongly turbulent medium with large positive and negative values of the kinetic helicity. Even though the medium is driven by compressible motions, the kinetic energy in this high Mach number flow is mainly concentrated in solenoidal rather than compressible motions. These results stem from the interaction of strong shocks with each other and with the interstellar turbulence they self-consistently generate in our model. Moreover, this interaction also generates large kinetic helicities of either sign. The turbulent flow that we model has two other characteristics of a fast dynamo: magnetic energy growth independent of scale and a growth time that is comparable to the eddy turnover time. This linear phase of growth permits the field to grow rapidly until the magnetic energy reaches about 1% of the kinetic energy. At that stage, other astrophysical processes for producing magnetic fields can take over. Energetics, power spectra, statistics, and structures of the turbulent flow are studied here. Shock-turbulence interaction is shown to be a very general mechanism for helicity generation and magnetic field amplification, with applicability to damped Lyα systems, protogalaxies, the Galaxy, starburst galaxies, the intracluster medium, and molecular clouds.


Duodenal obstruction in children is associated with poor outcome which has improved in developed but remained poor in developing countries. The objective of this study was to ascertain the etiology, morbidity, mortality and factors that contributed to poor outcome in a developing country. Retrospective analysis of pediatric duodenal obstruction treated at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria, between January, 1998 and December, 2007 was carried out. Sixty-three children aged 2 days and 12 years (mean 1.5 years ± 2.7) comprising 41 males and 22 females with male/female ratio 1.9:1 were treated. This accounted for 0.8% pediatric operations but contributed 15.3% to total pediatric surgical mortality. Congenital anomalies (atresia, webs, malrotation, complex abdominal mass and annular pancreas) were the major etiologies, while preoperative sepsis, hypoglycaemia, hypothermia, fluid/electrolytes derangement as well as post operative wound infection, burst abdomen, inanition, respiratory insufficiency, aspiration and anastomotic leakage, were the morbidities that culminated in 24 (38.1%) mortality. This was compounded by non availability of organized neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric ventilator, total parenteral nutrition and functional incubators. Majority presented as neonates delivered to low socioeconomic rural dwellers that sought medical attention late. Therefore, an extremely significant statistical difference was observed when the outcome was compared with children delivered in hospital and had prompt medical attention (P<0.0012). Poor outcome was due to preventable causes and there is need to increase health awareness campaign, provision of basic pediatric surgical facilities and improvement in government policies which will allow children have access to free medical treatment


There is increasing interest in assessing riparian zones and their hydrological and biogeochemical buffering capacity with indices derived from hydrologic landscape analysis of digital elevation data. Upslope contributing area is a common surrogate for lateral water flows and can be used to assess the variability of local water inflows to riparian zones and streams. However, current geographic information system algorithms do not provide a method for easily separating riparian zone and adjacent upland lateral contributions on each side of the stream. Here we propose a new algorithm to compute side‐separated contributions along stream networks. We describe the new algorithm and illustrate the importance of distinguishing between lateral inflows on each side of streams with hillslope–riparian zone–stream hydrologic connectivity results from high‐frequency water table data collected in the 22 km2 Tenderfoot Creek catchment, Montana.


Context. Edge-on spiral galaxies with prominent dust lanes provide us with an excellent opportunity to study the distribution and properties of the dust within them. The HEROES project was set up to observe a sample of seven large edge-on galaxies across various wavelengths for this investigation.
Aims. Within this first paper, we present the Herschel observations and perform a qualitative and quantitative analysis on them, and we derive some global properties of the far infrared and submillimetre emission.
Methods. We determine horizontal and vertical profiles from the Herschel observations of the galaxies in the sample and describe the morphology. Modified black-body fits to the global fluxes, measured using aperture photometry, result in dust temperatures and dust masses. The latter values are compared to those that are derived from radiative transfer models taken from the literature.
Results. On the whole, our Herschel flux measurements agree well with archival values. We find that the exponential horizontal dust distribution model often used in the literature generally provides a good description of the observed horizontal profiles. Three out of the seven galaxies show signatures of extended vertical emission at 100 and 160 μm at the 5σ level, but in two of these it is probably due to deviations from an exactly edge-on orientation. Only for NGC 4013, a galaxy in which vertically extended dust has already been detected in optical images, we can detect vertically extended dust, and the derived scaleheight agrees with the value estimated through radiative transfer modelling. Our analysis hints at a correlation between the dust scaleheight and its degree of clumpiness, which we infer from the difference between the dust masses as calculated from modelling of optical data and from fitting the spectral energy distribution of Herschel datapoints.


Imagine: Connecting Communities Through Research was a large five-year project in the Connected Communities programme using methodologies of co-production to explore imagining different futures with community groups. This article, which takes the form of a conversation, offers the perspectives
 of two participants in Imagine to discuss how community organizations and communities work together and the impact of ethnic discrimination and disparity in universities. We set the conversation in the broader context of global discussions of knowledge production and power relationships. We
 consider how universities, as large institutions, often create difficulties for smaller community organizations by focusing on their own interests. We address power and decision-making in Imagine, especially in relation to ethnicity. We seek to think about what needs to be done, both at strategic
 levels in universities and on a personal level, to tilt the balance of benefit towards communities in collaborative relationships with higher education institutions.


Everyday social interactions are heavily influenced by our snap judgments about others' goals. Even young infants can infer the goals of intentional agents from observing how they interact with objects and other agents in their environment: e.g., that one agent is 'helping' or 'hindering' another's attempt to get up a hill or open a box. We propose a model for how people can infer these social goals from actions, based on inverse planning in multiagent Markov decision problems (MDPs). The model infers the goal most likely to be driving an agent's behavior by assuming the agent acts approximately rationally given environmental constraints and its model of other agents present. We also present behavioral evidence in support of this model over a simpler, perceptual cue-based alternative.


Motor vehicle crashes are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Traffic safety research targets at understanding the cause of crash, preventing the crash, and mitigating crash severity. This dissertation focuses on the driver-related traffic safety issues, in particular, on developing and implementing contemporary statistical modeling techniques on driving risk research on Naturalistic Driving Study data. The dissertation includes 5 chapters. In Chapter 1, I introduced the backgrounds of traffic safety research and naturalistic driving study. In Chapter 2, the state-of-practice statistical methods were implemented on individual driver risk assessment using NDS data. The study showed that critical-incident events and driver demographic characteristics can serve as good predictors for identifying risky drivers. In Chapter 3, I developed and evaluated a novel Bayesian random exposure method for Poisson regression models to account for situations where the exposure information needs to be estimated. Simulation studies and real data analysis on Cellphone Pilot Analysis study data showed that, random exposure models have significantly better model fitting performances and higher parameter coverage probabilities as compared to traditional fixed exposure models. The advantage is more apparent when the values of Poisson regression coefficients are large. In Chapter 4, I performed comprehensive simulation-based performance analyses to investigate the type-I error, power and coverage probabilities on summary effect size in classical meta-analysis models. The results shed some light for reference on the prospective and retrospective performance analysis in meta-analysis research. In Chapter 5, I implemented classicaland Bayesian-approach multi-group hierarchical models on 100-Car data. Simulation-based retrospective performance analyses were used to investigate the powers and parameter coverage probabilities among different hierarchical models. The results showed that under fixed-effects model context, complex secondary tasks are associated with higher driving risk.


Long period sawteeth have been observed to result in low-β triggering of neo-classical tearing modes, which can significantly degrade plasma confinement. Consequently, a detailed physical understanding of sawtooth behaviour is critical, especially for ITER where fusion-born α particles are likely to lead to very long sawtooth periods. Many techniques have been developed to control, and in particular to destabilize the sawteeth. The application of counter-current neutral beam injection (NBI) in JET has resulted in shorter sawtooth periods than in Ohmic plasmas. This result has been explained because, firstly, the counter-passing fast ions give a destabilizing contribution to the n = 1 internal kink mode—which is accepted to be related to sawtooth oscillations—and secondly, the flow shear strongly influences the stabilizing trapped particles. A similar experimental result has been observed in counter-NBI heated plasmas in MAST. However, the strong toroidal flows in spherical tokamaks mean that the sawtooth behaviour is determined by the gyroscopic flow stabilization of the kink mode rather than kinetic effects. In NBI heated plasmas in smaller conventional aspect-ratio tokamaks, such as TEXTOR, the flow and kinetic effects compete to give different sawtooth behaviour. Other techniques applied to destabilize sawteeth are the application of electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) or ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH). In JET, it has been observed that localized ICRH is able to destabilize sawteeth which were otherwise stabilized by a co-existing population of energetic trapped ions in the core. This is explained through the dual rôle of the ICRH in reducing the critical magnetic shear required to trigger a sawtooth crash, and the increase in the local magnetic shear which results from driving current near the q = 1 rational surface. Sawtooth control in ITER could be provided by a combination of ECCD and co-passing off-axis negative-NBI fast ions.


This paper combines multiple sources of information on early childhood development in a unified model for analysis of a wide range of early childhood policy interventions. We develop a model of child care in which households decide both the quantities and qualities of maternal and non-maternal care along with maternal labor supply. The model introduces a novel parenting-effort channel, whereby child care subsidies that permit less parenting may enable better parenting. To estimate the model, we combine observational data with experimental data from the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP) which randomly assigned free child care when the child was 1 and 2 years old. We estimate a cognitive skill production function and household preferences, giving insight into mechanisms driving the ex post heterogeneous effects of the IHDP intervention, accounting for alternative care substitutes available to the control group and spillovers of the child care offer across the household's decisions. We also estimate ex ante effects of counterfactual policies such as an offer of lower-quality care, requiring a co-pay for subsidized care, raising the maternal wage offer, or a cash transfer. Finally, we use the model to rationalize existing evidence from outside the US on the effects of universal child care programs.


Numerous studies find that U.S.-born Hispanics differ significantly from non-Hispanic whites on important measures of human capital, including health. Nevertheless, almost all studies rely on subjective measures of ethnic self-identification to identify immigrants' U.S.-born descendants. This can lead to bias due to "ethnic attrition," which occurs whenever a U.S.-born descendant of a Hispanic immigrant fails to self-identify as Hispanic. This paper shows that Mexican American ethnic attritors are generally more likely to display health outcomes closer to those of non-Hispanic whites. This biases conventional estimates of Mexican American health away from suggesting patterns of assimilation and convergence with non-Hispanic whites.


We study competitive on-line scheduling in uniprocessor and multiprocessor real-time environments. In our model, tasks are sporadic and preemptible. Every task has a deadline and a value that the system obtains only if the task completes its execution by its deadline. The aim of a scheduler is to maximize the total value obtained from all the tasks that complete before their deadline.
An on-line scheduler has no knowledge of a task until it is released. The problem is to design an on-line scheduler with worst case guarantees even in the presence of overloaded periods. The guarantee is given in terms of a positive competitive factor. We say that an on-line algorithm has a competitive factor of r (r between zero and one), when under all possible circumstances (i.e, task sets) the scheduler will get at least r times the best possible value. The best value is the value obtained by a clairvoyant algorithm. In contrast to an on-line scheduler, the clairvoyant algorithm knows the entire task set a priori at time zero.
When a uniprocessor system is underloaded there exist several optimal on-line algorithms that will schedule all tasks to completion (e.g., the Earliest Deadline First algorithm). However, under overload, these algorithms perform poorly. Heuristics have been proposed to deal with overloaded situations but these give no worst case guarantees.
We present an optimal on-line scheduling algorithm for uniprocessor overloaded systems called D-over. D-over is optimal in the sense that it has the best competitive factor possible. Moreover, while the system is underloaded, D-over will obtain 100% of the possible value.
In the multiprocessor case, we study systems with two or more processors. We present an inherent limit (lower bound) on the best competitive guarantee that any on-line parallel real-time scheduler can give. Then we present a competitive algorithm that achieves a worst case guarantee which is within a small factor from the best possible guarantee in many cases.


Abstract The power transmission efficiency of continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) based on the pushing metal belt is acknowledged to be lower than that of discrete ratio alternatives. This tends to negate the potential fuel economy benefits that are obtained by improved engine/load matching with a CVT. This series of three papers details an investigation into the loss mechanisms that occur within the belt drive as a first step to obtaining improvements in efficiency. This second part follows on from an initial paper in which an analysis was performed of the losses that occur due to relative motion between the bands and segments of the belt. Additional experimental work has been performed indicating that a significant deflection occurs in the pulleys of the variator. Further torque-loss models are proposed in addition to that discussed in Part 1, representing a smaller but still significant torque loss associated with the belt. The work takes into account new findings in other research and changes in the design of the metal V-belt. The third paper in this series develops a number of models to predict belt-slip losses in the variator system, based on force distribution models developed in Part 1.


Budgeting is an important aspect of organizational life. Lowe and Shaw (1968, p.304)
refer to the annual budgeting procedure as probably the most important single decision
and control routine of a firm from both the organizational and economic management
viewpoints. Budgets provide a focus on planning, both short-term and strategic, on
coordination of organizational activities, on control of organizational resources and on
organizational performance. Budgets are also used for behavioral purposes: for
motivating managers' both in commitment and performance, as a means of control over
managers' activities and as a benchmark against which to measure managers'
performance.
As stated by Kamin and Ronen (1981, p.471), the budget is the skeleton of the control
system and as such reflects the organization's goals and is therefore used as both a
yardstick for future planning and a performance standard against which to measure actual
performance. Schiff and Lewin (1968, p.51) refer to the budget in its final form as an
explicit elaboration of organizational commitments for the year that reflects the resolution
of demands for resources made by the various subunits of the firm.
Implementation of budgets have behavioral effects other than those intended by higher
level management. Milani (1975, p.274) points out that a budgeting system designed to
assist management may become an instrument which is related to functional and/or
dysfunctional behavioral consequences. Schiff and Lewin (1968) refer to 'unintended'
behavioral results, such as lower level management circumventing the budget and
allocating resources to what they perceive asjustifiable purposes. Swieringa and Moncur
(1972, p. 194) summarize the relationship between budgets and those who are involved in
the budgeting process as follows: ".. .human behavior has implications for budgeting and.. .budgeting has
implications for human behavior".
Cherrington and Cherrington (1973) state that it is not budgets per se, that have an effect
on people, but the positive and negative reinforcing consequences associated with
budgets. That is, it is not the numbers that form the budget that have behavioral effects on participants, but rather the intentions behind the numbers, the intentions that are read
into the numbers by participants, personalities of parties involved, organizational
structure and so on.
Research on both 'intended' and 'unintended' effects stemming from the budgeting
process has been extensive and diverse and has examined many of the possible influences
noted above (Lowe & Shaw, 1968; Schiff & Lewin, 1968; Cherrington & Cherrington,
1973; Onsi, 1973; Kenis, 1979; Kamin & Ronen, 1981; Brownell, 1982; Merchant, 1985;
Chenhall & Brownell, 1988; Lukka, 1988; Chow et al, 1988; Murray, 1990; Dunk, 1991;
Lai & Smith, 1992). The main focus of this research has been on the relationship
between participation and performance. This paper will focus on an important aspect of
this relationship - the propensity of managers' to create budgetary slack.
The propensity to create budgetary slack refers to a manager's tendency or inclination to
incorporate a 'buffer' into budgets. The propensity to create budgetary slack (PCBS) is
most commonly characterized as the inclination of managers' to set expense budgets
higher than the level of costs reasonably expected, so as to obtain a favorable variance
result. The same concept applies to revenue budgets, where the inclination is to propose
an inflow that is lower than the estimated inflow, so as again to obtain a favorable actual
to budget result.
The purpose of this study is to develop and empirically test an explanatory framework of
managers' PCBS. This framework will incorporate both situational and personality
variables in attempting to explain what motivates managers' to want to incorporate slack
into budgets. The impact of the PCBS on the relationship between participation and performance will
be discussed in the following section, highlighting the motivation for studying the PCBS
concept. The development of an explanatory framework for the PCBS will then follow,
leading to the proposition of seven empirically testable hypotheses. The next section
details the research method followed by presentation of results. Finally, implications of
results in light of the limitations of this study are discussed.


With one of the oldest surviving cultures in the world, Australian Aboriginal people have developed immense knowledge about the diverse Australian flora. Western scientific investigation of some Australian Aboriginal medicinal plants has demonstrated interesting pharmacological activities and chemistry, however the majority of these species have not yet been extensively examined. We argue that research that is locally initiated and driven by Indigenous traditional owners in collaboration with Western scientists has significant potential to develop new plant-based products. Locally driven medicinal plants research in which traditional owners work as researchers in collaboration with University-based colleagues in the investigation of medicines rather than "stakeholders" or "informants" is one model that may be used in characterising plants with the potential to be developed into sustainable plant-based medicinal products with commercial value. Our team has taken this approach in research located both on traditional homelands and in the laboratory. Research being conducted by the University of South Australia and Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation has led to patent filing for protection of intellectual property associated with novel compounds and extracts with the potential for development through cosmetic, complementary medicine and pharmaceutical routes. Ongoing research is examining the commercial developmental pathways and requirements for product development in these spaces. This review will address the opportunities that might exist for working in partnership with Australian Indigenous communities, some of the scientific knowledge which has been generated so far from our work together and the lessons learnt since the inception of the collaboration between the Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation and scientists from the University of South Australia.


This paper uses household-level panel data from three large apparel retailers to examine how e-commerce affects the concentration of sales across products. In our data there are remarkable differences between the products that are popular in online versus offline channels. When the relative popularity of products differs by channel, as in our data, we demonstrate that the traditional long tail metrics used in the literature provide biased results regarding changes to the concentration of sales caused by the growth in online sales. We propose an alternative metric that allows us to measure concentration effects when product popularity varies by channel. Our results demonstrate that ignoring differences in product popularity across channels can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding whether e-commerce increases or decreases the concentration of sales across products. Examining how the migration of consumers from brick and mortar to online channels affects the anatomy of their purchases is important for guiding managerial practice.


It is of course not possible to arrive at any precise estimate of the extent of drug use in sport, for those involved in doping will almost inevitably seek to conceal their activities. It is also clear that the incidence of positive tests is a poor some would argue so poor as to be virtually useless – index of the extent of drug use in elite sport. Although the prevalence of drug use varies considerably from one sport to another it is clear that in many sports doping is widespread and that in some – professional cycling is perhaps the clearest example the likelihood is that a majority, and perhaps a very large majority, of competitors are using performance-enhancing drugs. Marxist theory which, he argued, would suggest that the practice of doping is indicative of the alienation of individuals in modern capitalist society. Marxist sociologists he suggests, could identify many structural clues that would illustrate 'how the athlete as a controlled human being is exploited and alienated, or how sport itself produces alienation'. The central thrust of this analysis thus focuses on developments in, and changes in the interrelationships between, medicine and sport. Let us begin by looking briefly at the medicalization of sport. It should be emphasized that such a deviant career structure within sports medicine is now firmly established and that it is possible to achieve considerable success within such careers. It would seem that in the case of bodybuilders – and, it might be suspected, in the case of drug-using athletes more generally – the fact that they may form quite tightly knit communities in which drug use is both widely accepted as legitimate and often seen as a prerequisite for success, enables them with some success to reject the hostile stereotyping from the wider society and to sustain their own more positive definition of themselves and their activities.


Multiple platform Ethernet Network Interface Card (NIC) device drivers incorrectly handle frame padding, allowing an attacker to view slices of previously transmitted packets or portions of kernel memory. This vulnerability is the result of incorrect implementations of RFC requirements and poor programming practices, the combination of which results in several variations of this information leakage vulnerability. This bug is explored in its various manifestations through code examples and packet captures. Solutions to this flaw are provided.


What do India's huge blackouts this month have to do with the latest fad for CEOs? Forget guanxi, the Chinese art of networking; forget the Japanese-inspired disciplinary regime, the Six Sigma way. The latest fad to hit the CEO conference circuit is the Indian notion of jugaad. Its supporters include, amongst others, Saatchi and Saatchi's CEO Worldwide Kevin Roberts. Borrowing a term for the cobbled-together cars the rural poor drive, this new "Indian way" means throwing out all of the complex and costly organisational burdens that clog up smooth and seamless business: occupational health and safety and risk management just for starters. But is jugaad all rosy?


This study aimed at investigating the role of educational counseling in reducing conduct disorders among students of primary stage in Nablus directorate. To achieve this aim the researchers used a forty-item questionnaire which was distributed among (1727) students represented (10) schools selected randomly by using cluster random sample from grade four to grade six in the government schools in Nablus governorate. In collecting the necessary data for answering the questions of the study, the researchers used means, standard deviations, percentages and degrees for all items and total score of conduct disorders questionnaire items. Additionally, MANCOVA Test was used to find out the differences in conduct disorders due to study variables-Counseling services, Gender, Place and Achievement. Results of this study showed that the level of conduct disorders among the study sample was moderate. Significant differences were shown on the study variables as follows:- between schools with counseling services and schools without, in favor of schools with. Between males and females in favor of males. Between city, villages and camps in favor of camps. Between students of different averages in favor of low achievers (50-60). In the light of these findings, the researchers recommended over spreading counseling to all schools. Improving counseling training is another important for the Ministry of Education.


The sociological effects of three multinational corporations on Spennymoor, a former traditional coal mining community in County Durham, is examined. Effects of the multinationals on community life, on the work place environment, and on trade union structures receive particular attention. The study focuses on specific research findings in respect of the Spennymoor community made during 1976-1977 and draws a comparative analysis of the impact of the three multinationals. Two of the companies are English-based multinationals: The Thorn subsidiary Smart and Brown and Courtaulds, Ltd. , whereas, the third, Black and Decker, Ltd. , is an American-based multi national managed by and employing British personnel in Great Britain. The method of data collection used in the study included a combination of in-depth interviews, direct observation and social interaction in Spennymoor. Persons interviewed collectively form a diverse cross-section of male and female subjects. The study presents arguments indicating multinational corporations possess worldwide hegemony outside the rule of effective international law to regulate their actions in the world economy. SiAstantial consideration is given in this work to the Alternational Investment Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises formulated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in an attempt to provide a fair social framework and equitable operating procedures with which multinationals are to abide. This study investigates whether or not the multinationals in Spennymoor have complied with the OECD Guidelines. Four major social conflicts are revealed: the traditional community society in conflict with international corporatism; the conflict of workers versus multinational managers and district governmental bureaucrats; the conflict between female workers and a male dominated society within which sexist discrimination has been reinforced by multinational management practises rather than alleviated; and lastly, but of most pervasive importance, the conflict between multinational industrial strategy and fair collective bargaining by trade unions. The study concludes that a great preponderance of power lies with the multinationals to determine the destiny of the Spennymoor workers and of Spennymoor itself. A need exists for effective international regulation of multinationals and a strong worldwide organisation of workers, such as combine committees, united in their alms to bargain collectively from a position of united power in order for the workers to control their jobs and the destiny of their local communities.


Supported by media technologies, today's employees can increasingly decide when and where to work. The present study examines positive and negative aspects of this temporal and spatial flexibility, and the perceptions of control in these situations based on propositions of self-determination theory. Using an exploratory approach we conducted semi-structured interviews with 45 working digital natives. Participants described positive and negative situations separately for temporal and spatial flexibility, and rated the extent to which they felt autonomous and externally controlled. Situations appraised positively were best described by decision latitude, while negatively evaluated ones were best described by work–nonwork conflict. Positive situations were perceived as autonomous rather than externally controlled; negative situations were rated as autonomously and externally controlled to a similar extent.


Continental rifting ultimately creates a deep accommodation space for sediment. When a major river flows into a late-stage rift, thick deltaic sediment can change the thermal regime and alter the mechanisms of extension and continental breakup. The Salton Trough, the northernmost rift segment of the Gulf of California plate boundary, has experienced the same extension as the rest of the Gulf, but is filled to sea level by sediment from the Colorado River. Unlike the southern Gulf, seafloor spreading has not initiated. Instead, seismicity, high heat flow, and minor volcanoes attest to ongoing rifting of thin, transitional crust. Recently acquired controlled-source seismic refraction and wide-angle reflection data in the Salton Trough provide constraints upon crustal architecture and active rift processes. The crust in the central Salton Trough is only 17-18 km thick, with a strongly layered but relatively one-dimensional structure for ~100 km in the direction of plate motion. The upper crust includes 2-3 km of Colorado River sediment. The basement below the sediment is interpreted to be similar sediment metamorphosed by the high heat flow and geothermal activity. Metasedimentary rock extends to at least 7-8 km depth. A 4-5 km thick layer in the middle crust is either additional meta-sedimentary rock or stretched pre-existing continental crust. The lowermost 4-5 km of the crust is rift-related mafic magmatic material underplated from partial melting in the hot upper mantle. North American lithosphere in the Salton Trough has been almost or completely rifted apart. The gap has been filled by ~100 km of new transitional crust created by magmatism from below and sedimentation from above. These processes create strong lithologic, thermal, and rheologic layering. Brittle extension occurs within new meta-sedimentary rock. The lower crust, in comparison, stretches by ductile flow and magmatism is not localized. This seismic interpretation is also supported by 1D thermal and rheological modeling. In this passive rift driven by far-field extensional stresses, rapid sedimentation keeps the crust thick and ductile, which delays final breakup of the crust and the initiation of seafloor spreading.


In their earlier report, Reform in Eastern Europe, the WIDER group assessed the main building blocks of a successful transition in Eastern Europe: stabilization, price liberalization, privatization, and restructuring. For the last three years this group of leading economists has been heavily involved in the reform process. In this new report, they take stock, returning to the original themes and assessing progress and prospects, particularly in Russia. Stabilization in the major Central European countries was done very much by the book. Russia, in contrast, is following a path of restructuring without stabilization. The authors discuss how far this alternative strategy is likely to get. Turning to privatization, they note that initial plans started from the assumption that the state owned the assets. As slow progress of those plans has painfully shown, this was the wrong assumption. They point out that assets have in fact many de facto claimants, from managers to workers to local authorities to ministries, and discuss how the current Russian privatization program starts and builds up from this more realistic assessment. In the face of a collapse of trade in Eastern Europe, triggered by reform in Central Europe and a similar collapse between republics following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the authors show how simple measures such as a payments union can be used to increase trade and output. Post-Communist Reform concludes with a look at restructuring in Poland. The authors focus on the behavior of the state, the growth of the private sector, the role of financial systems, and the coherence of overall government policy, ending on a note of cautious optimism.


In this paper, we explore the physical limits of successful information transfer in a point-to-point communication system. In interest of studying the fundamental limits imposed by physics on communication systems in general, we model a simple generic system that enables us to make some basic inquiries about the energy efficiency in information transfer and processing. We use ideas from thermodynamics such as Szilard engine to represent information bits. We further use ideas from electromagnetic theory for transfer of information, and information theory to define the energy efficiency metric. We find the upper limit of this efficiency and conditions at which it can be achieved.


For the majority of current day internet researchers they key issue is not "who" is connected to the internet but "what" are people doing when they are connected. In particular there is a growing interest in social computing, and especially technology such as blogs, wikis, myspace, and the like. But have we abandoned the issue of "who" for "what" too soon? This paper will present a research project that explores the psychological barriers that prevent people within community from integrating information and communication technology into their lives. The research will use the Social Cognitive Theory by Bandura to examine the psychology of the digital divide. Participants in the study are members of the San Jose community. Self administered surveys are used for data collection. The research influences our understanding of the digital divide by providing evidence that the characteristics or make up of the digital divide is more complex than the current understanding of the phenomenon. Existing digital divide studies have taken primarily a socio-economic perspective, and portray the digital divide as a relatively simple premise: the digital divide is a dichotomous concept - you either have access to ICT or you don't. And this access is determined by factors such as income, employment and education. This research illustrates that psychology does matter; and that the digital divide involves both more members of the population and different members of the population then current research has shown to date. As such the current research has brought to light elements of the digital divide which have not being considered in contemporary discourse about the phenomenon.


Automating repetitive surgical subtasks such as suturing, cutting and debridement can reduce surgeon fatigue and procedure times and facilitate supervised tele-surgery. Programming is difficult because human tissue is deformable and highly specular. Using the da Vinci Research Kit (DVRK) robotic surgical assistant, we explore a "Learning By Observation" (LBO) approach where we identify, segment, and parameterize motion sequences and sensor conditions to build a finite state machine (FSM) for each subtask. The robot then executes the FSM repeatedly to tune parameters and if necessary update the FSM structure. We evaluate the approach on two surgical subtasks: debridement of 3D Viscoelastic Tissue Phantoms (3d-DVTP), in which small target fragments are removed from a 3D viscoelastic tissue phantom; and Pattern Cutting of 2D Orthotropic Tissue Phantoms (2d-PCOTP), a step in the standard Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery training suite, in which a specified circular area must be cut from a sheet of orthotropic tissue phantom. We describe the approach and physical experiments with repeatability of 96% for 50 trials of the 3d-DVTP subtask and 70% for 20 trials of the 2d-PCOTP subtask. A video is available at: http://j.mp/Robot-Surgery-Video-Oct-2014.


This study looks into the underlying causes of household food shortage and coping and survival strategies of households. It also analyzes government intervention undertaken to address the problem. It was based on a field survey in three peasant associations of the Enebse Sar Midir district in Amhara Region. The findings of this study show that various and interrelated factors are responsible for the problem of household food shortage. There are many natural predisposing factors such as drought, environmental degradation, hailstorm, crop pests, and animal diseases. Drought and environmental degradation are the most prominent natural causes in the lowland and highland areas respectively. Furthermore, there are many socio-economic constraints such as lack of infrastructural services like credit, marketing and transport communications; population pressure and shortage of farmland; traditional farming systems and practices; and lack of productive assets. Government inappropriate strategies are also found to be aggravating factors. Given their capacity and available opportunities households try to implement different coping and survival strategies to handle the stress situation. There are some coping strategies adopted to minimize the impact of livelihood shocks which include selling of assets like livestock and wood, petty trading, handicrafts, and agricultural diversifications. When people become more and more vulnerable all these coping strategies become exhausted and their strategies are limited to survival or to combat destitution and death. The main survival strategies experienced are out migration, engaging in daily labor, food aid, decreasing daily food intake and changing food stuff, and social networks or support from relatives and friends. There are some limited activities undertaken by the government to address the food crisis which include agricultural extension, water harvest, resettlement, safety net programs, credit services, and enhancing income generating schemes. However, even the very few activities carried out are not only ineffective but also disrupt farmers' normal activities and aggravate the problem. These programs were designed at the top and imposed upon to the people at the grassroots. People have no any say; they are simply required to implement the imposed activities to them in mass. Most often, what the government doing is quite irrelevant to what the people need. The consequence has been a failure and worsening of the situation. For instance, the water harvest program which has been implemented widely with barely available resources is conflicting with other peoples' activities and found to be irrelevant in the studied communities. Many chronically food insecure households who are supposed to resettle to the region's resettlement sites but did not accept the resettlement are prohibited to get relief food aid. Therefore, It is recommended that to achieve household food security or achieve sustainable household livelihood in general: program formulation and implementation should be participatory; alternative sources of income generating schemes should be strengthened; efforts should be made to develop medium and large scale irrigation projects; the severe environmental degradation and population pressures requires considerable attention; and agricultural input and output marketing systems should be improved.


The present study examines the impact of the Internet on the real estate office market through a survey of real estate professionals in traditional companies in Boston/U.S. and London/U.K. This survey captures professionals' opinions on the use of the Internet and how it affects their business. The results from both cities indicate differences when using the Internet versus traditional practice. The Internet seems to affect the role of the transaction participants, the length of the process but not the participants' earnings or transaction steps. It is currently used as a listing service, information-gathering resource and communication tool.


Therapeutic options are often limited in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who relapse after intensive chemotherapy or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT); only a few will achieve long-lasting remissions with salvage chemotherapy or a 2nd HSCT. Furthermore, relapse treatment with intensive chemotherapy is often associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Therefore, the prevention of hematologic relapse (HR) remains the main goal in the care of patients with AML.

Patients who are at an increased risk of HR can be identified by monitoring minimal residual disease (MRD) using leukemia specific molecular markers. Among many aberrations recently identified, mutations of the NPM1 gene, coding for the nucleophosmin protein, are the most frequent genetic alterations in AML with normal karyotype (NK), which allows a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based quantification of MRD.1 In contrast to other molecular aberrations, NPM1 mutations appear to be stable during the disease course, because they are considered to be a primary pathogenetic lesion in AML.2 The detection of increasing NPM1-defined MRD is predictive of impending hematologic relapse3–5 and can thus guide early preemptive interventions.

Generally, the optimal therapeutic approach for the treatment of MRD should be associated with a reliable efficacy and also be well tolerated. The DNA-methylation inhibitor 5-azacitidine (AZA) seems to be a promising drug for this treatment indication. Indeed, it is active in patients with AML and advanced myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS),6 has a low rate of extramedullary toxicity and can be administered on an outpatient basis.

We report for the first time a notable number of patients (n=10) with NK-AML and NPM1 mutation (NPM1+) who underwent preemptive treatment with AZA to avoid HR (Table 1). All patients were in 1st or 2nd complete remission (CR) after intensive pretreatment with conventional chemotherapy, autologous or allogeneic HSC but displayed molecularly detectable MRD consistent with imminent relapse. One of these patients was discussed as a case report in 2010, however only with a short follow up; this has now been extended.7

Table 1.

Patient and treatment characteristics.

According to our institutional MRD guidelines, screening was routinely performed during the disease course by using sequential real-time PCR specific for NPM1 mutants A, B, and D in bone marrow and peripheral blood samples as described in recent studies.4,7 In cases of molecular relapse or persistent MRD defined as an increase or a persistence of NPM1/ABL ratio of more than 1% in the bone marrow after the last therapy, preemptive treatment with AZA was initiated at a dose of 75 mg/m2/day s.c. on days 1–7 every 28 days. Two patients received dose-modified therapy (100 mg/day, days 1–5). Molecular response was defined as a minimum of 1-log MRD reduction compared to the baseline MRD value before treatment initiation.

Patients started treatment of MRD with AZA at a median NPM1/ABL ratio of 194% (range 3–7129%) in the bone marrow. The median time from last therapy to molecular relapse was seven months. At this time point all patients were still in CR with a median neutrophil and platelet count of 3.1×109/L and 137×109/L, respectively. A median of 5 cycles were given (range 2–12 cycles) and were usually well tolerated. The most frequent side effect was myelosuppression with reversible neutropenia and thrombocytopenia grades 3/4 in 80% and 40% of patients, respectively. Although similar results were reported in the AZA001 study,6 these patients had a manifest active disease, whereas in our study they were treated for MRD, being otherwise not impaired by the imminent disease recurrence. Therefore, patients undergoing AZA treatment for MRD should be monitored closely to avoid a reduction in their quality of life due to cytopenia associated complications. Nevertheless, in future trials the dose of AZA might be further reduced possibly without loosing its efficiency, as recently described by Lima et al.8

After a median follow-up time of 10 months (range 2–12 months) from initiation of AZA treatment only 3 patients developed a hematologic relapse. A molecular response with an at least 1-log decrease in the MRD level was observed in 7 of the 10 (70%) patients. Five of them responded within 3 cycles, another 2 patients responded after cycle 4 and 5. However, some patients had only a temporary response consistent with the opinion that AZA treatment might only have delayed the time to hematologic relapse in some patients (Figure 1). A stable course of MRD was documented in one patient and early progressive increase of the NPM1+ clone despite AZA treatment was observed in 2 patients.

Figure 1.

MRD course of 7 patients with molecular response to single agent azacitidine. Tx: date of allogeneic HSCT; R: hematologic relapse. MRD monitoring in bone marrow samples is represented by the continuous lines; dashed lines reflect MRD monitoring from peripheral ...

Interestingly, the 2 patients with the highest NPM1+ values (>1000%) before initiation of AZA treatment ultimately relapsed after 4 and 6 cycles, respectively. This might reflect the existence of a threshold above which a patient is not likely to obtain long-term benefit from preemptive AZA application.

Among the 7 responders there were 3 patients suffering from molecular relapse after previous allogeneic SCT. One of these showed complete clearance of NPM1+ after 4 cycles. We, therefore, speculate that AZA, besides its direct effects on leukemic cells, might also influence the donor immune system and reconstitute the graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) effect as suggested recently.9

Taken together, the results of the present analysis are promising, especially when considering the published data describing the natural disease course in NPM1+ AML, with disease progression to full clinical relapse within a median of eight weeks after detection of MRD.4,5,10 In contrast to these data, we found 7 of 10 patients to be still in complete hematologic remission after a median follow-up time of ten months, suggesting a potential efficacy of AZA in NPM1-defined treatment of MRD. Especially elderly patients and those with a history of serious treatment-related toxicities may benefit from this well tolerated treatment approach. Furthermore, for patients with no available matched donor at the time of molecular relapse, this strategy might be preferable to bridge to subsequent allogeneic HSCT.

Further investigations are necessary to define the patient population who could benefit most from this treatment approach. Since our study included only a relatively small number of patients, prospective clinical trials addressing the impact of MRD-directed therapy with AZA in NPM1 mutant AML are warranted.


There were many critics saying that private capital flows created financial volatility in the local financial market leading to volatile economic activity. Developing countries, therefore, face the challenge of designing economic policies and institutions to an increasingly integrated financial environment that secure the most benefits from capital inflows while reducing their vulnerability to sudden reversals. This dissertation addresses the role of different types of private capital, namely foreign direct investment (FDI), total foreign debt and portfolio investment in the global economy with particular reference to their effects on economic development in developing countries. The dissertation also aims to investigate to what extent the effectiveness of these private capital flows depends on the quality of financial system in the host countries. In addition, the path (or shock) of these capital flows in developing countries is also examined to provide meaningful policy implications. For example, if the private capital flows are characterized by a stationary (non-stationary, or contain a unit root), then it implies that shocks to private capital flows are temporary (permanent). To achieve these objectives, both panel unit root tests and generalised method of moments (GMM) panel data analysis are applied, covering 71 developed and developing countries over the period of 1988-2002.
The empirical results indicate that: First, using three types of panel unit root tests, this study concludes that shocks to portfolio investment and foreign direct investment are temporary while total debt series is permanent in developing countries from year 1988 to 2002. Furthermore, the shock of East Asian financial crisis had significant impact in influencing the time path of these private capital flows.
Second, while FDI and portfolio investment has positive and significant impact on economic growth in the countries under study depending on the stage of economic development, foreign debt have negative and significant impact in all countries under study. These findings are consistent and confirmed by using different types of financial development and stock market indicators. It seems that unfettered capital flows do not necessarily promote growth. In fact, some data suggest that foreign debt is deleterious to expansion under certain conditions.
Third, the findings are in line with previous studies in the literature on private capital flows, quality of institutions and economic growth, which suggest that the consideration of institutional and financial absorptive capacity produces most of the significant results. The dissertation, therefore, suggests that for countries to benefit more from all types private capital flows, they have to achieve certain development level of domestic financial and banking sector, favouring the hypothesis that well-functioning domestic financial institutions in a recipient country is able to benefit more from private capital flows.


Cyber-Physical Systems are developed through complex engineering projects that include many stakeholders and a variety of tools and processes from different engineering backgrounds. Interoperability in these development tool chains is an important aspect for well-integrated systems. Furthermore, since full tool chain interoperability is neither possible nor necessarily desired, measuring interoperability in development environments is essential for setting the right priorities. This systematic literature review gives an overview of the literature about interoperability assessment methods. A survey was conducted through digital libraries and a total of 42 papers were read. Out of these papers, 24 different interoperability assessment models were identified and analyzed. A striking find of this study is that no proof of industrial adaptation of these models was found. In this paper, we analyze the reasons for this lack of validation in the context of CPS development.


The accession of the 'A8 states' into the European Union initiated considerable migration into Western Europe. The impact upon local communities has seen significant attention, yet little research exists that focuses upon migrant experiences and identity specifically in sport. This study used a figurational framework to investigate the lived experiences of basketball among male Lithuanian migrants in the rural east of England. Semistructured interviews highlighted participants' motivations to migrate, their acculturation experiences and the role that basketball played during their sojourn. Participants considered basketball a significant means for the expression of national identity and as a focus for their resistance to local racializing processes. Conversely, conflict with established local basketball communities and perceptions of marginalization among migrants were common, creating divisions in local basketball competitions.


We study the determinants of new and repeated research collaborations, drawing on the co-authorship network of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s Working Papers series. Being an outlet where authors express their views on topics of interest, and given that IMF staff is not subject to the "publish-or-perish" conditions of the academia, the IMF Working Papers series constitutes an appropriate testing ground to examine the endogenous nature of co-authorship formation. We show that the co-authorship network is characterized by many authors with few direct co-authors, yet indirectly connected to each other through short co-authorship chains. We find that a shorter distance in the co-authorship network is key for starting research collaborations. Also, higher research productivity, being employed in the same department, and having citizenship of the same region help to start and repeat collaborations. Furthermore, authors with different co-authorship network sizes are more likely to collaborate, possibly reflecting synergies between senior and junior staff members.


The linear 2-dim irreducible representations of the dihedral groups (Dn) are interpreted as classical linear operators of geometrical optics. It is shown that the 2-dim irreducible representation of D4 is simply the refractive group described by Campbell [Optom. Vision Sci. 74, 381 (1997)]. The dihedral Fourier-inverse mechanism is introduced and shown to provide a systematic connection between the standard refractive data and their vector space representation, as proposed by Thibos et al. [Vision Sci. Appl. 2, 14 (1994)].


Acknowledging that the concept of the commons is increasingly considered valuable for uniting left struggles, we develop the theory of the commons by strengthening its link with a Marxist critique of capitalism. In order to do so, we draw parallels between the work of Elinor Ostrom on principles of sustainable governance and Branko Horvat's theory of self-management developed in the context of socialist Yugoslavia. We employ Foucault's concept of governmentality to address the need for a socialist political rationale and governing principles, drawing our starting points from Ostrom and Horvat. First, we leave behind commons theorizing that relies on "exodus" strategies, instead drawing inspiration from Yugoslav self-management as an attempt of linking up the firm to wider social relations aimed at creating egalitarian, radically democratic, and materially sustainable societies. Second, we propose that the search for alternatives to capitalism and etatism goes beyond a change in ownership regime, and into principles of governance. While much of the contemporary progressive political agenda is concerned with distributional issues, we propose that devising governance principles to disable the formation of class control is the crucial innovation needed to advance a socialist governmentality. Finally, formulating the principles of socialist governmentality requires abandoning our reliance on indefinite economic growth which is seriously threatening the material base of human life.


This report has been established within the Flexiheat project. Flexiheat has focused on increasing flexibility in district heating systems. The intelligent district heating network is a dynamic network: an open network where different waste heat and renewable energy sources are connected, that has multiple producers and groups of consumers and facilitates the connection between different energy infrastructures (gas, heat and electricity). Eventually this will lead to an optimal deployment of the available heat sources and an increased cost-efficiency of district heating. Flexiheat aims to develop new concepts for these intelligent, flexible district heating networks. One of the strategies is to allow third party access to the network. A smart control system is developed to manage the heat flows across the network. This system makes use of dynamic pricing. In this exploration the concept of third party access in relation to the Flexiheat project will be discussed. The development of new business and price models based on the Flexiheat approach has led to an analysis of possible alternative price models for consumers.


Although heterogeneous computing has enabled impressive program speed-ups, knowledge about the architecture of the target device is still critical to reap full hardware benefits. Programming such architectures is complex and is usually done by means of specialized languages (e.g. CUDA, OpenCL). The cost of moving and keeping host/device data coherent may easily eliminate any performance gains achieved by acceleration. Although this problem has been extensively studied for multicore architectures and was recently tackled in discrete GPUs through CUDA8, no generic solution exists for integrated CPU/GPUs architectures like those found in mobile devices (e.g. ARM Mali). This paper proposes Data Coherence Analysis (DCA), a set of two data-flow analyses that determine how variables are used by host/device at each program point. It also introduces Data Coherence Optimization (DCO), a code optimization technique that uses DCA information to: (a) allocate OpenCL shared buffers between host and devices; and (b) insert appropriate OpenCL function calls into program points so as to minimize the number of data coherence operations. DCO was implemented in AClang LLVM (www.aclang.org) a compiler capable of translating OpenMP 4.X annotated loops to OpenCL kernels, thus hiding the complexity of directly programming in OpenCL. Experimental results using DCA and DCO in AClang to compile programs from the Parboil, Polybench and Rodinia benchmarks reveal performance speed-ups of up to 5.25x on an Exynos 8890 Octacore CPU with ARM Mali-T880 MP12 GPU and up to 2.03x on a 2.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor equipped with an Intel Iris GPU unit.


Manufacturing companies define the qualities of thermal removing process based on the dimension and physical appearance of the cutting material surface. Therefore, the roughness of the surface area of the cutting material and the rate of the material being removed during the manual plasma arc cutting process was importantly considered. Plasma arc cutter Selco Genesis 90 was used to cut the specimens made from Standard AISI 1017 Steel manually based on the selected parameters setting. Two different thicknesses of specimens with 3mm and 6mm were used. The material removal rate (MRR) was measured by determining the weight of the specimens before and after the cutting process. The surface roughness (SR) analysis was conducted to determine the average roughness (Ra) value. Taguchi method was utilized as an experimental layout to obtain MRR and Ra values. The results reveal that for the case of manual plasma arc cutting machining, the SR values are inversely proportional to the MRR values. The quality of the surface roughness depends on the dross peak that occurred during the cutting process.


Aims The aim of the study was to retrospectively evaluate safety and patient satisfaction of same-day discharge after elective radial coronary angiography/percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) after the implementation of a radial lounge facility. Methods All patients admitted to our radial lounge with a planned same-day discharge after an uncomplicated coronary angiography/PCI, having a co-living caregiver, were day enrolled in the study. Rates of same-day discharge, unplanned overnight stay, and in-hospital and first complications [death, myocardial infarction (MI), unplanned coronary angiography, access site hematoma, bleedings requiring hospitalization] were analysed; satisfaction was also evaluated through a questionnaire. Results From February 2015 to January 2016, 312 patients with a mean age of 66.6 ± 10.8 years were admitted to the radial lounge (coronary angiography, n = 232; PCIs, n = 80). Of them, 245 (78.5%) were discharged the same day. Mean radial lounge monitoring was 6:35 h (interquartile range 5:30–7:30 h). No episodes of death/MI/unplanned coronary angiography were observed both in same-day discharged and postponed patients. Reasons to postpone discharge were: PCI deemed to need prolonged monitoring in 31, patient's preference in 14, femoral shift in 13, surgery in four, chest pain in four, and bleeding in one. At day 1, 11 access site hematoma and one hospitalization for access site bleeding were reported. Patients reported complete satisfaction in 97% of cases. Unplanned overnight stay was common among PCIs patients (RR 6.2, 95% CI 3.9–9.9, P < 0.001). Conclusion A low rate of minor complications was observed in elective radial coronary angiography and PCIs showing the feasibility and safety of the development of an institutional protocol for same-day discharge after the implementation of a radial lounge facility.


Understanding the reproductive potential ("quality") of queens bees can provide valuable insights into factors that influence colony phenotype. We assayed queens from various commercial sources for various measures of potential queen quality, including their physical characters (such as their degree of parasitism), insemination number (stored sperm counts), and effective paternity frequency (number of drone fathers among their offspring). We found significant variation in the physical, insemination, and mating quality of commercially produced queens, and we detected significant correlations within and among these various measures. Overall, the queens were sufficiently inseminated (3.99 ± 1.504 million sperm) and mated with an appropriate number of drones (effective paternity frequency: 16.0 ± 9.48). Importantly, very few of the queens were parasitized by tracheal mites and none were found with either Nosema species. These findings suggest possible mechanisms for assessing the potential fitness of honey bee queens without the need for destructive sampling. honey bee queens / reproductive potential / insemination / parasitism / effective mating frequency


The present work is aimed at developing a titania-based mesoporous film with catalytic properties toward organophosphate pesticides by combining two different approaches: the molecular imprinting and the self-assembly with a supramolecular template. The mesoporosity of the material has been obtained by using a tri-block copolymer (Pluronic F127) as a micellar template while the molecular imprinted cavities have been templated by a complex between La3+ and bis-4-nitro-phenyl-phosphate. The template removal allowed opening, in one step, both the mesopores and the imprinted cavities with a simultaneous estimation of the active sites. The catalytic activity of the molecularly imprinted and not imprinted films toward the pesticide Paraoxon® has been evaluated by means of UV-Vis spectroscopy titration of the 4-nitro-phenolate released by the Paraoxon® hydrolysis. The analysis of the initial rates of molecularly imprinted and not imprinted films has shown that the presence of a very low number of molecular cavities improves the catalytic properties of the imprinted film when compared to the not imprinted films and the background hydrolysis.


Selecting colorectal cancer (CRC) patients likely to respond to therapy remains a clinical challenge. The objectives of this study were to establish which genes were differentially expressed with respect to treatment sensitivity and relate this to copy number in a panel of 15 CRC cell lines. Copy number variations of the identified genes were assessed in a cohort of CRCs. IC50's were measured for 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, and BEZ-235, a PI3K/mTOR inhibitor. Cell lines were profiled using array comparative genomic hybridisation, Illumina gene expression analysis, reverse phase protein arrays, and targeted sequencing of KRAS hotspot mutations. Frequent gains were observed at 2p, 3q, 5p, 7p, 7q, 8q, 12p, 13q, 14q, and 17q and losses at 2q, 3p, 5q, 8p, 9p, 9q, 14q, 18q, and 20p. Frequently gained regions contained EGFR, PIK3CA, MYC, SMO, TRIB1, FZD1, and BRCA2, while frequently lost regions contained FHIT and MACROD2. TRIB1 was selected for further study. Gene enrichment analysis showed that differentially expressed genes with respect to treatment response were involved in Wnt signalling, EGF receptor signalling, apoptosis, cell cycle, and angiogenesis. Stepwise integration of copy number and gene expression data yielded 47 candidate genes that were significantly correlated. PDCD6 was differentially expressed in all three treatment responses. Tissue microarrays were constructed for a cohort of 118 CRC patients and TRIB1 and MYC amplifications were measured using fluorescence in situ hybridisation. TRIB1 and MYC were amplified in 14.5% and 7.4% of the cohort, respectively, and these amplifications were significantly correlated (p≤0.0001). TRIB1 protein expression in the patient cohort was significantly correlated with pERK, Akt, and Caspase 3 expression. In conclusion, a set of candidate predictive biomarkers for 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, and BEZ235 are described that warrant further study. Amplification of the putative oncogene TRIB1 has been described for the first time in a cohort of CRC patients.


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Objective The benefit of continuing 5-aminosalicylate (5-ASA) in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) who initiate anti-tumour necrosis factor-alpha (anti-TNF) biologics is unknown. We aimed to compare clinical outcomes in patients with UC already on 5-ASA who started anti-TNF and then either stopped or continued 5-ASA. Design Our primary outcome was any adverse clinical event defined as a composite of new corticosteroid use, UC-related hospitalisation or surgery. We used two national databases: the United States (US) Truven MarketScan health claims database and the Danish health registers. Patients with UC who started anti-TNF after having been on oral 5-ASA for at least 90 days were included. Patients were classified as stopping 5-ASA if therapy was discontinued within 90 days of starting anti-TNF. We performed multivariable Cox regression models controlling for demographics, clinical factors and healthcare utilisation. Adjusted HRs (aHR) with 95% CI are reported comparing stopping 5-ASA with continuing 5-ASA. Results A total of 3589 patients with UC were included (2890 US and 699 Denmark). Stopping 5-ASA after initiating anti-TNF was not associated with an increased risk of adverse clinical events in the U.S. cohort (aHR 1.04; 95% CI 0.90 to 1.21, p=0.57) nor in the Danish cohort (aHR 1.09; 95% CI 0.80 to 1.49, p=0.60). Results were similar in sensitivity analyses investigating concomitant immunomodulator use and duration of 5-ASA treatment before initiating anti-TNF. Conclusion In two national databases, stopping 5-ASA in patients with UC starting anti-TNF therapy did not increase the risk of adverse clinical events. These results should be validated in a prospective clinical trial.


Suffering from email overload? Learn to work smart and solve problems in Apple Mail with Joe Kissell's practical advice!Work more efficiently and avoid seemingly inexplicable problems in Apple's Mail program with the only book available about Apple Mail in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Best-selling author Joe Kissell spent untold hours testing to understand how Mail in Tiger works and what to do when it doesn't act as expected. You'll learn about the different email protocols Mail supports, the best ways to set up new accounts, how to import messages and addresses, and how to manage Mail's parental controls. That's only the tip of the iceberg, as Joe next teaches you how to customize your incoming mail view for fast browsing of messages, control the styles you see in incoming messages, display slideshows of attached photos, reply to meeting invitations, find messages using Spotlight, and organize mail into smart mailboxes. Then, he turns to outgoing mail, showing you smart ways to address messages, tricks for sending attachments successfully, how to add clickable URLs, and what you need to know when using Mail's new HTML support. In addition, you'll find seven key bits of advice about rules, five ways to improve the Previous Recipients list used for spam filtering and address completion, and six suggestions for Spotlight-enabled smart mailboxes. If you're having trouble, Joe offers solutions to numerous problems, including what to do if you can't send or receive mail, step-by-step instructions for fixing damaged mailboxes, and how to make Spotlight see messages it isn't finding properly. An extensive glossary and 11-page resource list ensure that you'll have everything you need to know about Mail at your fingertips!Read this ebook to learn the answers to questions such as: What features are new in the Tiger version of Mail? Can Mail download messages from Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo!, Gmail, and AOL? How can I import messages and addresses from other email programs? Why (and where!) did all of my IMAP mail suddenly disappear? Is there a better or faster way to address my outgoing messages? Is there a way to force Mail to display only plain text and not HTML? Why isn't Spotlight finding messages that match my search terms? How do I make a clickable link in an outgoing message? Which folders should I copy to back up my email? Are there third-party tools that extend Mail's capabilities? Version info: This ebook covers Apple Mail 2.0, bundled with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.


ICTs have brought benefits to business as well as to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), where an unprecedented demand for tertiary education has seen students enrolling for courses, some doing so through distance education. This has made the internet a very significant and indispensable teaching/learning, communication, and marketing tool for information dissemination for both education purposes and business transactions. The Internet possesses the propensity to change not only the way society retains and accesses knowledge but also to transform and restructure traditional models of higher education, particularly the delivery and interaction in and with course materials and associated resources. Universities have been faced with the daunting task of having to grapple with the inevitable change by re-adjusting and re-organising themselves in preparation for the incorporation of e-learning within their institutions. Institutional leaders have also been faced with the challenge of having to align their institutional objectives to meet the needs and demands of the elearning demand. This article explores the central theme of attempts by HEIs in the South African context: to exert "attitudinal" changes in current "traditional" educational delivery practices by universities in order to fully utilize e-learning strategies for improved delivery of courses for its students.