This thesis deals with the cross-cultural relations between Brecht and China
through an analysis of how Brecht responded to the traditional Chinese theatre and
how his drama was received in turn by modern Chinese theatre. It attempts to
examine the respective socio-cultural or political contexts wherein such kind of crosscultural
contacts were needed, and the consequent aesthetic-theatrical as well as
socio-cultural or political changes brought about by these contacts that have produced
two distinctively independent yet related forms of theatre.
It is argued that Brecht's search for a theatre style of his own amidst the sociocultural
as well as political crises between the two world wars made him look to the
East for inspirations, and his direct encounter with Mei Lanfang enabled him to
interpret the latter's acting in such a way that he responded to it with his postulation of
the alienation effect and modification of a gestic performance style. His repudiation
of the well-made dramatic theatre brought his epic theatre closer to the traditional
Chinese theatre whose aesthetic principles he shared in constructing a non-
Aristotelian episodic form of drama. In his experimentations with new modes of
theatrical expressions, he did not simply borrow or copy the forms and content of
classical Chinese drama; he appropriated, transformed and renewed them, for
example, in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, for the particular purpose of instructing
audiences in a scientific age.
China! s reception of Brecht has had much to do with the country's changing
socio-cultural as well as political situations. Chinese theatre practitioners responded
to him because he was a politically, culturally and aesthetically suitable figure. His
epic drama provided an alternative style for the Chinese in their attempt to innovate
their realist spoken drama imported from the West, and was also introduced into local
forms of performing arts in hope that the traditional Chinese theatre could be
resurrected. Furthermore, he prompted Huang Zuolin to theoretically re-examine
Chinese operas, which the latter integrated with techniques of Brecht and
Stanislavsky into spoken drama to establish a new theatre style called Xieyi drama.


About the Editors. Preface. Acknowledgments. Volume Overview, M. Hogg and D.Abrams. Part 1: Personality and Individual Differences, Personality and Sociocultural Factors in Intergroup Attitudes: A Cross-national Comparison T. Pettigrew. Social Dominance Orientation: A Personality Variable Predicting Social and Political Attitudes, F. Pratto, J. Sidanius, L. M. Stallworth, and B. Malle. Part 2: Goal Relations and Interdependence, Superordinate Goals in the Reduction of Intergroup Conflicts. M. Sherif, Perceptions of Racial Group Competition: Extending Blumer's Theory of Group Position to a Multiracial Social Context, L. Bobo and V. Hutchings. Part 3: Social Identity and Self-Categorization, An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflicts, H. Tajfel and J. Turner, Intergroup Relations and Group Solidarity: Effects of Group Identification and Social Beliefs on Depersonalized Attraction, M. Hogg and S. Hains, Part 4: Intergroup Attitudes and Explanations, Social Stereotypes and Social Groups, H. Tajfel. Affirmative Action, Unintentional Racial Biases, and Intergroup Relations, J. Dovidio and S. Gaertner. The Ultimate Attribution Error: Extending Allport's Cognitive Analysis of Prejudice, T. Pettigrew, Part 5: Intergroup Behavior and Discrimination, Experiments in Intergroup Discimination, H. Tajfel, Intergroup Discrimination in Positive and Negative Outcome Allocations: Impact of Stimulus Valence, Relative Group Status, and Relative Group Size, S. Otten, A. Mummendey, and M. Blanz, Understanding Why the Justice of Group Procedures Matters: A Test of the Psychological Dynamics of the Group-Value Model, T. Tyler, P. DeGoey, and H. Smith. Part 6: Motives for Group Membership and Intergroup Behavior, Comments on the Motivational Status of Self-Esteem in Social Identity and Intergroup, Discrimination, D. Abrams and M. Hogg. The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time, M. Brewer. Negotiating Social Identity When Contexts Change: Maintaining Identification and Responding to Threat, K. Ethier and K. Deaux. Part 7: Influence in Intergroup Context, Knowing What to Think by Knowing Who You Are: Self-Categorization ad the Nature of Norm Function, Conformity, ad Group Polarization, D. Abrams, M. Wetherell, S. Cochrane, M. Hogg, and J. Turner, Studies in Social Influence: V Minority Influence and Conversion Behavior in a Perceptual Task, S. Moscovici and B. Personnaz. Part 8: Disadvantage, Relative Deprivation, and Social Protest, The St. Pauls Riot: An Explanation of the Limits of Crowd Action in Terms of a Social Identity Model, S. D. Reicher. Race and Relative Deprivation in the Urban United States, R. D. Vaneman, and T. Pettigrew. Responding to Membership in a Disadvantaged Group S. Wright, D.M. Taylor, and F. Moghaddam. Part 9: Intergroup Contact and Social Harmony, Reducing Intergroup Bias: The Benefits of Recategorization, S. Gaertner, J.Man, A. Murrell, J. Dovidio, Intergroup Contact: The Typical Member ad the Exception to the Rule, D. Wilder, Dimensions of Contact as Predictors of Intergroup Anxiety, Perceived Outgroup Variability, and Outgroup Attitude: An Integrative Model, M. Rabiul Islam and M. Hewstone, References, Appendix: How to Read a Journal Article in Social Psychology, C. H. Jordan and M. Zanna, Author Index, Subject Index.


Grid fins are unconventional missile control and stabilization devices that produce unique aerodynamic characteristics that are vastly different from that of the conventional planar fin. History has shown that grid fins are able to achieve much higher angles of attack than planar fins without experiencing any effects of stall. They are also able to produce much lower hinge moments than planar fins, which allows for the use of smaller actuators for fin control. However, the major drawback of grid fins that has prevented them from seeing more applications in missile control is the high drag that is associated with the lattice structure, which is substantially larger than that of a comparable planar fin. Despite the high drag produced by grid fins, there are still several applications where the grid fin is an ideal candidate for missile control. One such application is the maximization of the target strike capability of a missile that is released from an airplane at a designated altitude. The goal of this work is to integrate a set of grid fin aerodynamic prediction algorithms into a missile system preliminary design code in an effort to maximize the target strike area of a missile using both planar fins and grid fins as aerodynamic control devices. It was found that a missile system using grid fins for aerodynamic control is able to strike a larger target area with a higher degree of accuracy than a similar missile system using equivalent planar fins for aerodynamic control.


Using open-magnitude scaling we studied the importance of ventilatory drive on the perceived magnitude of respiratory loads by applying a range of externally added resistances (2.1-77.1 cmH2O X l-1 X s) to normal subjects at rest and at three increasing levels of ventilatory drive induced by exercise, CO2-stimulated breathing, and hypoxia. Under all conditions studied the perceived magnitude of the added loads increased with the magnitude of the resistive load and as the underlying level of ventilatory drive increased. When the results were expressed in terms of peak inspiratory pressure, the perceived magnitude was related to the magnitude of the peak inspiratory pressure by a power function (mean r = 0.97). These results suggest that the perceived magnitude of added resistive loads increased with increasing ventilatory drive, in such a manner that the increase in sensory magnitude is proportional to the increase in the inspiratory muscle force developed and suggests that something dependent on this force mediates the sensation.


ABSTRACT There is no empirical research on the school performance of children who live separated from their parents in sub-Saharan Africa—a major migrant sending region in the world. This study uses survey data from junior and secondary school children and youths in Ghana (N = 2760), Angola (N = 2243) and Nigeria (N = 2168) to examine how different transnational family formations such as internal or international parental absence accompanied by migration or divorce, who is the migrant parent and who is the caregiver, the stability of the caregiving arrangement and remittances relate with the school performance of children who stay behind. School performance is measured through an index of grades in language, mathematics and science. The results show that international parental migration (Ghana), the internal parental migration accompanied by divorce/separation (Nigeria) and migration of both parents (Ghana and Nigeria) are likely predictors for decreased school performance. No effects are observed when parents are abroad and divorced/separated, when only one parent migrates, when children are in a stable care arrangement or when children receive remittances or not. The analyses show that the overall relationship between parental absence and education varies by the transnational dimension being analysed and by context.


A novel process for the synthesis of tetrabenazine (1) and deutetrabenazine (2), two well-known drugs used for the treatment of chorea associated with Huntington's disease, has been developed. All of the reaction parameters were optimized through a series of reactions and by using Design of Experiment techniques. The newly developed methods are industrially scalable and employ cheap, commercially available raw materials and hence are highly efficient. The added advantage is that the developed processes evade the use of genotoxic alkylating agents and therefore could be considered as safe and viable alternatives to the existing methods.


In this paper, a hybrid method for acquisition and reconstruction of sparse magnetic resonance images is presented. The method uses conventional spin echo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) with only a few Phase-encoding steps to obtain the dominant k-space data coefficients. The rest of the k-space data coefficients are estimated using Compressive Sampling (CS). The compressive sampling part of the algorithm uses a random matrix to sample the vectorized k-space data of the image at a sub-Nyquist rate followed by reconstruction of the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) coefficients of the k-space data using Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP). The DWT coefficients are then transformed into the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) domain and denoised prior to combination with the dominant DFT coefficients obtained using conventional MRI to yield the whole k-space of the reconstructed image. The reconstructed k-space data is finally transformed into the reconstructed image using inverse DFT. Computer simulation results show that the proposed procedure yields better results than other conventional CS-MRI methods in terms of Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Structural SIMilarity (SSIM) index.


We estimate the effects of highways on the suburbanization of Spanish cities. First, we extend previous findings for the US and China by providing evidence for Europe: each additional highway ray built between 1991 and 2006 produced a 5 per cent decline in central city population between 1991 and 2011. Second, our main contribution is at the intrametropolitan level. We find that highway improvements influence the spatial pattern of suburbanization: suburban municipalities that were given improved access to the highway system between 1991 and 2006 grew 4.6% faster. The effect was most marked in suburbs located at 5–11 km from the central city (7.1%), and concentrated near the highways: population spreaded out along the (new) highway segments (4.7%) and ramps (2.7%). To estimate the causal relationship between population growth and highway improvements, we rely on an IV estimation. We use Spain's historical road networks – Roman roads, 1760 main post roads, and 19th century main roads – to construct our candidates for use as instruments.


INTRODUCTION
Many European Union (EU) Member States have expressed the need for EU legislation to clarify the issue of e-cigarette taxation, but the economic evidence to inform creation of such policies has been lacking. To date, only one study-on the United States only-has examined responsiveness of e-cigarette demand to price changes.

METHODS
We used 2011-2014 pooled time-series data on e-cigarette sales, as well as e-cigarette and cigarette prices for six EU markets (Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). We utilized static and dynamic fixed-effects models to estimate the own and cross-price elasticity of demand for e-cigarettes. In a separate model for Sweden, we examined the effects of snus prices on e-cigarette sales.

RESULTS
Based on static models, every 10% increase in e-cigarette prices is associated with a drop in e-cigarettes sales of approximately 8.2%, while based on dynamic models, the drop is 2.7% in the short run and 11.5% in the long run. Combustible cigarette prices are positively associated with sales of e-cigarettes. Snus prices are positively associated with sales of e-cigarettes in Sweden.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that the sales of e-cigarettes are responsive to price changes, which suggests that excise taxes can help governments to mitigate an increase in e-cigarette use. E-cigarettes and regular cigarettes are substitutes, with higher cigarette prices being associated with increased e-cigarette sales. Making combustible cigarettes more expensive compared to e-cigarettes could be effective in moving current combustible smokers to e-cigarettes, which might have positive health effects.

IMPLICATIONS
This study is an exploratory analysis of the issues around e-cigarette taxation in Europe. Our results suggest that taxation is a measure that could potentially address the concerns of both opponents and proponents of e-cigarettes: taxes on e-cigarettes could be used to raise prices so as to deter e-cigarette initiation by never users, while concomitant greater tax increases on regular cigarettes could incentivize switching from combustible products to e-cigarettes. The estimates from our models suggest that e-cigarette demand is possibly more responsive to price than cigarette demand. Policymakers who consider implementing excise taxes on e-cigarettes should take this difference in price responsiveness of demand for these two products under consideration.


Background: Functional dyspepsia (FD) is defined as the presence of dyspeptic symptoms in the absence of an organic cause that readily explains them. Life stressors, individuals' perceptions, their coping responses, and social supports are linked and can affect the well-being of individuals. The aim of the current study was to assess the relationship between FD and life stressors, coping strategies, and social support. Methods: In a cross-sectional study conducted in Isfahan Province, Iran, in 2013, the employees of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, were evaluated. Symptoms of FD were measured using the modified ROME III questionnaire. The Stressful Life Event (SLE) Questionnaire, modified COPE scale, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were used for assessing life stressors, coping strategies, and social support. Logistic regression analysis was applied to assess the crude and adjusted effects of each variable on FD. Results: About 55.8% of participants were women and 79.3% were married. In total, 723 (15.2%) participants had FD, 457 (63.2%) of whom were women. The mean scores of perceived intensity and frequencies of all life stressors were significantly higher in patients with FD (P < 0.05). In addition, the mean score of social support in patients with FD was significantly lower (P < 0.05). Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that the frequency of stressors and perceived intensity of stressors were significantly associated with FD (OR = 1.08 and 1.025, respectively). Moreover, the acceptance coping strategy had a significant relationship with FD (OR = 0.85, 95% CI, 0.75-0.95). Among the socio-demographic factors, sex (OR = 1.65, 95% CI, 1.3-2.1) and education (OR = 0.6, 95% CI, 0.5-0.8) demonstrated significant relationships with FD. Conclusions: FD was more common in those individuals who had a higher rate of stressors and lower social support.


On December 1, 1976, the Environmental Protection Agency applied Section 6 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, "Administrative Review", in determining that the use of products containing strychnine, for above ground application to control several rodent species, met specific cancellation criteria outlined in 40 CFR 162.11. Position Document 4 (the final Agency decision), published on September 30, 1983, proposed to cancel registrations of strychnine products for above ground use to control prairie dogs and required label modification for confined use on ground squirrels. The final decision was challenged by several parties who requested a formal hearing which was granted by the EPA. This request temporarily stayed the EPA decision to cancel registrations. A formal hearing has not yet been held, pending negotiations for a settlement agreement by the parties to this action. The use of Compound 1080 for rodent control has undergone the same administrative review as strychnine with similar conclusions drawn. Position Document 4, published in July of 1985, proposed to cancel current intrastate registrations by December 31, 1985. However, current application and bait concentrations may continue for use in ground squirrel control while Section 3 registration data are being developed. Bait treatment levels may not exceed 0.02% 1080 in the California Condor Range: if the 0.02% concentration is not effective, data must be submitted to establish the lowest effective concentration.


Central banks around the world are exploring and in some cases even piloting Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). CBDCs promise to realize a broad range of new capabilities, including direct government disbursements to citizens, frictionless consumer payment and money-transfer systems, and a range of new financial instruments and monetary policy levers. CBDCs also give rise, however, to a host of challenging technical goals and design questions that are qualitatively and quantitatively different from those in existing government and consumer payment systems. A well-functioning CBDC will require an extremely resilient, secure, and performant new infrastructure, with the ability to onboard, authenticate, and support users on massive scale. It will necessitate an architecture simple enough to support modular design and rigorous security analysis, but flexible enough to accommodate current and future functional requirements and use cases. A CBDC will also in some way need to address an innate tension between privacy and transparency, protecting user data from abuse while selectively permitting data mining for end-user services, policymakers, and law enforcement investigations and interventions. In this paper, we enumerate the fundamental technical design challenges facing CBDC designers, with a particular focus on performance, privacy, and security. Through a survey of relevant academic and industry research and deployed systems, we discuss the state of the art in technologies that can address the challenges involved in successful CBDC deployment. We also present a vision of the rich range of functionalities and use cases that a well-designed CBDC platform could ultimately offer users.


A NOVEL METHOD TO DETECT FUNCTIONAL SUBGRAPHS IN BIOMOLECULAR NETWORKS Sterling Wells Thomas, Doctor of Philosophy A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2010 Danail Bonchev, Ph.D., Sc.D., Senior Fellow, Professor and Director of Research on Bioinformatics, Center for the Study of Biological Complexity Several biomolecular pathways governing the control of cellular processes have been discovered over the last several years. Additionally, advances resulting from combining these pathways into networks have produced new insights into the complex behaviors observed in cell function assays. Unfortunately, identification of important sub-networks, or "motifs", in these networks has been slower in development. This study focused on identifying important network motifs and their rate of occurrence in two different biomolecular networks. The two networks evaluated for this study represented both ends of the spectrum of interaction knowledge by comparing a well defined network (apoptosis) with and poorly studied network that was early in development (autism). This study identified several motifs that could be important in governing and controlling cellular processes in healthy and diseased cells. Additionally, this study revealed an inverse relationship when comparing the occurrence rate of these motifs in apoptosis and autism.


States, districts, and schools all across the United States are busy developing or implementing teacher evaluation systems. One can trace this flurry of activity to a variety of reports and initiatives that highlight two failings of past efforts: (1) Teacher evaluation systems have not accurately measured teacher quality because they've failed to do a good job of discriminating between effective and ineffective teachers, and (2) teacher evaluation systems have not aided in developing a highly skilled teacher workforce (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2011; Toch & Rothman, 2008; U.S. Department of Education, 2009; Weisberg, Sexton, Mulhern, & Keeling, 2009). Although efforts to move quickly in designing and implementing more effective teacher evaluation systems are laudable, we need to acknowledge a crucial issue—that measuring teachers and developing teachers are different purposes with different implications. An evaluation system designed primarily for measurement will look quite different from a system designed primarily for development.


During holographic recording in Bi4Ti3O12 a primary charge grating is compensated for by a slow grating. In the dark or by homogeneous illumination afterward, the diffraction efficiency becomes larger than the maximum value measured in the writing mode. The ratio between the efficiencies depends strongly on the writing beam's intensity and on the grating spacing. Turning on an intense beam additionally in the reading mode temporarily erases the slow compensation grating. Electron–hole or ionic compensation combined with a two-center model for the charge transport is used to account for the observed phenomena.


Climate simulations and hindcast experiments of increasingly large ensemble size are being performed to determine the predictive capability of atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) on seasonal or longer timescales. These have exhibited large sensitivity to anomalous boundary forcing associated with global sea surface temperatures (SSTs). Large-scale patterns of climate anomalies are at times generated in the extratropics when the AGCM is forced by the SSTs associated with El Nino events. It remains to be determined whether on average such results imply useful predictive skill for seasonal means in the extratropics. Indeed, given the prospects for small, if not negligible, skill in the extratropics as revealed in variance tests of boundary-forced potential predictability, one is forced to question and examine the limits of AGCM methods. These issues are addressed within the context of a large en- semble of climate simulations using an AGCM forced with observed SSTs for the 1982-93 period. From the analysis of the model data it is argued that the impact of interannual changes in SSTs is to create a shift in the extratropical-mean state, although this shift is small and resides within the envelope of atmospheric states attained with climatological SSTs. This effect does not have any appreciable impact on the total variance of seasonal-mean atmospheric states and confirms the conclusions drawn from earlier studies. A reliable detection of the boundary-forced shift in the mean state, however, is shown to be feasible when a sufficiently large ensemble of model runs is considered. The shift in the mean state has a certain probability of being in phase with the observed seasonal anomalies. Indeed, the benefit of generating the ensemble prediction lies in the fact that it is the ensemble-mean response that nature has the greatest probability of selecting. Nonetheless, to the extent that the observed anomalies are at least partly the result of natural variability, AGCM-based seasonal predictions will be inher- ently probabilistic. Implications for AGCM simulations of the extratropical response to the boundary forcing, and for seasonal-mean predictions in general, are discussed.


Engineering issues for which the understanding of the chemo-mechanical behaviour of soils is relevant include wellbore stability problems, the sali-nification of groundwater and nuclear waste storage, etc. However, despite the vast number of situations in which couplings between chemistry and mechanics occur, the available constitutive models rely on limited experimental evidence. This paper presents the results of an experimental program on the chemo-mechanical behaviour of a non-swelling illite. The osmotic suction is controlled through the ion concentration of sodium chloride in the pore water. Stress paths include mechanical loading at a constant osmotic suction and an increasing osmotic suction at a constant mechanical stress. The experimental results point out a correlation between the osmotic suction and initial oedometric modulus, as well as between the osmotic suction and yield stress. A constitutive framework for soils is extended to take the observed chemo-mechanical couplings into account. The numerical model has been calibrated for the illite using the parameters obtained through the tests under mechanical loading at a constant concentration and validated using more elaborate stress paths. The presented experimental and constitutive investigation builds a basis for the assessment of engineering issues in which pore liquid chemistry plays a major role.


This paper demonstrates that it is possible to model attacks with a low number of states and classify them using Hidden Markov Models with very low False Alarm rate and very few False Negatives. We also show that the models developed can be used for both detection and classification. We put emphasis on detection and classification of network intrusions and attacks using Hidden Markov Models and training on anomalous sequences. We test several algorithms, apply different rules for classification and evaluate the relative performance of these. Several of the attack examples presented exploit buffer overflow vulnerabilities, due to availability of data for such attacks. We emphasize that the purpose of our algorithms is not only the detection and classification of buffer overflows; they are designed for detecting and classifying a broad range of attacks.


As the nursing profession continues to become more specialized, there have been more models developed to define specific practice areas. Rehabilitation nursing is practiced in diverse settings along the healthcare continuum with clients who have experienced a disability/chronic illness, such as stroke. No framework was noted in the literature that defined the necessary competencies of the rehabilitation nurse

 Purpose:
 To develop a Competency Model for Professional Rehabilitation Nursing and its application to clinical practice.

 Method:
 An Association of Rehabilitation Nurses' (ARN) task force was convened, conducted a literature review and participated in "brainstorming" that yielded four domains of professional practice: nurse-led evidence-based interventions; promotion of health and successful living, leadership, and interprofessional practice; and essential role competencies. The competencies were further defined into three levels of proficiency: beginner, intermediate, and advanced (ARN, 2014).

 Results:
 Model is a circle with professional rehabilitation nurse at the center surrounded by four domains and the role competencies, separated by broken lines illustrating the crossover of knowledge and skills represented in each domain. This practice Model can be used to inform stroke care in various settings across the healthcare continuum; and competencies such as facilitating safe and effective care transitions can be used in plan for the stroke survivor and caregiver. Facilitating the stroke survivor's transition to the right level of care is an essential rehabilitation nurse competency and promotes better outcomes (Camicia et al., 2014). Using competencies, such as interventions based on best evidence, are essential in managing stroke sequela: neurogenic bladder, dysphagia, hemiplegia, etc. The Model can also be used to address the caregiver role and frame the assessment to determine education, community resource, and support needs.

 Conclusion:
 ARN Rehabilitation Professional Nurse Competency Model reflects diversity of rehabilitation nursing in the current healthcare arena; and is an efficacious tool which can assist rehabilitation nurses at various levels to provide optimum stroke care and contribute to best practice.


Effects of radiation on tissues and organs are well documented. However recently, radiation was used as an evaluation tool to assess newly formed engineered tissue reconstruction and regeneration. This raises questions on the positive application of radiation, amidst the usual discussions pertaining to the risks of radiation. Furthermore, the effects of radiation have yet to be established in primary cell culture. The objective of this review is to identify and evaluate previous works that examined the possible effects of radiation on cells. Emphasis is placed upon the effects of radiation on primary cell cultures in tissue engineering (TE). The SCOPUS databases were searched for articles published from 2001 to 2016. "Radiation" and "cell culture" were used as search terms either in the title, abstract or keywords of the
articles. Thematic analysis was performed on the 5031 retrieved articles. Filtering for "radiation effects" in the title, 4139 articles were identified. Within these results the key search term was further narrowed down to "tissue engineering area". 1164 articles were identified which were then subjected to key search term within "primary cell culture". A total of 334 articles were abridged that were subjected to further thematic classifications. Within these classifications, 291 articles were summarized to fulfil the objectives of the review. The results show a certain trend towards the incompatible effect of radiation on primary cell culture. Work is in progress in filtering the keywords further to narrow the scope to radiation effects on chondrocytes in the title, abstract or keywords of the articles. This review will present the possible effects of radiation on primary cell culture. It is hoped that this review will be able to outline the current knowledge on the effects of radiation on primary cell cultures and to improve the understanding of those effects on cells in general.
KEYWORDS: Radiation, Primary Cell Culture, Growth, Radiation Effects, Review


ABSTRACT This paper tests whether the financial interpretation of risk contributions (Qian, 2006), as measured by marginal change in volatility, holds when accounting for fat tails in the asset return distributions. This important result is the theoretical foundation of risk-based portfolios, but relies on the assumption of normality. If the result does not hold, more sophisticated techniques are required to estimate risk-based portfolios. A simulation study is conducted to replicate the stressed environment required by Qian (2006). The Quantile Simulation method (Alexander, 2013) is used to simulate asset return distributions that are reasonable replicates of the empirical samples. Given the relative novelty of the simulation method, this paper also reports the extent to which the simulated samples can approximate the empirical sample of each asset.


Stikinia is a tectonostratigraphic terrane in the Canadian Cordillera that formed in a volcanic arc environment during Paleozoic and Mesozoic time. Until now, the Paleozoic rocks that form a semicontinuous belt along its western margin (Stikine assemblage) were only recognized in a restricted area in northern British Columbia, between the Stikine and Taku river areas. In contrast, Mesozoic Stikinia rocks form an almost continuous belt that extends much farther to the north, leading some authors to question the nature of the unexposed Paleozoic basement north of the Taku River area. The following correlations have significant implications for tectonic reconstructions of the northern Cordillera because they suggest that Stikinia9s Paleozoic volcanic-sedimentary basement is more widespread than previously thought. On the basis of similar rock types and lithologic associations, six new U-Pb zircon dates, and the common intrusive relationship with 184–195 Ma plutons, the Stikine assemblage is correlated with the Boundary Ranges suite, a metamorphosed Paleozoic volcanic assemblage exposed in the Tagish Lake area, north of the Taku River and south of the Yukon–British Columbia border. The recognition of the Boundary Ranges suite and the Jurassic plutons that intruded it (Tagish Lake suite) as part of Stikinia has implications for the age and character of the Stikinia–Tracy Arm terrane boundary because the Boundary Ranges and Tagish Lake suites form the footwall of a major Middle Jurassic shear zone that carried the continental margin–like rocks of the Tracy Arm terrane in its hanging wall. This correlation also implies that the late Paleozoic basement to the Mesozoic Stikinia arc is not a continental margin assemblage, at least as far north as the British Columbia–Yukon border, and possibly farther. The Boundary Ranges suite, and therefore the Stikine assemblage, are also tentatively correlated with parts of the Yukon-Tanana terrane in Yukon (Aishihik Lake area), parts of the Taku terrane in southeast Alaska, and undivided metamorphic rocks in west-central British Columbia. Differences in the isotopic signatures of these rocks may reflect along-strike changes in the character of the basement rocks of the late Paleozoic Stikinia volcanic arc.


Extracted from text ... The South African Gastroenterology Review - August 2005 31
SAGES - Private Practice Portfolio
Phase 4: July 1, 2005 and onwards
This phase will introduce the initiation of clinical validation
rules for primary and secondary codes by all medical schemes.
SAMA, Spesnet, Surgicom and many other groups have developed
software and ICD10 lists and short lists. ICD-10 books
are available from SAMA. Practice Management Software
should have been updated to look up ICD codes, allow lineby-
line specification (i.e. K21.0 GERD & oesophagitis should
not appear under 1653 colonoscopy), and accurate rendering
of ICD codes by electronic and paper ..


We demonstrate a producing KTiOPO4-based optical parametric oscillator with external-pulse compression, 62-fs pulses at 76 MHz and 175-mW average power (37-kW peak power). The oscillator is pumped synchronously with 800-mW, 110-fs pulses from a Kerr lens mode-locked Ti:Al2O3 laser operating at λ = 765 nm. The oscillator cavity length is actively stabilized, and the total amplitude noise is <1% (rms). With a single mirror set, the signal-beam wavelength is tunable between 1.20 and 1.34 μm. The idler beam tunes from 2.1 to 1.78 μm with an expected (uncompressed) pulse width of <400 fs and ~100-mW average power. Tuning throughout the bandwidth from 0.9 to 4.5 μm should be possible with additional mirror sets.


The large losses suffered by investors in financial derivatives during recent years have prompted a wave of litigation, as well as proposals from Congress and regulatory agencies for increased monitoring of derivatives markets. Many, including some members of Congress and even "industry experts," are uneasy with the growing use of derivatives. Yet many market participants and others knowledgeable about this growing industry insist that derivatives serve an important, and perhaps vital, purpose by allowing investors to better manage the financial risks associated with their business transactions. I define the term derivative and briefly discuss the history, uses and types of derivatives, as well as the various derivatives market participants. I then provide an explanation for recent derivatives losses through an analysis of the risks inherent in derivative products and markets (market, credit, legal, operational, liquidity and systemic risk) and discuss how these risks are currently being managed. I then conclude that, because the derivatives market is a zero-sum game, regulation is only appropriate with respect to those systemic risks that threaten the financial system as a whole. Regulators and market participants have already taken substantial steps toward controlling systemic risk. Nonetheless, further international cooperation and regulatory guidelines in some areas, particularly disclosure and accounting standards, could lend certainty and stability to the derivatives market.


During the 40 years of its existence the European Parliament (EP) has changed more dramatically than the other EC institutions: from a mere deliberative assembly, the EP has become a co-leglislator, and elections of its Members provide the source of direct legitimacy of the European Union (EU). Subsequent enlargements had also a greater impact on the EP than on the Commission, or the Council. The paper gives an insider's view on some of the immediate effects: for the first time in 1973 a group of British Lords arrived to a very hot Brussels committee meeting and, to the surprise of the continental parliamentarians, took of their jackets and loosened their ties, which had never been seen before at any of the EP meetings. In the eighties Greece and then Spain and Portugal joined. More recent examples include German reunification, "a false enlargement", which resulted in the addition of 18 parliamentary "observers". The various increases in the composition of the EP combined with the increase of legislative procedures in the mid '80s were a major challenge to the leadership capacity both of political groups, of the Presidency, and of the Committee system. Up to now the EP has more or less met this challenge far as internal efficiency is concerned. A major deficit remains, however, in its perception by the public, the resulting participation in elections, and beyond that its direct relations with the citizen. None of the past enlargements, as different from each other as they may have keen, put into question the unicity of the EC institutional system. This may radically change with the forthcoming inclusion of Central and Eastern European countries. The 1996 Intergovernmental Conference may well open the way to a differentiated integration which would create major problems for the EP. The EP is discussing at present how to meet this challenge.


The term "computed tomography," or CT, refers to a computerized x-ray imaging procedure in which a narrow beam of x-rays is aimed at a patient and quickly rotated around the body, producing signals that are processed by the machine's computer to generate cross-sectional images, or "slices." These slices are called tomographic images and can give a clinician more detailed information than conventional x-rays. Once a number of successive slices are collected by the machine's computer, they can be digitally "stacked" together to form a three-dimensional image of the patient that allows for easier identification of basic structures as well as possible tumors or abnormalities.


A proper edge-coloring of a graph G by positive integers is called an interval edge-coloring if the colors assigned to the edges incident to any vertex in G are consecutive (i.e., those colors form an interval of integers). The notion of interval edge-colorings was first introduced by Asratian and Kamalian in 1987, motivated by the problem of finding compact school timetables. In 1992, Hansen described another scenario using interval edge-colorings to schedule parent-teacher conferences so that every person's conferences occur in consecutive slots. A solution exists if and only if the bipartite graph with vertices for parents and teachers, and edges for the required meetings, has an interval edge-coloring. A well-known result of Vizing states that for any simple graphG, χ′(G) ≤ ∆(G)+1, where χ′(G) and ∆(G) denote the edge-chromatic number and maximum degree of G, respectively. A graph G is called class 1 if χ′(G) = ∆(G), and class 2 if χ′(G) = ∆(G) + 1. One can see that any graph admitting an interval edge-coloring must be of class 1, and thus every graph of class 2 does not have such a coloring. Finding an interval edge-coloring of a given graph is hard. In fact, it has been shown that determining whether a bipartite graph has an interval edge-coloring is NP-complete. In this thesis, we survey known results on interval edge-colorings of graphs, with a focus on the progress of (a, b)biregular bipartite graphs. Discussion of related topics and future work is included at the end. We also give a new proof of Theorem 3.15 on the existence of proper path factors of (3, 4)-biregular graphs. Finally, we obtain a new result, Theorem 3.18, which states that if a proper path factor of any (3, 4)-biregular graph has no path of length 8, then it contains paths of length 6 only. The new result we obtained and the method we developed in the proof of Theorem 3.15 might be helpful in attacking the open problems mentioned in the Future Work section of Chapter 5.


ABSTRACT Over the last twenty years a variety of quantitative forecasting techniques have been developed and applied in organizations as diverse as manufacturing, marketing, and service concerns. Large firms typically have specific staff positions allocated to performing the forecasting function. Although the same forecasting techniques can be applied in smaller organizations, their acceptance has not been widespread. An effective way for small businesses to develop formal forecasting procedures is through the services of a small business consultant via either Small Business Development Centers or Small Business Institute programs. To aid consultants in implementing quantitative forecasting techniques in small businesses, organizational barriers to adoption are identified, followed by a discussion of behavioral interventions and implications. INTRODUCTION Organizational forecasting is the process of estimating future events for the purpose of effective planning and decision making. It is one of the most critical organizational functions; the forecast enables managers to anticipate the future and to plan accordingly. The organizational forecast serves as a basis for all other business decisions. The quality of these business decisions can only be as good as the forecast upon which they are based. Forecasts are used to set production schedules, budget capital and allocate resources to programs. Forecasting accuracy has been made more difficult in today's economy with unstable business conditions. On the other hand, availability of technology such as computers and forecasting software has enhanced the forecasting process. The field of formal forecasting has developed numerous quantitative forecasting techniques (QFTs). However, surveys of business managers show that organizations predominantly rely on judgmental forecasts (Dalrymple, 1987; Mentzer & Cox, 1984; Sparkes & McHugh, 1984). This can create problems for organizations that value accurate forecasting. Research comparing accuracy of judgmental and quantitative methods shows quantitative techniques to be superior both in terms of accuracy as well as timeliness (Armstrong, 1985; Hogarth & Makridakis, 1981), though judgmental forecasts can provide advantages under certain circumstances (Makridakis, Wheelwright, & McGee, 1983). Further, there is a large literature base that points to the numerous biases inherent in judgmental forecasting (Hogarth, 1987). These biases include lack of consistency, tendency to overforecast, anchoring effects, and wishful thinking. In the smaller firm forecasting is generally viewed as a complicated set of tools which require a great deal of sophisticated data processing resources, complicated mathematical models, and expertise for interpretation (Wacker & Cromartie, 1979). However, it is the smaller firm, with reliance on competitive advantage and niche identification, that so critically needs to utilize forecasting methods. In addition, smaller firms typically have more restricted budgets; therefore, effective management of resources is more critical in these firms. To increase acceptance and use of quantitative forecasting methods in smaller firms, it is the small business consultant, through Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) and Small Business Institute (SBI) programs, that can play a decisive role. The SBDC and SBI should serve as the points of access for small businesses to receive such services. The success of implementation of formal forecasting will rest upon the ability of the small business consultant to understand not only small business needs and forecasting methodologies, but the behavioral implications of such a process. In order to aid the small business consultant, this paper develops a prescriptive model and guidelines for use when assisting the small business in developing and implementing formal forecasting procedures. We begin by taking a normative approach to identify the main organizational barriers to accepting and using formal forecasting techniques. …


The migration of web applications to Cloud computing platform has raised concerns about the privacy of sensitive data belonging to the consumers of cloud services. The traditional form of security tokens like username/password used to access cloud services are prone to phishing attacks and hence do not provide complete security. In this work we propose to extend the Microsoft's CardSpace identity management tool, to include more robust security tokens using the zero knowledge proof concept. These security tokens are in the form of SAML token supported by Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and hence can prove interoperable with the existing security platforms.


Today, most of the large-scale conversational AI agents such as Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant are built using manually annotated data to train the different components of the system including Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and Entity Resolution (ER). Typically, the accuracy of the machine learning models in these components are improved by manually transcribing and annotating data. As the scope of these systems increase to cover more scenarios and domains, manual annotation to improve the accuracy of these components becomes prohibitively costly and time consuming. In this paper, we propose a system that leverages customer/system interaction feedback signals to automate learning without any manual annotation. Users of these systems tend to modify a previous query in hopes of fixing an error in the previous turn to get the right results. These reformulations, which are often preceded by defective experiences caused by either errors in ASR, NLU, ER or the application. In some cases, users may not properly formulate their requests (e.g. providing partial title of a song), but gleaning across a wider pool of users and sessions reveals the underlying recurrent patterns. Our proposed self-learning system automatically detects the errors, generate reformulations and deploys fixes to the runtime system to correct different types of errors occurring in different components of the system. In particular, we propose leveraging an absorbing Markov Chain model as a collaborative filtering mechanism in a novel attempt to mine these patterns. We show that our approach is highly scalable, and able to learn reformulations that reduce Alexa-user errors by pooling anonymized data across millions of customers. The proposed self-learning system achieves a win-loss ratio of 11.8 and effectively reduces the defect rate by more than 30% on utterance level reformulations in our production A/B tests. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first self-learning large-scale conversational AI system in production.


The Rock History Reader. Edited by Theo Cateforis. New York: Routledge, 2007. [xvii, 360 p. ISBN-10: 041597500X; ISBN-13: 9780415975001. $95.] Bibliographic references, music examples, index. As Theo Cateforis acknowledges in his preface to The Rock History Reader, teachers of courses on popular music have a wealth of materials at their disposal in the form of anthologies. Whether it be the history of jazz, of hip hop, or even of rock criticism itself, chances are that an anthology exists that can serviceably guide students through the relevant issues and introduce them to some of the significant personalities involved. Cateforis's new collection is geared specifically towards the history of rock, and while it therefore intersects with several existing alternatives-the most relevant being David Brackett's The Pop, Rock, and Soul Reader: Histories and Debates (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004)-it holds its own among the competition as a thorough, conscientious, and engaging guide to rock's history since the 1950s. The Rock History Reader includes fifty-nine readings in total, arranged by decade in six sections (the 1950s to the 2000s). These readings take a variety of forms: first-hand accounts from within the music industry, academic analyses of musical repertories and cultural formations, newspaper and magazine editorials, serious criticism from the popular press, reminiscences by fans, primary-source legal documents, and so on. The range of topics is equally broad-from issues of censorship and piracy, to rock's aesthetics and formal content, to the politics of identity, to rock's relationship to capitalism, to questions of race and cultural imperialism. Such breadth was of course carefully worked out: in the preface, Cateforis makes clear his desire to provide a relevant and useful pedagogical tool for instructors from a variety of disciplines within the fine arts, social sciences, and humanities. He is also fully engaged with issues of diversity and multiculturalism: welcome entries on such topics as Chicano rock, country-based rock, reggae, queer identity in rock, and several articles offering feminist perspectives on rock will surely make significant headway in getting future students to challenge the lingering whitemale authority of rock culture. Because of this collection's breadth, an instructor wishing to stress any single perspective over others would likely want to supplement it with additional readings. Those with deeper historical inclinations, for instance, might balk at the fact that the anthology includes little that contextualizes early rock and roll within the diverse music industry from which it sprang; rock's most important progenitors are strangely absent. A reading from Philip H. Ennis's still relevant study, The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music (Middle town, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1992) would be useful in this regard. Music historians trained in classical music might wish to expand upon the aesthetic dimension. I personally missed the voice of Brian Eno on questions of production, and a discussion of Buddy Holly's innovative recording techniques in the section covering the 1950s. On the same subject from the academic side, I often thought that excerpts from Albin Zak's insightful essay "Sound as Form," from his book The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records (Berke ley: University of California Press, 2001) would have made an excellent addition (or at least a relevant citation). But it is easy to make such complaints with any anthology. Far more important is this one's well-roundedness and the inspired creativity that clearly lay behind its selection process. Cateforis again admits that supplementation of the kind suggested above was a necessary part of his thinking while compiling his excerpts. Interestingly, none of the pieces that bring musical issues to the fore would be especially alienating to students without a background in traditional music theory. …


THE PAST FIFTEEN YEARS OF SHELLEY SCHOLARSHIP HAVE BEEN OCCUPIED with bringing the idealist Shelley down to earth. New historicism has patiently uncovered a historical world off which the poet fed, connecting personal acts of consumption with social and political praxis. (1) In particular, Timothy Morton's Shelley and the Revolution in Taste reveals how Shelley's revolutionary project, especially his vegetarianism, aimed at rejuvenating the body and the land, and Nora Crook and Derek Guiton's study of Shelley's obsession with medicine depicts how the poet's efforts to preserve his own body translated into a passionate concern for the health of society. If food and medicine both represent means of promoting health and vitality, for Shelley, drugs seem to form a special category of substances which do not simply push the limits of the body but offer the possibility of transcending it altogether, if only for discrete moments. They also present a strange kind of nutrition in edibles that make the body sick, and threaten its vitality in hopes of a monumental convalescence. Unlike Coleridge and De Quincey who consumed laudanum for its own sake, drugs for Shelley are serious business. They do not merely open doors of perception, and the liberation they offer is not recreational or solely artistic. One wouldn't catch Shelley philosophizing from his armchair on opium--or even writing on it. Instead, drugs appear in Shelley's poems at very specific moments as mechanisms of a precise political, revolutionary plan, aimed at interrogating and sometimes erasing the kinds of habituations and addictions the body often demands. Earl Wasserman might remind us that for Shelley the very distinction between the subject and its object is in fact a mental solipsism that the poet aims to reveal and move beyond. (2) Shelley internalized a tremendous number of discourses at once through his expansive reading, and his output reveals a syncretic poet attempting to move beyond the fragmentation of language and those specialized discourses that reify difference, hierarchy and ideology through the kind of synthesizing and reflective experience that drugs can produce. In Prometheus Unbound and "The Triumph of Life," major cruxes of both poems might be described as psychedelic experiences. Asia, in Act II of Shelley's lyric drama, inhales "oracular vapors" at the pinnacle of the mountains, which sends her on a trip to the cave of Demogorgon, ultimately to be swept away by the Spirit of the Hour's chariot, but not before she expectorates a genetic history of gods and humans that explains how she got there in the first place. In Shelley's last, unfinished poem, the wayward Rousseau drinks nepenthe offered by the "shape all light" in the hopes of discovering how he found himself in the "valley of perpetual dream" (397). In both cases, Asian women are implicated in the drug experience. Asia ingests the revolutionary gases and then emits liquid fight that intoxicates all those who come into contact with her, and the "shape all light," auroral light from the East, purveys the cup of laudanum-like nepenthe that provides Rousseau with his vision. Asia and Rousseau both internalize drugs in order to externalize something already within themselves--a representation of socio-political structures--precisely so the imagination can move beyond the kinds of hierarchical relationships that accompany patriarchal, colonial discourse. For Shelley, drugs act like an emetic, forcing their users to regurgitate the poisonous status quo they have swallowed, insisting they contemplate social and linguistic change from the self-critical vacancy of an empty stomach. Moreover, we might reread the "shape all light" not as a nauseating, evil seductress who entices Rousseau once again to fall prey to his bodily desires, but instead as a figure who provides him with the only possible way out of the nightmare of history, with a vision of history that contains its own critique. Rousseau's hallucination goes so far as to reflect the very structure of habituation--the patriarchal libidinous energies that narrate and produce history--that prevents social change instigated by a creative act of the imagination. …


Spontaneous pneumomediastinum (SPM), also referred to as mediastinal emphysema, is defined as the presence of free air in the mediastinal cavity without a clear and identifiable cause. Spontaneous pneumomediastinum, in general, is a relatively rare condition, more so in the setting of pregnancy or labor. Clinically, SPM may present as dyspnea, chest pain, and subcutaneous swelling, which may be of serious concern in the setting of pregnancy. A comprehensive literature review revealed that the majority of patients are primiparas, of a younger age, and have term or longer durations of pregnancy. The second stage of labor was found to be most commonly associated with the development of SPM. The pathomechanism suggests that performing the Valsalva maneuver during the active stages of labor may play a role in the development of SPM. Once diagnosed, patients with SPM in pregnancy are admitted to the hospital, treated conservatively, and followed until resolution. SPM must be diagnosed and managed promptly due to rare but serious complications. In addition, dyspnea or chest pain with an unknown etiology should include SPM in the differential diagnosis, especially in the setting of pregnancy and labor.


Medicine and law have traditionally been viewed as elite masculine fields, and they therefore offer a useful prism to evaluate feminization. This article examines the rise of women doctors and lawyers in Third Republic France (1870–1940): women's struggle for access, their growth and progress as medical and legal practitioners, and the resentment they encountered anew in the 1930s. Although antifeminism was ingrained in the professional ethos of medicine and law, women were only one social category targeted by discrimination, especially during the interwar period. Foreigners, naturalized citizens, the lower social classes, and the elderly also served as scapegoats for such perceived problems in the professions as overcrowding and declining standards. Economic protectionism and fears of changing professional identity constituted key motivations behind antiwomen sentiment. Women's success is due largely to the republican state, to prowomen currents in the professions, and to women's emergent self-promotion.


The University of Iceland is a progressive educational and scientific institution, renowned in the global scientific community for its research. It is a state university, situated in the heart of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. A modern, diversified and rapidly developing institution, the University of Iceland offers opportunities for study and research in almost 300 programmes spanning most fields of science and scholarship: Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Humanities, Science and Engineering.


Abstract Singular value decomposition (SVD) is a mathematical technique used throughout the sciences and engineering, which decomposes data, represented in terms of matrices, to construct an "optimal base" that can contain key information. SVD serves as a conceptual framework in Singular Value Decomposition, a performance by a research collective consisting of Janet Biggs (visual artist), Agnieszka Międlar (mathematician), and Daniel Tapia Takaki (physicist) with dancer Vinson Fraley and musician Earl Maneein and supported by the Integrated Arts Research Initiative (IARI) at the Spencer Museum of Art. Their work together aimed to be substantive to their fields and generative of each other. Drawing from discussions of tool-sharing in the philosophy of science and performative research paradigms, this article examines the collaboration and performance to consider the sharing of conceptual frameworks as an approach to collaborative, interdisciplinary research.


Few schisms in American life run as deep or as wide as the divide between gun rights and gun control advocates. Awash in sound and symbol, the gun regulation debate has largely been defined by forceful rhetoric rather than substantive action. Politicians shroud themselves in talk of individual rights or public safety while lobbyists on both sides make doom-and-gloom pronouncements on the consequences of potential shifts in the status quo. In America today there are between 250 and 300 million firearms in private hands, amounting to one weapon for every American. Two in five American homes house guns. On the one hand, most gun owners are law-abiding citizens who believe they have a constitutional right to bear arms. On the other, a great many people believe gun control to be our best chance at reducing violent crime. While few-whether gun owner or anti-gun advocate-dispute the need to keep guns out of the wrong hands, the most important question has too often been dodged: What gun control options does the most heavily armed democracy in the world have? Can gun control really work? The last decade has seen several watersheds in the debate, none more important than the 1993 Brady Bill. That bill, James B. Jacobs argues, was the culmination of a strategy in place since the 1930s to permit widespread private ownership of guns while curtailing illegal use. But where do we go from here? While the Brady background check is easily circumvented, any further attempts to extend gun control-for instance, through comprehensive licensing of all gun owners and registration of all guns-would pose monumental administrative burdens. Jacobs moves beyond easy slogans and broad-brush ideology to examine the on-the-ground practicalities of gun control, from mandatory safety locks to outright prohibition and disarmament. Casting aside ideology and abstractions, he cautions against the belief that there exists some gun control solution which, had we the political will to seize it, would substantially reduce violent crime. In Can Gun Control Work?, James B. Jacobs, one of our most fearless commentators on intractable social problems, has given us the most sober and even-handed assessment of whether gun control can really be made to work.


Objective: Initial setting time is one of the most important properties of calcium silicate cements (CSCs) such as white mineral trioxide aggregate (WMTA). This study aimed to evaluate the effect of two methods used to reduce the particle size of WMTA, mechanical activation and chemical synthesis. Methods: WMTA without bismuth oxide (WMTA-B) was provided and divided into four groups (n=5) including: WMTA-B, WMTA-B+10 min milling, WMTA-B+30 min milling, and sol-gel. In groups 2 and 3, the milling was performed by using tungsten carbide balls in a ratio 1:15 (w/w) and a vibration frequency of 30 Hz together with absolute ethanol. For the fourth group, polyethylene glycol (PEG), calcium acetate (Ca(C2H3O2)2), SiO2, and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) were used for the sol-gel process. After preparation, sample powders were mixed with distilled water and placed in cylindrical molds, covered with water-moistened gauze, and incubated at 37°C for 24 hours. The Vicat needle test analyzed the initial setting time. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey tests at a significance level of P<0.05. The correlation between particle size and setting time was determined. Results: Initial setting time of the sol-gel and WMTA-B+30 min milling was significantly lower than in the other two groups (P<0.05). A significant correlation was noticed between particle size and initial setting time (P<0.05). Conclusion: Sol-gel process introduces a promising alternative strategy for the reduction of initial setting time of CSC materials. While both methods increased surface area, mechanical activation was not as successful in reducing surface area and initial setting time as effectively as the sol-gel process.


Background : Alzheimer's Disease is the most common manifestation of dementia affecting almost 24 million people worldwide. It afflicts mainly the elderly. The aims of this study are to provide hospitalization and mortality trends for Alzheimer's Disease, to provide first evidence about co morbidity in Alzheimer's Disease and to describe co-morbidity profiles. Methods : Two sources of Alzheimer's Disease trends were investigated: the main diagnosis from hospital discharges and the underlying cause of death. Co-morbidity was studied by analysing the multiple diagnoses from hospital discharge files and the multiple causes of death from mortality files. Results : Trends of Alzheimer's Disease are increasing both for hospitalization and for mortality rates. When all diagnoses and multiple causes are considered the patterns are similar. When Alzheimer's Disease is reported as the main diagnosis in hospital discharges, the diseases more frequently associated with the disease are other mental disorders, hypertensive diseases, cerebrovascular diseases and other diseases of the circulatory system. The diseases most frequently associated with mortality are ill-defined causes, pneumonia, influenza and other diseases of the respiratory system. Moreover, associations between Alzheimer's Disease and cerebrovascular diseases, and with diseases of the circulatory system, are found in both databases. Conclusions : Data regarding deaths and hospital discharges show similar patterns for Alzheimer's Disease both for trends and age profiles. Many similarities among the two data sources are also found when analysing co-morbidities. These results highlight the coherence of different data sources and underline the importance of carrying out asystematic analysis of these databases for purpose of improving epidemiological information.


The response of 443 chironomid species to water temperature was analyzed, with the aim of defining their thermal optimum, tolerance limits and thermal habitat. The database included 4442 samples mainly from Italian river catchments collected from the 1950s up to date. Thermal preferences were calculated separately for larval and pupal specimens and for different habitats: high altitude and lowland lakes in the Alpine ecoregion; lowland lakes in the Mediterranean ecoregion; heavily modified water bodies; kryal, krenal, rhithral and potamal in running waters. Optimum response was calculated as mean water temperature, weighted by species abundances; tolerance as weighted standard deviation; skewness and kurtosis as 3 rd and 4 th moment statistics. The responses were fitted to normal uni- or plurimodal Gaussian models. Cold stenothermal species showed: i) unimodal response, ii) tolerance for a narrow temperature range, iii) optima closed to their minimum temperature values, iv) leptokurtic response. Thermophilous species showed: i) optima at different temperature values, ii) wider tolerance, iii) optima near their maximum temperature values, iv) platikurtic response, often fitting a plurimodal model. As expected, lower optima values and narrower tolerance were obtained for kryal and krenal, than for rhithral, potamal and lakes. Thermal response curves were produced for each species and were discussed according to species distribution ( i.e. altitudinal range in running water and water depth in lakes), voltinism and phylogeny. Thermal optimum and tolerance limits and the definition of the thermal habitat of species can help predicting the impact of global warming on freshwater ecosystems.


In this paper we propose complex extended orthogonal space-time block codes (EO-STBCs) with feedback for wireless relay networks with the assumption of quasi-static flat fading channels. Full rate in each stage and full cooperative diversity for distributed EO-STBCs (D-EO-STBCs) are achieved by providing channel state information (CSI) at certain relay nodes. Two closed-loop schemes are proposed which make use of limited feedback from the destination node to a particular number of relay nodes, not exceeding half of the total number of such relay nodes. In our simulations, we use four relay nodes. Simulation results show that these two closed-loop D-EOSTBCs achieve full cooperative diversity in addition to array gain with linear processing. In particular, the proposed D-EO-STBCs designs preserve low decoding complexity and save both transmission power and total transmit time between source and destination.


A new species of Bolosauridae, Belebey augustodunensis, is described from fragmentary cranial material collected in the late Gzhelian-Asselian beds of the Autun basin, central France. Be. augustodunensis is one of the oldest bolosaurids and represents the first occurrence of the family in France. The dentition of this species is unique within Bolosauridae in exhibiting a progressive shift from a mesio- to a disto-lingual orientation of the tooth apex and lingual facet. Other features show that Be. augustodunensis belongs to the genus Belebey, although it lacks several specializations known in other species of the genus. A review of the valid bolosaurid taxa increases their stratigraphic and geographic distribution, in addition to the description of Be. augustodunensis. The distributions and diversification of Bolosauridae are briefly discussed.


Abstract. Aerosol mass and the absorbing fraction are important variables, needed to constrain the role of atmospheric particles in the Earth radiation budget, both directly and indirectly through CCN activation. In particular, their monitoring in remote areas and mountain sites is essential for determining source regions, elucidating the mechanisms of long range transport of anthropogenic pollutants, and validating regional and global models. Since March 2006, aerosol mass and black carbon concentration have been monitored at the Nepal Climate Observatory-Pyramid, a permanent high-altitude research station located in the Khumbu valley at 5079 m a.s.l. below Mt. Everest. The first two-year averages of PM1 and PM1−10 mass were 1.94 μg m−3 and 1.88 μg m−3, with standard deviations of 3.90 μg m−3 and 4.45 μg m−3, respectively, while the black carbon concentration average is 160.5 ng m−3, with a standard deviation of 296.1 ng m−3. Both aerosol mass and black carbon show well defined annual cycles, with a maximum during the pre-monsoon season and a minimum during the monsoon. They also display a typical diurnal cycle during all the seasons, with the lowest particle concentration recorded during the night, and a considerable increase during the afternoon, revealing the major role played by thermal winds in influencing the behaviour of atmospheric compounds over the high Himalayas. The aerosol concentration is subject to high variability: in fact, as well as frequent "background conditions" (55% of the time) when BC concentrations are mainly below 100 ng m−3, concentrations up to 5 μg m−3 are reached during some episodes (a few days every year) in the pre-monsoon seasons. The variability of PM and BC is the result of both short-term changes due to thermal wind development in the valley, and long-range transport/synoptic circulation. At NCO-P, higher concentrations of PM1 and BC are mostly associated with regional circulation and westerly air masses from the Middle East, while the strongest contributions of mineral dust arrive from the Middle East and regional circulation, with a special contribution from North Africa and South-West Arabian Peninsula in post-monsoon and winter season.


The paper seeks to understand the extent to which hygiene and sanitary attitudes/practices are reproduced in transnational contexts using examples of Nigerians in the UK. In-depth and semi-structured interviews, participant interaction, secondary resources, follow-up interviews and informant discussions were important data sources. Issues discussed in this paper incorporate hand, body, dental, food and domestic hygiene and sanitary matters. The results show that not much has changed in hygiene and sanitary behaviors of the respondents despite having changed the environment and contexts of livelihood activities. The modest, recorded improvements in some behaviors can be attributed to the presence of basic infrastructures and services that unavoidably influence their utilization for some respondents. The paper argues that people do not necessarily aim for good hygiene and sanitary behaviors for health reasons as much as moral, social and certain cultural values. The desire to look good, be clean, eliminate discomfort, avoid bad bodily odor and gain social acceptance were the underlying driving reasons for sustaining good hygiene and sanitary living; health concerns were less important. Key elements of these findings hold practical prospects for addressing the hygiene and sanitary behavioral challenges for developing countries.


An isolated colorless spot of 1 degrees diameter located at the antisolar point was observed from a plane on the clouds beneath it. The spot can be explained by light scattering on randomly oriented ice crystals via light paths similar to those responsible for the subparhelic circle. Its peculiar polarization properties potentially permit its detection in cases where the spot is embedded in a glory.


Human activities affecting runoff and streamflow within the Mississippi River drainage basin have been and continue to be significant. Since the disastrous flood of 1927, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has established an extensive regulatory system for flood control purposes and navigational benefits. Along with these river system modifications, significant landscape alterations have occurred within the basin as a result o f cultural and economical development. In light of the dramatic Midwest flood of 1993, it is increasingly necessary to understand the comprehensive relationship between streamflow, climatic variability, and human-induced change within the overall drainage basin. A water balance methodology provides a framework for evaluating variations in measured discharge over time by separating the effects of land-use changes and river management from variations in streamflow caused by geographical and temporal variability in climate. Therefore, it is possible to evaluate the collective results of human modification within the watershed. This study utilizes Box-Jenkins statistical time series analysis to identify changes in the annual flow regime of the Mississippi River for water years 1932 to 1988. For comparative purposes, the Missouri and OhioTennessee Rivers are also analyzed. The water balance model explains as much as 96% of the variability in annual discharge within the Mississippi basin and the Missouri and Ohio-Tennessee subbasins. There is no evidence of statistically significant changes or long-term trends in annual precipitation, modelled runoff, and discharge in the Mississippi basin and the Missouri and Ohio-Tennessee subbasins, but the annual discharge fractions generated by the Missouri and Ohio-Tennessee subbasins have changed significantly. This can be attributed to the fact that the size of the overall drainage basin is so great that even large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns cannot affect the entire drainage basin at the same time. The relationship between annual discharge and modelled runoff has not changed in the Mississippi and Missouri basins; however, the relationship between annual discharge and modelled runoff has changed significantly in the Ohio-Tennessee subbasin. This change can possibly be attributed to river management and land-use changes within the subbasin. CHAPTER


Graduated control models are often used to explain the variety of government treatment of social organizations in China. These models have been slowly losing their explanatory power in recent years, with advocacy-oriented grass-roots groups participating in the policymaking process. Why are these social groups not regulated in the way the graduated control models predict? Based on an analysis of three recent policy advocacy cases, this article proposes a graduated control 2.0 model to explain the new dynamics in Chinese state–society interactions. The upgraded model argues that the government officials' behaviour patterns are influenced by numerous factors such as the inherent nature of social groups highlighted by graduated control models, and inter-ministerial competition – the power position of the state sector and its rival sector in the bureaucratic system. Some contingent factors also play a part, such as timing and the NGO's onstage performance. This research contributes to the ongoing discussion on Chinese state–society relations by developing a theoretical model that highlights both the fragmentation and reactiveness of state control over social groups and further unpacks the 'monolithic state' in China studies.


The subject of consumer protection was receiving considerable attention in South Africa. In April 1988 the publication of the Harmful Business Practices Bill! unleashed immediate and vociferous objections which were directed primarily at the proposed methods rather than the principle of consumer protection. Since 1984 consumers in Bophuthatswana enjoyed considerable protection from abuses in the market place. It was the authors' view that an outline of the Bophuthatswanan experience mght be of interest to those engaged in the South African debate. Their purpose, therefore, was to highlight some of the important features of the Bophuthatswanan Consumer Affairs Act, and to indicate how the Act has worked in practice. First, however, they address the question: why the need for consumer protection?


Due to thinner blades and higher demands for flexibility, the high-head Francis runners designed today face considerable challenges that severely affect the runners' expected lifetime. For many high-head Francis runners, the leading cause of fatigue is blade cracking due to Rotor-Stator Interaction, which cause vibrations in the runner blades. Accurate prediction of the vibration magnitudes in a turbine is paramount in designing a reliable Francis runner. The understanding of the interaction between the hydrodynamic forces and the internal stresses in the runner is not yet sufficient to make this prediction. Previous investigations have identified some key parameters that affect dynamic behaviour in water, such as added mass, as well as added stiffness and damping from moving water. These parameters affect the natural frequency and damping of a structure, which in the end will affect what vibrations magnitudes the runner will be subjected to for a given frequency of excitation. The behavior of these parameters have recently been investigated by several researchers, but the effect of neighboring blades is yet not understood. A multi-blade cascade has been tested for four of its different modes of vibration. The results indicate that the slope of the damping with respect to the inverse Strouhal number is constant. This slope was found to be the same as for several single-blade tested performed, both in the same rig and in other works. The implication is that the product of added mass and mode shape does not change significantly.


A retrospective statistical study has been performed in order to identify the biological, clinical and behavioural variables that could potentially predict the survival status of irradiated non-human primates (NHP) and to refine the future use of humane end points (HEP). The available data come from experiments that were initially designed and implemented to evaluate the efficacy of various treatments of the radiation-induced hematopoietic syndrome. A group of 15 NHP was selected on the basis of similar irradiation and treatment protocols. Among those 15 NHP, 3 animals died during the study despite efforts developed to prevent high suffering and death. Among individual variables collected during the study, the ones retained for the present analysis were Flt3-ligand concentration in plasma, body temperature, alimentary behaviour and general behaviour score. A Bayesian predictive analysis showed that, although some of these variables were of potential interest, none of them alone proved valuable in predicting the death of the three animals. A refined analysis showed that a rapid decrease in body temperature during 3 consecutive days of more than 2.5°C was predictive of the death of two out of three animals. Moreover, a combination of several variables including decrease in body temperature and general behaviour score, improved the prediction of death. These results confirm that a HEP cannot only rely on the use of a single variable, strongly suggesting using a combination of variables, including behaviour, as a composite HEP in NHP experiments using high doses of irradiation.


Building secure software is challenging, time-consuming, and expensive. Software vulnerability prediction models that identify vulnerable software components are usually used to focus security efforts, with the aim of helping to reduce the time and effort needed to secure software. Existing vulnerability prediction models use process or product metrics and machine learning techniques to identify vulnerable software components. Cross project vulnerability prediction plays a significant role in appraising the most likely vulnerable software components, specifically for new or inactive projects. Little effort has been spent to deliver clear guidelines on how to choose the training data for project vulnerability prediction. In this work, we present an empirical study aiming at clarifying how useful cross project prediction techniques in predicting software vulnerabilities. Our study employs the classification provided by different machine learning techniques to improve the detection of vulnerable components. We have elaborately compared the prediction performance of five well-known classifiers. The study is conducted on a publicly available dataset of several PHP open source web applications and in the context of cross project vulnerability prediction, which represents one of the main challenges in the vulnerability prediction field.


This thesis examines the quotations from Pindar in the orations of Aelius
Aristides. Aristides holds an important place among Imperial age writers, exemplifying in
their finest the prominent trends of the age of the Second Sophistic: through his Atticistic
prose and archaistic tendencies, his impressively erudite grasp of Greek literature of the
past and an elevated Isocratean view of the orator's educational and moral duties, all of
which are revealed in the abundance of carefully selected passages from the classical
literature, Pindar being among his most preferred classical authors.
Aristides quotes extensively from Pindar, being one of our most important
sources of quotations from the lyric poet, contributing much to our knowledge of
Pindar's work otherwise lost. His exemplar antedates the archetype of the Byzantine Mss
tradition, giving his testimony ancient authority and offering important insights into the
state of the Pindaric text before the selection made in the late second century AD. He not
only quotes verbatim expressions or verses from Pindar, but also selects words and
paraphrases verses and passages.
This thesis shows that he is often working from an original copy of Pindar and
that he is also drawing on ancient ύπομνήματα and a variety of other sources. It
examines various aspects of Aristides' quotations from classical authors, and the
principles and techniques according to which he quotes Pindar. I have also tried to define
the nature of the possible sources from which Aristides quotes Pindar: original edition,
paraphrase, anthologies, ύπομνήματα, etc.
The main body of the thesis takes the form of comparative discussions of Pindaric
quotations cited in Aristides' orations. They illustrate Aristides' habits of adapting
Pindar's words to both the style and the purpose of his own orations. In those quotations
for which we have Mss and papyrological support it is obvious that Aristides often
recasts Pindar's text in order to meet some part of his rhetorical agenda or to suit his
idiom.
He quotes Pindar for ornamental and for argumentative reasons. His frequent
allusions to Pindaric odes serve the yearning of the Imperial authors to show true Greek
παιδeία, of which Pindar was an indispensable part while the well documented affinity
between poetry and epideictic rhetoric is clearly manifested. Aristides' encomiastic and
hymnal praises (both verse and prose hymns) are modelled on Pindar's elements of
hymnal composition. The thesis aims to show that Pindaric quotations serve not only to
improve stylistically and to add to the finesse of Aristides' composition but also in a
functional way, as an authoritative aid to the rhetorical arguments at hand, not least
among which was the 'apologetic' argument for the value and authenticity of rhetoric as
an art against the long standing accusations by its eternal rival, philosophy.


In recent years, the method of birth has been represented by C-section in a great proportion. C-sections are almost a rule for patients with a previous C-section in their medical history, regardless of its indicated reason. A present European consensus, issued after the study of numerous systematic evaluations of the evidence, has declared the possibility of post C-section vaginal birth, as being a viable alternative in the case of single, on-term birth, with the fetus in cephalic presentation, with antecedents of segmentary histerotomy - hysterorrhaphy as single surgical event, with or without previous vaginal births. Post C-section vaginal birth is contraindicated in pregnancies with previous uterine ruptures, as well as in those with absolute contraindications, such as placenta praevia, which apply regardless of the presence or absence of uterine scarring. If the risks and benefits of vaginal birth post C-section are explained to the patient, and if she express this desire, we believe this new tendency to be practically acceptable.


Human brain posseses the ability to create a concept to assist the process of grouping individual object or events into different classes or categories. We call this grouping process as categorization. In addition to humans, the ability to categorize has also been proposed for animals. Being able to identify, visually or otherwise, a new object as a member of a category is an advantage for animals. Present experiment aims to test the categorization ability in discriminating species by Macaca fascicularis. Using match-to-sample task with photographs of monkeys and human as stimuli, we tested whether monkeys able to categorize monkey individuals as a class against human individuals as another class. We found that monkeys categorized humans differently from monkeys. The monkeys used physical characteristic such as shape and colors from the photographs to create different concepts of human and monkeys.


Citizens United upends much of campaign finance law, but it maintains at least one feature of that legal regime: the equal treatment of corporations and unions. Prior to Citizens United, that is, corporations and unions were equally constrained in their ability to spend general treasury funds on federal electoral politics. After the decision, campaign finance law leaves both equally unconstrained and free to use their general treasuries to finance political spending. But the symmetrical treatment that Citizens United leaves in place masks a less visible, but equally significant, way in which the law treats union and corporate political spending differently. Namely, federal law prohibits a union from spending its general treasury funds on politics if individual employees object to such use - employees, in short, enjoy a federally protected right to opt out of funding union political activity. In contrast, corporations are free to spend their general treasuries on politics even if individual shareholders object - shareholders enjoy no right to opt out of financing corporate political activity. This article assesses whether the asymmetric rule of political opt-out rights is justified. The article first offers an affirmative case for symmetry grounded in the principle that the power to control access to economic opportunities - whether employment or investment-based - should not be used to secure compliance with or support for the economic actor's political agenda. It then addresses three arguments in favor of asymmetry. Given the relative weakness of these arguments, the article suggests that the current asymmetry in opt-out rules may be unjustified. The article concludes by pointing to constitutional questions raised by this asymmetry, and by arguing that lawmakers would be justified in correcting it.


In order to assess the influence of poor diabetes control on function of leukocytes, polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN's) from patients with poorly controlled but nonketotic disease were studied before and after therapy. Before treatment, phagocytosis was significantly reduced (p < .001) and, consequently, the rate of killing the test organism (type 25 pneumococcus) was decreased (p < .01). Following antidiabetes therapy phagocytosis improved significantly; while microbicidal rates also improved, they remained less than control values (p < .01). Serum from the untreated diabetics uniformly reduced phagocytosis and microbicidal rates of control granulocytes; serum from controls improved phagocytosis by the diabetic PMN's, but restored normal microbicidal rates in only half of the patients. This transferable inhibitory effect of hyperglycemic diabetic serum on control granulocytes was abolished by dilution, and was reproduced in normal serum by the isosmotic addition of glucose. These studies suggest that (1) PMN function may be impaired during periods of poor diabetes control, as has been shown previously in ketoacidosis, and (2) hyperglycemia or a closely related factor may contribute to the defect.


How many acronyms do you know where one of the acronym letters stands for an acronym? An acronym within an acronym? We hope most family medicine program directors think of CERA right away. CERA stands for CAFM Educational Research Alliance; CAFM is the Council of Academic Family Medicine.

Program directors are critical to the ongoing success of CERA for 2 reasons. CERA facilitates about 5 surveys every year. Only the program director population is surveyed twice every year and receives more proposals than all the other surveys combined, which tells us that we hold the answers to a lot of important questions from the rest of the "family" of family medicine organizations.

CERA surveys contain questions that are submitted by a variety of family medicine researchers and educators. For example, the last CERA program director survey contained submissions from medical schools, community programs, program directors, residency faculty, social scientists, and pharmacists.

CERA understands that program directors have limited time; therefore, they accept only proposals that include a good hypothesis, are related to what program directors do, contain decent questions, and finally, will likely end up in a published paper. Additionally, the results are archived to help others answer their research questions.

For these reasons, responding to CERA surveys should rank as a high priority for program directors. This seems to be the case, as the PD response rate, at 38% for the first CERA survey of program directors, has increased to over 60%. This is great; but clerkship directors' response rate is more than 90%!

Another reason program directors are critical to the ongoing success of CERA is relevance. As program directors, we know the relevant questions to ask in order to advance family medicine education. We are in the midst of tremendous changes in both our clinical and educational infrastructures, and there is very little evidence to support any of the educational changes. We as program directors need to do our part to ensure our residents are still learning how to provide high-quality care to patients in the face of changing environments. CERA surveys can be excellent tools along these lines.

Most program directors think of themselves as clinician-educators, and CERA gives us the means to ask questions in a rigorous way. Once a proposal is accepted, CERA provides institutional review board approval through the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) as well as experienced mentors. This collegial support from the rest of our family medicine community through CERA is invaluable as program directors expand our scholarship into the realm of educational research. An added benefit of CERA involvement is that it also provides an excellent opportunity to help you and your faculty meet the review committee for family medicine's faculty scholarly activity requirement.

The AFMRD benefits greatly from the active involvement of its members in various organizations and activities, including CERA. For the last 2 years, Dr Paul Crawford, program director at Nellis Family Medicine Residency in Las Vegas, Nevada, has served as the AFMRD liaison to CERA. Dr Wendy Barr, associate program director at the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center in Lawrence, Massachusetts, is the new liaison.

CERA covets proposals from program directors, yet a limited number of proposals are received from program directors because, for one reason, program directors find many questions in the CERA surveys lack relevance to their roles. This lack of relevance is also the reason the AFMRD is taking the initiative to assist program directors in developing CERA proposals.

Those of us who consider ourselves novices at educational research and survey design will appreciate that the AFMRD Board is partnering with several researchers familiar with the CERA process to offer program directors mentoring, feedback, and suggestions prior to submission to CERA. Interested AFMRD members will be connected with a mentor/reviewer by contacting Lynn Pickerel at gro.pfaa@drmfa.

CERA accepts program director proposals twice a year, but please do not wait until the deadline—plan now. Develop your research question and hypothesis and start on the path to getting relevant questions about residency education answered!


SummaryDocker in Action teaches readers how to create, deploy, and manage applications hosted in Docker containers. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology The idea behind Docker is simple. Create a tiny virtual environment, called a container, that holds just your application and its dependencies. The Docker engine uses the host operating system to build and account for these containers. They are easy to install, manage, and remove. Applications running inside containers share resources, making their footprints small. About the BookDocker in Action teaches readers how to create, deploy, and manage applications hosted in Docker containers. After starting with a clear explanation of the Docker model, you will learn how to package applications in containers, including techniques for testing and distributing applications. You will also learn how to run programs securely and how to manage shared resources. Using carefully designed examples, the book teaches you how to orchestrate containers and applications from installation to removal. Along the way, you'll discover techniques for using Docker on systems ranging from dev-and-test machines to full-scale cloud deployments. What's InsidePackaging containers for deployment Installing, managing, and removing containers Working with Docker images Distributing with DockerHubAbout the ReaderReaders need only have a working knowledge of the Linux OS. No prior knowledge of Docker is assumed. About the Author Jeff Nickoloff, a software engineer, has presented Docker and its applications to hundreds of developers and administrators at Desert Code Camp, Amazon.com, and technology meetups.


The majority of prevalent and incident cases of HCV infection in Canada occur among people who inject drugs (PWID). The benefits of more effective and better tolerated all-oral regimens will only be achieved with proper strategies to ensure adherence in this population. We hypothesize that the provision of treatment within a multidisciplinary centre attending to all health care needs will maximize the likelihood of achieving this goal. Within a cohort of 87 patients receiving all oral HCV therapy over a median of 12 weeks, 1135/1150 (98.7%) scheduled weekly appointments were attended, with pill counts reflecting over 90% adherence to therapy. In this model of care, adherence to HCV therapy among PWID met or exceeded the standard established in clinical trials. These data directly address one of the major concerns about increasing availability of HCV treatment among PWID and lend further support to the expansion of such programs in clinical practice.


Decision making under uncertainty is a key component of many AI settings, and in particular of voting scenarios where strategic agents are trying to reach a joint decision. The common approach to handle uncertainty is by maximizing expected utility, which requires a cardinal utility function as well as detailed probabilistic information. However, often such probabilities are not easy to estimate or apply.To this end, we present a framework that allows for "shades of gray" of likelihood without probabilities. Specifically, we create a hierarchy of sets of world states based on a prospective poll, with inner sets contain more likely outcomes. This hierarchy of likelihoods allows us to define what we term ordinally-dominated strategies. We use this approach to justify various known voting heuristics as bounded-rational strategies.